Despite complaints by leading privacy advocates, the long history of privacy concerns related to DoubleClick, explanations as to why privacy must be considered part of the anti-trust concerns, and concerns about possible links between the FTC commissioner and DoubleClick, the…
Category: Privacy
Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency
The Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new report on online privacy called Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency. The report covers a wide array of issues, ranging from the privacy…
Read More Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency
Computing in the Cloud? I’ll Keep my Data, Thank You
"Computing in the cloud" has been described as a paradigm shift where data processing and other computer activities are moved away from personal computers or an individual server to a “cloud” of computers on the Internet. Examples include Yahoo Mail…
Read More Computing in the Cloud? I’ll Keep my Data, Thank You
AskEraser Launched, but Incomplete Protection
As previously discussed, Ask.com has launched AskEraser, a new service which promises to protect user privacy by, upon request, deleting users' search activity from Ask.com servers. Ask has put together quite an extensive help page explaining the details of AskEraser,…
New Google Toolbar Makes Logging User Data Even Easier
Google has launched a new (Internet Explorer) version of the Google Toolbar (with the now-obligatory YouTube video). A key change in this version is the ability to save all your Google settings online, and then log into toolbar on remote…
Read More New Google Toolbar Makes Logging User Data Even Easier
Does Facebook’s Beacon Violate the Video Privacy Protection Act?
James Grimmelmann has an excellent post arguing that Blockbuster's participation in Facebook's Beacon Web tracking advertising service violates the Video Privacy Protection Act, one of the few federal privacy laws on the books in the U.S. James concludes: "Facebook and…
Read More Does Facebook’s Beacon Violate the Video Privacy Protection Act?
Facebook Apologizes (Sorta); Creates Global Opt-Out (Supposedly)
The Wall Street Journal and others point to today's apology by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg for the Beacon fiasco. However, rather than apologizing for creating a pervasive tool for tracking and collecting user purchasing habits across the Web, or for making…
Read More Facebook Apologizes (Sorta); Creates Global Opt-Out (Supposedly)
Beacon (noun): That which gives notice of danger
It is becoming increasingly apt that Facebook named their new Web tracking advertising service "Beacon." As I briefly mentioned here, Facebook now has admitted, contrary to earlier assurances, that their Beacon ad system tracks users’ off-Facebook activities even if those…
Facebook Beacon Worse than Most Thought (And Still Is)
I had a hunch... Last week we welcomed Wendy Seltzer at the Yale Information Society Project, who gave a talk on "Online Privacy in Context." Most of our discussion centered on the controversy swirling around Facebook's Beacon advertising platform, where…
Read More Facebook Beacon Worse than Most Thought (And Still Is)
Are Anonymous Data-sets Possible?
A recent column by Christopher Soghoian on CNet predicts a decline in companies sharing "anonymized" user data with the academic research community. Along with last year's AOL data release debacle, Soghoian points to a more recent case where researchers were…
MichaelZimmer.org 
You must be logged in to post a comment.