OnlinePrivacy
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Canada passes anti-terror bill that's bad news for online privacy
An anti-terrorism bill with huge ramifications for online privacy has won over the Canadian House of Commons, despite all the protests held against it across the country. If it becomes a law, C-51, or the Anti-Terrorism Act, will give spy agencies the power to gather more information from its citizens than before. It'll even allow the government to monitor passport applications, since it also broadens authorities' rights to place names on the no-fly list. Further, it will allow sharing of its citizens' information across government agencies, departments and institutions -- and there are many, ranging from the Revenue Agency and the Armed Forces to Food Inspection and Public Health.
Facebook lets you choose what to share with 3rd party apps
For ages, whenever you've wanted to use your Facebook credentials to log into a third party app like Foursquare or Candy Crush, you've had to give the app access to any and all data that FB has on you. There's simply been no way of choosing what information you can share--until now. Facebook announced last year that it would be implementing a new API this spring which allows the user, not the developer, to decide what sorts of private information each app is privy to. Well, that year is up and now whenever you "Log In Using Facebook," you'll be redirected to a landing page where you can select which individual data sets you want to share. Only want to tell Groupme your birthday and location? Done. Don't want to give Untappd access to your contacts? Easy.
Opera's next move is to keep your online data private and secure
For years now, Opera Software's been creating speedy and data-saving internet browsers for consumers, making them available on desktop and mobile devices at no cost. But it doesn't want to stop there. The company, which is responsible for web-browsing products like Opera, Opera Max and Opera Coast, has announced its acquisition of SurfEasy, a firm that focuses on online privacy. According to Senior Vice President of Products Nitin Bhandari, this move isn't just to strengthen the company's portfolio, but also to show its users that it is committed to serving tools that keep their data extremely secure and private. With SurfEasy now a part of Opera, Bhandari says that the goal is to offer features that Opera browser users have requested -- such as encrypting personal information, among other things.
Google testifies before House of Representatives, calls for updated email privacy laws
Google's legal director of law enforcement and information security, Richard Salgado, is set to testify before the US House of Representatives this morning about the need for new email privacy legislation. In his written testimony, Salgado notes that the 1986 ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act) doesn't reflect the internet circa 2013, noting how cloud computing has increased the amount of user information shared and stored online. Salgado's prepared statement calls for updates to ECPA that allow for greater privacy measures, while also ensuring that government agencies can obtain access to documents when necessary. He points to the ECPA's policy on government requests to view users' email -- only a subpoena is required for email 180 days or older, but viewing newer communication requires a search warrant -- as an example of the law's "inconsistent, confusing and uncertain standards." Google wants to alter the ECPA to require search warrants to access any user data stored online, regardless of their age. Salgado's testimony also touches on Mountain View's own efforts to improve transparency when it comes to user privacy, including publishing reports about government requests. Read the statement in full via the source link below.
Facebook's new Recommendations Bar pops up, just wants to be liked
Facebook's Recommendations Box sits passively on many websites, allowing us to engage or ignore as we see fit. But too much of the latter option has led to something slightly different: the new Recommendations Bar -- a pop-up variant which, when integrated by your favorite page, plugs site-specific links based on your friends' thumbs and shares. The Bar is similar to the in-house recommendation pop-ups we're all familiar with, but adds a like button for posting the current page to your timeline. It shouts much louder than the Box, so it's no surprise that in early tests the new plug-in produced a three-fold increase in click-throughs. In this case, privacy wasn't an afterthought -- Bar integration, like the Box, is at the site's discretion and sharing pages is very much on your terms. Just try not to accidently hit that like button during your daily scan of Bieber's homepage.
Tiny fraction of required 270 million Facebook users squeak 'no' to changes
Facebook users rebuked proposed privacy changes in a vote on Friday -- to the tune of 87 percent -- but a thousand times higher turnout was needed for it to matter. As such, the company will likely proceed with the additions, which it said were needed to clarify current policies for European and US regulators. However, the company was sufficiently chastened by the anemic turnout of 342,600 voters to state that it was "pretty disappointing," and spokeswoman Jame Schopflin said in the future, they will consider the vote "advisory" if numbers were too low. Still, groups like Our Policy who started the petition for this referendum might want to pick their battles better next time.
Facebook to experiment with access for under-13s
Facebook is exploring options to connect kids to its social network, while ensuring it obeys federal laws. According to the Wall Street Journal, the social network is pushing for a more formalized structure for under-13s in an effort to curb users registering under a false age. Consumer Reports currently pegs the number of under-age users at around 7.5 million. Despite other privacy concerns, Facebook is reportedly looking to add buffers and parental controls to any kid-friendly version that might result from its current experiments. It could also tie parents' accounts to their little tykes' pages, allowing game purchases to be made through their bank details. Well, that new HQ isn't going to pay for itself.
Facebook to put privacy changes to vote thanks to policy group, its own rules
A vote on Facebook privacy rules prompted by 45,000 comments plastered on its governance page is likely to trigger consequences -- maybe some not intended. With Max Schrems' Our Policy site easily egging the number past the 7,000 threshold, the now-public social company must wait to see if 30 percent of its user base will object to the seemingly modest revisions. With the flock now numbering nearly 800 million, it seems unlikely that 230 million of them will bother to even vote, let alone strike the changes down. Given that and Facebook's privacy Czar Erin Egan saying that it will now revisit the vote policy, it's possible the only result will be a change in terms which could stymie future privacy efforts. Want to have your say? Check the more coverage link to find out where to go.
Facebook proposes more transparent privacy policy, wants to know what you think of it
Facebook's had some privacy foibles in the not-so-distant past, and has been working to improve its policies to better inform Facebook users how their info is exploited. Last year, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner's Office did an audit of Facebook's data usage approach, and determined that, while Facebook's doing a decent job, further details should be provided to us all. Well, the social network's recently responded by creating a Terms and Policies Hub to make its myriad policies easy to find. Additionally, it's adding new examples and explanations to its Data Use Policy about how the 'book employs cookies on its site, while also shedding some light on how our info's used for advertising and improving site operations. There's also a detailed description of the Activity Log tool that lets you see every bit of info you've entrusted to Mr. Zuckerberg, so you can better manage your pictures and wall posts. These changes aren't yet set in stone, however, because Facebook wants to know what you think before doing so. Just head on over to Facebook's Site Governance page to peruse the changes and provide feedback at your leisure, or tune into a live Q&A session with Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan next Monday (May 14th) at noon ET to tell her face-to-digital-face.
Facebook revealing the personal data it collects, won't spare your drunk-poking blushes
Facebook's massively expanding its Download Your Information service into an all-encompassing archive of the data Mr. Zuckerberg collects about your daily dose of people-stalking. DYL was introduced in 2010 and allowed you to pull down all the photos, posts, messages, friend lists and chat conversations in the archives -- but now will also offer stored IP addresses, previous names you've used, friend requests you've made, with further categories due in the future. It'll have to sate the concerns of privacy organizations worldwide, since it's rumored to collect 84 different categories of information about you (85 if you count all those Instagram photos it just bought). It'll be gradually rolled out to all 845 million users in the coming weeks and is available from your general account settings.
Crapgadget: BFF Gemz dilute the notion of a best friend (video)
If you want a charm that hangs 'round your neck and glows whenever your friend Missy tells you she loves Justin Bieber, then eMotion Inc has the gadget for you. The BFF Gemz sends pre-written coded messages to pals up to 450 feet away, which they can access the next time they're at a computer. You can add up to eight best friends (the BFF currency devalued to Weimar proportions) and four more if you buy some GPA: Girl Power Average points. It's not entirely private: Mom and Pop will get a weekly email, listing who you're messaging, so if you swap notes with that gal from the wrong end of town you'd better stick to paper airplanes. Those curious to see what the kids might be clamoring for instead of a new cellphone, check out the video after the break.
Chinese government to track users of free WiFi, small businesses react with service cutoffs
Thought Google had a mountain-sized stack of your up close and personal online habits? Think again, because the omnipresent search king's all-seeing eyes are nothing compared to the Chinese government, which recently enacted stricter regulations to identify free WiFi users. The government-issued monitoring software will cost the cafes and restaurants it targets $3,100, putting small business owners in a sticky situation -- pay up, or shut down the free surfing. An informal survey conducted by the New York Times found not one owner willing to bow to the Republic's pressure, citing the out-of-pocket cost and low number of actual users. It's possible the move to clamp down on anonymous browsing was spurred by recent youth-embraced, social networking-backed uprisings, like the one in Cairo earlier this year. Seems a loophole in China's net management policy allows "laptop- and iPad-owning colleges students and expatriates" -- the very same group behind recent revolts -- to go online undetected. It remains to be seen if the Communist Party will make this new measure widespread, or just restrict it to central Beijing. For their sake, we echo one owner's hope that "official fervor [will]... soon die down."
Chrome and Firefox adding new opt-out features to prevent third-party advertisers from tracking you
Ever been freaked out by an online ad that seemed to know you that little bit too well? It's the result of good old advertisers tracking your net-navigating habits and delivering targeted commercials to your eyeballs, but it can be prevented. Both Google and Mozilla have stepped up (or perhaps been pushed by the FTC) to try and tackle this issue of pernicious tracking cookies, but they've gone about it in different ways. The Chrome solution is a Keep My Opt-Outs browser extension that remembers the sites you don't want personalized information from, while Firefox will start beaming out a Do Not Track HTTP header that should be respected by advertisers and result in you receiving generic, repetitive ads. The important commonality between the two is that they don't rely on you preparing a cookie file with all your anti-advertiser bile contained within it (which was the FTC's original, somewhat impractical idea). Google intends to open-source its extension and bring it to other browsers as well, though obviously it's taking care of Chrome first, which can benefit from the add-on right now.
New York judge rules 'private' Facebook content can be used as evidence in court
Privacy? On the internet!? You've got to be joking. That has, more or less, been the reaction of New York Justice Jeffrey Spinner when faced with the issue of deciding whether or not content posted to the private sections of Facebook and MySpace should be made available as evidence in court. To be honest, it shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, since typically private information -- like emails and home contents -- can regularly be thrown into the public light when there's "a reasonable likelihood" it may turn up evidence material to a trial's outcome. Bring that tradition to the internet -- where publishing anything comes with an inherent desire to disseminate or share that info -- and the lady claiming for personal injuries against a chair company shouldn't be surprised her "private" snaps are being requested. You know, in case they show her doing the limbo on a tropical isle somewhere. Then again, she could always move to California, where a local judge answered pretty much the same question in a converse fashion. Laws, it's all about how you interpret them.
SNAP for iOS gives you The Power... to appraise your Facebook privacy
SNAP (Social Network Analyzer for Privacy) by BIT Systems does one thing, and one thing only: it looks at your Facebook profile and then "grades you on how visible you are to the outside world." Of course, you can always just go into Facebook itself and look at your privacy settings, which would save you the steps of downloading an app and using it to login to your account, but at least the thing is free. And it does provide a handy and thorough tutorial on Facebook privacy in general. Hit the source link to take it for a spin.
EU Written Declaration 29 wants you to think of the children, hand over all your search results
Oh boy, the EU's back on the crusade path again. This time, the Brussels brain trust has decided it will end pedophilia, child pornography, and other miscreant activities by simply and easily recording everyone's search results. Because, as we all know, Google searches are the central cog by which the seedy underworld operates. Here's how Declaration 29 sees it: Asks the Council and the Commission to implement Directive 2006/24/EC and extend it to search engines in order to tackle online child pornography and sex offending rapidly and effectively. Directive 2006/24/EC is also known as the Data Retention Directive, and permits (nay, compels) states to keep track of all electronic communications, including phone calls, emails and browsing sessions. Describing the stupefying invasion of privacy that its expansion represents as an "early warning system," the European Parliament is currently collecting signatures from MEPs and is nearing the majority it requires to adopt the Declaration. Guess when Google does it, it's a horrible infraction of human rights, but when the EU does it, it's some noble life-saving endeavor. Unsurprisingly, not everyone is convinced that sifting through people's search results will produce concrete crime-reducing results, and Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom puts together a very good explanation of what Written Declaration 29 entails and why it's such a bad idea. Give it a read, won't ya?
