No way anybody's going to abandon privacy policies anytime soon – not with the FTC's and others' calls for ever greater disclosure of mobile and Web services' privacy practices (e.g., see this). But no one reads them – even if they could get through all the legal verbiage without nodding off. Knowing this, Mozilla, the people who brought you the Firefox Web browser, and some privacy advocates … [Read more...] about Privacy policies made palatable (or at least digestible)!
Privacy
Private vs. public parenting (& a Pew study)
Did you know that we parents are pretty darn engaged with the young social media users at our houses? To our credit, I feel, most of us are folding social media into our parenting, the Pew Internet researchers report. For example – although high school student Jake tells his friend that he's "probably the only kid in the world with their mom on Facebook" in this engaging YouTube dramatization by … [Read more...] about Private vs. public parenting (& a Pew study)
Facebook’s privacy primer for new users
Hey, kids, if you want to get parents, grandparents, or aunts and uncles on Facebook, now's a better time than ever. FB now has a privacy primer for people who are signing up for the first time. "We’ve implemented these enhancements as part of our broader effort to integrate more privacy education into the new user experience," it says in Facebook's blog, acknowledging the "guidance on this … [Read more...] about Facebook’s privacy primer for new users
Facebook ‘privacy breach’: Misperception-cum-meme?
The "news" that people's private Facebook messages were appearing on their "walls" spread like wildfire earlier this week, but Slate reports that it's more meme than news. It all started in France, where users complained about finding private messages posted between 2007 and '09 on their profiles pages, but news outlets reported that "the issue is not systematic and affects only certain accounts." … [Read more...] about Facebook ‘privacy breach’: Misperception-cum-meme?
Today’s Net, kids & COPPA: Our comment to the FTC
A US law about children's online services can really only regulate US-based children's online services. It might influence foreign regulators but it has no jurisdiction over sites and services based outside the US and can't stop US users from leaving compliant services and going to noncompliant ones outside the US (or in it, for that matter). So, by the global nature of the Internet, there's no … [Read more...] about Today’s Net, kids & COPPA: Our comment to the FTC