Category: Business

Iain Thomson reports: Microsoft has moved to quell fears that Windows 8 is building up a detailed record of all applications stored on client machines via its SmartScreen application. An analysis by security researcher Nadim Kobeissi noticed a potential privacy violation in Windows 8’s SmartScreen system, which checks applications that the user wants to install…

Ed Hasbrouck writes: Back in 2009, I reported that credit-card issuers led by American Express had begun requiring their customers’ consent to receive unlimited robocalls and text messages at any telephone number those customers had ever used, including cellphon numbers. That posed a risk of harassment for all customers, a risk of extra expenses for customers who…

Paul Ohm writes: Many businesses today find themselves locked in an arms race with competitors to see who can convert customer secrets into the most pennies. To try to win, they are building perfect digital dossiers, to use a phrase coined by Daniel Solove, massive data stores containing hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands,…

Tom Jowitt reports: Google is seeking to recruit data experts for what it is calling a ‘privacy red team’, as the search engine giant looks to avoid any future privacy mishaps. Google has been at the centre of privacy rows for a number of years now. Perhaps its most serious privacy blunder came in May 2010 when Google…