USA Today has an article on the depth and breadth of personal information mined by online service providers, such as Microsoft's Hotmail free e-mail service, in order to provide marketers with highly detailed consumer profiles: Data miners dig a little…
Category: Privacy
Anonymity in Cyberspace: Finding the Balance
Earlier this year, the International Association of IT Lawyers (IAITL) organized the First International Conference on Legal, Privacy and Security Issues in Information Technology in Hamburg, Germany. The conference covered a broad range of topics, such as electronic signatures, e-commerce,…
Google Responds to SanFran Wi-Fi Privacy Concerns
Google has responded to some of the privacy concerns with their proposed municipal wi-fi network for the city of San Francisco. In a letter [PDF] sent to the City, they defend requiring a Google Account to access the network, as…
NJ Librarian ensnared in privacy conflict
NorthJersey.com reports of a local librarian who told police they would need a subpoena before she would turn over the circulation records of a man who had allegedly made sexually threatening comments to a 12-year-old girl outside the library. The…
Template for News Stories on Government Data Gathering
Given the increased frequency of revelations about government data gathering and surveillance stories, Dan Solove has created a quick and easy template to help news outlets report on these stories: Under a top secret program initiated by the Bush Administration…
Read More Template for News Stories on Government Data Gathering
Who Needs ChoicePoint when you have First Data
I used to work in the electronic payment processing industry, and was amazed at the amount of purchasing data that passed through our systems on a daily basis. My company was in a top 10 processor, with First Data Corp…
AT&T rewrites rules: Your data isn’t yours
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that AT&T has issued an updated privacy policy that appears to give them more latitude when it comes to sharing customers' personal data with government officials. In fact, it states outright that customers' personal data…
AP: Police Bypassed Subpoenas, Got Phone Data From Brokers
Why should you be concerned about the aggregation and commercial availability of your personal information? Because you have little Constitutional protection from the state accessing such "third party" data, as this AP report makes all to clear: Numerous federal and…
Read More AP: Police Bypassed Subpoenas, Got Phone Data From Brokers
Google, Microsoft and Others Establish Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum
A group of twelve notable and diverse U.S. companies are joining forces to create a Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum to study the implications and explore support for comprehensive federal consumer privacy legislation. Google, one of the signatories, has posted the…
Read More Google, Microsoft and Others Establish Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum
Create Your Own False Identity
Lifehacker links to a useful tool for obfuscating personal data entered in (non-vital) registration forms online, the False Identity Generator: The False Identity Generator is a simple, web-based tool that generates a random first and last name, a valid city,…
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