Monthly Archives: February 2012

We are sharing this blog post by our colleague Vivek Krishnamurthy regarding an article in last weekend’s New York Times Magazine that discusses the powerful statistical techniques that some companies are using to analyze sales and other data in order to gain insights into their customers’ behaviors and needs. The article raises a number of interesting consent and privacy issues.  Vivek’s practice focuses on corporate social responsibility,… More

The White House has finally released its long-anticipated report on consumer privacy.The 60-page White House report, “Consumer Data Privacy in a Networked World: A Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy,” is the start of what promises to be a fascinating legislative and regulatory process. 

It is curious that the Department of Commerce has been charged with "work[ing] with other Federal agencies to convene stakeholders,… More

In a letter sent earlier today, 37 state attorneys generals (or their equivalents) wrote to Larry Page, Google’s CEO, "to express our strong concerns with the new privacy policy that Google announced it will be adopting for all of its consumer products."

According to the letter:

Google’s new privacy policy is troubling for a number of reasons. On a fundamental level, the policy appears to invade consumer privacy by automatically sharing personal information consumers input into one Google product with all Google products.… More

Recent press reports of massive Chinese-sponsored hacking at the one-time telecom giant Nortel might cause you to throw up your hands and say, what chance do I have against such forces?  A closer look suggests that there is much that can be done, and should be done, both in IT security and in the sale and acquisition of assets.

Apparently Nortel found and investigated the breach in question,… More

If you haven’t Googled yourself in a while, this might be a good time. My own self-search reveals, among other things, a page at mylife.com.  I didn’t put it there, and I’d rather it not be there. However, right now, there isn’t a right to have your personal or professional information be deleted from social media, review sites, and other types of websites that gather your personal information.  However, legislation may be coming that will address this concern.… More

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Google’s iPhone tracking.

Google Inc. and other advertising companies have been bypassing the privacy settings of millions of people using Apple Inc.’s Web browser on their iPhones and computers—tracking the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked.

The companies used special computer code that tricks Apple’s Safari Web-browsing software into letting them monitor many users.… More

I was interviewed for this PC World piece on the potential impact of Facebook’s recently announced IPO on data privacy.  My take:  being a public company brings with it more transparency and more regulation, which will force Facebook to be more cautious and ultimately more open about its privacy policies.  This seems obvious to me, but there are those who suggest that being public will add a profit motive that will push Facebook in the other direction. … More