Post Tagged with: "do-not-track"

Seeking Solutions to the Mounting Social Media Privacy Concerns

The House of Commons Committee on Ethics, Accountability and Privacy recently launched a major new study into the privacy concerns raised by popular social media sites. The study promises to canvass a wide range of perspectives as elected officials grapple with emerging privacy issues and consider whether the current legal framework provides sufficient protection.

Canadians are among the most active social media users in the world, yet the growing reliance on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ has generated unease with the privacy implications of massive data collection. My weekly technology law column last week (Toronto Star version, homepage version) notes I was recently invited to appear before the committee and used my time to identify four areas in need of action.

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June 11, 2012 — 1 comment — Columns

Privacy and Social Media: My Appearance Before the Ethics, Accountability & Privacy Committee

The House of Commons Committee on Ethics, Accountability and Privacy recently launched a major new study into the privacy concerns raised by popular social media sites. Yesterday I appeared before the committee and delivered the following opening statement:

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June 1, 2012 — 7 comments — Committees, 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