The Evidon Weekly News Digest 10/5/11
Facebook dominated this week's privacy news with changes to its interface as well as with the continuation of last month’s revelation that the company’s “Like” button tracks users even when they are not logged in. ABC News ran a thought-provoking piece that heavily referenced industry self-regulation, quoting the Center for Democracy and Technology’s Justin Brookman: "This is a test case to see if self-regulation can work." Also, Barnes and Noble made major headlines in The Wall Street Journal with their decision to incorporate the customer list they recently acquired from the (now bankrupt) Borders chain.
FTC Is Asked to Crack Down on ‘Supercookies’ as Data Privacy Violation – FTC Beat – The bastard stepchild of online behavioral advertising – the supercookie – is in the hot seat.
Facebook Sued Over Tracking Cookies – PCMag – Facebook on Friday was sued over its user of tracking cookies, with those who filed the suit accusing the social-networking site of violating federal wiretap and electronic communications laws, among other things.
Google and Facebook Are Watching You – ABC News – Consumer activists dressed as mimes silently "tracked" Google executive Eric Schmidt all the way to his Senate hearing on Wednesday. And while the hearings were focused on the company's alleged anti-competitive practices, the protesters following Schmidt through the capitol were more interested in driving home a message about consumer privacy.
Digital and Online Privacy – Activism, Media, Policy Summit – CSPAN – Tony Romm, staff writer for Politico, Gerard Stegmaier, George Mason University School of Law, Stuart Ingis, attourney at Veneble LLP, and Bryan Gernert, chief executive officer at Resonate Networks spoke about consumer online privacy issues. They said privacy laws should protect consumer privacy and allow businesses to access purchaser data.
Frictionless Sharing a Cause for Concern with Facebook – The Australian – Facebook call it frictionless sharing, and what it means is that after a one-time user approval, applications would be allowed to automatically post new status items to a user timeline on behalf of the user.