On Friday, an Italian appeals court in Milan overturned the 2010 criminal conviction of three Google Inc. executives for violating the privacy of a disabled boy by allowing a video of students bullying him to appear on Google Video. In February 2010, a court handed down six-month prison sentences to three senior Google executives—Senior Vice … Continue Reading
A U.S. district court has approved the Federal Trade Commission’s $22.5 million settlement with Google. The FTC had charged that Google misrepresented to users of Apple’s Safari browser that it would not place tracking cookies or serve targeted ads to those users, violating an earlier privacy settlement between the company and the FTC. The settlement is … Continue Reading
By Dan Cooper On 16 October, 2012, the French data protection authority, the CNIL, released a report on behalf of the Article 29 Working Party that examines Google’s compliance with European data protection law. The report marks a new stage in an investigation which began nine months ago, when Google announced that it intended to … Continue Reading
Updated on October 1, 2012 to add information about Chairman Leibowitz’s response to the nine Representatives’ letter. As we previously noted, in March of this year the Federal Trade Commission called for the implementation of a Do Not Track (DNT) system that allows consumers to opt out of the collection of all online behavioral data … Continue Reading
Today the Federal Trade Commission has announced its approval of a consent decree to settle charges that Google misrepresented to users of Apple’s Safari browser that it would not place tracking “cookies” or serve targeted ads to those users, violating an earlier privacy settlement between the company and the FTC. The decree requires Google to pay a … Continue Reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Immigration Policy Center last week released an interesting report on law enforcement’s increasing efforts to gather biometric data, and associated risks of data inaccuracy, racial profiling, erroneous deportations, security breaches, and privacy invasions. The report calls for greater accountability in the biometrics context, including collection and retention limitations; clear … Continue Reading
Last week, a district court declined to stay a lawsuit against Google Inc. and group-texting service Slide, Inc. alleging a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). The court found that a related, ongoing proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission relating to the scope of the definitions of “consent” and “automatic telephone dialing system” … Continue Reading
An action brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) asking that the FTC be compelled to enforce its Google Buzz consent order (previously described, here) was dismissed by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, who held that “enforcement decisions are committed to agency discretion and … Continue Reading
Yesterday California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced an agreement she forged among Amazon, Apple, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Research in Motion to ensure that mobile device apps that collect personal information contain privacy policies. The agreement is designed to ensure that mobile apps comply with the California Online Privacy Protection Act, which requires operators of commercial … Continue Reading
The Korean Herald reports that the Korea’s Communications Commission (KCC) has opened an investigation into Google’s rollout of its new privacy policy in that country. The investigation reportedly will focus on whether the company has received sufficient consent to the changes to Google’s existing policy and whether Google is collecting more data than is required … Continue Reading
Following a public comment period that began in March of this year, the Federal Trade Commission has accepted as final a settlement with Google relating to the social network “Buzz” product that was launched in 2010. (For more details about the Buzz product and its launch see Inside Privacy’s prior post, here). As the Commission’s … Continue Reading
The Northern District of California issued two key rulings last week in denying in part a motion to dismiss in In re Google Inc. Street View Electronic Communications Litigation, a consolidated action arising out of Google’s acknowledged interception of “payload data,” including emails, usernames, password, and other private data, from unencrypted home wireless networks using … Continue Reading
Over the past few weeks, online publishers have seen regulators’ focus on privacy in the social media context reach the boiling point. Just this week, Politico reported that FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz confirmed in a letter to Sen. Mark Pryor that “FTC staff are carefully monitoring the privacy and security issues associated with social networking … Continue Reading
Senator Al Franken recently sent a letter to Apple and Google asking them to require all applications available in the Apple App Store and the Android App Market to have “clear and understandable” privacy policies. He made a similar request at a Senate hearing on mobile privacy earlier this month. Franken’s letter cites a study … Continue Reading
Today, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it has accepted, subject to final approval, a consent agreement from Google that would resolve the Commission’s allegations that Google engaged in deceptive trade practices when it launched its “Buzz” social networking service in February 2010. The FTC’s complaint alleges, among other things, that the launch violated Google’s privacy policy in … Continue Reading
United States District Judge Denny Chin’s decision [PDF] denying final approval of the Google Books Settlement included an interesting discussion of privacy issues that were raised by the proposed settlement agreement [PDF]. The decision may draw attention to the emerging privacy issues surrounding reading on computers and other Internet-enabled devices, such as popular e-Readers. The Google Books settlement agreement would have … Continue Reading
On March 17, the French data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertes (CNIL), imposed a 100,000 Euro fine on Google, for privacy violations arising from its collection of personal data with respect to its Street View product and its Latitude geolocation service. This is the largest fine assessed by CNIL since … Continue Reading
Google has moved to dismiss a conslidated class action complaint alleging that it violated the federal Wiretap Act, among other laws, by allowing its Street View cars to collect the contents of communications transmitted over unsecured WiFi networks. The motion was filed in the Northern District of California, where more than a dozen suits arising out of the Street View activity were consolidated for … Continue Reading
