This week's big iPhone tracking story offers a great example of how lawmakers don't seek out and react to the best information on kid safety available – and, of course, why parents need to take politicians' pronouncements on the subject with a grain of salt. Too often they are protecting their own interests more than they're protecting children. This week Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass) published a … [Read more...] about iPhone story & how kids’ ‘champions’ in Congress pay attention
Privacy
Facebook’s new Family Safety Center
I serve on the site's Safety Advisory Board so of course I have a bias, but where Facebook says (at the top of its new safety center), "We believe safety is a conversation and a shared responsibility among all of us," belief and bias really aren't at issue. You can see this is pure logic right? In today's social, user-produced media environment, safety and privacy are by definition a shared … [Read more...] about Facebook’s new Family Safety Center
‘The right to disappear’: Future of privacy in Europe?
The French call it "le droit à l'oubli – literally, the right to oblivion," the Christian Science Monitor reports, which is – for most of us, now – what disappearing from the Internet would be like. It's what the European Union wants for Internet users: the ability to erase their digital footprints. The Monitor leads with the anecdote of young Dubliner's effort to remove all trace of himself from … [Read more...] about ‘The right to disappear’: Future of privacy in Europe?
FTC’s strong message to social media providers
Via its proposed settlement with Google over its Buzz product's privacy flaws, the Federal Trade Commission just sent the social-media industry a message. Bake user privacy protection into your product development. The Commission's critique of Buzz's launch was detailed, reported Rob Pegoraro at the Washington Post: "If you read through its eight-page complaint, you’ll see a focus on the finer … [Read more...] about FTC’s strong message to social media providers
Update: FB holds off on that last privacy change
Facebook temporarily reversed its decision to make users' address and phone numbers available to apps with users' permission. "Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," Douglas Purdy, Facebook's director of developer relations wrote in the site blog. "We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure … [Read more...] about Update: FB holds off on that last privacy change