Tag Archives: personally identifiable information; PII;

Follow-up on Data Collection and Personal Responsibility – More about the Google Glass Debate

As we discussed in our last post, people are collecting lots and lots of the personal information that ends up being publicly disclosed.  A couple of interesting articles have been published since then that shed further light on the problem. … Continue reading

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Data Collection, Personal Responsibility and the Law

In a recent article in the Huffington Post, John Whitehead asks this question: What would happen if the most powerful technology company in the world and the largest clandestine spying agency in the world joined forces? Similarly, a recent article … Continue reading

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Data Governance and the Law – Facebook’s Acquisition of WhatsApp Might Bring Some Needed Clarity

By now it should be clear to everyone that when you have a privacy policy you are expected to abide by the terms of that policy.  So, for example, if your privacy policy says you will not disclose any personal … Continue reading

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Maybe Edward Snowden Works for Google, or Facebook, or Microsoft, or One of those Guys

Ok, probably not.  But consider who benefits from all the attention the NSA thing is getting.  Answer: all those other organizations that collect information about you.  We discussed this previously here at Big Data and the Law.  The NSA gets … Continue reading

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Senate Continues Data Broker Investigation – Talk of Data Privacy and Security Legislation

Senate Investigation On December 18, 2013, the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing titled, “What Information Do Data Brokers Have on Consumers, and How Do They Use It?”    Following up, Committee Chair Senator Rockefeller has now … Continue reading

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A Marketing Expert Thinks Business should Take Privacy Seriously – and that You Don’t Understand how Your Privacy is Being Violated

I don’t know enough about marketing to know who is a real marketing expert, but Jonathan Salem Baskin seems to be a big deal in the marketing business.  He writes for Forbes and Advertising Age and consults a lot.  Look … Continue reading

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Google, Facebook, AOL, Twitter, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo to U.S. Government: Stop Collecting Personal Information – That’s Our Job

As you likely know, Google, Facebook, AOL, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, Microsoft and Yahoo are suddenly concerned about our privacy.  They have all signed on to an open letter to the President and Congress, in which they say: We understand that … Continue reading

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The Internet of Things Strikes Again – FTC Settles with Rent-to-Own Spies

So these rent-to-own businesses were using the computers rented to their customers to spy on the customers.  See the FTC notice of settlement here.  Not just the webcam, as was the case in situations we discussed earlier.  In this case … Continue reading

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The Balkanization of the Internet Begins

The European regulatory response to NSA-gate is gathering momentum.  The focus du jour is the cloud.  This New York Times article is a nice summary of the nonsensical thinking of some Europeans.  For example, provided in the article: Viviane Reding, … Continue reading

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The Third Element of Today’s Privacy Problem

  It’s people.  We’ve talked about the NSA and governments generally.  We’ve talked about Google and Facebook and other corporate actors.  Finally now, we have to consider people.  Not their actions in the conduct of their work – however much … Continue reading

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