Why you should protect your child's online privacy; CNN.com, June 7, 2017

Caroline Knorr, CNN.com; Why you should protect your child's online privacy

"If you don't want to have the bejesus scared out of you, don't talk to an expert on kids' online privacy. If you knew what was really out there -- online predators, identity thieves, data miners -- you'd lock up the internet and throw away the key.

The truth is, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The internet is so woven into our lives, we need to be aware of the worst-case scenarios that can strike when we're unprepared. Below are a few of those scary things that can and do happen. But with some eyes and ears to the ground, they are totally preventable...

Protect yourself. Talk to your kids about keeping private things private, considering how far information can travel and how long it can last, and how they can talk to their friends about respecting one another's personal privacy."

GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy; Forbes, June 7, 2017

Simon Crosby, Forbes; GDPR: EU Goes Against The Global Grain To Protect Privacy

"Could it be that the EU is about to save the internet? At a time when internet users worldwide are increasingly under surveillance by governments, service providers, advertising networks and social media websites, it seems that one of the internet’s greatest promises -- open communication for all -- has been lost. But the EU has an opportunity to sway the outcome with the recently adopted General Data Protection Regulation, which will become law next year.

The EU’s implementation of GDPR has an opportunity to become the most important globally recognized set of principles to protect online privacy. In recent developments, President Donald Trump and his administration promised to mandate rapid improvements in U.S. cybersecurity, but they quickly acquiesced to commercial interests by overriding regulations that the Federal Communications Commission had set up to legitimize the sale of subscriber information by ISPs.

What does GDPR mean for consumers? In short, it will strengthen the practice of fundamental privacy rights of individuals and put users back in control of their personal data. This level of regulation will apply to both corporations and governments and will have the potential to inherently disrupt the protocols for data protection on a global scale."

What Do Twitter’s Privacy Changes Mean For You?; CBS DFW, May 19, 2017

CBS DFW; What Do Twitter’s Privacy Changes Mean For You?

"“Twitter’s announcement is bad news for online privacy. The company dropped Do Not Track and gave advertisers access to more user data,” said Marc Rotenberg, president of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. “Also, all of the settings now default to disclosure, which means users have to go in and change their privacy settings.”

YOUR OPTIONS

If you are in the U.S., move to Europe. Besides achieving your dreams of finally living in a tiny flat in Paris with a stray cat named Gaston and a mustached baker named Olivier, you will also have stronger online privacy protections."

Surveillance Society: Who has the rights to your face?; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 7/13/15

Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Surveillance Society: Who has the rights to your face? :

"Facebook’s handling of your headshot is now the subject of class action lawsuits that pose the question: When someone turns your mug into data, are those digits theirs or yours?

Filed in April and May, the lawsuits claim that when Facebook started converting the geometry of your profile picture into what it calls “a unique number,” it broke a 2008 Illinois law giving residents certain rights when their biometric information is collected.

Facebook is disputing the claims, and fired its first legal salvos this month. That developing legal fight, plus the meltdown last month of a government effort to come up with standards for the use of facial recognition technology, suggests that the distances between your eyes, nose and mouth are hot battlegrounds in the privacy wars."

Online Privacy Issue Is Also in Play in Petraeus Scandal; HuffingtonPost.com, 11/13/12

Scott Shane, HuffingtonPost.com; Online Privacy Issue Is Also in Play in Petraeus Scandal: "The F.B.I. investigation that toppled the director of the C.I.A. and has now entangled the top American commander in Afghanistan underscores a danger that civil libertarians have long warned about: that in policing the Web for crime, espionage and sabotage, government investigators will unavoidably invade the private lives of Americans. On the Internet, and especially in e-mails, text messages, social network postings and online photos, the work lives and personal lives of Americans are inextricably mixed. Private, personal messages are stored for years on computer servers, available to be discovered by investigators who may be looking into completely unrelated matters."