The NY Times writes about Oregon's experiments with a per-mile fee system that could replace general gas taxes. By installing GPS location tracking devices in every car, mileage could be tracked and users would have taxes levied on how much…
Read More Oregon considers GPS Tracking Devices in Every Car
The LA Times has a story about whether online satellite/aerial photography services Google Earth and Windows Live Local show too much, whether its possible these services violate one's privacy by enabling users to zoom in and see my backyard (here,…
My earlier musings on Web 2.0's focus on the collection of (personal) metadata and the potential for the commercial aggregation of images of my likeness come into renewed focus with the launch of Riya (needs IE6 for PC; Firefox for…
The collaborators at the important "On the Identity Trail" project in Canada were kind enough to ask me to write an essay for their blog. Here is an excerpt:Surveillance in Spheres of Mobility: Privacy, Technical Design and the Flow of…
Michael Froomkin links to a story about a Federal Trade Commission subpoena sent to Google for the complete contents of a Gmail account, including deleted e-mail messages. (This is unrelated to the DOJ's subpoena to Google for search terms and…
The court issued a decision Friday on Gonzales v. Google, the case involving a DOJ subpoena for Google search queries. (Dan Solove has excellent coverage here.) In short, the judge ruled partially in favor of the government, ordering Google to…
Read More Partial Victory for Google; Larger Victory for Search Engine Privacy
Bruce Schneier has a fabulous essay on "The Future of Privacy":Over the past 20 years, there's been a sea change in the battle for personal privacy. The pervasiveness of computers has resulted in the almost constant surveillance of everyone, with…
At a roundtable lunch with reporters, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt remarked that he "expects advertising will be the growth engine of Google for a very long time," noting specifically that "Google ads are very targetable, because Google knows a lot…
Read More Google’s Schmidt: “Google knows a lot about the person surfing”
I just joined AttentionTrust, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the basic rights of "attention owners." In short, they fight for the right of individuals to own and control the information about them that is aggregated from online activities. From…
Wired News is reporting that e-mail marketing giant Datran Media has agreed to a $1.1 million fine for knowingly buying marketing lists from companies with privacy policies that promised not to sell or transfer the lists to a third party.…
Read More Enforcing Privacy Policies; Strengthening Oversight
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