Archive for the ‘Privacy’ Category

Video and Transcript: Secretary of State Clinton on Internet Freedom

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Yesterday, we mentioned that Sec. of State Clinton would be giving a speech this morning about Internet freedom. You can read a news report here. (via Washington Post)

Additionally, if you would like to view the speech, it has been archived on the State Dept. web site and is available here. Finally, a full text transcript of the speech is also available.

Source: U.S. Dept. of State / Washington Post

UPDATE: Reaction to Speech by China Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Tomorrow (1/21): Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Will Deliver a Speech on Internet Freedom

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

From the State Department Web Site:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver remarks on Internet Freedom on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. (EST) at the Newseum, in Washington, D.C. The remarks will be live-streamed on www.state.gov.

Secretary Clinton’s policy address will lay-out the Administration’s strategy for protecting freedom in the networked age of the 21st Century.

Today, The Guardian published a preview.

“She will lay out policy to ensure that our centuries-long traditions are ­preserved in the 21st century,” Alec Ross said during an online discussion today.

“Internet freedom is not just about freedom of expression, but about what kind of world we live in. Is it about one knowledge [in common] or about access to information based on where you live?”

Ross said the speech was not about China as such but was a broader exploration of internet freedom, said to be based on discussions under way before Google’s decision emerged.

[Snip]

…Rebecca Mackinnon, a fellow with the Open Society Institute, who is currently writing a book on the internet and censorship said: “The wrong message … would be something to the effect of: ‘Never fear, netizens of China, America is here to free you!’”

In a blog posting, she called for an acknowledgement of the challenge which “all governments and most companies” face in deciding how to handle the net.

Source: The Guardian

Canadian Privacy Commission to Investigate Facebook

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

From the EPIC Web Site:

Canada’s Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has launched an investigation into the information collection and use practices of online social networking sites. This investigation is being conducted as the Parliament prepares to review the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Stoddart plans to examine “issues that we feel pose a serious challenge to the privacy of consumers, now and in the near future,” and to foster discussions about “the impact of these technological developments on privacy.” This is not the first time the Commissioner has investigated the information practices of Facebook. In August 2009, Facebook made several changes to its privacy policy, following recommendations by the Commissioner and a complaint filed by the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.

Source: EPIC

See Also: Privacy commissioner looking at how Facebook gets data (via CTV News)

Google to Call for Creation of EU Privacy, Security Panel

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

From the Article:

Google needs to keep hold of information about people’s search history if it is to combat the sort of hacking it experienced in China last month, the company’s top privacy lawyer, Peter Fleischer, said Tuesday.

“The unprecedented hacking [of Google's networks] and the threat of similar such attacks in the future emphasized the importance of internal analysis of logs,” Fleischer said in a telephone interview.

He added that it is essential to find an appropriate balance between respecting users’ privacy and maintaining network security. “To do that we need to open a dialog with the cybersecurity community. You can’t discuss privacy in a vacuum,” he said.

At the end of this week Google will submit a proposal to the Article 29 committee, a body comprising data protection officials from all 27 countries in the European Union, suggesting the creation of a panel of cybersecurity experts as well as privacy officials, Fleischer said.

Source: Computerworld

See Also: Changes to MS/Bing Data Retention Policy: Amount of Time IP Addresses are Stored from Searchers Moves from 18 Months to 6 Months

Changes to MS/Bing Data Retention Policy: Amount of Time IP Addresses are Stored from Searchers Moves from 18 Months to 6 Months

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

From a Dow Jones Article:

Microsoft Corp. Tuesday acted on its promise to tighten consumer privacy rules, saying it will limit the length of time it holds customers’ Internet search data to six months regardless of what competitors do.

The company will “delete the entire Internet Protocol address associated with search queries at six months rather than at 18 months,” it said in a blog.

The move to grant online users more privacy comes after intense negotiations with European data privacy regulators who have been pushing for all search engines to limit the time they hold personally identifiable search data to six months since early 2008.

[Snip]

Google currently stores Internet protocol addresses which can be used to identify the computer used for searches for 9 months, and deletes all cookies after 18 months.

Source: Dow Jones

See Also: Much More in this Blog Post from Microsoft

See Also: Microsoft Complies With EU Demand, First To Cut Data Retention To Six Months (via Search Engine Land)

Information Sharing in an Age of Terrorism: MPI Report Highlights Challenges and Proposes Way Forward for United States and Europe

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Information Sharing in an Age of Terrorism: MPI Report Highlights Challenges and Proposes Way Forward for United States and Europe

The attempted Christmas Day attack on a U.S. airliner has refocused interest on the data collected by governments on international travelers, and how information sharing can be used to prevent terrorism and secure travel if properly shared and analyzed. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States and European Union worked out agreements to expand the sharing of personal information about international travelers as a means to prevent acts of terrorism and fight international crime.

However, as a new Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report explores, negotiations on a binding international agreement that will govern the sharing of personal information for law enforcement purposes between the United States and the European Union, while high on the transatlantic policy agenda, face significant challenges.

Among them: Divergent institutional setups of U.S. and E.U. privacy agencies, conflicting views over how to guarantee privacy and personal data protection under different legal and institutional frameworks, and finding a common solution for the obligations of private companies to share information with governments.

+ Full Report (PDF; 594 KB)

Source: Migration Policy Center

Privacy is No Longer a “Social Norm” According to Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

Monday, January 11th, 2010

A “wow” article in The Guardian about remarks made over the weekend by Facebook Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

We’re not so sure that privacy is no longer a social norm. It sounds goofy just saying it. Privacy is still something that MANY (most) people we come across (of all ages) find very important and essential. In fact, privacy may be more important now, in the age of social networks, than ever before and even more so going forward.

Additionally, the expectation it exists with all-types of information and info providers is still and will continue to be both important, necessary, and mandatory. Since so many info pros and library users utilize Facebook, this just might be a good time for ALA and other organizations to respond (on a popular info topic, social networks) making a strong statement against Zuckerberg’s words.

These comments are also interesting for Zuckerberg, the CEO of a company currently with more than 350 million users, to make just weeks after Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, told CNBC (here’s the video), “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Schmidt’s remarks and other comments about privacy made quite an uproar.

Also, Zuckerberg’s words come not that many weeks after his company changed their privacy settings to a loud chorus of complaints. It makes you wonder if Zuckerberg’s beliefs were used in the formation of those new policies.

If the leader of the largest social network believes this about privacy and then makes those feelings public, perhaps it’s time to move on to another social networking service. There are more than enough to choose from.

From the Article:

The rise of social networking online means that people no longer have an expectation of privacy, according to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Talking at the Crunchie awards in San Francisco this weekend, the 25-year-old dotcom chief executive of the world’s most popular social network said that privacy was no longer a “social norm”.

“People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” he said. “That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.”

Access the Complete Article>

Source: The Guardian

Note: In the U.S., balancing access to information (legal access to it) with privacy has been an issue long before Facebook was born. Now, with so much information being made available (often via social networks) it’s essential we get a handle on it and continue to teach its importance just like we teach critical info skills. ]

See Also: More from Marshall Kirkpatrick at RWW (Including Video)

Germany: German Justice Minister Lashes out at Google over Data Protection

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

From the Article:

In an interview with German magazine Spiegel, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said the company must clearly inform users of what is happening with their data.

“If this does not occur, then perhaps we will be required to step in as lawmakers,” she said.

The minister said applications like Google Street View and Google Earth, which provide satellite images of almost everything from city streets to entire countries, are “absolutely worth exploring,” with regard to data protection.

“I am bothered by this kind of rushing forward, this megalomania, which is also apparent in the case of Google Book Search,” she said, adding that the US-based internet business was becoming “a monopoly, similar to Microsoft.”

Source: Deutsche Welle

Data Mining Project Benefits Investigators, Scares Privacy Experts

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Data mining project benefits investigators, scares privacy experts

At any one time, some 750,000 pedophiles are prowling the Internet, the United Nations says. They might be lurking in chat rooms. Or swapping images of adults having sex with kids.

It’s a virtual epidemic of child pornography, and to fight it, law enforcement officers from all over are converging on a cavernous building in South Florida. Here they have access to the most advanced technology for finding pedophiles.

But this isn’t run by any government agency. The desks, computers, technology — all are provided free by a former drug smuggler named Hank Asher.

Called a “mad scientist” by one employee, Asher has made a fortune collecting public records — deeds, lawsuits, voter registrations — and combining them into databases that can be invaluable in locating people. Plug a name into Accurint, Asher’s best-known product, and you’ll see addresses, possible relatives, licenses held.

It was Asher’s technology that helped police find the Washington, D.C., snipers.

Now he is building a super computer and a database “a thousand times more powerful” than anything he has developed yet.

“I can find out way too much about you,” he says.

Source: St. Petersburg Times

Note: ResourceShelf senior editor Shirl Kennedy is a news researcher at the St. Petersburg Times.

Updated and Corrected Edition Now Online: E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

From a Blog Post:

A few weeks ago, EFF published its first draft of a Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy, which summarized and commented on the privacy-related policies and behaviors of several e-readers. In that first draft we incorporated the actual language of the privacy policies as much as possible, which unfortunately created some confusion since companies generally use different language to address similar issues. We also did a few other things clumsily.

Since then, thanks to the feedback and corrections we’ve received, we’ve made some updates and corrections to the guide which we hope will make it more useful. First, we’ve re-written many of the questions and answers to provide more clarity about the behavior of each e-reader. Second, we’ve tried point out where companies’ privacy policies themselves are unclear on particular issues. And finally, we’ve made the whole thing easier to read by changing its visual layout.

Access: Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

New Report from CRS: Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

From the Summary:

Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The most controversial sections of the Act facilitate the federal government’s collection of more information, from a greater number of sources, than had previously been authorized in criminal or foreign intelligence investigations. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and the national security letter (NSL) statutes were all bolstered. With the changes came greater access to records showing an individual’s spending and communication patterns as well as increased authority to intercept e-mail and telephone conversations and to search homes and businesses. In some cases, evidentiary standards required to obtain court approval for the collection of information were lowered. Other approaches included expanding the scope of information subject to search, adding flexibility to the methods by which information could be collected, and broadening the purposes for which information may be sought.

Access the Complete Report (30 pages; PDF)

Source: Congressional Research Service (via OpenCRS)

Cybersafety Booklet for Parents and Kids Now Available

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Cybersafety Booklet for Parents and Kids Now Available

A new booklet released today by the Federal Trade Commission and other government agencies helps parents and teachers steer kids safely through the online and mobile phone worlds.

Net Cetera: Chatting with Kids About Being Online was unveiled this morning at Jefferson Middle School in Washington, D.C. by FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. At the middle school, which is known for its emphasis on science and technology, the officials met with students and teachers to discuss online safety.

Net Cetera tells parents and teachers what they need to know to talk to kids about issues like cyberbullying, sexting, mobile phone safety, and protecting the family computer. Talking to kids about these topics can help them avoid behaving rudely online; steer clear of inappropriate content like pornography, violence, or hate speech; and protect themselves from contact with bullies, predators, hackers, and scammers.

The booklet is available at OnGuardOnline.gov, the federal government’s online safety Web site. OnGuardOnline.gov is a partnership of more than a dozen federal agencies and the technology industry.

+ Direct to booklet (PDF)

Source: FTC, Department of Education, Federal Communications Commission

FTC Report Finds Sexually and Violently Explicit Content in Online Virtual Worlds Accessed by Minors

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

FTC Report Finds Sexually and Violently Explicit Content in Online Virtual Worlds Accessed by Minors

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report that examines the incidence of
sexually and violently explicit content in online virtual worlds. The congressionally mandated report, “Virtual Worlds and Kids: Mapping the Risks,” urges operators of virtual worlds to take a number of steps to keep explicit content away from children and teens, and recommends that parents familiarize themselves with the virtual worlds their kids visit.

The report analyzes how easily minors can access explicit content in virtual worlds, and the measures virtual world operators take to prevent minors from viewing it. According to the findings, although little explicit content appeared in child-oriented virtual worlds, a moderate to heavy amount appeared in virtual worlds that are designed for teens and adults.

Virtual worlds are popular with children and adults because they blend 3-D environments with online social networking, allowing users to interact in and shape their own online content. Through avatars – digital representations controlled by humans in real time – virtual world users socialize, network, play, or even conduct business in graphics-intensive landscapes using text or voice chat, sounds, gestures, and video. Despite the educational, social, and creative opportunities virtual worlds offer, the FTC’s report found that explicit content exists, free of charge, in online virtual worlds that minors are able to access. In fact, some virtual worlds designed for teens and adults allow – or even encourage – younger children to get around the worlds’ minimum age requirements.

+ Full Report (PDF)

Source: Federal Trade Commission

New: EFF Publishes E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

From the Web Site:

…e-reader technology also presents significant new threats to reader privacy. E-readers possess the ability to report back substantial information about their users’ reading habits and locations to the corporations that sell them. And yet none of the major e-reader manufacturers have explained to consumers in clear unequivocal language what data is being collected about them and why.

As a first step towards addressing these problems, EFF has created a first draft of our Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy. We’ve examined the privacy policies for the major e-readers on the market to determine what information they reserve the right to collect and share.

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

European Union: Learn About Your Rights Online with the eYouGuide

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

From a News Release: (Lots of Stats)

The eYouGuide explains the concrete rights of European consumers surfing the web or shopping online, thanks to 25 years of EU consumer protection rules. Also when online, European consumers have a right to:

- clear information about prices and conditions before making a purchase;

- decide if and how their personal data is treated;

- delivery sent in 30 days after purchase;

- a “cooling-off” period of at least 7 working days after purchase during which they can change their mind;

- a minimum 2 year guarantee on products purchased;

- protection against rogue vendors, unfair contractual terms and commercial practices.

Consumers can be sure that all these rights apply on any website that ends with the suffix “.eu”. Unlike websites ending with .com or .net, a website ending with .eu (the EU top level domain opened in 2006, now at 3 million sites, IP/09/536), must be registered by a person or company established in one of the 27 EU Member States and is subject to EU laws.

More about the .eu domain.

Source: European Commission

ALA Supports EPIC Complaint with the FTC Re: Facebook Privacy

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

From the EPIC Announcement (2 pages; PDF):

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), joined by nine privacy and consumer organizations, today filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charging that Facebook’s recent changes to user privacy settings violate federal consumer protection law. The EPIC complaint urges the Trade Commission to open an investigation into the recent changes made by Facebook to the privacy settings of Facebook users and to require Facebook to restore privacy safeguards. “This is the most significant case now before the Federal Trade Commission,” said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Executive Director. “More than 100 million people in the United States subscribe to the Facebook service. The company should not be allowed to turn down the privacy dial on so many American consumers.”

On November 19 and December 9, Facebook changed key privacy settings and required Facebook users to go through a “transition tool” before they could obtain access to their accounts. According to the EPIC complaint, far more user information became publicly available as result of this change. EPIC also said that more personal information will become available to third party application developers as a result of the changes to the privacy settings.

[Snip]

Among the organizations supporting the EPIC complaint are the American Library Association, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumer Federation of America, FoolProof Financial Education, Patient Privacy Rights, Privacy Activism, the Privacy Rights Now Coalition, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the U. S. Bill of Rights Foundation.

Acccess the Complete News Release (2 pages; PDF)

Source: EPIC

New York Times Editorial: Twitter Tapping

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

From the Editorial:

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era.

Law enforcement is not saying a lot about its social surveillance, but examples keep coming to light. The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that state revenue agents have been searching for tax scofflaws by mining information on MySpace and Facebook. In October, the F.B.I. searched the New York home of a man suspected of helping coordinate protests at the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh by sending out messages over Twitter.

[Snip]

A national conversation about social networking and other forms of online privacy is long overdue. The first step toward having it is for the public to know more about what is currently being done. Making the federal government answer these reasonable Freedom of Information Act requests would be a good start.

Access the Complete Editorial

See Also: The article also makes mention about an investment in Visible Technologies that was made in October by in-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the CIA. We posted a few comments about it on October 19, 2009

Source: The New York Times

Mozilla Exec Urges Firefox Users Ditch Google for Bing

Friday, December 11th, 2009

From the Article:

Asa Dotzler, Mozilla’s director of community development, used his personal blog to urge Firefox users away from Google and to use Microsoft’s search engine Bing, instead. Dotzler cited privacy concerns, specifically pointing to comments recently made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

“I think judgment matters,” said Schmidt. “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Dotzler then links to the Bing add-on for Firefox, stating that Bing’s privacy policy is better than Google’s (and notably fails to mention Yahoo at all).

Schmidt was talking about laws in the US, but the way he worded his beliefs did not sit well with privacy advocates—and a whole lot of other folks—including Dotzler. Microsoft has to respect the Patriot Act and other laws just as Google does, but after seeing Schmidt’s comments, Dotzler decided that Firefox users need to be reminded of Bing’s existence.

[Snip]

Dotzler’s statement further adds to the unstable relationship between Google and Mozilla. Firefox has had Google as the default search engine for years, and the default Firefox Start Page homepage is really just a rebranded Google search engine webpage. Mozilla has always made sure that the Google search engine was easily accessible from Firefox.

One of the reasons for this is that the larger majority of Mozilla’s revenue has always come from Google (about 97 percent). In November 2009, we noted that most of Mozilla’s revenue was still being generated through search deals with Google and other popular website operators (one of the reasons why Dotzler can’t simply push for Bing becoming the default search engine in Firefox).

Read Asa Dotzler’s Comments

Soure: Ars Technica

Facebook Faces Criticism on Privacy Change

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

From the Article:

“Facebook is nudging the settings toward the ‘disclose everything’ position,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the US Electronic Privacy Information Center (Epic). “That’s not fair from the privacy perspective.”

Epic said it was analysing the changes to see if they amounted to trickery.

[Snip]

In a statement, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said: “These new ‘privacy’ changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. ”

It added: “Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.”

[Snip]

Blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick was worried that the default setting for privacy was to make everything visible to everyone.

“This is not what Facebook users signed up for,” he wrote. “It’s not about privacy at all, it’s about increasing traffic and the visibility of activity on the site.”

Source: BBC

See Also: Blog Post from EPIC

See Also: Commentary from Electronic Frontier Foundation

Changes to Facebook’s Privacy Controls

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

From the Blog Post:

Developing privacy controls that work for 350 million people who all use the site in unique ways is a difficult challenge. We’ve put a lot of work into today’s new features, using your suggestions to guide us, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished. However, we’re by no means done, and we look forward to your feedback, which will help us develop the next innovation in user control.

Look for a new tool to help you learn about privacy settings and find the best ones for you.

From the Blog Post:

The first step explains the changes we’re making. If you want a more in-depth explanation of how privacy works on Facebook, you can visit our new Privacy Center, a comprehensive privacy guide with information on how to control your experience. Once you’re ready to continue, click “Continue to Next Step.”

On the next page, you’ll be asked to make choices about who can see the various parts of your profile and the posts you create. If you’ve ever chosen to restrict access to parts of your profile, we’ll be recommending that you keep those more restrictive settings. If you’ve never done this, we’ll be making recommendations based on how lots of people are sharing information today.

For example, we’ll be recommending that you make available to everyone a limited set of information that helps people find and connect with you, information like “About Me” and where you work or go to school. For more sensitive information, like photos and videos in which you’ve been tagged and your phone number, we’ll be recommending a more restrictive setting.

Once you’ve made choices based on your comfort level, click “Save Settings.” You’ll see a confirmation step that lists the settings you’ve selected and includes a link to the Privacy Settings page, where you can customize further. As always, you have control over your information and can revisit your settings at any time.

The post goes on to discuss:

+ Simpler Settings
New simpler privacy settings.

+ Adding Control for Each Post
Different privacy levels for each post.

+ Discussion on how Facebook handles privacy and advertisers; settings for minors; excluding yourself (your basic profile info ) from Facebook and other web engines.

Access the Complete Blog Post