Consumer Online Privacy

05/08/2012

BREAKING NEWS: Twitter Stands Up For One Of Its Users

By Aden Fine, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 12:59pm

Twitter has filed a motion in state court in New York seeking to quash a court order requiring it to turn over information about one of its users and his communications on Twitter. This particular case involves a Twitter user, Malcolm Harris, who is being prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan for disorderly conduct in connection with the Occupy Wall Street protest that occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge last year.

05/07/2012

Consumer Online Privacy

Email, Companies and Social Norms

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 10:51am

I wanted to make note of an interesting anomaly in a new survey that looks at Americans’ attitudes toward the privacy issues implicated by the use of mobile phones to pay for things (instead of cash or a credit card).

The survey (which is online here and is summarized by the New York Times here) finds that Americans react very negatively to the kinds of privacy invasions that mobile payments can bring.

04/30/2012

Data Mining

The Potential Chilling Effects of Big Data

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 11:46am

Last week I posted about “Big Data” and how it is being used to discover new facts about people, to sift and sort them based on subtle patterns, to flag them as “risks” in this field or that, to predict their behavior, and to manipulate them for maximum profit.

Of course, humans are not sheep, and we don’t sit still when things like this happen to us. We perceive what is happening, and we change our behavior in response. We react. The effects of Big Data on privacy and society will be a game of three-dimensional chess, not checkers.

04/23/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Free Future!

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 10:57am

This week we launched Free Future, a new blog that will feature a range of forward-looking technology issues.

04/10/2012

Do Not Track

Making Do Not Track a Reality

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 7:24pm

The ACLU has stated concern again and again about the new model of internet advertising which relies heavily on tracking users as they move from website to website and creates a detailed profile about their viewing habits. Our suggested solution has been a Do Not Track (DNT) mechanism, one that would allow users to opt out and convey that they don’t want to be tracked. But what does it mean not to track someone online?

04/09/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age: Weekly Highlights (4/9/2012)

By Anna Salem, ACLU of Northern California at 11:10am

In the digital age that we live in today, we are constantly exposing our personal information online. From using cell phones and GPS devices to online shopping and sending e-mail, the things we do and say online leave behind ever-growing trails of personal information. The ACLU believes that Americans shouldn’t have to choose between using new technology and keeping control of your private information. Each week, we feature some of the most interesting news related to technology and civil liberties that we’ve spotted from the previous week.

04/02/2012

Online Privacy

A Primer for the Online Privacy Multistakeholder Process

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:12pm

What the heck is a multistakeholder process (MSP)? The word multistakeholder is so obscure that my computer's spell check doesn't even recognize it, yet it's come to dominate the online privacy conversation in recent weeks. That discussion will begin in earnest today with a filing deadline for comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration describing how a process should work and what it should cover (the comments we submitted are here). So what's going on with this MSP and what's in it for consumers?

03/30/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age: Weekly Highlights (3/30/2012)

By Anna Salem, ACLU of Northern California at 10:51am

03/27/2012

Consumer Online Privacy

FTC Report: A Roadmap for Future Success?

By Chris Calabrese, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:21pm

The FTC's newly released privacy report is a roadmap to success on consumer privacy — now it's up to Congress to follow the directions

03/23/2012

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age

Civil Liberties in the Digital Age: Weekly Highlights (3/23/2012)

By Anna Salem, ACLU of Northern California at 2:10pm

Facebook Considering New Laws And Legal Action Against Employers Asking For Users’ Passwords [Tech Crunch]
"Following up on disturbing reports that some employers are asking applicants to turn over their Facebook usernames and passwords, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer on Policy, Erin Egan, hints that the company is looking into drafting new laws to protect users from violations of their privacy like this."

American Civil Liberties Union