AFP reports: Spain launched sanction proceedings against Google Inc. on Thursday for suspected serious breaches of data protection laws, acting just hours after France threatened the group with big fines. The Spanish Data Protection Agency said it found evidence of five serious privacy law breaches — each punishable with fines of up to 300,000 euros…
Category: Business
IOS app finds almost half of other apps access private data
Almost half of the mobile apps running on Apple’s iOS operating system access the unique identifier of the devices where they’re downloaded, computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found. In addition, more than 13 percent access the devices’ location and more than 6 percent the address book. The researchers developed a…
Even smaller firms should be transparent
It’s nice to see firms issuing transparency reports on user requests. Yesterday, Cotse.net posted theirs, with an explanation of what kinds of data are involved. They may be the first privacy service to publish this kind of information. If you know of others, please let me know. Reading their description is a good reminder that…
Silicon Valley and Spy Agency Bound by Strengthening Web
James Risen and Nick Wingfield report on the (cooperative/collaborative/too-cozy?) relationship between Silicon Valley and the NSA. Here’s a snippet: Despite the companies’ assertions that they cooperate with the agency only when legally compelled, current and former industry officials say the companies sometimes secretly put together teams of in-house experts to find ways to cooperate more…