Associated Press reports that Facebook has won a round in court against a German data protection regulator who was trying to block Facebook from requiring real name registration: Schleswig-Holstein state’s data protection office had argued that the ban on fake names breaches German privacy laws and European rules designed to protect free speech online. But…
Category: Business
California tech firms pushing back against “Right to Know Act”
Steven Harmon reports: Silicon Valley tech firms, banks and other powerful industries are mounting a quiet but forceful campaign to kill an Internet privacy bill that would give California consumers the right to know how their personal information is being used. A recent letter signed by 15 companies and trade groups — including TechAmerica, which…
Apple Finally Reveals How Long Siri Keeps Your Data
Bob McMillan reports: All of those questions, messages, and stern commands that people have been whispering to Siri are stored on Apple servers for up to two years, Wired can now report. Yesterday, we raised concerns about some fuzzy disclosures in Siri’s privacy policy. After our story ran, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller called to explain Apple’s policy,…
US amasses Big Data on 10 million people; banks protest
Carter Dougherty of Bloomberg reports: The new US consumer finance watchdog is gearing up to monitor how millions of Americans use credit cards, take out mortgages, and overdraw their checking accounts. Their bankers aren’t happy about it. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is demanding records from the banks and is buying anonymous information about at…