Kevin J. O’Brien reports: Google defused a confrontation with European privacy regulators by announcing on Tuesday that it would give the owners of Wi-Fi routers worldwide the option of removing their devices from a registry Google uses to locate cellphone users. The change was made less than four months after European regulators warned that the unauthorized…
Category: Business
Paxfire Files $80M Defamation Countersuit Against Web User
Wendy Davis reports: Last month, Web user Betsy Feist alleged in a lawsuit that the company Paxfire and Internet service provider RCN “intercepted, monitored, marketed, and divulged” her search history to a third party. The claims largely stemmed from a report that RCN and other ISPs were working with Paxfire to divert search traffic by sending some…
Web paths are personal data, says consumer group
Jennifer Baker reports: A leading international consumer group has called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the European Union’s main body for data protection, the Article 29 Working Group, to reject self-regulation of online behavioral advertising. In a letter to lawmakers, the Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) said it was deeply concerned about the E.U….
Facebook Signs Up to German Privacy Code
Christopher Lawton reports: Facebook agreed for the first time to sign a voluntary code of conduct in Germany aimed at protecting the privacy of social network users. The pledge came as a result of a meeting between German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich and Richard Allan, director of policy in Europe at Facebook in Berlin on…