Privacy
Microsoft-Google privacy tussle widens spotlight on invasive practices
February 22, 2012
By Byron Acohido
USA TODAY, 22Feb2012, P1B
Mud-slinging between tech rivals is nothing new. But the red hot issue of online privacy has pushed it to another level.
Last week Google scrambled to deflect criticism that it tracked the online activities of users’ of Apple’s Safari web browser against their wishes, by circumventing an anti-tracking mechanism.
On Tuesday the search giant lashed out at Microsoft in response to …More
Google takes heat for tracking Safari users against their wishes
February 17, 2012
Yet more evidence of the gold rush to harvest and store profiling data on Internet users:
Google came under fire today by several members of Congress after a Stanford University grad student disclosed how the search giant has been tracking the online activities of users of Apple’s Safari web browser, despite the default use of a browser mechanism to block such tracking.
Jonathan Mayer, a grad student and …More
Path privacy gaffe highlights gold rush for mobile users’ data
February 16, 2012
Apple on Wednesday moved to quell the rising furor over disclosures that social network Path and several other makers of iOS apps collect and store users address books without asking their permission.
The tech giant said it would require third-party suppliers of applications in its App Store to secure user approval to use address book data, including full …More
Data thieves crack Microsoft’s India store
February 13, 2012
Another big corporation’s customer database has been breached. This time it’s Microsoft, specifically the software giant’s online retail store serving India.
“As we saw with Sony, Stratfor, Zappos and others, hackers value this information and are selling it on a thriving black market to others focused on identity theft,” says Todd Thiemann, product specialist at encryption company Vormetric. “Companies need to rethink how to value and protect customer …More
EPIC asks court to block Google’s new privacy policy
February 9, 2012
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 09FEB2012, p3B
An advocacy group went to court on Wednesday to block Google from making a policy change that could lead to the search giant assembling richer behavior profiles of people who use more than one of its popular online services.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a complaint asking a Washington, D.C., district court judge to restrain Google from making the …More
Google execs lack clarity in closed-door briefing of Congress
February 3, 2012
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY, 3Feb2012, P1B
Google executives faced tough questions Thursday, in a meeting with members of Congress, about changes to the company’s privacy policy scheduled to go into effect March 1.
However, the search giant failed to assuage lawmakers’ privacy concerns stemming from the company’s controversial plans to step up the cross-referencing of data generated by consumers who use its popular online services, says Rep. …More
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