Tag Archives: Privacy

Security Threats for 2012

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in eCommerce, Security

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Georgia Tech released a report earlier this week that carries warnings about likely security threats in the coming year.  Make no mistake, as security experts work to overcome well-known threats and render them less effective, there is an community of individuals hard at work doing what they can to steal private information and use it to their advantage.

The topics that the report outlines are: Continue reading »

You Have the Right to Remain Invisible

03 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by in Privacy

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There has been a lot of debate recently about the use of anonymized data and whether data that is cleansed of personally identifiable information is truly anonymous in nature. There have been numerous out-of-the-ordinary privacy breaches lately, from Google to TomTom and some states are getting so restrictive on data that California isn’t even allowing zip code to be collected and stored anymore.

Google’s faux pas regarding Street View data could be positioned as a fairly innocent event by their management but there are those that believe Google was looking for things they shouldn’t have been. But TomTom’s recent misstep is a giant leap from being acceptable and should more fully open the debate on the use of anonymous data.
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Privacy: Google Fined for Street View Data Collection

21 Monday Mar 2011

Posted by in General, Privacy

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The French data privacy regulator, CNIL, handed down a record fine this morning to Google related to the images collected by their Street View technology.  Interestingly, the 100,000 euro fine  isn’t based on the collection of images, which Google does a fairly good job of scrubbing (blurring license plates, people’s faces, and the like).  Rather, the fine is due to the inadvertent collection of data from WiFi networks to which Google’s roaming Street View vehicles connected.

While Google’s Street View cars were driving down picturesque streets through France and other European countries, they apparently used unencrypted WiFi networks to communicate location information to Google Latitude.  Where Google erred was in the collection of payload data from the open WiFi networks, including email addresses, Continue reading »

Welcome to California, Please Don’t Tell Us Where You’re From

24 Thursday Feb 2011

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On February 10, 2011, the California Supreme court issued a decision that a customer’s Zipcode constitues personal identification information (PII) and that requesting or recording a customer’s Zipcode or any other such information could subject retailers to potential litigation.  While lower courts ruled that a Zipcode is not PII, but was overturned by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.

Law suits have been filed against retailers for years under the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, but this particular ruling will likely open the flood gates, especially against large retailers that typically ask for this type of information. What is a bit ironic here is that retailers often ask for this information to protect the consumer. However, many retailers Continue reading »

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