Associated Press reports: A consumer protection group [in] Germany has sent Facebook a ‘cease and desist’ letter that claims the social-networking website breaches German privacy law. The Federation of German Consumer Organizations says Facebook has one week to stop automatically giving third party applications information about its users without their explicit consent. The group said…
Category: Business
Microsoft denies Windows 8 app spying via SmartScreen (updated)
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…
eBay and Paypal change their terms to require users’ consent to unlimited robocalls and text-message spam
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…
Don’t Build a Database of Ruin
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,…