privacy

How Google and other American Internet companies operate in Europe could come down to a link that, depending on what side of the Atlantic Ocean you're on, should or should not be deleted.

A case heard Tuesday before the European Court of Justice (ECJ) hinges on a complaint submitted by a Spanish citizen who searched Google for his name and found a news article from several years earlier, saying his property would be auctioned because of failed payments to his social security contributions.

Spanish authorities argued that Google, other search engines, and other Web companies operating in Spain should … Read more

A new bill intended to grant more privacy protections to Internet users was introduced today by U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

Dubbed "Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2013," the bill would make it law for all Web browsers, online companies, and app makers to give users a choice of opting out of being tracked online, according to The New York Times. Advertisers and data brokers commonly track users to collect information on sites visited, search queries, purchasing patterns, and more.

"The privacy of Americans is increasingly under assault as more and more of their daily lives are conducted … Read more

If Koozoo CEO Drew Sechrist has his way, cameras will record every move you make in public -- and make your life better for it.

The San Francisco startup wants smartphone owners to deploy a network of streaming smartphone cameras that are accessible by anyone within the Koozoo network at any time. The network launches on iOS today in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, with plans to expand in the coming months.

Users can participate by posting recorded snippets -- these are a few minutes long -- to the network or to social media like Facebook and Twitter. Or, they … Read more

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has approved the $9.5 million settlement over Facebook's controversial Beacon advertising service, which could put an end to the four-year legal proceedings.

Most of the money will go toward establishing the Digital Trust Foundation, a nonprofit that will fund projects related to Internet privacy, with $2.3 million covering attorneys' fees. Objectors had originally said that the settlement terms did not go far enough to benefit Facebook users' privacy, but a majority of the 28 judges on the Court of Appeals decided Tuesday that the settlement is sufficient, Reuters reported. … Read more

Google and Spain's data-protection authorities took to Europe's highest court, the European Court of Justice, to discuss whether the search giant has a responsibility to delete data that could infringe a person's privacy.

The issue at play relates to what is and what is not suitable for public consumption. Spain's regulators argued in the European court in Luxembourg today that Google must delete from its search results any information that would potentially hurt a person's privacy. Google, however, argues that it doesn't have a responsibility to wipe search results, and doing so could create … Read more

Apple may be on the way to controlling more of how advertisers get user information from mobile devices.

According to TechCrunch, unnamed industry sources are saying that Apple's App Review team is denying apps that use "cookie tracking." This could be a signal that the company is going full force into its own Advertising Identifier technology.

Theoretically, the way cookie tracking works on mobile is similar to desktop: a cookie saves data and information on users' browsing history that can be used later by the app or Web site. According to TechCrunch, it was introduced as an … Read more

We've all had shifty neighbors.

The sort who don't say "hello." The sort who have strange visitors late at night who come on bicycles.

I have been that sort of neighbor once or twice. However, I've never thought to blur the entirety of my house out on Google Street View.

Yet this is what the occupants of 291 Clermont Avenue, Brooklyn, seem to have done.… Read more

Google may face a coordinated crackdown by privacy regulators in Europe before this summer unless the Web giant makes dramatic changes to how it manages user data.

France's privacy watchdog said today that Google had yet to respond with "precise and effective" answers to a dozen recommendations unanimously adopted by 27 national regulators last October and as a result could face a coordinated "repressive action." The Article 29 Working Party, a group of data protection officials from each member states, is expected to vote on the proposal at the end of the month.

"European … Read more

Facebook has won an important ruling on its ban of pseudonyms across its social network.

A German court yesterday ruled that it had no jurisdiction over Facebook because its European headquarters are in Ireland and therefore, could not offer an opinion on the social network's pseudonym use. The Associated Press was first to report on the court's ruling.

The court's ruling comes just two months after data protection agency Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz (ULD) in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein ordered Facebook to allow for its users to employ pseudonyms. The company has a policy that … Read more