Privacy

California and New York residents have filed two separate lawsuits this week against Google alleging that changes to the company's privacy policy violate users' privacy rights. The suits seek class-action status.

The New York lawsuit, the text of which is available on The Los Angeles Times Web site, says the change in Google's guidelines enacted March 1 "violates Google's prior privacy policies, which deceived and misled consumers by stating that Google would not utilize information provided by a consumer in connection with his or her use of one service, with any other service, for any reason, … Read more

Thirteen individuals have filed a lawsuit against more than a dozen mobile app makers--including Path, Twitter, Apple, and Facebook--who were accused of automatically uploading user address books without permission.

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, names 13 plaintiffs, most of them from Austin, and seeks class-action status. The defendants in the suit are: Path, Twitter, Apple, Facebook, Beluga, Yelp, Burbn, Instagram, Foursquare Labs, Gowalla, Foodspotting, Hipster, LinkedIn, Rovio Mobile, ZeptoLab UK, Chillingo, Electronic Arts, and Kik.

"Literally billions of contacts from the address books of tens of millions of unsuspecting wireless mobile device … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Representatives from opposite sides in the "big data" privacy debate tangled Sunday over whether a proposed White House "privacy bill of rights" is necessary to keep Americans safe online.

During a "big data" panel sponsored by CNET at South by Southwest, Berin Szoka, president of the non-partisan, non-profit, tech policy think tank TechFreedom, argued that states and the federal government might have better results providing privacy protections for Americans by enforcing existing laws than they would if they adopted new regulations.

"We have a difference of opinion of when government should get … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Darren Kitchen spent this weekend walking around the SXSW festival with an unobtrusive but relatively evil red box attached to his backpack: it impersonated Wi-Fi networks in hopes of convincing laptops, phones, and other wireless devices to connect to it.

Kitchen's hot-spot honeypot worked. During just a few minutes in the lobby of the Omni Hotel here, he disrupted dozens of Wi-Fi connections and rerouted them to his own "network" that replaced all Internet pages with a video of the Nyan Cat kitten flying through space. Someone with malicious intent could have done far worse.

Kitchen, … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--Social-networking sites need to curb users' anonymity in favor of requiring real names and logging Internet addresses, an attorney said at a debate at the South by Southwest Interactive conference here moderated by CNET correspondent Declan McCullagh.

Collette Vogele, a Microsoft senior copyright counsel who said she was not speaking on behalf of her employer, suggested that anti-anonymity, anti-pseudonymity policies were a better business practice that would attract more users and reduce the number of cases of online harassment, especially of women. Google+ initially disallowed pseudonyms but earlier this year adopted a more liberal policy; Facebook is more restrictive.… Read more

The uproar about privacy is only getting louder as companies of all sizes are doing more and more with all the data we all produce--not just on social networks, but via our cell phones and even our cars.

Your data is not only fueling companies like Google and Facebook but also an entire wave of startups. The question is at what cost?

Catch our live blog Sunday 3 p.m. PT/5 p.m. CT

Big Data: Privacy threat or business model?

Whether it's iOS apps like Path grabbing address books data without user permission, or Google changing default privacy settings … Read more

The Transport Security Administration's body scanners have enjoyed a level of controversy similar to that of Rush Limbaugh.

Though they've never called women names, the machines have led females to strip to their bra and panties in protest.

Now, Jonathan Corbett--who was the first to sue the TSA over its invasive machines--claims that the body scanners can be easily duped.

His explanation seems quite simple: if you strap your evil-doing object to your side, rather than to your front or back, the scanners provide no visual contrast with the background and therefore won't spot the object.

On his blog, … Read more

Normally an employer who logs into your Facebook or Google+ account to peruse your private messages, photos, and wall posts would be violating federal computer hacking laws.

Unless, of course, you give them permission.

That's the legal loophole that at least some employers are using to learn more about their prospective hires. In theory, it's voluntary, but in reality, if you don't log into your account and let an interviewer poke around, you may not get the job.

Job seekers applying to Maryland's Division of Corrections have been asked during interviews to "log into their … Read more

In a case that serves as a reminder to: a) use encryption, and b) memorize the encryption pass-phrase, an appeals court has ruled that people have a constitutional right not to be forced to decrypt data that potentially includes evidence that could be used to prosecute them in court.

The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination that prohibits authorities from forcing a suspect to reveal the combination to open a lock on a safe in an investigation also applies to the digital equivalent--data locked up with encryption, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Northern District of Florida ruled yesterday. … Read more