privacy

One of the world's most popular cross-platform applications "violates" international privacy laws, according to the Canadian and Dutch data protection authorities, because it requires users to provide their entire contact list to the service.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Dutch Data Protection Authority today announced their findings for what they called a "collaborative investigation into the handling of personal information" by the California-based company.

WhatsApp, an instant messenger application for iPhone, Android devices, and BlackBerry smartphones, provides a free service to rival text messaging, and sends more than 1 billion … Read more

Unhappy with Facebook privacy settings? There's an app for that, according to Facebook.

The social network has launched a new app that lets users send privacy concerns and questions to Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan.

The "Ask Erin" app -- essentially a comment form on its "Facebook and Privacy" page -- went live last night, but Egan officially unveiled it at a data privacy event in Washington, D.C., this morning. Egan is one of two chief privacy officers at Facebook. She covers policy while CPO Michael Richter focuses on the actual features Facebook … Read more

Yesterday Twitter launched a new video sharing app called Vine. The service lets you compose and share six-second videos using its iPhone app. As Sharon Vaknin pointed out, currently there's no way to set any of your videos, or even your profile, to "private." Any videos you upload are going to be public; viewable by anyone using the service.

There is a way to create a video using the Vine app and share it privately, however. It's not an ideal workaround (that would be privacy settings in the app) but it's an easy way … Read more

The number of official requests Google receives for information about its users is steadily increasing -- particularly in the United States, which between July and December once again outpaced the world.

In the second half of 2012, Google received 8,438 requests for information, up 6 percent from the first half of 2012. Globally, Google received 21,389 requests for information, up 2 percent from the first half 2012. The number of requests went up even as the number of users affected went down -- a 9 percent decrease in the United States, and 3 percent globally.

The countries making … Read more

Worried about all those security cameras tracking your every move? Try rocking one of these visors and enjoy anonymity once again.

At least that's what Isao Echizen from Japan's National Institute of Informatics is trying to achieve with the Privacy Visor (PDF).

Developed with Seiichi Gohshi of Kogakuin University, the visor has a near-infrared light source that messes up cameras but doesn't affect the wearer's vision, according to the institute. … Read more

Anyone interested in how Google's privacy policies over the years can easily compare previous versions, thanks to an archive the company has set up online. But one of the earliest privacy policies is nowhere to be found -- and it's a shame, filmmaker Cullen Hoback says, because it's a policy that put users' privacy first.

"A cookie can tell us, 'This is the same computer that visited Google two days ago,' but it cannot tell us, 'This person is Joe Smith' or even, 'This person lives in the United States,'" reads the policy, published in … Read more

It's easy to write a quick post on Twitter or Facebook in a moment of joy -- or rage -- exclaiming your emotion with a few profane words in tow. But over time the way we want to use a social network may change, and it might make more sense for Facebook to become a professional representation of yourself. And with Graph Search just around the corner, your Facebook past is going to be extremely easy to search; possibly surfacing a side of you you'd rather not have your potential employers or family members see. Heck, you may … Read more

Proposed legislation in the European Union would force tech companies that have access to user data -- such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft -- to report any security breaches to local cybersecurity agencies, the Financial Times reported today.

This is the European Commission's effort to make private companies accountable for privacy and security problems, European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told the Financial Times.

If passed, the measure would require each of the EU's 27 member states to set up local cybersecurity agencies to implement security standards on online networks. Social networks, e-commerce companies, and large online platforms … Read more