For consumers
Google to Congress: deleting profiling data ‘not always practicable’
February 2, 2012
Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., says there wasn’t enough time to set up a full public hearing on the controversial user agreement changes Google announced last week. Those changes take effect March 1 and will enable the search giant to step up the cross-referencing of profiling data collected from users of its popular online services. Google says it is not collecting any data from users of Google …More
Google execs to give closed-door briefing, CEO stays home
January 31, 2012
Google CEO Larry Page won’t be testifying before Congress this week. In response to an invitation last week from Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., who asked Page to appear and explain the company’s user policy changes, Page sent two subordinates to handle the matter.
Google deputy general counsel Mike Yang and public policy director Pablo Chavez are preparing to deliver a closed-door briefing on Thursday, says …More
Google, Facebook say privacy rules bad for economy
January 27, 2012
They may be battling each other tooth-and-nail to win over online advertisers. But Google and Facebook are on the same side when it comes to opposing new data-handling privacy laws fast-gelling in Europe and the U.S.
On Wednesday, the European Union formally proposed strict rules that could restrict much of the systematic tracking and profiling Google and Facebook routinely do of Internet users, as part …More
Risks rise as Google, Facebook intensify profiling
January 26, 2012
Google and Facebook might have finally gotten the average consumer riled up about privacy.
For the past two years, each company has experimented with different ways to divine more and more about how people live their lives on the Internet, without sparking a revolt.
But the plans the rivals announced on Tuesday, which critics say could dramatically rev up their respective abilities to gather intelligence on individual Internet …More
FTC bars Facebook from using deceptive privacy practices
November 29, 2011
Facebook on Tuesday agreed to a Federal Trade Commission consent order barring the company from deceiving consumers about its privacy practices. The order also requires Facebook to submit to monitoring for 20 years.
The sanctions stem from privacy setting changes Facebook made in December 2009, without asking users’ permission.
The company told users they could keep full control of who could access their content on Facebook when, …More
How Facebook keeps tracking logs of the webpages you visit
November 15, 2011
In recent weeks, Facebook has been wrangling with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the social media website is violating users’ privacy by making public too much of their personal information.
Far more quietly, another debate is brewing over a different side of online privacy: what Facebook is learning about those who visit its website.
Facebook officials are now acknowledging that the social media giant has been able to …More
Ten-fold rise in malicious ads bedevils publishers, consumers
November 2, 2011
The online advertising industry is scrambling to quell a long-standing problem that has taken a turn for the worse: the spread of malicious ads on the Internet’s top commercial websites.
Several new twists have made so-called malvertisements a fast-rising threat to consumers — and a big headache for publishers, advertisers and ad networks, say technologists and security researchers.
The spread of infected online ads has spiked tenfold over the …More
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