Emily Badger writes about the concept of an online Do Not Call List to block advertising. She quotes Chris Soghoian, who, as usual, nails it: “The main issue with implementing such a mechanism — in addition to the technology issues — is this: If a consumer makes use of Do Not Track, whether it’s a…
Category: Business
Four Questions Google Still Needs to Answer
As a follow-up to the revelation that Google fired an employee, David Barksdale, for accessing user accounts and harassing minors, Gawker.com has posed four useful questions to Google: 1) Has everyone whose privacy was violated by Barksdale been notified? 2) Why weren’t Barksdale’s actions reported to the police? 3) What specific steps is Google taking…
Bing could get access to anonymized Facebook data
Emil Protalinski writes: Microsoft and Facebook are in talks to further strengthen their search partnership, possibly resulting in Bing gaining access to anonymized data generated by Facebook users to better personalize its search results, according to anonymous sources cited by All Things Digital. Microsoft would be able to use the information from Facebook’s Like buttons, which…
Bump.com: “Like putting a cookie on a car”
Tom Simonite reports: Next time you’re stuck in traffic, take a look at the license plates on the cars around you. To a user of bump.com–which launches today–each one is like an email address that can be used to contact the owner, whether to tell them a rear light is out or that you like their…