Yesterday I described a complaint this site had received about Etsy.com, an online marketplace that recently (and reportedly retroactively) made seller and buyer information available in a new People Search tool that can be linked to the user’s real name and username. While Etsy.com users can prevent some of the exposure by changing their privacy…
Category: Business
Is Etsy.com sharing too much information?
Back in September and over on DataBreaches.net, I posted a breach involving Etsy.com, an online marketplace that boasts over 7.2 million members, over 400,000 sellers, and 971 million page views per month. At the time, the exposure of sellers’ names was accidental. But what was an accidental breach in September seems to have become policy by…
FTC Puts an End to Tactics of Online Advertising Company That Deceived Consumers Who Wanted to “Opt Out” from Targeted Ads
From the FTC: The FTC reached a settlement with online advertising company Chitika, Inc. that ends the company’s allegedly deceptive practice of tracking consumers’ online activities even after they have chosen to opt out of online tracking on Chitika’s website. The FTC investigated Chitika as part of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers’ privacy online….
Privacy issues tarnish Google’s Washington image
David Hatch reports: Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, cochairmen of the Bipartisan Privacy Caucus and longtime members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, don’t agree on much. But after Google was caught last month collecting Social Security information from children who took part in its annual doodling contest, the lawmakers set…