Senate Scrutinizes Privacy Issues of ISP User Tracking: related news

Senate Scrutinizes Privacy Issues of ISP User Tracking

Hugh Pickens writes "As companies collect, use, and disseminate data regarding online users, there is concern that tracking individuals' Internet activity and gathering information from online users violates their expectations of privacy. The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to look at the policy issues, and the hottest topic will be proposed systems by which ISPs can watch users and sell information about their surfing habits to advertising companies. The Center for Democracy and Technology has issued a report suggesting that these systems may violate federal law (PDF). 'Advertising per se is not the evil here,' says Leslie Harris from CDT. 'It's the collection of individuals' information, usually without their knowledge, always without their consent, creation of profiles and the complete inability of people to mak

Understanding Privacy

privacyprof writes "Slashdot readers familiar with Professor Daniel J. Solove's essay, 'I've Got Nothing to Hide and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy,' might be interested in his new book, Understanding Privacy, which develops many of the ideas in that essay. As rapidly changing technology makes information increasingly available, there has been a great struggle to define privacy, with many conceding that the task is virtually impossible. The book argues there are multiple forms of privacy, related to one another by 'family resemblances'. It explains the framework for understanding privacy which was briefly discussed in the 'Nothing to Hide' essay. The book covers the framework in greater depth and explores how it applies to a wide array of privacy issues, such as data mining, surveillance, data security, and consumer privacy.

Don't You Feel Safer Now That Google Added A Link To Its Privacy Policy?

One of the more idiotic accusations thrown at Google of late was this idea that it was somehow a problem that it didn't link directly to its privacy policy from its home page. It had a privacy policy. That privacy policy was easy to find. Almost no one actually reads its privacy policy -- but a bunch of privacy groups who surely had more important things to spend their time on got all upset that Google refused to link from its front page. It appears that Google has now given in and agreed to link to the privacy policy, oddly removing the word "Google" from its copyright notice and replacing it with a link to the privacy policy.

Google Adds Privacy Policy Link

After a month of pressure from privacy groups, search engine Google has finally agreed to add a link on its homepage to the company's privacy policy. Google had resisted the addition of a privacy link, saying it did not want to clutter its homepage. "We're making a homepage change by adding a link to our privacy overview and policies," Marissa Mayer, vice president of Search Products & User Experience, said in a July 3 Google Blog post. "Google values our users' privacy first and foremost. Trust is the basis of everything we do, so we want you to be familiar and comfortable with the integrity and care we give your personal data."

Italian Privacy Advocates and Jurists Launch New Privacy Institute

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of prominent Italian privacy advocates and jurists have launched the Italian Institute for Privacy (www.istitutoitalianoprivacy.it/en/), a public policy think tank focused on improving privacy protection in the digital age. This broad-based coalition of prominent Italians will focus its efforts on the protection of personal privacy online for citizens in

Italian Privacy Advocates and Jurists Launch New Privacy Institute

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A group of prominent Italian privacy advocates and jurists have launched the Italian Institute for Privacy (www.istitutoitalianoprivacy.it/en/), a public policy think tank focused on improving privacy protection in the digital age. This broad-based coalition of prominent Italians will focus its efforts on the protection of personal privacy online for citizens in

NebuAd Introduces Next-Generation Online Consumer Privacy Protections, Raising the Bar on Internet Privacy Protection Standards

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (Business Wire) -- NebuAd, an online media company that provides state-of-the-art online privacy protection for consumers, today announced it is introducing new industry-leading online privacy protections, offering alternatives for robust, direct consumer notification and unprecedented innovations in opt-out technology. This move further empowers Internet service provider (ISP) subscribers to control their web experience. In addition, it reinforces NebuAd's commitment to delivering world-class innovation in Internet advertising by setting unparalleled standards in online consumer privacy protection.

NebuAd Introduces Next-Generation Online Consumer Privacy Protections, Raising the Bar on Internet Privacy Protection Standards

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2008--NebuAd, an online media company that provides state-of-the-art online privacy protection for consumers, today announced it is introducing new industry-leading online privacy protections, offering alternatives for robust, direct consumer notification and unprecedented innovations in opt-out technology. This move further empowers Internet service provider (ISP) subscribers to control their web experience. In addition, it reinforces NebuAd’s commitment to delivering world-class innovation in Internet advertising by setting unparalleled standards in online consumer privacy protection.

Privacy Policies Only as Good as the People Enforcing Them

Techdirt is reporting that while we all know privacy policies may not matter much in the grand scheme of things, a recent study shows that it may be even worse than originally surmised. It seems that the real issue is with who has access to personal data and what they are able to do with it. "of course, it's not just the people reading the policies that don't seem to understand them -- it's those in charge of living up to and enforcing the policies. A new study surveyed a bunch of executives, including both marketing execs and those in charge of enforcing the privacy policy, and quickly discovered that marketers have a very different concept of 'privacy' than privacy officers. Not surprisingly, they don't see anything wrong with sharing all sorts of data that seems to horrify privacy officers.

Responding to Critics, Google Adds Privacy Link to Home Page

On June 3rd a group of privacy advocates, including California-based Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, the World Privacy Forum, Consumer Action, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumer Federation of California, and ACLU of Northern California - among others - sent a detailed letter to Google CEO CEO Eric Schmidt, charging that the lack of a privacy link on Google's home page was not just "alarming," but violated the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003.

Google's Latest Silly Privacy Problem

Well now that Google's dealt with one ridiculous privacy complaint, it appears it has another to deal with. As Google is preparing to launch its "Street View" offerings in Europe (which let people see photos of the streets they search for on Google Maps), some privacy groups are complaining how its a violation of people's privacy. Apparently the fact that they were photographed out in public hasn't occurred to the privacy group. Even more to the point, as Google has pointed out in response, despite the fact that anyone caught in these photographs was in public, it's recently rolled out a system to automatically blur faces of people who end up in the Street View photos. Overall, the whole complaint seems to be much ado about nothing from privacy advocates who have much more important things to focus on.

Fedora considering a new privacy policy

For a while now, we've been butting up against the Red Hat Privacy Policy (which we've been using to cover Fedora). To try to address some of these concerns, I sat down and made a new privacy policy for Fedora to use that is independent of Red Hat's Privacy Policy. I made a draft, then sent it over to Red Hat Legal for review. They made some minor changes and sent it back to me. Here it is for you folks to look over: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/TomCallaway/PrivacyPolicyD... Keep in mind that while this is more open than the Red Hat Privacy Policy, I think it is more in keeping with the spirit of Fedora. (Also, it is directly derived from Red Hat's privacy policy, so its not as if I completely rewrote it from scratch). Barring any major failures, I plan to present this for approval at next week's board meeting.

DesignerDigitals.com Certified for TRUSTe Web Privacy

BEL AIR, Md. - (Business Wire) Leading Internet digital scrapbooking supplies e-tailer DesignerDigitals.com today announced that it is certified to display the TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal. The Web Privacy Seal demonstrates DesignerDigitals commitment to protecting the privacy and data of its on-line community. TRUSTe is the leader in privacy certification. They award their privacy seal only to companies that complete the thorough certification process and agree to comply with ongoing oversight.

US debates privacy issues of online ads

Executives from major Internet players—Microsoft, Google and Facebook—are due for a grilling about online privacy in a Senate committee later on Wednesday, but the company likely to get the most scrutiny is a small Silicon Valley startup called NebuAd. This startup has drawn fierce criticism from privacy advocates in recent weeks for working with Internet service providers to track the online behaviour of their customers and then serve up targeted banner ads based on that behaviour.

Google Asks Viacom To Respect User Privacy

Google Asks Viacom To Respect User Privacy Legally forced to give up YouTube user logs, Google has asked to be allowed to anonymize those logs before producing them in court.

NebuAd Aims to Mollify Privacy Critics with Senate Testimony

After weeks of negative attention from privacy advocates and Congress and the subsequent retreat of several committed ISP partners, behavioral tracking firm NebuAd has made some changes to its system.

NetEqualizer Offers Net Neutrality, User Privacy Compromise

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Although the debates surrounding net neutrality and user privacy are nothing new, the recent involvement of the Federal Communications Commission is forcing ISPs and network administrators to rethink their strategies for network optimization. The potential benefits of layer-7 bandwidth shaping and deep packet inspection are coming into conflict with the rights of Internet users to surf the net unimpeded while maintaining their privacy.

NetEqualizer Offers Net Neutrality, User Privacy Compromise

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Although the debates surrounding net neutrality and user privacy are nothing new, the recent involvement of the Federal Communications Commission is forcing ISPs and network administrators to rethink their strategies for network optimization. The potential benefits of layer-7 bandwidth shaping and deep packet inspection are coming into conflict with the rights of Internet users to surf the net unimpeded while maintaining their privacy.

NetEqualizer Offers Net Neutrality, User Privacy Compromise

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Although the debates surrounding net neutrality and user privacy are nothing new, the recent involvement of the Federal Communications Commission is forcing ISPs and network administrators to rethink their strategies for network optimization. The potential benefits of layer-7 bandwidth shaping and deep packet inspection are coming into conflict with the rights of Internet users to surf the net unimpeded while maintaining their privacy.

Ask.com agrees with Google's critics, issues new privacy safeguards

Number 5 search engine Ask.com has issued an open letter agreeing with the sentiments of privacy buffs while also rolling out new user privacy safeguards for its own platform.

Ask.com agrees with Google's critics , issues new privacy safeguards

Number 5 search engine Ask.com has issued an open letter agreeing with the sentiments of privacy buffs while also rolling out new user privacy safeguards for its own platform.

YouTube, Viacom Both Want To Uphold User Privacy. As For IPs...

Chances are you’ve heard recently about an order made by a judge for the Southern District of New York for Google to turn over user data to Viacom for videos uploaded to and played back on the megasite YouTube. The extent of the demand is quite extraordinary. The data Viacom has asked for stretches back a few years’ time, and seeing that the video host now serves user requests for billions of clips every month, Google’s compliance on the matter would no doubt toss this case firmly into the realm of very high-profile ligitation. Privacy advocates are atwitter.

Facebook Connect Aims to Aggregate Social Media While Protecting User Privacy

In May, Google announced a new initiative called Friend Connect that enables site owners to add social media to their websites, and allows internet users to connect their social accounts more seamlessly. But while Facebook was initally part of the effort, later they banned Google's Friend Connect from their site, citing issues with privacy and the redistribution of user data.

Safeguarding Data From Big Brother Sven?

An anonymous reader writes "Now that the Swedish government (in its infinite wisdom) has passed a law allowing them to monitor email traffic, a question that I think a lot of people are asking (or at least should be asking) is: 'What can I do to improve my privacy?' The answer is not obvious. So, what are the best solutions for seamless email encryption, search privacy, etc? What are your experiences with PGP vs GPG vs ...? In this day and age, why is the use of this type of privacy technologies still so limited? Why isn't there a larger movement promoting the use of privacy tools? Also, what is in your opinion the largest privacy concern? Search tracking? Email transfer? I believe this is an interesting question not only for Swedes, but for everyone.

Senate Grapples With Web Privacy Issues

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said yesterday's hearing emphasized "how little we do understand" about Internet advertising and consumers' privacy.

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