Privacy

Laws on Wi-Fi sniffing still up in the air, say specialists

LAS VEGAS -- Got a Wi-Fi network? If someone, say Google or the government, sniffs your open network, you may think you're legally protected. Don't be so sure.

It remains unclear whether the law protects your unencrypted Wi-Fi from interception, because there are differing interpretations and lack of court precedent, Kevin Bankston, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said in a session at Defcon yesterday.

The federal wiretap statute prohibits sniffing of contents of communications by a device unless the contents are readily accessible to the general public. If the network is password-protected you're … Read more

California beefing up privacy-protection enforcement

The Attorney General's office of California today announced a new Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit in the state's Department of Justice that will hold companies accountable for safeguarding consumer data.

The newly created unit will reside within the eCrime Unit established last year to prosecute identity theft, data intrusions and crimes involving the use of technology. The office will enforce privacy protections using existing state and federal laws that regulate how companies can collect, store, use and destroy personal data, as well as educate consumers on their rights and help industry develop best practices, said Travis LeBlanc, Special … Read more

Remove your name from Facebook social ads

You may have your friends in groups on Facebook so that when you share a piece of information you can pick which group(s) will see it. For instance, you may post about a personal accomplishment that is more relevant to your family than your co-workers or old classmates, so there's no need to share with everyone. Basically, tailored share settings on Facebook are great if you only want to divulge some of your personal details to specific people.

Unfortunately, the Facebook social ads can easily draw attention to details about your personal preferences to everyone who has you … Read more

Password-protect e-mail on your iPhone and iPad

After last week's post describing two apps that keep your iPhone and iPad data private, a reader posed this question:

Is there any app that allows you to use it like the 'mail' app on an iPhone etc., but has a password lock facility? Else children will be reading all my mail.

I'm sure Apple had a reason for not allowing iPhone and iPad users to require a passcode to access the device's mail app, but I don't know what that reason was.

I came up with a free workaround that requires creation of a send-only … Read more

How Facebook is injecting politics into your news feed

Next time you decide to share a link, a post, or a photo on Facebook, take a breath and reflect before hitting the publish button -- and read this doozy of a post by ZDNet's Ed Bott concerning a new feature on the social network that could unexpectedly affect your reputation.

Bott notes that Facebook automatically publishes posts from organizations you've "liked" under your name and puts them at the top of the News feed for friends. That's already sort of strange, even given how sharing is the lifeblood of the social network.

But as … Read more

Court: Cops can read suspect's texts, spring text trap

Police did not violate the privacy rights of a Washington state man who responded to a text message from the iPhone of his suspected drug dealer only to get arrested on drug charges after arranging to meet up, a Washington appeals court says.

Police had arrested Daniel Lee on drug charges and one officer searched through the text messages on Lee's iPhone, found some suspicious messages from a "Z-Jon" and texted from Lee's phone to ask if Z-Jon "needed more." Then, according to court papers, Z-Jon followed up with a message using drug slang … Read more

Judge: Twitter must release account data of arrested user

A judge has ordered Twitter to release three months of data from the account of a user being prosecuted for disorderly conduct related to an Occupy Wall Street protest on the Brooklyn Bridge last October.

The district attorney's office in New York City wants Twitter to turn over basic user information from Malcolm Harris' Twitter account (@destructuremal), and his tweets. Harris' motion to quash the subpoena to Twitter was denied by the criminal court of the city of New York on the grounds that Harris had no proprietary interest in the user information on his Twitter account. Twitter challenged the subpoena, … Read more

Will you sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom?

Do you believe the Internet needs protection against censorship and other threats? If so, then you may want to join in on the new Declaration of Internet Freedom.

Launched by a large coalition of privacy groups, Web sites, and individuals, the Declaration of Internet Freedom is the start of a process striving to keep the Internet free and open. The organizations and people who kicked off this process are looking for other Internet users to discuss the ideas, share their own thoughts, and sign the declaration.

"We've seen how the Internet has been under attack from various directions, … Read more

How to outfox Web sites trying to get you to pay top dollar

So, Orbitz has spilled the beans, well some of them, and says it in essence up-sells to people based on which browser they use.

The site told The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) that it discovered that Mac users tend to pay as much as 30 percent more for hotel rooms. (Well, they are paying a premium for the computer too so it's not that surprising, although $20 to $30 more is significant.) Leveraging that information, Orbitz decided to experiment with displaying pricier hotels in search results to Mac users than to Windows users. Before you get too miffed, … Read more