Archive for the 'Privacy' Category
Google to “systematically” provide data on suspect Orkut users to Brazilian authorities
Thursday, April 24th, 2008Social network services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal investigations. Google’s social networking site Orkut, which is immensely popular in Brazil, is no exception.
In 2006, I commented on Google’s decision to comply with a Brazilian court order to release data on Orkut users to help Brazilian authorities investigate use of the site related […]
More Details on Yahoo’s New Ad Sales System, AMP!
Monday, April 7th, 2008Yahoo has issued a press release on their new ad sales system, AMP! that provided a few new insights into this “powerful new online advertising platform.” The New York Times broke this story earlier, which I blogged about here.
Interestingly, the Yahoo release avoids using the phrase “behavioral targeting” (which is mentioned in the NYT piece), […]
Article 29 Working Party: Opinion on Data Protection Issues Related to Search Engines
Monday, April 7th, 2008The European Commission’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party has released their long-awaited “Opinion on Data Protection Issues Related to Search Engines” (PDF), something I’ve debated here.
At first glance, it seems we’re in agreement that the Data Protection Directive applies to the processing of personal data by search engines. Here is the executive summary:
Search […]
Yahoo’s New Ad Sales System to Include Behavioral Targeting
Sunday, April 6th, 2008The New York Times is reporting details of Yahoo’s forthcoming new advertising system which will allow targeting of ads based on users’ online activities:
Yahoo said the system, called AMP and still months away from being ready, would greatly simplify the task of selling online ads, allowing Yahoo’s publishing partners, for instance, to place ads on […]
Real Questions for Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer
Sunday, April 6th, 2008David Faser points to an article in the Times Online that throws a bunch of softball questions at Chris Kelly, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. Facebook has been at the center of multiple violations of user privacy, and all the Times can come up with are questions like “Do you think that some of the fear […]
CFP: Privacy Literacy — How Consumers Understand and Protect Their Privacy
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008Consumer attention to privacy is seemingly on the rise. We witnessed renewed concern about the tracking of user behavior online, medical privacy as Web-based storage solutions are being proposed, the tracking and selling of television viewing patterns, the merging of vast databases of user activity owned by Google and Doubleclick, and much, much more.
The open […]




Web Search: Multi-
disciplinary Perspectives