It’s the entire point, really. New smart TVs from Samsung boast video cameras with facial-recognition software and microphones with speech-recognition software. They can tell who’s in the room, understand spoken commands, and be controlled with gestures. That’s great news for those of us who can never find the remote, but made our friends over at HD Guru wonder: is there anyone behind that camera watching us back?
privacy
Reminder: Turn Off Your Google Web History Today
By 3.1.12
Starting today, Google’s new unified privacy policy kicks in, meaning that your web browsing history can be tracked and shared been other Google products like Google+ and YouTube. So if that strikes you as a bit invasive, there’s an easy way to turn it off. [More]
Netflix Pays Out $9M To Settle Privacy Violation Suit
By 2.14.12
A 1988 law continues to be the “buffering” in Netflix’s success stream. The Video Privacy Protection Act, which forbids movie rental companies from sharing customers’ rental history, is not only stopping Netflix from integrating movie-streaming with Facebook in the U.S., but has cost the company $9 million to settle a class-action lawsuit. [More]
Google Reaching Its Grabby Arms Out To Combine More Of Your Personal information
By 1.25.12
Google wants to change things up a bit and grant itself the right to combine your personal information across its products. So how is it planning on doing that? By simply rewriting its privacy policy to let you know about it first, which they figure you’ll agree to if you want to keep using Google stuff. [More]
Hospital CEO Thinks It's Perfectly OK To Show Patient's Records To Newspaper
By 1.4.12
Last January, a woman in California says she was billed by a hospital for a treatment she never received. She took her complaint to the folks at California Watch, who published a story about her predicament. But when a local newspaper went to verify the information, the hospital’s CEO had absolutely no problem showing up at the reporter’s door to rifle through that patient’s file without her permission. [More]
D.C. Residents, Recycle Your Cat Litter Or Face Garbage Snooping, Fines
By 12.14.11
The Washington, D.C. Department of Public Works is apparently so dedicated to enforcing recycling laws that they’re willing to dig through trash to find evidence to issue fines. A resident says she’s been stuck with $2,000 worth of fines, some of which come from a government employee who admits to discovering her violations by snooping in her garbage. [More]
AT&T Says Hackers Tried To Swipe Account Info
By 11.22.11
According to AT&T, hackers tried to break into some users’ accounts and make off with some private information. The company calls the attack an “organized and systematic attempt,” but more importantly, a failure. [More]
Report: Google Analytics Can Reveal Identities Of Anonymous Bloggers
By 11.18.11
Those who harbor secret online identities may not be as anonymous as they think. Determined snoopers can potentially uncover bloggers with a little legwork and the use of Google Analytics. [More]
UK City Forcing Taxi Drivers To Record All Passengers
By 11.15.11
You’re probably familiar with the long-running HBO special “Taxicab Confessions,” in which cab passengers –often under the influence of some sort of intoxicant — open their hearts, minds, and sometimes their blouses to drivers of taxis rigged with multiple hidden cameras. Now the UK city of Oxford is turning its entire fleet of cabs into rolling recording devices. [More]
![Thank You For [Not] Being A Chase Customer, Here Is Your Junk Mail](../../../../consumermediallc.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/chasethumb.jpg?w=159&h=191&crop=1)
Thank You For [Not] Being A Chase Customer, Here Is Your Junk Mail
By 11.9.11
Jonathan received a letter from Chase thanking him for being a customers, and asking him to send it back in order to opt out of receiving promotional mailings. Which is interesting, because Jonathan not only isn’t a Chase customer, he doesn’t live at that particular address full-time or normally receive mail there. Concerned about identity theft, he learned that he wasn’t the only non-customer being thanked for patronizing Chase. But they won’t let him get off their mailing list, either. [More]
Hundreds Of People's Tax Returns Found Dumped In Front Of Jackson Hewitt Office Because They Were "So Heavy"
By 11.4.11
A soggy pile of hundreds of old tax returns was found in front of an abandoned Jackson Hewitt tax prep office in San Francisco in late October. The papers had social security numbers, names, addresses, and phone numbers, a potential goldmine for any identity thief who got their hands on them. [More]
Senator Is Victim Of Credit Card Fraud, Thieves Rack Up $12,000 At Walmart
By 10.28.11
It’s a measure of the brazenness and ubiquity of identity theft that a U.S. Senator has become the latest victim of credit card fraud. Thieves stole the credit card numbers belonging to Senator Daniel Inouye (D) of Hawaii, embedded them on the magnetic strip of a fake credit card, and went on a $12,000 Walmart shopping spree. [More]
Groups Call On TransUnion To Stop Selling Employee Credit Reports To Employers
By 10.26.11
Employers pull the credit reports of prospective employees as a way to determine whether they’re trustworthy and good at managing money. But now more than 25 civil rights groups, labor unions and consumer groups have banned together to demand that TransUnion stop selling credit reports to employers. They say the practice is invasive, discriminatory, and worst of all, doesn’t even work. [More]
NYC Taxis To Start Asking Passengers How Much Money They Make
By 10.26.11
If you’ve ever thought your New York City taxi driver was too talkative, the taxis there are about to get a whole lot nosier. The screens in NYC taxis are now going to start asking passengers how much money they make. That’s a bit presumptuous! [More]
Credit Cards To Sell Your Buying History So Online Advertisers Can Target You More Precisely
By 10.25.11
How about a world where you swipe for a Big Mac and then the next time you go online you get an ad for Slimfast? That’s the big idea behind Visa and Mastercard’s new business foray: selling off all your swipe data to online advertisers so they can more precisely target their ads to what’s going on in your skull. It’s another nail in the coffin for the quaint fiction we call “online privacy.” [More]
Verizon Internet To Share Your Location With Advertisers So You'll Get Ads "Of More Interest"
By 10.5.11
As a favor to you, Verizon internet says they’re going to start sharing your local geographical location to advertisers so you’ll get ads “of more interest.” For instance, “a pizza chain may want to deliver their ad to give a special offer to people living in a particular area.” Here’s how to opt out. [More]
Secret Memo Reveals Which Cellphone Carriers Store Your Data The Longest
By 9.28.11
How long does your cellphone company keep logs of your text messages? Of the words you wrote? Of the calls you made? A Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina unearthed a Department of Justice document that breaks down the retention periods for each mobile provider. [More]
