From the Australian Privacy Foundation: Means for computing the location of a computing device have matured rapidly recently, and include GPS, Wifi, and triangulation within mobile phone cells. These techniques have enabled Location-Based Services (LBS) to be created. Many LBS are proving attractive to users of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Researchers and…
Category: Business
EPIC Sues Federal Trade Commission for Details on Spy-Fi Investigation
From EPIC: EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission over the agency’s failure to disclose to EPIC information about the FTC’s decision to end the Google Spy-Fi investigation. EPIC is specifically seeking documents that the FTC widely circulated to members of Congress and their staff that provide the basis for the…
Disney settles online privacy complaint for $3 million
Dawn C. Chmielewski and Alex Pham of the L.A. Times report: Walt Disney Co. has agreed to pay $3 million to settle charges that online virtual worlds once operated by its Playdom games division violated federal rules designed to protect the safety and privacy of children younger than 13 on the Internet. The Federal Trade…
Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google
Dan Lyons reports: For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which…