In an update on its Public Policy Blog, AT&T disclosed that it may begin selling anonymous user data to retailers and marketers, with the end goal being "to deliver more relevant advertising to... customers." The carrier is far from the first to sell aggregate information -- here's looking at you, Verizon -- but the provider is unique in combining data on TV, WiFi and wireless usage. The company said it could also provide aggregate info about users' app usage and U-Verse info.
Also notable in the new privacy policy: AT&T notes that it could sell information about individual users, with the stipulation that the data would still be kept anonymous, and media research companies would only be able to use that info in aggregate reports. While this is hardly a case of AT&T pushing new privacy boundaries, users can opt out of the program (see the second source link below).
Filed under: Wireless, Mobile, AT&T
Via: FierceWireless
Source: AT&T Public Policy Blog, AT&T
Fond of your family name? Good -- it's about to get a bit more visible. Foursquare is planning to display full user names on profile pages, explaining in a recent community email that the old policy has become confusing. "If you search for a friend on Foursquare, we show their full name in the results, but when you click through to their profile page you don't see their last name." The team says these abbreviations made sense in Foursquare's early days, but recently users have been asking for change. "We get emails every day saying that it's now confusing." The social network hopes that displaying users' full surnames will help mitigate confusion between the John Smiths and John Smythes of the world.
The company's tweaked privacy policy promises to share more data with businesses, too, giving store owners greater visibility of customers who have recently checked in. Users who want their quests for coffee to remain anonymous still can, of course -- Foursquare was careful to remind users that they can change their "full name" whenever they want, and can opt out of sharing their location information with businesses. We wouldn't want to step on any toes, would we? Head past the break to see the email for yourself, or check out the adjacent source link to read Foursquare's "Privacy 101" summary.
Continue reading Foursquare to display full user names, share more data with local businesses
Filed under: Internet
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Foursquare
It wasn't all that long after Google consolidated most of its privacy policies before people wanted clarification on what this meant to users. Even then, EU regulators weren't satisfied, asking the search giant to hold up a little while it took a proper look at the implications for European citizens. The result of that investigation? Well, Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding previously declared it to be in breach of European law, and now the EU is commanding that it be reexamined. The assertion comes in a letter to Mountain View from the EU's data protection regulators, who feel that consolidating so much personal data into one place creates untenable risks to privacy, and was signed by 24 member states (plus Liechtenstein and Croatia). The regulators also outlined 12 recommendations for Google to follow to bring its policy back to the favorable side of the fence. No official word from Google at this time, but we've reached out for comment.
Update: Peter Fleischer, Google's global privacy counsel issued the following statement: "We have received the report and are reviewing it now. Our new privacy policy demonstrates our long-standing commitment to protecting our users' information and creating great products. We are confident that our privacy notices respect European law."
Filed under: Internet
EU regulators urge Google to modify privacy policy, offers 12 recommendations (update: statement from Google) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The iPhone 5. It is taller, and has incremental improvements under the hood, and is shiny. (I'm staying away. Typing on glass is wrong.)
Of more import, the smartphone you carry is more than a communication device; it is potentially a government surveillance enabler. To whatever extent that is the case (depending on whose public pronouncements you believe), latent digital snooping was reinforced on the same day as the iPhone event. Two days after that, Google announced its intention to build a "Do Not Track" option into the Chrome browser, giving users some shielding from a different type of rampant surveillance -- the type that creepily delivers knowingly targeted ads. The two issues differ in seriousness, but are related as privacy concerns. As our mobile and desktop devices get sexier, we become increasingly naked.
Continue reading Editorial: We, the digitally naked
Editorial: We, the digitally naked originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Against all odds App.Net met its funding goal, which has allowed the fledgling social network to shift its focus to the next phase of its founding. That means putting together all those essential documents that will govern its operation, including a terms of service and privacy policy. Creator Dalton Caldwell has posted first drafts of several docs and asked his backers for feedback, offering them an attempt to shape the rules that will guide how the site is run. Those policy documents are also going to be subjected to a quarterly review, which should allow the service to remain nimble if some rules turn out to be controversial or cumbersome. For more info, check out the source link.
Filed under: Internet
App.Net posts terms of service, asks for feedback originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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For those who haven't kept track, Facebook has had a years-long history of only maybe-sort-of-more-or-less purging our photos: they could be removed from a profile, but they would sometimes float around the site's content delivery networks for months or years, just waiting for a prospective employer to spot those embarrassing frosh week snapshots by accident. As Ars Technica discovered through experiments and official remarks, that problem should now be solved. In the wake of a months-long photo storage system migration and an updated deletion policy, Facebook now won't let removed photos sit for more than 30 days in the content network stream before they're scrubbed once and for all. The improved reaction time isn't as rapid as for a service like Instagram, where photos vanish almost immediately, but it might be a lifesaver for privacy advocates -- or just anyone who's ever worn a lampshade on their head in a moment of insobriety.
Filed under: Internet
Facebook starts really, truly deleting removed photos originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Cisco has already tried to soothe angry customers by scrapping a key section in its new Linksys privacy agreement -- a clause which allowed the company to monitor a person's internet history via their router. However, realizing that probably wasn't enough to quell the sense of intrusion, it's now gone one step further. Writing on an official blog, Cisco VP Brett Wingo has declared that Linksys customers will no longer be pushed into signing up for Connect Cloud, the service which lay at the heart of the problem:
"In response to our customers' concerns, we have simplified the process of opting-out of the Cisco Connect Cloud service and have changed the default setting back to traditional router set-up and management."
In other words, you'll no longer have to hook up to a convoluted cloud service just to access advanced settings on your router, and neither will you have to sign away an even greater chunk of your personal space -- which is just how it should have been (and indeed how it was) in the first place.
Cisco climbs down another rung over unpopular Connect Cloud service originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Got any spare sympathy for Cisco? The company just can't catch a break with its various hardware schemes, and now it's getting aggro from an unexpected direction: users of its generally reliable Linksys routers. Owners of E2700, E3500 and E4500 models recently discovered that their router login credentials stopped working following an automatic firmware update, and instead they were asked to sign up to the new Cisco Connect Cloud platform to regain access. If they sought to avoid this by rebooting the router, they reportedly lost control over their advanced settings, which led to a sense of being cajoled.
To make matters worse, the Connect Cloud service came with a supplemental privacy policy that explicitly allowed Cisco to peek at a user's "internet history," "traffic" and "other related information." If Cisco discovered you had used your router for "pornographic or offensive purposes" or to violate "intellectual property rights," it reserved the right to shut down your cloud account and effectively cut you off from your router. Now, much as the world needs moral stalwarts, in this instance Cisco appears to have backed down and removed the offending paragraph, but not before alienating a bunch of loyal Linksys customers like ExtremeTech's Joel Hruska at the source link below.
Cisco backs down over right to see your internet history originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 03 Jul 2012 06:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Facebook users rebuked proposed privacy changes in a vote on Friday -- to the tune of 87 percent -- but a thousand times higher turnout was needed for it to matter. As such, the company will likely proceed with the additions, which it said were needed to clarify current policies for European and US regulators. However, the company was sufficiently chastened by the anemic turnout of 342,600 voters to state that it was "pretty disappointing," and spokeswoman Jame Schopflin said in the future, they will consider the vote "advisory" if numbers were too low. Still, groups like Our Policy who started the petition for this referendum might want to pick their battles better next time.
Tiny fraction of required 270 million Facebook users squeak 'no' to changes originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jun 2012 03:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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