Archive for January 25th, 2011

Canadian Heritage Officials Questioned CRTC Reports on Fee-For-Carriage

The Wire Report reports (sub req) that documents obtained under Access to Information reveal that Canadian Heritage department officials questioned CRTC data on the fee-for-carriage issue last year.  The report indicates “the CRTC does not always present the data in a complete manner” and that it appears to exaggerate the […]

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January 25, 2011 2 comments News

Ontario Privacy Commish Sides With Opt-Out on Behavioural Online Tracking

The U.S. FTC is in the midst of considering a proposed Do-Not-Track planthat seeks to address mounting concerns about behavioural tracking of online activities for marketing purposes [the practice became apparentin one of my recent classes when we visited an online dating site to discuss the use of Google advertising only to find that dating site advertisements appeared in subsequent, unrelated browsing]. Yesterday, both Google and Mozilla announced that they would install do-not-track features on the Chrome and Firefoxbrowsers.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, one of the leading privacy groups in the U.S., makes the case for an opt-in approach, noting that it would better protect consumer  privacy and is consistent with many other U.S. privacy statutes. It adds that:

Opt-in is more effective than opt-out because it encourages companies to explain the benefits of information sharing, and to eliminate barriers to exercising choice. Experience with opt-out has shown that companies tend to obfuscate the process of exercising choice, or that exemptions are created to make opt-outimpossible.

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January 25, 2011 5 comments News

How Facebook Responded to Tunisian Hacks

The Atlantic runs a fascinating story on how Facebook responded to a country-wide effort to capture login information for all users by installing keylogger programs at the ISP level.

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January 25, 2011 2 comments News