online-privacy

FBI To Internet Biggies: Pretty Please Give Us An Easy Way To Spy On Your Users
The FBI really wants to know why you won't just make it your Facebook friend or add it to your Google+ circle. That's why the bureau has reportedly been asking those companies, along with Microsoft, Yahoo and others, to not impede its proposal to require back doors that would give the feds easy access for snooping. More »

Study: 13 Million People Haven't Touched Facebook Privacy Settings
There are more than 150 million Americans using Facebook at this point, and that number is growing. But do you know everything you need to about your privacy when it comes to social networking? Maybe not, as a new exhaustive study from Consumer Reports on social networking privacy found that 13 million American Facebook users have never touched their privacy settings. More »

Consumer Reports Survey Confirms That We're Worried About Online Privacy
What with credit card companies being hacked, apps on smartphones that have you sign your life away before using them and new policies from social networks and search engines, there are a lot of reasons for consumers to be uncomfortable about the state of online privacy. That's exactly what a national survey by our smarter elder siblings at Consumer Reports found — most of us are pretty darned concerned. More »

Google's New Privacy Policy Leads To At Least Four Class-Action Lawsuits
Google's new privacy policies, which allow the company to combine user data across all its various products (Google, Gmail, YouTube, Google+), have only been in effect for a few weeks, but they have already resulted in at least four class-action suits from consumers. More »

FTC Report Pushes Companies, Congress To Improve Online Privacy
Earlier today, the Federal Trade Commission released the results of its two-year look into what needs to be done about protecting the privacy of American consumers. It all seems to make good sense, but will anyone actually follow the FTC's recommendations? More »

Wall Street Journal Changes Privacy Policy To Track Users' Browsing Data Without Consent
Because News Corp. has apparently given up any pretensions to respecting the privacy of others, it recently updated the privacy policy for the Wall Street Journal website to allow the company to connect personally identifiable information with Web browsing data without user consent. More »

FTC Proposes Changes To Law Protecting Kids' Privacy Online
The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that it is seeking public comment on proposed changes to the Children's Online Privacy Act, which would strengthen the law's ability to protect children under the age of 13. More »

Google Settles Buzz Lawsuit For $8.5 Million; You Don't Get Any Of It
Hey, remember when Google signed everyone up for Buzz without asking and revealed their private contact lists? The company has now settled a class action lawsuit brought by seven Gmail users. The BBC says that 30% will go to the legal team, while each of those seven users will get $2,500. The rest will not be turned into Google stickers or free AdSense ads for you, but instead will be "shared among organisations that promote online privacy." More »

List Of Companies That Participate In Facebook's Beacon Spy Program

—> One of our readers yesterday left a couple of interesting links in the comments section of our Beacon post. They provide the names of the companies that Facebook says are participating in its poorly conceived spy program Beacon. Here they are:  More »

Facebook's Beacon Even Sneakier Than Originally Thought

—> Last week, Facebook made a lot of noise about how it was making its new Beacon spyware—we mean advertising initiative—less sneaky. But guess what? Over the weekend, Computer Associates reported that even after you've declined to have Beacon advertise your habits back to your friends, and even if you've logged out of Facebook, it will still surreptitiously report your actions back to Facebook's servers. And there's no way you can turn it off.  More »