Privacy News & Articles

The heyday surrounding Carrier IQ broke in November when one researcher went on a tirade letting everyone in the world know they were being watched. Because people get into enough trouble on their own with smartphones, the possibility of secret spies tracking text messages and emails not only felt very Big Brother, but also posed greater threat for expose. While the company denied a majority of claims, it got hit with several major lawsuits, and in a new bill announced this week, deemed the Mobile Device Privacy Act, the government has taken further action.

Being true to its settlement agreement with the FTC in March of last year, Google pre-announced yesterday a comprehensive update that consolidates some 60 privacy policy documents, plus a refresh of its terms of service agreement. Both are to begin March 1, but are available now for review online.

This policy shift is generating buzz online over concerns of privacy, search anonymity and control over just what information gets shared.

Customer experience management (CXM) begins with customer data. Ultimately, it also ends there. While CXM can gather insights from consumer data garnered around individual behaviors online, if the consumer is not prepared to provide certain data voluntarily, the picture is incomplete. A recent report by Forrester shows that acquiring that data is increasingly problematic.

Facebook is rumored to be announcing the launch of Open Graph applications in a press event. First announced last September, Open Graph applications make sharing "frictionless."

Google announced several new features to its search service yesterday that leverage information from your Google+ social identity to deliver what it hopes will be more personalized and contextually accurate results. Google is calling it Search plus Your World: vocal opponents are calling it bull cheating.

If you "like" a page on Facebook, you might also be opening the door to give advertisers access to your Facebook friends. Advertisers can now pay to feature stories you like so that your friends will see them, but users still have some level of control over what gets shared.

The fPrivacy Chrome extension gives users more control by disallowing specific app permissions.

Even with the Thanksgiving Weekend, there’s been a lot in the GRC space, including the recent upgrade from Laserfiche, SOA’s enhanced Repository Manager, the EU has said it is going to tighten up on data privacy, Compliance 360 looks into its crystal, while Iron Mountain and O’Neil partner.

There has been a growing debate about the utility of location-based applications. Some say they are the future of the gaming industry, while others don’t think that location-based apps are meeting their potential. However, most agree that location-based native and web app development has never been more popular.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced drafts of two standards that address Internet privacy concerns. The standards, which focus on users’ ability to specify online tracking preferences, are likely to draw lots of attention, given recent controversies at Google and Twitter due to disclosure of personal information.

Facing challenges over its privacy practices -- or lack thereof -- Facebook is reportedly proposing a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook privacy concerns-- they're like like a broken record. This time around the platform was sued over cookies, having been accused of tracking users even after they've logged out of the social network. 

Think your LinkedIn account is all stitched up and private? Think again. Some recent Facebook-like changes to the platform's default settings spawned a bevy of criticism. Here's how to keep your information in check. 

This year, almost every browser implemented a "do not track"  feature, prompted by privacy-conscious consumers and the Do Not Track list proposed by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Now the concept is gaining even more support. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a standardization effort for user web privacy.

Google pumped up its search results this week with the addition of Plus posts. At the same time, Sites became more exclusive with page-level sharing permissions, and plans for a new Google campus are exciting people of the geek variety in what has traditionally been a Microsoft-led environment.