From Consumer Watchdog: Related articles Consumer Watchdog Group Goes After Google (bits.blogs.nytimes.com) Consumer Watchdog: Times Square Animation On Google’s Privacy Abuses May Get A Sequel (blogs.forbes.com) CEO Eric Schmidt Creepily Portrayed in Consumer Watchdog’s New Anti-Google Ad (searchenginejournal.com)
Posts Tagged ‘privacy’
Google: Do not track me
Posted: 3rd September 2010 by Brant in biz, politics, techTags: Consumer Watchdog, Eric E. Schmidt, Google, Internet, privacy
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William Gibson on Google
Posted: 2nd September 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: Google, Internet, media, privacy, William Gibson
Google is evil. I have said this many times. And I do mean it. But for a more thoughtful analysis of Google and its operation and meaning, you can turn to William Gibson [link to his Twitter account], one of my favorite writers. He penned such novels cyberpunk novels as the classic Neuromancer, Mona Lisa [...]
A Republican reaction?
Posted: 6th August 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil rights, justice, privacy, republicans, wackos
Here is a concrete example of how the far right Republicans will respond in this electoral year the demise of Proposition 8 in California. Blatant, no-holds barred, God-fearing homophobia. A TV advertisement by a Georgia Republican running for Governor. Will anyone in the party stand up for equal rights, other than the noble Ted Olsen.
Court rejects warrantless GPS tracking
Posted: 6th August 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: EFF, GPS, privacy
Thanks, once again, to the good work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the ACLU, privacy rights in the United States actually advanced today. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today firmly rejected government claims that federal agents have an unfettered right to install Global Positioning System (GPS) location-tracking devices [...]
Your secrets: collected and sold (updated)
Posted: 31st July 2010 by Brant in biz, politics, techTags: advertising, Internet, privacy
The Wall Street Journal has published a series of reports that reflect a comprehensive review of the current state of Internet tracking. It shows, sometimes in startling detail, just how much information is being tracked, analyzed, and sold without the knowledge of users of the Net. The Journal conducted a comprehensive study that assesses and [...]
FBI wants more warrantless data (updated x2)
Posted: 29th July 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil liberties, FBI, Obama, Obama administration, privacy
Chalk this up as another Obama breach of campaign promises. He claimed that he would rebalance civil liberties in national security matters, at least partially restoring traditional privacy rights of citizens. Instead, he is proposing a broadening of the information that the FBI can require ISPs to produce regarding individuals. And this production can be [...]
Information on 100 million Facebook users (updated)
Posted: 28th July 2010 by Brant in culture, techTags: Facebook, Internet, privacy
I have been warning for some time that Facebook’s complicated and difficult privacy settings are unfair to users who have difficulty understanding, let alone managing, their data on Facebook. Now it turns out that data on 100 million Facebook users is being shared via Bit Torrent on the Net. Not by Facebook, but by some [...]
Jeffrey Rosen describes a fact of life in the Internet era in a great article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine. He describes the permanence of information (text, photos, videos, tweets, etc) on the Internet and what that does to culture. Everything posted about a person remains virtually forever, and usually accessible by anyone. [...]
Obama = Bush Light, part 2
Posted: 10th June 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil liberties, DOJ, Obama, Obama administration, privacy, wiretapping
Once again, President Obama is adopting positions inconsistent with his campaign promises and consistent with his predecessor. His Department of Justice is taking a position that the US government is immune to all claims of warrantless wiretapping, a position even more damaging to privacy rights that Bush’s. The DOJ claims that the U.S. Government is [...]
Über-cautious headline of the day
Posted: 9th June 2010 by Brant in culture, techTags: Apple, AT&T, iPad, media, New York Times, privacy
AT&T Is Said to Have Exposed iPad Owners’ E-Mail Addresses – New York Times totally non-commital headline (said to have exposed), referring to what may be a very serious story. Why cover it at all if you have no clue as to its true import?
Zuckerberg on privacy
Posted: 4th June 2010 by Brant in biz, techTags: Facebook, privacy, tech, Zuckerberg
I have advocated for some time that folks should drop their Facebook accounts based on a history on the part of Facebook of betraying the privacy expectations of their users. Watch the sweaty, squirming Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg try to justify the anti-privacy actions of his company. He twists and turns and gives no real [...]
Another reason to drop Facebook (updated)
Posted: 21st May 2010 by Brant in techTags: Facebook, health, Internet, privacy
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The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital website is reporting a major privacy hole in both Facebook and MySpace. Facebook, MySpace and several other social-networking sites have been sending data to advertising companies that could be used to find consumers’ names and other personal details, despite promises they don’t share such information without consent. The [...]
Who’s asking?
Posted: 2nd May 2010 by Brant in politicsTags: civil liberties, Google, Internet, privacy
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Google has launched a new tool showing the number of requests that it receives from various governments around the world. These requests fall into two categories: requests for information about users and requests to remove information. The tool is interesting. And it shows the shockingly high number of information requests generated by some countries, particularly [...]