Influential lawmaker Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) said Thursday that he plans to introduce legislation that will require Web companies to obtain consumers’ opt-in consent before sharing information about users with third parties. “I believe consumers are entitled to some baseline protections in the online space,” Boucher, chair of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the…
Category: Business
Congress looks into behavioral advertising
Congress today summoned executives from Facebook, Google, and Yahoo to inquire about how they are tracking consumers for advertising purposes. The hearing signals an increasing interest on Washington’s part into what online companies are doing with all the data they have on their customers. It’s a joint hearing between two House subcommittees, one on Commerce,…
Heartland Gets Religion on Security
Heartland Payment Systems CEO Bob Carr is an unlikely spokesman for tech security. But that’s what he’s emerging as. The credit-card processor suffered one of the largest data breaches ever disclosed last year. But rather than taking the time-honored approach of staying quiet and hoping that the negative publicity goes away, Carr is talking openly…
Facebook hit by privacy blow
European privacy regulators could be about to throw a spanner into the works of attempts by social networking sites such as Facebook to find new ways to increase profits as they try to restrict the way internet groups release personal data. The European move marks the first attempt by regulators to address the “open” internet…