Snapchat's new Snap Map feature raises privacy concerns; ABC News, June 26, 2017

ABC News; Snapchat's new Snap Map feature raises privacy concerns

"A new update to the popular social networking app Snapchat that allows certain users of the app to track down your exact location is raising privacy concerns for parents and child safety advocates.

The new Snapchat feature, called "Snap Map," lets you decide whether or not to share your location with your friends in the app, or stay in "ghost mode," the app's default setting. If you decide to share your location, then an emoji representing you will appear to pinpoint your exact location on a map to your friends within the Snapchat app. The emoji marking where someone is on the map will "only update when you open Snapchat," the tech company explained in a blog post."

5 Tools To Help Protect Your Privacy Online; KTLA.com, June 26, 2017

Rich Demuro, KTLA.com; 5 Tools To Help Protect Your Privacy Online

"There are lots of ways that websites track you online - here are 5 useful tools to help protect your privacy.

Insecure connections and trackers galore are just a few of the things we're up against when we surf online. Websites want to know our location, shopping habits, and more. Here are some of the tools you can use to take back at least some of your privacy."

Privacy-minded Firefox Focus browser comes to Android; Engadget, June 20, 2017

Jon Fingas, Engadget; Privacy-minded Firefox Focus browser comes to Android

"If you liked the privacy-centric surfing of Mozilla's Firefox Focus browser but wished it were available for your Google-powered phone, you're in luck. Mozilla has released an Android version of Focus that, like its iOS counterpart, blocks ad trackers to both limit nosy marketers and (in some cases) speed up browsing. You can also slap an "erase" button to remove what few traces of your activity are left."

EU seeks to outlaw 'backdoors' in new data privacy proposals; Guardian, June 19, 2017

Samuel Gibbs, Guardian; EU seeks to outlaw 'backdoors' in new data privacy proposals

"The ePrivacy directive change proposals seek to bring the 2002 law in line with the newer GDPR and attempt to keep pace with technological development. They also cover the tracking of users for advertising, the collection of metadata and behavioural data, an the explicit consent required to do so.

The amendments will have to journey through a multi-stage process including approval by the European parliament and European council before becoming law, but they were welcomed by privacy and security experts."

The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy; Mother Board, June 16, 2017

Stephen Vladeck, MotherBoard; The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy

"Later this year, the Supreme Court will decide if police can track a person’s cell phone location without a warrant. It's the most important privacy case in a generation.

For all of the attention paid to former FBI Director Jim Comey's highly anticipated testimony before the Senate intelligence committee last Thursday, the most important constitutional law development from last week took place across the street (and three days earlier), when the Supreme Court agreed to hear argument in Carpenter v. United States later this year—though exactly when, we're not sure.

Carpenter raises a specific question about whether Americans have an expectation of privacy in historical "cell-site location information" ("CSLI")."

Privacy in the Cellphone Age; New York Times, June 7, 2017

Editorial Board, New York Times; Privacy in the Cellphone Age

"Odds are you need to use that phone in your pocket many times a day — and doing so leaves you no choice but to constantly relay data revealing your location and movements to Verizon, AT&T or whatever cellphone company you pay for the service. For most people, most of the time, that’s not a concern, if they’re aware of it at all. But how easy should it be for the government to get its hands on that data?

That’s the question at the heart of a major new case the Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear. The justices’ decision could redefine not only the limits on law enforcement access to cellphone-location records, but the future of surveillance more broadly...

In 2014, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. wrote that cellphones have become “such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life that the proverbial visitor from Mars might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”

The third-party doctrine needs to be reimagined in light of Americans’ new relationship to technology and their rapidly changing expectations of data privacy.

If not, Congress should follow what several states have already done and pass legislation requiring warrants for phone-location data."

Amazon's first New York bookstore blends tradition with technology; Guardian, May 26, 2017

Tom McCarthy, Guardian; 

Amazon's first New York bookstore blends tradition with technology

"Also unique here: the section called “Page turners: books Kindle readers finish in three days or less”. Amazon can track how quickly people who purchase books on Kindle read them, a company spokesperson explained, without explaining how."

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection; Law Times, May 15, 2017

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Law Times; 

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection

"There are also concerns that our current model of informed consent needs updating. The majority of Canadians admit to not reading privacy policies for mobile apps, and a recent privacy sweep — in which 25 privacy enforcement authorities participated — found that privacy communications of Internet-connected devices are generally poor and fail to inform users about exactly what personal information is being collected and how it will be used. It is difficult to reconcile these facts with the goal of meaningful consent.

This is especially important as more devices collect more information about our lives. From smart meters that track our energy consumption to fridges that track what we eat, Cisco Systems estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. As a consumer, I want convenience and will trade some of my privacy. As a citizen and as a lawyer, I want laws that substantively protect my privacy. 

In general terms, we should mandate privacy by design. Governments and third parties ought to anonymize our personal information, and our government should follow Australia’s example and make it an offence to re-identify published government data sets. We should also look beyond the law to protect our data. 

Take Estonia. On the one hand, it has embraced big data through maintaining a national register with a single unique identifier for all citizens and residents. Customer service is improved and information is exchanged more easily. On the other hand, the same system ensures that citizens can correct or remove data easily and can see which officials have viewed their data. 

In summary, we need to embrace new laws and new technology. We need not sacrifice our privacy."

Bark app helps protect kids from cyberbullying and suicide, while safeguarding their privacy; CNBC, May 13, 2017

Deborah Findling, CNBC; 

Bark app helps protect kids from cyberbullying and suicide, while safeguarding their privacy

"Bark, a mobile safety app created by a startup founded by a Twitter alumnus, is hoping to do just that. The software employs machine learning to detect signs of negative behavior on a teen's phone, including cyberbullying, sexting, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Parents initially sign up through Bark's website, then get their children to connect their social media accounts. The software will read the accounts, but will not store or share any of the data.

Founder and CEO Brian Bason got the idea for Bark while still working for Twitter, which had acquired his previous start-up called Niche. With two kids just old enough to have phones, he felt that even though he worked in technology, he didn't know how to keep track of them online.

"Our view is that there are a lot of tools out there that just expose all of the kids' activity," Bason told CNBC. "This preserves the child's privacy and builds trust."

Vibrator Maker To Pay Millions Over Claims It Secretly Tracked Use; NPR, March 14, 2017

Camila Domonoske, NPR; 

Vibrator Maker To Pay Millions Over Claims It Secretly Tracked Use

"The makers of the We-Vibe, a line of vibrators that can be paired with an app for remote-controlled use, have reached a $3.75 million class action settlement with users following allegations that the company was collecting data on when and how the sex toy was used...

The lawyers for the anonymous plaintiffs contended that the app, "incredibly," collected users' email addresses, allowing the company "to link the usage information to specific customer accounts."...

Standard Innovation also agreed to stop collecting users' email addresses and to update its privacy notice to be clearer about how data is collected."

French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data; Reuters via Guardian, 2/8/16

Reuters via Guardian; French privacy regulator cracks down on Facebook's use of personal data:

"The French data protection authority on Monday gave Facebook three months to stop tracking non-users’ web activity without their consent and ordered the social network to stop some transfers of personal data to the US.

The French order is the first significant action to be taken against a company transferring Europeans’ data to the US following an EU court ruling last year that struck down an agreement that had been relied on by thousands of companies, including Facebook, to avoid cumbersome EU data transfer rules."

FTC warns companies that ‘big data’ comes with the potential for big problems; Washington Post, 1/7/16

Andrea Peterson, Washington Post; FTC warns companies that ‘big data’ comes with the potential for big problems:

"Companies are tracking more data about consumers than ever. Practically every click you make online creates new records in some distant database, and your real world actions, too, can increasingly be tracked through your mobile phone or new commercial surveillance advances.

But the Federal Trade Commission, one of the government's chief privacy watchdogs, just warned companies to think twice about how they use those vast data troves.

The agency on Wednesday released a new report that advises companies on how to avoid hurting the most vulnerable as they push further into the booming "big data" economy."

Data retention and the end of Australians' digital privacy; Sydney Morning Herald, 8/29/15

Quentin Dempster, Sydney Morning Herald; Data retention and the end of Australians' digital privacy:

"The digital privacy of Australians ends from Tuesday, October 13.

On that day this country's entire communications industry will be turned into a surveillance and monitoring arm of at least 21 agencies of executive government.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies will have immediate, warrantless and accumulating access to all telephone and internet metadata required by law, with a $2 million penalty for telcos and ISPs that don't comply.

There is no sunset clause in the Abbott government's legislation, which was waved through parliament by Bill Shorten's Labor with only minor tweaks. The service providers are to keep a secret register of the agency seeking access to metadata and the identity of the persons being targeted. There is nothing in the Act to prevent investigative "fishing expeditions" or systemic abuse of power except for retrospective oversight by the Commonwealth Ombudsman. That's if you somehow found out about an agency looking into your metadata - which is unlikely, as there's a two-year jail sentence for anyone caught revealing information about instances of metadata access.

Over time, your metadata will expose your private email, SMS and fixed-line caller traffic, consumer, work and professional activities and habits, showing the patterns of all your communications, your commercial transactions and monetised subscriptions or downloads, exactly who you communicate with, and how often."

Roboticist Illah Nourbakhsh explores the dark side of our "robot futures"; Pittsburgh City Paper, 12/18/13

Bill O'Driscoll, Pittsburgh City Paper; Roboticist Illah Nourbakhsh explores the dark side of our "robot futures" : "Illah Nourbakhsh studies and designs robots for a living. But if you expect his new book, Robot Futures, to depict a care-free Tomorrowland of electronic butlers and automated fun, look elsewhere. The lively and accessible Robot Futures ($24.95, MIT Press) warns of a society warped by our relationships with a new "species" that knows more about us than we know about it ... and whose representatives are often owned by someone profiting at our expense. The problem, says Nourbakhsh, is that we're racing into our Robot Future without considering the social, moral and legal implications."

A World Without Privacy; New York Times, 10/14/13

Joe Nocera, New York Times; A World Without Privacy: "Dave Eggers’s new novel, “The Circle,” also has three short, Orwellian slogans, and while I have no special insight into whether he consciously modeled “The Circle” on “1984,” I do know that his book could wind up being every bit as prophetic. Eggers’s subject is what the loss of privacy would look like if taken to its logical extreme. His focus is not on government but on the technology companies who invade our privacy on a daily basis. The Circle, you see, is a Silicon Valley company, an evil hybrid of Google, Facebook and Twitter, whose cultures — the freebies, the workaholism, the faux friendliness — Eggers captures with only slight exaggeration. The Circle has enormous power because it has become the primary gateway to the Internet. Thanks to its near-monopoly, it is able to collect reams of data about everyone who uses its services — and many who don’t — data that allows The Circle to track anyone down in a matter of minutes."

Senator Seeks More Data Rights for Online Consumers; New York Times, 2/28/13

Natasha Singer, New York Times; Senator Seeks More Data Rights for Online Consumers: "Before his planned retirement from Congress at the end of next year, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat, intends to give American consumers more meaningful control over personal data collected about them online. To that end, Mr. Rockefeller on Thursday introduced a bill called the “Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2013.” The bill would require the Federal Trade Commission to establish standardized mechanisms for people to use their Internet browsers to tell Web sites, advertising networks, data brokers and other online entities whether or not they were willing to submit to data-mining. The bill would also require the F.T.C. to develop rules to prohibit online services from amassing personal details about users who had opted out of such tracking."

Google's Safari Tracking Debacle: Reality Check; PC World, 2/17/12

Ian Paul, PC World; Google's Safari Tracking Debacle: Reality Check:

"Google reportedly breached the privacy of millions of Apple Safari users by fooling the web browser into accepting tracking cookies it normally wouldn't take. Google, however, says this is an unhappy accident and that Google never intended to track its users in this manner.

It's a classic case of he said, she said. Here's what's going on."