Brent Begin reports: The swipe of a thin card allows Bay Area commuters to pay for public transportation across the region, but it also allows the transit agencies to track where the riders travel. Five major transportation agencies — Muni, BART, AC Transit, Golden Gate Transit and Caltrain — already accept the Clipper card as…
Category: Business
Unraveling Privacy as Corporate Strategy
Scott Peppet writes: The biometric technologies firm Hoyos (previously Global Rainmakers Inc.) recently announced plans to test massive deployment of iris scanners in Leon, Mexico, a city of over a million people. They expect to install thousands of the devices, some capable of picking out fifty people per minute even at regular walking speeds. At first the…
New FTC portal to assist businesses in complying with privacy and security laws
From the FTC’s press release: The Federal Trade Commission has a new Business Center at Business.ftc.gov that gives business owners, attorneys, and marketing professionals the tools they need to understand and comply with the consumer protection laws, rules, and guides the FTC enforces. The Business Center provides practical, plain-language guidance about advertising, credit, telemarketing, privacy, and a host…
Google’s Privacy Practices Clouded By Lawsuit
Charles Babcock writes: Google sees itself as a disruptive force, first in reorganizing the world’s information and second at delivering email and other services from the cloud. Its pride as a disrupter is getting in the way of convincing state and federal governments to accept its cloud services. Previously, Google complained to the press that…