online privacy

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Bankrupt Gay Site Agrees to Destroy Customer Data

But situation raises a new privacy worry

(Newser) - Bankruptcy laws still haven't caught up with our brave new world, raising a new wrinkle in online privacy concerns, warns the Electronic Frontier Foundation . Let's say you provide personal information to a website, even after carefully reviewing the site's rules. What happens if the site goes bankrupt? The rules are...

Online Ad Companies Know Everything About You

Tracking cookies are watching

(Newser) - The second you land on Capital One’s homepage, they know, or at least, could know, where you live, what you do, how much you make, and loads of other information about you. That’s because Capital One employs a company called [x+1] Inc, a firm that uses the tracking...

Microsoft Execs Thwarted IE Privacy Plans

Defaults were changed to allow tracking and help advertisers

(Newser) - Microsoft had planned to give Internet Explorer 8.0 the most advanced privacy settings in the industry, until executives swept in and made the browser more advertiser-friendly. Explorer was supposed to keep out all kinds of common tracking tools, but Microsoft opted instead to turn the feature off as a...

Your Computer Is Spying on You&mdash;a Lot
 Your Computer Is 
 Spying on You—a Lot 
investigation
Jul 31, 2010 11:28 AM CDT

Your Computer Is Spying on You—a Lot

It's now a booming Internet business

(Newser) - Maybe Mark Zuckerberg is right about this end-of-privacy business. A Wall Street Journal investigation (stories here and here ) makes clear that whatever you do online, you can rest assured that some advertiser somewhere knows about it. It's not that tracking cookies exist that's so troubling, it's that there's so ...

Germany Goes After Facebook Over Privacy Law

'Friend Finder' could get the social networking site a hefty fine

(Newser) - Facebook faces legal action in Germany over the nation's strict privacy laws, Monsters and Critics reports. A privacy commissioner has charged that the site's "Friend Finder" breaks German law. The software looks at the address books of users and sends emails to friends asking them to join Facebook. That...

Hey, Facebookers: There's No Free Lunch
 Hey, Facebookers: 
 There's No Free Lunch 
OPINION
May 26, 2010 8:43 AM CDT

Hey, Facebookers: There's No Free Lunch

Pssst: Company's in it for the money

(Newser) - Facebook's a for-profit company, not a public service, so Patt Morrison at the Los Angeles Times can't understand why so many users are angry and hurt about the site trying to make money from harvested private information. "Did anyone really think Facebook was in this for the cozy 'Kumbayah'...

Facebook Handing Advertisers Names, Hometowns

Firms can trace users' identities, jobs, sex preferences

(Newser) - Despite promises to the contrary, Facebook and MySpace are supplying information to advertisers that can be used to find an individual's name, age, hometown and occupation, reports the Wall Street Journal . Typically on the Web, advertisers receive nothing more than an unintelligible string of letters and numbers "identifying" an...

Facebook Alternative Raises $115K in Donations

Public hungry for more private options

(Newser) - How unhappy are people with Facebook's latest privacy infractions? So unhappy that four NYU students have raised $115,000 in 19 days for Diaspora , their non-profit alternative, even though they haven't written a single line of code yet. “That's the equivalent of a significant angel round of funding in...

Angry Facebook Users Search for the Exit

Open-source Facebook rival gathers steam

(Newser) - The newest and hottest Facebook trend is quitting Facebook. Some of the site's 400 million users—including several high-profile technology pundits—have been deleting their accounts, citing privacy concerns. The social networking site doesn't release statistics on how many people scuttle their accounts, but Google searches on how to quit...

Google Bares Government Demands for Data

New tool also reveals content-removal demands

(Newser) - Google has won the praise of privacy advocates by rolling out a tool that shows just how often governments ask for information about its users. Of the countries listed on Google Disclosure —which omits China—Brazil leads the way with 3,663 requests for data during the second half...

Feds Swarm Facebook for Leads, Under Cover

Documents show FBI friends suspects to mine information

(Newser) - Your next Facebook friend might well be a federal agent trying to bust you. That’s the gist of a Justice Department document obtained via the Freedom of Information Act by a privacy group. It reveals that FBI agents are mining social networks for info on suspects, ranging from alibi...

Facebook May Sue UK Tab for Flubbed Sex Predator Story

Said reporter posing as girl harassed by men

(Newser) - Posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook, a Daily Mail reporter was bombarded by messages from 20- to 40-year-old men wanting "to perform a sex act"—only it was really another social networking site, and Facebook is livid and threatening to sue over the misreported story . The author...

Prof Suspended for 'Hitman' Facebook Quip

University says allusion to violence had to be taken seriously

(Newser) - A fed-up sociology professor who joked about wanting to hire a hitman for troublesome students has become yet another employee facing Facebook fallout. Gloria Gadsden's bosses at Pennsylvania's Stroudsburg University put her on indefinite leave after a student told them about her update reading "Does anyone know where I...

Google Buzz Dangerous for Kids: Parents

Children unprepared for virtual world share more than is prudent

(Newser) - Normally vigilant parents are in a tizzy over Google’s surreptitious addition of its Buzz social networking client to Gmail, which they say enables kids with little understanding of what is prudent to share online to enter a dangerous world. “This is foisted on children and they love it,...

Harvard Student Sues Google Over Buzz Privacy Breach

Class-action suit seeks to stop Google sharing personal data

(Newser) - A Harvard Law School student has launched a class-action lawsuit against Google Buzz, arguing the social network system violated her and other users' right to privacy. Eva Hibnick was automatically signed up for the network without her consent when she logged onto Gmail and people she hadn't spoken to in...

Watchdog: Google Buzz Skirted Wiretap Laws

Group files complaint with FTC, wants more changes

(Newser) - A watchdog group has filed a formal complaint with the FTC over Google’s much-derided launch of Buzz. The Electronic Privacy Information Center wants the FTC to order more sweeping protections than Google itself has subsequently unveiled, and it suggests the search giant violated wiretapping laws.

Heading Out? Tweet the Burglars
 Heading Out? 
 Tweet the Burglars 
pleaserobme.com
Feb 17, 2010 1:24 PM CST

Heading Out? Tweet the Burglars

Site aggregates tweets, etc., to let others know you're out

(Newser) - A new website is out to make people think twice when they use Twitter, Foursquare, or any other social networking tool to let others know when they're not home. The site's name says it all: PleaseRobMe.com . It aggregates publicly shared check-ins and caters jokingly to hypothetical burglars looking for...

Google 'Sorry', Tweaks Buzz After Privacy Gaffe

Automatic contact list population will now be 'auto-suggest,' and more

(Newser) - Following an outpouring of ire concerning the privacy features—or lack thereof—of its new Buzz social networking client, Google issued an apology and announced it will soon add new settings. “We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right,” an exec writes on the search giant’...

Google Tweaks Buzz, But Privacy Concerns Remain
Google Tweaks Buzz, But Privacy Concerns Remain
ANALYSIS
Feb 11, 2010 9:07 PM CST

Google Tweaks Buzz, But Privacy Concerns Remain

Your email could be exposed, and your followers

(Newser) - There’s plenty of hype surrounding Google’s Twitbook-killer Buzz, but the new feature comes with some privacy concerns, too. The problem lies in Buzz’s default settings, Silicon Alley Insider reports, which, if not changed, could expose not only the email contacts of those following you, but also your...

Google Scraps China Phone Launch
 Google Scraps China 
 Phone Launch
GOOGLE VS. CHINA
Jan 19, 2010 10:26 AM CST

Google Scraps China Phone Launch

And Chinese fire back in dispute over censorship

(Newser) - Google has canceled tomorrow's launch of its mobile phone in China, a casualty of the company's standoff with the government over Internet censorship and hacking. A Google spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on the postponement, but it comes the same day the Chinese government made its first comment on Google’s...

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