Privacy Roundup #0049 • August 2010
August 2010 was defined by governments demanding keys to BlackBerry encryption, Facebook pushing location tracking onto users, and WikiLeaks testing the limits of disclosure.
1. The Wall Street Journal asks what online advertisers know about you
The newspaper launched its "What They Know" series, reporting that the fifty most popular sites installed an average of sixty-four tracking tools on each visitor. The findings showed advertisers inferring age, income, health and relationship status from ordinary browsing.
2. The United Arab Emirates moves to suspend BlackBerry services
The country's telecommunications regulator announced that it would disable BlackBerry email, messaging and web browsing from October because the encrypted traffic could not be monitored. The Committee to Protect Journalists warned that the suspension would deter reporters who relied on the devices to protect their sources.
→ cpj.org
3. Saudi Arabia scraps its BlackBerry ban after obtaining server codes
The Saudi regulator reversed its threatened ban once Research In Motion agreed to route messenger data through domestic servers and hand officials a means of access. The deal set an early template for governments seeking to break the secrecy of corporate encryption.
4. Indonesia presses Research In Motion over BlackBerry data
Jakarta demanded that the company build a local data centre so that authorities could reach stored communications inside the country. The request joined a wave of states insisting that encrypted traffic be made reachable by their security services.
5. India lifts its threat to ban BlackBerry services
New Delhi withdrew its suspension threat after Research In Motion agreed to provide security officials with lawful access to encrypted communications. The interior ministry had wanted real-time interception of corporate email and messenger traffic.
6. WikiLeaks publishes an encrypted insurance file
The site posted a 1.4 gigabyte file encrypted with AES-256 onto its Afghan War Diary page without releasing the passphrase. Observers read it as a deterrent, suggesting the key would be released if authorities moved against the organisation or its founder.
7. The Pentagon frets over fifteen thousand unpublished war documents
Defence officials warned that the records WikiLeaks had not yet released were potentially more sensitive than the seventy-seven thousand already published. The dispute centred on whether names of Afghan informants would expose them to reprisal.
8. WikiLeaks releases a secret CIA memo
The organisation published a three-page CIA Red Cell memo asking what would follow if foreigners viewed the United States as an exporter of terrorism. The agency played down the leak, describing such memos as thought experiments rather than policy.
9. Google's chief suggests young people change their names
Eric Schmidt mused that teenagers might one day be entitled to change their names on reaching adulthood to escape the online record of their youth. The remark drew sharp criticism as an admission that the search company expected permanent surveillance to be normal.
10. Facebook launches Places and the EFF explains how to opt out
Facebook introduced a check-in feature that let users share locations and tag friends, often before those friends had agreed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation set out the several separate settings a person had to change to avoid being broadcast.
11. EPIC says Facebook Places embeds privacy risks
The Electronic Privacy Information Center argued that the new feature disclosed location data through defaults that users could not easily understand. It complained that the opt-out was complicated and ephemeral, placing an unfair burden on members.
12. Facebook Places continues the privacy cat-and-mouse game
PCWorld noted that most Places settings began unconfigured, leaving users in a privacy limbo until they intervened. The pattern of shipping features open by default and asking users to lock them down had become a Facebook habit.
13. Critics warn that Facebook location sharing invites abuse
Coverage of the Places launch highlighted how the ability to publish a friend's whereabouts could aid stalkers and burglars. The debate split commentators between those alarmed at the defaults and those who saw genuine utility in the feature.
14. Intel buys McAfee for nearly eight billion dollars
Intel agreed to acquire the security firm for about 7.68 billion dollars in cash, folding it into the chipmaker's software group. The deal signalled that data protection had become a built-in expectation rather than an add-on.
15. Google and Verizon propose their own net neutrality rules
The two companies unveiled a joint framework that protected wired traffic from discrimination while largely exempting wireless networks. Critics warned that the carve-outs would let carriers shape what mobile users could reach.
16. Germany wrestles with the Google Street View opt-out
Google said it would add the twenty largest German cities to Street View by year end and offered residents a short window to have their homes blurred. Data protection officials objected that the summer timing left many people unable to respond.
17. An appeals court rejects warrantless GPS tracking
The District of Columbia Circuit held that attaching a GPS device to a suspect's car and tracking it for a month required a warrant. The ruling in United States v. Maynard found that the sum of a person's movements deserved constitutional protection.
18. Bruce Schneier sets out the facts of life about personal data
Schneier proposed a framework dividing the information held by social networks into six categories, from service data to derived data. He argued that users deserved different rights over each type because the sites treated them so differently.
19. Research finds late teenagers do care about Facebook privacy
A study highlighted by Schneier reported that eighteen and nineteen year olds had increasingly adjusted their privacy settings during a year of public controversy. The finding challenged the assumption that young people were indifferent to exposure.
20. A judge orders the Lower Merion school district to pay legal fees
The court directed the Pennsylvania district to pay about 260,000 dollars to the lawyer who exposed its secret activation of webcams on student laptops. The order followed evidence that school computers had captured tens of thousands of images inside pupils' homes.
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