ManlyBacker
Winging it
I've posted on here before about how some of the large corporations have little regard for their user's privacy.
It has really blown up this last week with:
- almost all social networking sites handing out information to advertisers that could be used to clearly identify users
- the collection all over the world of wi-fi network info by Google street view that is potentially more dangerous
Below is some of the information on the above two privacy threats.
My question is how people feel about this. Have these organisations gone too far and should there be controls on how your private information can be used? Or do you have no problems with any online information being used (as there seems to be no limits)?
"PC World - Lately, social networking sites have been bending over backwards to assure their users that user privacy is of utmost importance--but it may have all been in vain, as the Wall Street Journal discovered Thursday that several social networking sites are sharing, with advertisers, information that can be used to identify individuals.
A report in the Journal said that a number of social networking sites (including Facebook, MySpace, and Digg) may be sharing users' personal information with advertisers. Since the Journal started looking into this possible breach of privacy, both Facebook and MySpace have moved to make changes.
The practice is a somewhat defensible one -- and most of the companies involved did try to defend it -- in which the advertisers receive information on the last page viewed before the user clicked on their ad.
This is common practice all over the Web, and, in most cases, is no issue -- advertisers receive information on the last page viewed, which cannot be traced back to the user.
Depending on what those individuals have made public, advertisers can then see anything from hometowns to real names.
The real problem is, of course, that social networking sites have the ability to obscure user names and profile ID numbers from advertisers -- but they simply haven't.
While many of the sites only reveal information about the last page viewed (which may not be the user's profile and may therefore not reveal anything about that person), Facebook was a more serious offender as it sent information on both what profile was being viewed and who was doing the viewing.
Other sites, including MySpace, LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga, Digg, and Twitter, revealed the user names and profiles being visited when the ad was clicked on.
"Computerworld - Google's secret Wi-Fi sniffing has prompted a class-action lawsuit that could force the company to pay up to $10,000 for each time it snatched data from unprotected hotspots, court documents show.
The lawsuit, which was filed by an Oregon woman and a Washington man in a Portland, Ore. federal court on Monday, accused Google of violating Federal privacy and data acquisition laws.
"When Google created its data collection systems on its GSV [Google Street View] vehicles, it included wireless packet sniffers that, in addition to collecting the user's unique or chosen Wi-Fi network name (SSID information), the unique number given to the user's hardware used to broadcast a user's Wi-Fi signal (MAC address, the GSV data collection systems also collected data consisting of all or part of any documents, e-mails, video, audio, and VoIP information being sent over the network by the user [payload data]," the lawsuit stated.
It has really blown up this last week with:
- almost all social networking sites handing out information to advertisers that could be used to clearly identify users
- the collection all over the world of wi-fi network info by Google street view that is potentially more dangerous
Below is some of the information on the above two privacy threats.
My question is how people feel about this. Have these organisations gone too far and should there be controls on how your private information can be used? Or do you have no problems with any online information being used (as there seems to be no limits)?
"PC World - Lately, social networking sites have been bending over backwards to assure their users that user privacy is of utmost importance--but it may have all been in vain, as the Wall Street Journal discovered Thursday that several social networking sites are sharing, with advertisers, information that can be used to identify individuals.
A report in the Journal said that a number of social networking sites (including Facebook, MySpace, and Digg) may be sharing users' personal information with advertisers. Since the Journal started looking into this possible breach of privacy, both Facebook and MySpace have moved to make changes.
The practice is a somewhat defensible one -- and most of the companies involved did try to defend it -- in which the advertisers receive information on the last page viewed before the user clicked on their ad.
This is common practice all over the Web, and, in most cases, is no issue -- advertisers receive information on the last page viewed, which cannot be traced back to the user.
Depending on what those individuals have made public, advertisers can then see anything from hometowns to real names.
The real problem is, of course, that social networking sites have the ability to obscure user names and profile ID numbers from advertisers -- but they simply haven't.
While many of the sites only reveal information about the last page viewed (which may not be the user's profile and may therefore not reveal anything about that person), Facebook was a more serious offender as it sent information on both what profile was being viewed and who was doing the viewing.
Other sites, including MySpace, LiveJournal, Hi5, Xanga, Digg, and Twitter, revealed the user names and profiles being visited when the ad was clicked on.
"Computerworld - Google's secret Wi-Fi sniffing has prompted a class-action lawsuit that could force the company to pay up to $10,000 for each time it snatched data from unprotected hotspots, court documents show.
The lawsuit, which was filed by an Oregon woman and a Washington man in a Portland, Ore. federal court on Monday, accused Google of violating Federal privacy and data acquisition laws.
"When Google created its data collection systems on its GSV [Google Street View] vehicles, it included wireless packet sniffers that, in addition to collecting the user's unique or chosen Wi-Fi network name (SSID information), the unique number given to the user's hardware used to broadcast a user's Wi-Fi signal (MAC address, the GSV data collection systems also collected data consisting of all or part of any documents, e-mails, video, audio, and VoIP information being sent over the network by the user [payload data]," the lawsuit stated.
