Cecilia Kang blogs: Google increased its first-quarter spending on lobbying by more than 50 percent to argue its position on privacy, online advertising competition and net neutrality to members of Congress, federal regulators and the White House. According to documents filed Tuesday with Congress, the company spent $1.38 million on lobbying in the first quarter…
Category: Business
Amazon fights demand for customer records
Declan McCullagh reports: Amazon.com filed a lawsuit on Monday to fend off a sweeping demand from North Carolina’s tax collectors: detailed records including names and addresses of customers and information about exactly what they purchased. The lawsuit says the demand violates the privacy and First Amendment rights of Amazon’s customers. North Carolina’s Department of Revenue…
Google warns that privacy opt-in rules could create “dystopia”
Matthew Lasar reports: Imagine an Internet in which every website that uses behavioral advertising has to get your up-front permission to do so—make that double for login-account-informed ads, and triple if the site sells your data to third-party applications. You might think that something like this would be a pretty cool set up, privacy-wise. So…
McDonald’s advertising in online bank statements
Imagine signing in to your online-banking account and finding promotions linked to your transactions. Underneath a transaction for a restaurant, there’s an offer from that eatery for $10 cash back when you spend a minimum of $20. And underneath a purchase at an apparel chain, a rival offers 15% cash back for shopping at its…