Last week I commented on Facebook’s new privacy paradigm, which they said would launch “in the next couple of weeks”. Seems that process is starting today. Here is Facebook’s spin: Facebook Asks More Than 350 Million Users Around the World…
Category: Issues
West Bend Public Library Wins U-Illinois Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award
For its principled stance regarding the recent controversy over certain Young Adult books, the West Bend Community Memorial Library has been awarded the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information…
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Facebook’s New Privacy Paradigm: Boon or Bust?
Facebook recently announced significant changes to how information will flow on the social network, impacting users' privacy in both positive and (potentially) negative ways. First, the good news: as hinted back in June, Facebook will be implementing a new feature…
On Google’s New Homepage, Privacy Fades Away
Google has announced a new "feature" to its homepage: upon loading, only the Google logo, the search box and the search buttons are visible. The links to additional products, advanced search function, and the privacy policy, only fade in if…
Google Adds Location History to Latitude: Feature Request, or Strategic Rollout?
When Google launched Google Latitude 9 months ago, they took steps to ensure users' locational privacy was protected. Among the most important privacy-protecting features was the fact that Google didn't keep a log of user locations on its servers; only…
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Panel: On the Challenges of Implementing Library 2.0 Services
On Tuesday, a group of librarians and information professions will be holding a panel discussion on "The Challenges of Implementing Library 2.0 Services" at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T). On the…
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More on Cuil’s Non-Privacy Policy
Yesterday I posted that Cuil, the supposed "Google-killer" search engine that once took pride in not keeping any logs of its users' activities, had dramatically altered its privacy policy, effectively stripping it of the strong privacy-protecting language it originally contained.…
Cuil’s Famous Privacy Policy No Longer Protects Privacy
Remember Cuil, the search engine launched in 2008 that was supposed to be a Google-killer? Didn't think so. Anyway, one of Cuil's touted competitive advantages was that it didn't track user search queries. Its original privacy policy (dated July 27,…
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Google Dashboard: Convenient? Yes. Transparency, Choice and Control? Not so much.
Google describes Dashboard as a simple way to view “the data associated with your account”, and that it will provide users “greater transparency and control over their own data.” Elsewhere, Dashboard has been described as a “big concession to users’ privacy rights“, as the answer to the question: “What does Google know about me?”, and as a place providing users “more control over the personal information stored in Google’s databases“. Unfortunately, Google Dashboard is none of these things.
Madrid Declaration: Global Privacy Standards for a Global World
Today, a collection of international advocates and experts from the academic, consumer, digital rights and labor communities met in Madrid to discuss the future of privacy across the globe. Organized by The Public Voice Coalition, this important meeting precedes the…
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