Study Says Online Privacy Tools Not Working as Advertised
Average Internet users who think online privacy tools adequately protect them have a problem according to Carnegie Mellon University researchers: the tools do not work all that well. In a 38-page report, the researchers determined the tools were more likely to confuse the average user and may in fact do the opposite of what the [...]
FTC: Consumer Confidence in Internet Marketplace Relies on Privacy Protections
July 5, 2011 No CommentThe Federal Trade Commission has told Congress consumers must be confident their privacy will be protected if they were to take advantage of all the benefits offered by the Internet marketplace. “Privacy has been an important component of the [FTC's] consumer protection mission for 40 years,” stated Commissioner Julie Brill‘s June 29 testimony to the [...]
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An online game company owned by Walt Disney Co. is paying $3 million to settle federal charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule by illegally collecting and disclosing personal information from hundreds of thousands of children without parents’ consent. FTC alleges that Playdom, Inc. and company executive Howard Marks ran 20 virtual [...]
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Spying software has become a hot commodity. It can track a stolen laptop, and reveal employees stealing company secrets. It can keep parents in the loop of what their kids are up to, and help employers track employee productivity. It can also set privacy advocate’s teeth on edge, and it may be illegal in many [...]
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Twitter Settles with FTC, Must Create ‘Comprehensive’ Cybersecurity Program
March 14, 2011 No CommentThe Federal Trade Commission has agreed on a settlement with Twitter stemming from allegations that the micro blog deceived consumers and put their privacy at risk by failing to safeguard their personal information, resulting in a breach that allowed hackers to take over Twitter twice in 2009. At the time of the attacks, FTC said [...]
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U.K. ministers must do more to hinder Internet service providers from snooping on private emails without prior permission, a former cybersecurity minister said. In the United Kingdom, some ISPs have implemented software that intercepts and scans emails to target ads. Although consent is required, former Labour Minister Lord Alan West says it is too [...]
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The European Union’s cybersecurity agency has published a report on the security and privacy concerns regarding new types of online cookies, advocating for more transparency of how they are used and calling for a user-friendly mechanism to remove them whenever needed. The policy report Bittersweet cookies: Some security and privacy considerations from the European Network [...]
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Worried about your job or going broke? If you live in the United States, chances are online privacy violations are bigger concerns than being unemployed or declaring bankruptcy, according to a new survey by Opera Software. Americans worry more about having their online privacy violated (25 percent) than declaring bankruptcy (23 percent) or losing their [...]
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Expanding off the popular national do-not-call registry to block annoying calls from telemarketers, consumers may soon have the same power to prevent companies from tracking their online activity. The Federal Trade Commission yesterday unveiled a proposal for a plan to balance the privacy interests of consumers with innovation that relies on consumer information to develop [...]
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Online anonymity solutions provider Anonymizer, Inc. has released a beta version of Anonymizer Nevercookie, a Firefox plugin designed to fight Evercookie, a javascript API that produces extremely persistent cookies in a browser. The free plugin can be downloaded from the Anonymizer website or from the company’s Facebook page. In the coming weeks, the Nevercookie will [...]
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