Putting it mildly, Facebook has done a terrible job dealing with the myriad of privacy issues inherent with its social networking platform (see, for example, News Feed, Beacon, and indirectly, the TOS debacle). I have frequently called on Facebook to…
Read More Facebook Hires ACLU Privacy Lawyer, Might Actually Address Privacy
[Via Ann Bartow at Madisonian.net, via Bits & Pieces, etc] UPDATE: Adam Thierer at Technology Liberation Front jokes this is where increasing privacy regulations might lead us. I disagree, as this would have the opposite effect of any privacy-protecting regulation.…
Speaking of the need to better educate consumers about digital privacy concerns, today's New York Times features two articles that shed light on two widespread online data collection practices. The article "Online Age Quiz Is a Window for Drug Makers"…
Amateur facial recognition technology is coming to Facebook. Face.com is launching a facial recognition application called Photo Finder to allow Facebook users to search their photos -- and photos of their friends -- to learn, recognize, and tag familiar faces.…
Read More Photo Finder: Automated Facial Recognition on Facebook
Today, Google announced its long-awaited behavioral targeted advertising program. Building from its acquisition of DoubleClick, Google's new ad system -- which it refers to as "interest-based advertising" -- will use cookies to track users across the multitude of sites that…
A couple of stories popped up on my radar this morning related to cellphone privacy: The New York Times has a story on advertisers increasingly collecting behavioral and locational data from consumers' cellphone activities: "Advertisers Get a Trove of Clues…
Again, the media suggests the "kids these days just don't care about privacy" and that, thanks to online social networking, privacy as a value has disappeared. This time, it's Randall Stross at the NY Times, in a column "When Everyone’s…
Just in time for the sections on intellectual property and fair use in my "Information Technology Ethics" class, the Israeli artist Kutiman released a brilliant collection of YouTube video mashups called "Thru You" (his site has been down due to…
Sometime last year, I discovered a Facebook application named "Privacy" that provided insight into the personal information any application can access when a user adds one to their Facebook profile. The application prodded users to be concerned about how much…
Read More What Happened to the Facebook Application “Privacy”?
Besides the founders and CEO, Marissa Mayer is probably Google's most visible celebrity. Recently, the NY Times published a (somewhat puffy) piece on the Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, highlighting her role in developing and designing Google’s…
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