Digital Privacy Issues
Digital Health Issues
EPIC & CDD ask FTC to investigate whether Facebook/Datalogix data deal violates Consent Decree
Submitted by demedia on Thu, 09/27/2012 - 17:17CDD and EPIC submitted this letter to the FTC today. Both groups have had a long history of monitoring Facebook's privacy and online data-related marketing practices. We have both worked to ensure that the FTC and other regulators engage in the due diligence required to ensure Facebook respects the privacy rights of its users.
U.S. Consumer, Privacy and Civil Liberties Groups support EU privacy law/Weigh in to counter US critics
Submitted by demedia on Wed, 09/05/2012 - 19:08Industry Silence on Mobile Data Targeting Practices Deafening/NTIA Fails to Ensure Consumers are Treated Fairly
Submitted by demedia on Fri, 07/13/2012 - 14:53Yesterday's NTIA stakeholder meeting failed to address the actual mobile marketing data collection practices consumers confront in both the "app" and overall mobile/geo-location market. Neither the industry nor the Department of Commerce appears interested in ensuring that the public actually knows about the issues and practices that should be addressed in any "code of conduct" to protect consumers using mobile devices and related applications. C
5 Google Videos the NTIA should have shown about mobile marketing and apps
Submitted by demedia on Fri, 07/13/2012 - 21:03There's so much that should have been said about the mobile environment at yesterday's White House led privacy meeting organized by the NTIA. Sadly, the Administration failed to take responsibility to ensure that all the issues are presented early and fairly. Many consumer groups have been concerned about the Department of Commerce's role in the process--especially whether they would place the interests of business ahead of consumers/general public. The NTIA choose low hanging "fruit loops" in the mobile space by focusing on so-called transparency. The
CDD Opposes Facebook Sponsored Stories deal for class action: Proposed Class Action Settlement Fails to Protect Facebook Users from Comprehensive Marketing/Data System
Submitted by demedia on Thu, 07/12/2012 - 10:05When CDD reviewed the proposed Facebook Sponsored Stories settlement it was clear it failed to address how marketing and targeting on the social network really works. It also didn't do anything to ensure that parents and teens have the control they require over the Sponsored Story process and its inter-related series of premium ad pr
Consumer, Civil Rights & Privacy Groups call on Obama Adm Privacy Stakeholder Process to Ensure Two-way Participation
Submitted by demedia on Mon, 07/02/2012 - 12:13This letter was sent today to Lawrence Strickling, Ass't Sec of Commerce, as well as The White House. Despite our best efforts to encourage the Commerce Department to ensure that people across the country can meaningfully participate in the first key stakeholder meeting scheduled for 12 July, the agency has failed to embrace an effective means to do so. Over the last few weeks we did get the Commerce people to change their plans to allow some outside of the Beltway involvement--but in a very limited way. The groups previous
Microsoft, Do Not Track, IE, and why the Digital Ad Lobby (including Google, Yahoo, etc) are Afraid of Protecting Privacy
Submitted by demedia on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 11:03A firestorm of anger has erupted in the advertising industry against the decision of Microsoft to incorporate a Do-Not-Track turned on as default system in the forthcoming edition of its Internet Explorer (IE) browswer. The online ad lobby--including the self-regulatory group called the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)--is fearful of having better privacy as the default. They know that defaults matter, and that from the get-go the millions of IE users may be sending a powerf
Protecting Mobile Privacy--TACD offers Guidelines to EU and US
Submitted by demedia on Mon, 06/04/2012 - 18:55CDD is the co-author of the TransAtalantic Consumer Dialogue policy statement on mobile marketing and privacy--entitled "Protecting Mobile Privacy in a Hyper-local World." It raises many of the key concerns often not part of the debate. On 5 June 2012, at the US State Department, this document was given to officials from the EU's DG Justice, the FTC and the US Department of Commerce.
It's a Match: Online Publishers Increasingly Track You with 1st and 3rd Party Data Sources [annals of digital surveillance]
Submitted by demedia on Sat, 06/02/2012 - 12:49The data collection on individuals is accelerating, who increasingly find themselves in a maze constructed of their online and offline information. This can affect how creditors and others view your financial status--and has real-life implications for a consumer's future prospects. Later this week, USPIRG and my CDD will present a paper on this issue at a conference hosted by the National Consumer Law Center and Suffolk University Law School. Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from a recent industry post that ill
US Online Ad Biz Flawed Privacy Plan Exported to EU/US Role Promoting Data Collection Should Be Criticized
Submitted by demedia on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 14:35The online ad industry developed its data-collection business model without ever considering the privacy consequences. Advocates and regulators have forced the industry to begin to address the privacy and some of the digital consumer protection issues. But the commitment to privacy from the industry is tepid, at best. Afterall, the harvesting and analysis of massive amounts of information from and about us is the digital golden goose enriching Google, Facebook, WPP and others. In order to fight regulation, the US online ad lobby dreamed up their "icon"
