In a funny twist of fate, last week Facebook failed in its attempt to force a site to remove incriminating and/or embarrassing personal information about Facebook’s founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. We think Facebook missed a real opportunity here—they should have distributed the documents personally and attached ads to them.
privacy
Facebook Alters Shopping Stalker
By 11.30.07
The New York Times says that Facebook will be making a slight change to “Beacon” the feature that tracks users purchases throughout the web and broadcasts them to their friends.
Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time.
Facebook Might Revamp Shopping Stalking Feature
By 11.29.07
BusinessWeek says they have a source close to Facebook that says executives are discussing changes to the controversial marketing tool.
The TSA Wants To Know Your Birthday, But Doesn't Plan On Sending A Gift
By 11.29.07
The TSA wants to know your birthday and if you are a boy or a girl, says USAToday. Apparently, they’ve been tagging too many of our fine citizens are terrorists and need more information in order to help with their “background checks.”
Phishing Scams Hurt The Brands They Target
By 11.27.07
Ars Technica reports that “42 percent of adults in the UK feel that their trust in a brand would be greatly reduced by receiving a phishing e-mail claiming to be from that brand, according to an online survey conducted by research firm YouGov.”
Facebook Ruins Christmas?
By 11.21.07
MoveOn.org is annoyed with Facebook over privacy issues. Apparently, people on Facebook can see what you’ve been buying on sites unrelated to Facebook and share this information with your friends. According to MoveOn.org, this is not only a violation of privacy (the feature is opt-out rather than opt-in), it’s been ruining Christmas/Holidays/Birthdays/Whatever for Facebook users.
Health Record Privacy Law Is Messing Up Research
By 11.14.07
Just days after a deputy director of national intelligence told Americans that we need to rethink our concepts of privacy, comes news that it may, in fact, be harming us in the long run. In a recent national survey, nearly 70% of research scientists said the 2003 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is “impeding scientific research, stalling clinical studies and halting others altogether.”
Commerce Bank Might Have Given Out SSNs And Account Numbers, Not Sure
By 11.13.07
Commerce Bank isn’t sure whether it accidentally gave out your SSN and account number, so its going to write you a letter to offer you some free credit report monitoring.
Tivo To Start Sharing Demographic Data
By 11.8.07
As a product, Tivo is easy to love, even root for. As a company, they’re sliding further down that slippery slope of privacy invasion. According to the Wall Street Journal, today Tivo will announce that they’re going to start making detailed demographic customer data available to advertisers. They already sell second-by-second data on viewing patterns, but so far it’s been anonymous; now it will come with information about viewers’ ethnicity, age, income level, etc. As far as we know, they have no corresponding plan to compensate their customers for selling this data. [Update: It turns out Tivo is pulling the demographic data from a group of 20,000 volunteers, and the compensation is the chance to win a free Tivo. (Thanks, Megazone!)]
Many Consumers Are Unclear What "Online Tracking" Even Means
By 11.3.07
A study released this week (just in time for the FTC’s online advertising workshop) shows that a huge percentage of Americans don’t grasp just how intensively their online habits are tracked, analyzed, and used to serve ads back to them. Almost 55% of respondents “falsely assumed that a company’s privacy polices prohibited it from sharing their addresses and purchases with affiliated companies,” and almost 40% “falsely believed that a company’s privacy policy prohibits it from using information to analyze an individuals’ activities online.”
AOL Announces It Will Let Users Block Targeted Ads
By 11.1.07
On the same day that consumer groups called for “Do Not Track” lists to preserve consumer privacy, AOL pre-emptively announced a new service that they say will let users opt out of receiving targeted ads. “Choosing to opt out sends a cookie to a user’s computer that blocks the ads from appearing. AOL’s system prevents the deletion of the opt-out cookie.”
Should There Be A "Do Not Track" List For Internet Users?
By 11.1.07
Several consumer groups have joined together to request that the FTC implement a “Do Not Track” list for online use, which would allow Internet users to request that they be told in advance any time their online patterns are being tracked for advertising purposes. They submitted a formal request today, before the FTC’s 2-day workshop begins tomorrow where it will “study the increasing use of tracking technology to target online ads.”
Google Announces Plans For Online Personal Health Records Service
By 10.18.07
Microsoft beat them to the punch, but Google has announced that they, too, are planning to roll out a service that lets consumers store their medical records online and transfer them between health care providers as needed. Marissa Mayer at Google said the idea was spawned after reports of lost or damaged records in the wake of Hurricane Katrina: “It doesn’t make sense to generate this volume of information on paper. It should be something that is digital. People should have control over their own records.” Mayer says they hope to include things like x-rays, and that it “will take a lot of breakthroughs in digitization.”
Data Breach At Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance
By 10.18.07
The Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance has waited a month to inform students that a disc containing their FAFSA information has been lost. The FAFSA includes information “generally used in identity theft like names and social security numbers,” according to Melanie Amrhein, director of the office. The disc had “added security measures” that she says makes it “unlikely” that anyone will decipher the data.
Pittsburgh Tries To Publicly Shame You Into Paying Your Parking Tickets
By 10.17.07
In a recent attempt to resolve it’s financial woes, the city of Pittsburgh decided to try and collect on all unpaid parking tickets and other traffic violations since 2003.
By 10.16.07
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Verizon may have admitted it gives out customer info without warrants, but AT&T and Qwest both refused to give Congress any information on their participation in the government’s wire-tapping activities, saying they needed permission from Bush administration first. [Reuters]
By 10.16.07
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“The company said it does not determine the requests’ legality or necessity because to do so would slow efforts to save lives in criminal investigations.” – Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders [Washington Post]
Comcast Law Enforcement Handbook Leaked
By 10.16.07
Comcast’s Law Enforcement Handbook (PDF) was leaked today and posted on Secrecy News.
