Entries from April 2011 ↓
April 13th, 2011 | Legal Issues, Privacy | Rob Frappier
Yesterday, Senators John Kerry and John McCain unveiled the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011, the pair’s long-awaited legislation addressing consumer privacy rights on the Internet. The legislation comes in response to a growing backlash among consumers against aggressive Internet tracking and the growing reach of the data mining industry.
Reaction to the bill has been swift, with some praising the legislation, and others criticizing it. In this round-up, we’ve pulled together links to 10 different articles on the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act. We hope it is useful in helping you understand this new legislation.
This article by CNN’s John D. Sutter gives a good overview of the legislation and how industry groups have reacted so far.
PCWorld’s Jared Newman recaps the bill, offering a breakdown of the legislation and how each element of the bill might affect Internet users.
In a post for Wired’s Threat Level blog, which focuses on privacy, crime, and security issues, David Kravets discusses the legislation and offers criticisms from the ACLU and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Julia Angwin, who has been involved heavily with the Wall Street Journal’s excellent “What They Know” series on data privacy, offers a thorough analysis of the bill in this Wall Street Journal report.
In an analysis for IT World, tech writer Dan Tynan outlines what he considers to be five problems with the Kerry-McCain legislation. Tynan’s criticism focuses on the bill’s lack of consumer protections.
In his report, CNET’s Declan McCullagh discusses an element of the legislation that has been ignored by many other commenters, namely that it doesn’t apply to “data mining, surveillance, or any other forms of activities that governments use to collect and collate Americans’ personal information.”
The Center for Democracy and Technology, one of the leading advocacy organizations for consumer privacy, released an official statement about the legislation. In the statement, the CDT’s Justin Brookman states, “The Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act provides a solid foundation for the discussion of how to enact such protections over the months ahead.”
In the New York Times’ Media Decoder blog, Tanzina Vega outlines the bill and discusses some of the initial reaction to it from Internet advertisers.
Forbes’ blogger Kashmir Hill writes about the legislation and discusses one particular line that states companies with info on more than 5,000 consumers must implement a “comprehensive information privacy program,” which could, in theory, necessitate the creation of a privacy-focused executive position for many companies.
In another excellent recap of the bill, Chloe Albanesius discusses the basic elements of the legislation and how varied industry groups have reacted to it.
Privacy ‘bill of rights’ would regulate opt-in, opt-out
April 13th, 2011 | Facebook, Internet Safety, Legal Issues, Parenting, Privacy, Quick Hits, Student Online Reputation | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we learn why self-regulation on data privacy issues may not be effective, discuss a school’s creative attempts to convince students about the importance of online safety, and dig into the latest dispute over Facebook’s origins.
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A new article in the Wall Street Journal uses the catalog industry as a model to show why self-regulation on data privacy issues may not be effective among Internet companies. According to the non-profit group Catalog Choice, which helps facilitate opt-out for direct mail catalogs, “95% of catalog-removal requests are honored.” However, “many direct-mailers drag their feet on removals or don’t offer clear policies on information-sharing.” The article then offers examples of companies that are slow or non-responsive when it comes to opt-out requests. An additional post in the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog also discusses the issue.
A Connecticut high school found a creative and powerful way to connect with students on the issue of Internet privacy. According to an NBC report, the school showed a slide show to students comprised of the students’ ”actual photos, Facebook updates and tweets posts.” Somewhat ironically, the students called the slideshow an “invasion of privacy,” despite the fact that all of the information used in the presentation was shared publicly online. Despite their anger over the slideshow, students learned a valuable lesson about anonymity on the Web.
A New York businessman, who filed a lawsuit against Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg last year claiming he had a 50% stake in the multi-billion dollar company, is back and, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “has filed new court documents with a series of e-mail messages purportedly from Facebook Inc. to bolster his claim to owning at least half the social networking giant now valued $50 billion or more.” In related news, a judge recently rejected a request by the famed Winklevoss twins to withdraw a previous settlement with Facebook that netted the brothers, and early investors in the website, $20 million in stock.
April 12th, 2011 | Facebook, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Social Networking | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, Sens. John Kerry and John McCain announce their privacy legislation, a Canadian teacher’s organization warns its members about social media, and a woman files a lawsuit against Facebook over a fake profile.
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Cecilia Kang at the Washington Post reports that Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John McCain will “hold a press conference this afternoon to announce the Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011.The bill is expected to include measure requiring companies to give consumers the option to opt out of having their data used by third parties. It will not include a do-not-track provision.” The long-anticipated bill is one of several in Congress designed for protecting consumer privacy online.
In a guest post for Reuters, John C. Abell, the New York Bureau Chief for Wired.com, writes that concern over last week’s Epsilon breach is warranted, but pales in comparison to the privacy invasions that consumers willingly allow everyday. Abell argues that “like the devil, privacy is in the details” and that the trade-off for sharing “non-sensitive information” with social networking sites and search engines is worth it for the free services.
According to the Vancouver Sun, “the Ontario College of Teachers released a report Monday outlining concerns raised by the use of social media inside and outside the classroom. In the advisory, teachers are warned that electronic messages can be misconstrued because of the casual nature of social media.” The report also warns that, “even seemingly innocent messages can be deemed inappropriate and can lead to serious consequences for teachers.” This is definitely true, with countless examples demonstrating how a teacher’s online behavior has directly impacted his or her professional wellbeing.
According to CNET, “Facebook has fixed a bug in the site’s password reset feature that could have been exploited to expose passwords of a small number of users who also use Hotmail.” Facebook handled the relatively minor bug quickly, but the bug is indicative of a greater problem with Facebook. The site is simply so large that it’s impossible for Facebook engineers to ensure that everything is protected all of the time. However, the possibility that their data may not be secure doesn’t often cross the minds of average Facebook users.
Consumer Affairs writes about one woman’s lawsuit against Facebook over the social network’s slow action in removing a fraudulent profile. According to the report, the woman had her attorney petition Facebook to remove an account pretending to be her, but the social networking website responded with a stock letter instructing the woman to look at Facebook’s security guidelines. Numerous Facebook users have reported difficulty in getting a response concerning fake profiles, which is a consequence of the company’s sheer mass of users.
April 11th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Legal Issues, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we warn about a Twilight-focused Facebook scam, offer two op-eds on Internet privacy, and discuss Google Street View.
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According to some anonymous reports coming out of China, Facebook, the world’s largest social networking website, may join with Baidu, China’s largest search engine, on the creation of a new Chinese website. Breaking into the Chinese market is an important goal for numerous American web companies, but the country’s poor track record on human rights issues and censorship has made it difficult.
The popular Twilight franchise of books and movies has become fodder for Internet criminals on Facebook. According to Mashable, a new “likejacking” scam is sweeping across Facebook using the upcoming Twilight movie as bait. Mashable warns “if you’ve been tagged in a Facebook friend’s photo album or seen a link promoting a Twilight: Breaking Dawn game, be careful. It is likely a scam designed to spread on Facebook and grab your personal data.”
Google, which has long faced criticism in Germany over its Street View program, has decided to shut it down. According to Time’s Techland blog, Goolge “isn’t taking any of the old Street View pictures down, but they’re not adding or updating any either.” Google only launched Street View in Germany last summer, but it was immediately met with skepticism by German privacy regulators. Google has also had a hard time implementing Street View in other European countries, where privacy is treated as a valuable commodity.
In an op-ed for TechCrunch, Habib Kairouz, managing partner of Rho Ventures, writes that “consumers will willingly render personal information under the right circumstances,” but that “many online companies today have extended their practices way beyond consumers’ tolerance levels.” In other words, Kairouz is saying that consumers are not necessarily worried about privacy so much as they are about controlling access to their information.
In an op-ed for Slate, Farhad Manjoo argues that excessive regulation of data privacy may lead to a stifling of innovation among Internet companies. Manjoo uses the FTC’s historic privacy settlement with Google over Google Buzz as an example, writing that, while he agrees with the FTC’s decision to take action, “there’s a good chance that privacy regulators—spurred by a public that doesn’t really know what it wants when it comes to online privacy—may go too far, blocking Google from collecting and analyzing information about its users.” Essentially, Manjoo argues that the good things companies do with our private data outweighs the bad things. It’s not an argument that we agree with, but it’s worth reading anyway.
April 8th, 2011 | Facebook, Google, Internet Safety, Online Reputation Management, Privacy, Quick Hits, Social Networking | Rob Frappier
In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about the hidden information in online photos, how certain smartphone apps share user data with advertisers, and Google’s plans to tie compensation into social media success.
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In an interesting article for CNN, tech writer Mark Milian discusses online photos and how advancing technology has packed digital images with vast amounts of sensitive data. Quoting the article, “a digital photograph is like an onion, and advancements in machine reading and software scanning can help peel back layers to extract information from images. Each layer of a digital picture often contains data about where and when a shot was taken. Rapidly maturing computer algorithms can interpret what or who is in the frame.” Milian goes on to discuss how the data hidden in a digital photo can be used to track a person’s location and other privacy concerns.
Federal prosecutors recently began investigating numerous smartphone application developers, including the popular Internet radio company Pandora, to investigate how the firms share personal user data. Maybe they should also talk to Tyler Shields, a senior researcher for the application security testing firm Veracode, whose recent report on third-party apps claims that they share “mass quantities” of personal data with advertisers. This report from InformationWeek discusses the federal investigation, as well as Shields’ research.
It’s no secret that Google is interested in the social media sphere, but the company’s efforts so far have been met with tepid response compared to the popularity of its main rival, Facebook. However, new Google CEO Larry Page is committed to social success, even outlining a special bonus structure related to the company’s social media efforts. According to leaked documents, Page wrote that bonuses can go up or down “depending on how well we perform against our strategy to integrate relationships, sharing and identity across our products.”
In a recent column, Miss Manners tackled the issue of Internet privacy and how to let your Facebook friends know if you don’t want certain content shared online. In a new column, Miss Manners responds to the annoying issue of boring Facebook updates (such as “Taking a nap,” or “Getting an oil change.”) As usual, her response is nuanced and thoughtful.
The researchers at security firm Symantec are warning Facebook users about a bogus, password-stealing application that displays the message “Tornado Randomly Appears During Soccer Game.” The fake app leads to a fake log-in page that scrapes the Facebook user’s account information and reposts the video on their wall to snare more victims.
