ACLU Mini-Movie on Privacy
The ACLU has put together a humorous (?) look at the possible consequences of a National ID number and widespread data sharing. But the satire partially backfires; I actually wish that vendors offered some of the depicted services! And if…
Eye-Tracking Studies and Mandatory Disclosures
In writing about the Eyetools eye-tracking technology, Chris Sherman says: “In one study, for example, Eyetools inserted gibberish into E*Trade’s homepage to illustrate that content in a “visual dead zone” doesn’t get read and might as well not exist. Some…
EPIC Report on Privacy Self-Regulation
Chris Hoofnagle of EPIC has written an interesting report entitled “Privacy Self Regulation: A Decade of Disappointment.” Not surprisingly, given EPIC’s general stance (and the title of the report), Hoofnagle concludes that industry self-regulation of online privacy has failed. Therefore,…
FTC v. CartManager
The FTC obtained a settlement from CartManager. CartManager operates shopping cart functionality as a service for third party website customers. CartManager used personal information from the shopping carts in conflict with customers’ privacy policies presented to users. We have seen…
Regulating Data Brokers
The recent hacks into ChoicePoint’s and Lexis’ personal information databases has led to calls for further regulation of data brokers. While I don’t want to minimize the consequences of these hacks, including the severe consequences of identity theft, limiting data…
FTC Enforcement Action for Deficient Security Practices
The FTC has settled a charge against Nationwide Mortgage Group, Inc., a mortgage company, for failing to comply with the security requirements under the Gramm Leach Bliley Act. FTC enforcement actions for poor security practices are relatively rare, so this…
My Reactions to Seeing My Credit Report
Yesterday I got my three free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. At my other blog, I wrote about my experiences downloading the reports. I spent last night poring through them, reliving old memories of credit cards I’ve used and abused over…
More on TRUSTe’s Seal Revocation
A follow up article to my previous post on TRUSTe. It looks like the problem will be solved soon by the licensee paying some money for additional employee training. This reinforces the question: just how much value is a TRUSTe…
Is TRUSTe Irrelevant?
TRUSTe pulled its logo from some websites for breaking its rules for the first time in 2 years. The article focuses on TRUSTe’s refusal to specify the rules violation, but this seems to miss the point, and widely. In 1999…