I found this commentary about reports that Microsoft and Yahoo are building massive data storage facilities near a large NSA data-mining facility in rural Washington, and thought I should reproduce it in its entirety. It is simultaneously funny and scary:Microsoft,…
Category: Internet
Google Wi-Fi requries Google Account; Info Held 6 Months
This San Francisco Chronicle article notes that the Google municipal wi-fi service will require users to create a Google account and log on to access the free service. While (savvy) users can create anonymous accounts, requiring a login makes it…
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Google Wi-Fi as State Agent?
Following up on these privacy concerns with municipal wi-fi programs, I am beginning to wonder to what extent the providers of muni-wi-fi (such as Google) might be considered "state agents" when it comes to the collecting of personal information via…
Google Wins Right to Track Wi-Fi Users in San Francisco
A partnership between Google and Earthlink beat other bids to provide municipal wi-fi to the citizens of San Francisco. While muni-wi-fi is definitely a step towards lessening the digital divide, this particular plan is not as "free" as Google says…
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The Privacy Costs of Municipal Wi-Fi
Chris Hoofnagle points to a very important article in the Nation by Jeff Chester discussing the privacy costs of many of the proposals for municipal wi-fi, including Google's plan for San Francisco. The benefits of muni-wi-fi are great, but proposals…
Online Aerial Maps and Privacy Rights
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,…
Riya: Facial recognition for the masses
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…
AttentionTrust: Owning your Data
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…
Enforcing Privacy Policies; Strengthening Oversight
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.…
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Commercial Data Aggregation…of My Image?
Today's Colloquium on Information Technology & Society at NYU Law School featured talk by Jonathan Phillips of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on recent developments in facial recognition technologies and algorithms. Some of the results suggested that…
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