The Canadian comedy troupe Cynically Tested has posted an Internet short on YouTube featuring "Emily of the State," a satirical look at how ISPs could enable government surveillance of one's online activities through a "helpful" avatar, Emily: YouTube - Emily…
Read More Emily of the State, your friendly Internet surveillance avatar
Fellow PhD student Alice Marwick blogs about TechCrunch's coverage of ClickTale, the latest in website surveillance tools: ClickTale shows you the full story: every mouse movement, every click and every scrolling action. By using ClickTale you will gain insights that…
The City of San Francisco is investigating AT&T's alleged cooperation with the NSA wiretapping and considering possible "consequences" the company could face in its extensive municipal contracts if it is found violating the civil liberties of the city's citizens. Meanwhile,…
Read More San Francisco Investigates AT&T, but what about Google?
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…
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…
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
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…
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…
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
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
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