Dan Goodin reports: An advertising network that served banners on cnn.com, orbitz.com, and 45,000 other sites has settled federal charges that it illegally exploited a decade-old browser flaw that leaks the history of websites users visit. Epic Marketplace used data mined from the history sniffing exploit to assign interests to visitors so the ad network…
Category: Business
Senator Al Franken reintroduces privacy act requiring user consent for location sharing
Eric Engleman of Bloomberg News reports: Smartphones, mobile applications and in-car navigation devices would be required to get permission from consumers before collecting and sharing location data under legislation to be considered by a U.S. Senate committee this week. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who introduced the measure last year, released a revised version…
FTC settles charges against Epic Marketplace over “history sniffing” to collect data from consumers
From the FTC’s press release: An online advertising company agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used “history sniffing” to secretly and illegally gather data from millions of consumers about their interest in sensitive medical and financial issues ranging from fertility and incontinence to debt relief and personal bankruptcy. The FTC settlement order bars…
Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans’ text messages
Declan McCullagh reports: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans’ private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress. CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate…