Many of your iPhone apps may be sharing much more of your data with other companies than you might suspect, according to a new report. Among the info being passed along is your user name, location, age, gender and phone’s unique device identifier. Read more »
The always-unpredictable mobile space enters 2011 at a particularly dynamic time. Carriers are now bringing 4G networks online, even as their definitions of “4G” vary. Meanwhile, mobile data consumption is exploding and the FCC trying to settle on policies both to regulate the industry and to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Kindsight’s efforts to pair deep packet inspection for PC security with targeted behavioral ads will serve as a good test to see how well it can utilize the controversial DPI technology and make it attractive to consumers concerned about maintaining their privacy. Read more »
A collection of data miners and tracking companies is creating a one-stop shop for consumers to see how ads are targeting them and how they can opt-out if they choose. The move is a preemptive attempt to head off a possible “Do Not Track” registry. Read more »
The FTC has released a draft report that says online advertisers and publishers have been too slow to adopt appropriate privacy rules, and recommends a “do not track” mechanism built into web browsers. But the agency admits new laws would be required for such a move. Read more »
Aside from Red Hat buying Makara, the other big cloud news has to be Wikileaks using Amazon to host its Cablegate repository. The Wikileaks data aspect leads to two other interesting items today: Geostellar’s clean-energy analysis tool and Aster Data partnering to combine analytics and visualization. Read more »
If you were searching the Internet for information on heart disease, would you find it helpful to see an ad for medication, or would you see that as an invasion of privacy? That’s the question at the core of a privacy complaint launched by advocacy groups. Read more »
Wireless carriers, which have been sitting on a largely untouched goldmine of data, may be poised to start tapping into their mother lode. Chris Dixon of recommendation and personalization site Hunch said he’s meeting with operators looking at deploying Hunch for recommendations and personalization. Read more »
The EU is currently proposing laws that would require web site and service owners to delete individuals’ personal information from their records. The new laws aim to uphold a person’s “right to be forgotten.” How do you feel about your right to be forgotten? Read more »
Kik is a cross-platform chat application that has gone from zero users to almost 2 million in three weeks. But some users aren’t happy with the way the company has achieved that viral growth, and Kik’s CEO says it is changing the way the app works. Read more »
Privacy has become the “third rail” for many online services such as Facebook and Google, a topic so highly charged that even touching it can cause severe damage to their reputation. So what are some of the ways that companies can avoid getting burned? Read more »
Privacy isn’t just Facebook’s problem. The whole consumer Internet and media industry had better devise a plan for facing the privacy issues fast, or get ready to face serious consumer backlash and, perhaps worse, government regulation. Here are a few steps social media companies can take. Read more »
The issue of online privacy has become such a highly charged topic that whenever Facebook or Google overstep the line between data collection and personal privacy, all hell breaks loose. And as that line continues to blur, social networks and online services would do well to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
A new iPhone and Android app called “Sex Offender Tracker” uses augmented reality to show you the location of any registered offenders who are in your area when you hold up your phone. What happens when this kind of app pulls up other info as well? Read more »
If you’re like me, and would prefer Faceboook not know about your every move, you might like Facebook Disconnect. It’s an extension for Chrome that does pretty much exactly what you’d expect: stops websites from reporting back to Facebook via Facebook Connect. Read more »
Lawsuits against companies such as Google and Facebook for breaching privacy rules would become even more likely under new rules being considered by the European Commission, along with criminal sanctions and fines. European regulators have been far more active on privacy concerns than U.S. authorities. Read more »
In light of recent outcry about social networking privacy lapses and potential misuse of users’ personal information, long-time web thought leader Esther Dyson had this to say at the marketing conference Pivot in New York City today: online privacy a marketing problem. Read more »
Facebook has been caught in another privacy-related dust-up, after the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of the network’s most popular apps and games have been sending “personal information” to third parties, including advertisers. But is this a real privacy breach or an overreaction? Read more »
Some of the most popular Facebook apps — including games such as Zynga’s FarmVille, which has almost 60 million users — are transmitting information about users to third parties, including companies that are building profiles for sale to advertisers, according to a news report. Read more »
Three out of four parents don’t believe social networks are doing a good enough job of protecting the privacy of their children, according to a new survey. Common Sense Media also found 92 percent of parents are concerned their children share too much information online. Read more »
Some Facebook users don’t like the fact that the new Groups feature allows them to be “tagged” and automatically added to a group, saying the company should stop opting people in to new services by default. Others, however, said the new features could actually replace Twitter. Read more »
Facebook launched a new approach to understanding groups of friends today. CEO Mark Zuckerberg called groups “a fundamental building block” and “the biggest problem in social networking,” and said Facebook has determined the best solution is a social one: to enable users to tag each other. Read more »
Facebook’s Sync Contacts feature on its iPhone app is the latest target of fearful critics who are wondering if the social networking giant has gone too far in peering into your personal information. The concern underscores Facebook’s growth as a target of privacy fears. Read more »
Why is privacy so hard? Sociologist Danah Boyd, who specializes in the way people use online social networks, says in the latest issue of MIT’s Technology Review it’s because “the way privacy is encoded into software doesn’t match the way we handle it in real life.” Read more »
Facebook has again become a lightning rod for online privacy concerns, this time surrounding its launch of its Facebook Places feature. But the reality is that our notions of privacy are being tested in a variety of ways online, and that isn’t going to stop soon. Read more »
Facebook launched last night a feature called Places that enables users to share their location. Before the launch event had even concluded, the ACLU of Northern California had fired off a missive about how the product fails to protect user privacy. Read more »
The way people talk, we’d be forgiven for thinking that social networking is one big popularity contest. Get as many contacts as possible, regardless of whether we’ve ever met, or heard of them before. Is that really the point of social networking? Read more »
Half of all U.S. residents who have a profile on a social-networking site are concerned about their privacy, according to a recent poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. Close to half of those who were concerned about privacy described themselves as “very concerned.” Read more »
As if Google didn’t have enough on it plate already, this week saw the web giant fighting hard to keep its head above water on two unrelated fronts — privacy issues and China. Despite small victories on both fronts, neither battle is close to being over. ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As part of a settlement with the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Google has apologized publicly for inadvertently collecting personal data from unprotected wireless networks via its Street View cars. But the company still faces potential legal sanctions in a number of other countries for its behavior. Read more »
It’s been a little over a week since Apple started rolling out iAd, its new advertisement feature for iOS 4. The first ads started to appear on July 1. However, for some, iAd brings up a privacy concern, so we show you how to opt out. Read more »
Facebook today rolled out a long-anticipated change to the way its members share information with applications built on its platform. Whereas before, applications installed by users had full access to their profiles, now, applications will have to explicitly ask for personal information they want to use. Read more »
As Facebook has drawn fire from critics over the way it handles user information, interest in finding an alternative has grown to the point where a project to create an open-source social network raised $200,000 in a matter of weeks. But does it have a chance? Read more »
Yahoo is rolling out new social features integrated into its email, similar to the features Google launched earlier this year with Google Buzz. Yahoo says it is being careful with users’ information, but can it avoid the kind of privacy backlash suffered by Google and Facebook? Read more »
Communications studies professor Nancy Baym says Facebook has a “fundamentally naive and utopian” view of what privacy means online, and this stems from the fact that the company is run by “a bunch of computer science and engineering undergrads who don’t know anything about human relationships.” Read more »
After igniting a firestorm of criticism from privacy advocates, consumer groups and even governments over its privacy settings in the wake of its recent f8 conference, Facebook finally bowed to the onslaught and changed the way the social network handles privacy this week. But the changes ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
If the mobile industry isn’t proactive in addressing consumer privacy head-on from a technical, business, education and compliance perspective, there will be a strong push to pressure the government to regulate an opportunity that hasn’t fully blossomed yet — and in the process, hamper its evolution. Read more »
We’re adding broadband connections to everything, even our appliances, but as we use the web to see more of the world, we allow advertisers and marketers to see in. Instead of giving up broadband or social networks let’s define our terms for a constructive privacy debate. Read more »
The smart grid may indeed become an opportunity that’s bigger than the Internet, but like the Internet, it won’t be without its stumbling blocks. Fortunately for us, some web pioneers are unwittingly providing utilities and energy management firms with an education on privacy, one of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As Google tries to extricate itself from the privacy furor over personal data collected from Wi-Fi networks by its Street View cars, the company says it has hit a roadblock that prevents it from complying with authorities who want the data turned over to them. Read more »
