James Temple writes: Despite widening criticism of online tracking, marketers are going to greater lengths than ever to ensure they can monitor online behavior even when consumers take steps to opt out. That’s the finding of a research paper written by academics at UC Berkeley and elsewhere. It comes at a critical time, when the…
Category: Business
Google fined in Brazil for refusing to reveal bloggers’ identities
Anna Heim writes: Google wants to force people to use their real names online, say many Google+ detractors. Yet, it’s precisely for defending three bloggers’ right to anonymity that its Brazilian subsidiary was fined this Thursday by a local judge. […] It all started at the beginning of the year, when Varzea Alegre’s mayor sued…
Don’t like websites tracking you? The courts don’t seem to care
Matthew Ingram comments on this week’s court decision tossing claims against McDonald’s, Interclick, Mazda, and Microsoft for use of “flash cookies.” In this case, the plaintiff tried to argue that the use of “flash cookies” and other methods to track her for advertising purposes, even after she had deleted her cookies, was a breach of the Computer…
German Higher Labor Court Permits Employers to Review Employees’ Emails
Hanno Timner writes: On February 16, 2011, the Higher Labor Court of Berlin-Brandenburg Germany ruled that an employer has the right to access and review work-related email correspondence of an employee during his/her absence from work (e.g. for reasons of illness or vacation). According to this ruling, such a review of the employee’s email is not…