Michael Zimmer, PhD, is a digital privacy and data ethics scholar at Marquette University
Google has launched a new (Internet Explorer) version of the Google Toolbar (with the now-obligatory YouTube video). A key change in this version is the ability to save all your Google settings online, and then log into toolbar on remote…
Read More New Google Toolbar Makes Logging User Data Even Easier
Much of my research strives to extend my broader social, political, and ethical explorations of information and communication technologies beyond the halls of academia and into “real-world” design contexts to pragmatically engage with designers and advocate for the value-conscious design…
Read More Dear Facebook, Google: Please Engage in Value-Conscious Design
In more chilling news, it has been reported that Google reached a settlement with a group of Israeli council members and will voluntarily turn over the IP address of a blogger accused of slander to a court overseeing the case.…
Read More Google Discloses Blogger’s IP Address (No Subpoena Required)
Blogging has been light due to other duties, but I wanted to point out a few notable items that deserve attention: Twitter appears to be planning to expand the search offerings, allowing users to search for particular terms within others'…
As I just mentioned, Google recently announced plans to blur or otherwise obscure people's faces in the Canadian version of the Street View product. After a brief conversation with my colleague Chris Hoofnagle, I've come to realize that in their…
I've been incredibly busy lately, and need to quickly catch up on some recent items of note: Siva Vaidhyanathan has launched a new blog for his forthcoming book, "The Googlization of Everything"... ...while Cory Doctorow provides his fictional vision of…
Given the obvious privacy concerns with Google's Street View imaging system (as well as Microsoft's Windows Live Local Virtual Earth), you would think providers of such services would make it easy for privacy-threatening content to be flagged and removed. While…
I'm under deadline pressure currently, so very quickly: Declan McCullagh and Elinor Mills at CNet have surveyed the major search engine providers about their privacy practices related to retention of user data and behavioral targeting. Full story here, and the…
Google is testing new ad-serving technology with added privacy protections: In our ad-serving tests, we're introducing an opt-out mechanism so people can opt out of the test ad-serving cookie if they wish. In addition, we’re going to experiment with ways…
Peter Fleischer, Google's Global Privacy Counsel, has posted a short video to help explain basic search privacy concepts, such as what appears in a search query log entry, etc. This is really basic stuff, but a good step towards educating…
Read More Google Posts Search Privacy Video, and Leaving Comments Threatens Privacy
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