Andrew Orlowski reports: Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along. Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s…
Category: Non-U.S.
Official airport iPhone app prompts privacy fears
Tony Smith writes: The British Airports Authority (BAA), owner of Heathrow, has released an app for both iPhone and Android handsets that aims to aid aviators make the most of the their passage through through the airport. However, it is already drawing flack from downloaders for demanding personal details such as name, email address, date…
Taiwan lawmakers to delay privacy law over press freedom concerns
The ruling Kuomintang wants to delay the third reading of a new privacy protection act after fears it could lead to restrictions of press freedoms, reports said Thursday. The Legislative Yuan was scheduled to pass the third reading of the law on Friday, forcing media to ask people for approval before publishing personal data about…
Privacy chiefs keep watch over Facebook
Sangeeta Shastry reports: Over the past six years, social networking has been the Internet’s stand-out phenomenon, linking up more than one billion people eager to exchange videos, pictures or last-minute birthday wishes. […] In Facebook’s case, the social networking tsunami has spread in barely six years from the Harvard dorm room of founder Mark Zuckerberg,…