The Cost of Reading Privacy Policies

Companies collect personally identifiable information that website visitors are not always comfortable sharing. One proposed remedy is to use economics rather than legislation to address privacy risks by creating a market place for privacy where website visitors would choose to accept or reject offers for small payments in exchange for loss of privacy. The notion of micropayments for privacy has not been realized in practice, perhaps because advertisers might be willing to pay a penny per name and IP address, yet few people would sell their contact information for only a penny.


If you want to read the pre-press version, please click here

Source: Aleecia M. McDonald and Lorrie Faith Cranor,  A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society

Social networking sites and our lives

OVERVIEW

Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement. 

Click here, if you want to read the full report

Source:  Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions Goulet, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell, Rew Research Center

'Like' Button Follows Web Users

Internet users tap Facebook Inc.'s "Like" and Twitter Inc.'s "Tweet" buttons to share content with
 friends. But these tools also let their makers collect data about the websites people are visiting.


If you want to know more, please click here

Source: Amir Efrati, Wall Street Journal 

How Online Tracking Companies Know Most of What You Do Online (and What Social Networks Are Doing to Help Them)

3rd party advertising and tracking firms are ubiquitous on the modern web. When you visit a webpage, there's a good chance that it contains tiny images or invisible JavaScript that exists for the sole purpose of tracking and recording your browsing habits. This sort of tracking is performed by many dozens of different firms. In this post, we're going to look at how this tracking occurs, and how it is being combined with data from accounts on social networking sites to build extensive, identified profiles of your online activity.


If you want to know more, please click here


Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation, PETER ECKERSLEY

Data Protection and Small and Medium Enterprises - REPORT

1 There is a high level of awareness of data protection and the Data Protection Act. 


2 There is broad acceptance of the values and principles of data protection, although opinions  appear divided as to the benefits of compliance. 


3 Awareness and acceptance of principles in broad terms does not necessarily translate into 
specific knowledge of registration/notification. 


4 The compliance or ‘red tape’ burden associated with government regulation does not appear to  be a major issue for the Data Protection Act for most of the business, although there is a small  ‘vocal minority’ who consider this an issue. 


5 Two key terms registered most strongly with the businesses  (1) Security of Data and Information, and (2) Confidentiality.  Privacy also figured as a significant term, but not to the  same extent. 


6 Effective practice in data protection was closely associated with wider information management  and data control within the business – those enterprises that deployed information for business benefit tended to be actively supportive of data protection principles and found it easy to comply  with the Act. 


7 Individual and shared attitudes towards data protection and information are key influences on  business approaches to this issue, and so constitute a primary influence on compliance and  engagement with the Act and the ICO. 


8 Different approaches to data protection and information can be identified, and used to identify  distinctive segments – each with different requirements and approaches. 


9 There was some indication that respondents were considering effective practice in information  and data management and handling, with data protection being seen as a ‘sub-set’ of these  considerations.  Good practice in data protection, in other words, appears to be part of and to  stem from wider approaches to information. 


10 Although the Act itself had a high profile, the ICO was less well known and some businesses  thought that it would be useful for the ICO to engage more with SMEs
Full Report


Source: http://www.ico.gov.uk

Safe Harbor: Why EU data needs 'protecting' from US law

Why were the Safe Harbor principles created in the first place? To maintain trade between Europe and the United States, with Europe fully aware of the lax attempts at data privacy performed on the part of the U.S.’s biggest companies.

Why Europe needed Safe Harbor principles

The vast majority of people using services on the web — be it web-based email like Hotmail or Yahoo!, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, or anything as minute as a website requiring registration– tend not to think about where their personal data like photos and email is stored.

On the whole, these services are designed to save us time and energy, and we have come to want the offerings of these services on-demand, without thinking too much about privacy. We expect our respective governments, wherever we are in the world, to protect us to a level where we can act and communicate freely.

However, an inequality in legal protection between the United States and the European Union could have massive consequences for users of ‘the cloud’.

Data protection legislation differs greatly between the European Union and the United States. With a vast number of organisations branching out to worldwide offices during the dot-com boom, it was clear to legislators that data transfer and protection laws needed a global overhaul. A particular area of focus for data legislation was the European Union, with dozens of countries sharing elements of the same law.

If you want to read more, click here

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/

EU privacy report: Search engines should delete data

A European Union privacy panel wants Internet search engine providers like Google and Yahoo to delete data taken from users after six months, even when they operate abroad.

If you want to read more, please click here

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4627800&page=1

How to blog safely

Blogs are like personal telephone calls crossed with newspapers. They're the perfect tool for sharing your favorite chocolate mousse recipe with friends--or for upholding the basic tenets of democracy by letting the public know that a corrupt government official has been paying off your boss.
If you blog, there are no guarantees you'll attract a readership of thousands. But at least a few readers will find your blog, and they may be the people you'd least want or expect. These include potential or current employers, coworkers, and professional colleagues; your neighbors; your spouse or partner; your family; and anyone else curious enough to type your name, email address or screen name into Google or Feedster and click a few links.
For more, click here


Source : https://www.eff.org