Smackdown: Consumer Privacy vs. Advertiser Revenue: Via CDT - Center for Democracy & Technology..

I attended Smackdown: Consumer Privacy vs. Advertiser Revenue and was expecting to hear good discussion about how advertising and targeting firms are battling with privacy groups to meet the needs of the consumer. I was a little disappointed in how little representation from the privacy end there was in the room. The panel opened with moderator Alan Chapell from BlueKai asking whom in the room represented the business side of consumer data and who was from the advocacy end. I was one of three people representing the advocacy end.

The talk began with defining what data they were talking about as panelists tiptoed around exactly what data is being taken by marketers and commented that nothing used is personally identifiable and is used to tailor a better online experience; however, the panel didn’t really discuss one of the most important questions of user data being used for marketing - how long this data is kept and stored?

Discussion from the panelists turned to how advertisers can adapt their industry practices and data practices in the changing legislative environment. The FTC’s public roundtables, in which CDT participated, were discussed as was legislation in Congress being proposed by Rep. Boucher. [ Read more ... ]

Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not): Via NYTimes.com .

Mobile services like Loopt and Google’s Latitude have promoted the notion of constantly beaming your location to a map that is visible to a network of friends — an idea that is not for everybody.

But now there is a different approach, one that is being popularized by Foursquare.

After firing up the Foursquare application on their phones, users see a list of nearby bars, restaurants and other places, select their location and “check in,” sending an alert to friends using the service.

This model, which may be more attractive than tracking because it gives people more choice in revealing their locations, is gathering speed in the Internet industry. Yelp, the popular site that compiles reviews of restaurants and other businesses, recently added a check-in feature to its cellphone application. And Facebook is expected to take a similar approach when it introduces location features to its 400 million users in coming months. [ Read more ... ]

Advertising - Instant Ads Set the Pace on the Web: Via NYTimes.com .

Now, companies like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft let advertisers buy ads in the milliseconds between the time someone enters a site’s Web address and the moment the page appears. The technology, called real-time bidding, allows advertisers to examine site visitors one by one and bid to serve them ads almost instantly.

For example, say a man just searched for golf clubs on eBay (which has been testing a system from a company called AppNexus for more than a year). EBay can essentially follow that person’s activities in real time, deciding when and where to show him near-personalized ads for golf clubs throughout the Web.

If eBay finds out that he bought a driver at another site, it can update the ad immediately to start showing him tees, golf balls or a package vacation to St. Andrew’s, Scotland, often called the home of golf. If a woman was shopping, eBay could change the ad’s color or presentation. [ Read more ... ]

Six Types of Social Spammers: Via Search Engine Journal.

I hate spammers, and I’m 100% certain other people do too. Everyone at some point in time has had some type of experience with spammers. But you almost have to admire these individuals, almost. The techniques used are as varied as the outlets in which they are unleashed. During my thirteen years of internet exposure, I’ve had the displeasure of running into six types of spammers.

Read Original Article:(Via Search Engine Journal.)

CDT Issues Report Recommending Privacy Guidelines for Digital Signage Industry: Via CDT - Center for Democracy & Technology.

Washington -- On Monday, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) released a report that includes a set of privacy recommendations for the rapidly growing digital signage industry.  The report focuses on the industry's adoption of identification and interactivity technologies such as facial recognition, mobile marketing, social networking, RFID tracking and license plate scanners.

The recommendations in CDT's report, "Building The Digital-Out-Of-Home Privacy Infrastructure," are based on the widely accepted Fair Information Practices (FIPs). [ Read more ... ]

Redrawing the Route to Online Privacy: Via NYT > Privacy.

ON the Internet, things get old fast. One prime candidate for the digital dustbin, it seems, is the current approach to protecting privacy on the Internet.

It is an artifact of the 1990s, intended as a light-touch policy to nurture innovation in an emerging industry. And its central concept is “notice and choice,” in which Web sites post notices of their privacy policies and users can then make choices about sites they frequent and the levels of privacy they prefer.

But policy and privacy experts agree that the relentless rise of Internet data harvesting has overrun the old approach of using lengthy written notices to safeguard privacy. [ Read more ... ]

Security Co. Keystroke Data To Support Behaviorally Targeted Ads 02/18/2010: Via MediaPost Publications.

Next month Scout Analytics will begin testing keystroke dynamics -- technology that creates individual digital fingerprints for each consumer user -- as a behavioral targeting tactic.
A Scout media client will perform the test for several months. Then Scout plans to offer its technology to retailers and other businesses that target ads directly to consumers through behavioral targeting platforms.

Keystroke dynamics analyze typing patterns such as how long each key gets held down while typing, and the length of time between each press. These typing patterns represent a signature. So, rather than rely on a cookie that can get wiped out by clearing a browser, now behavioral targeters can use parameters from browsers that create a digital fingerprint.

"It's one way to track individual users without providing personally identifiable information," says Matt Shanahan, vice president of strategy for Scout Analytics. [ Read more ... ]

Facebook Denies ‘All Wrongdoing’ in ‘Beacon’ Data Breach: Via Threat Level.

Facebook is denying it illegally breached the privacy of its users in a proposed $9.5 million settlement to a class action challenging its program that monitored and published what users of the social-networking site were buying or renting from Blockbuster, Overstock and other locations.

To settle allegations that the social networking site’s “Beacon” program breached federal wiretap and video-rental privacy laws, Facebook is agreeing to seed what the agreement is calling a “Digital Trust Fund” that would issue more than $6 million in grants to organizations to study privacy. Facebook would have a seat on the fund’s three-member board — a move raising some eyebrows in the privacy community.

A fairness hearing on the issue is set for Feb. 26 in a San Jose, California, federal court. The judge presiding over the case, Richard Seeborg, gave preliminary approval to the deal three months ago. [ Read more ... ]

Feds Bust Cookie-Stuffing Code Seller: Via Threat Level.

Federal authorities are charging a Las Vegas man with marketing a so-called “cookie-stuffing” operation, enriching himself and others while defrauding eBay along the way.

The felony conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge levied Tuesday against Christopher Kennedy, who faces a maximum 5-year prison term, centers around his website the authorities claim he owns called saucekit. The now-defunct site lets nefarious website owners purchase his cookie-stuffing code to unwittingly dupe eBay to pay those site owners thousands of dollars in advertising referral fees, the authorities said.

Authorities in San Jose, California, declined to say how many website owners — or underground eBay affiliates — had purchased the program, or how much Kennedy charged. But message boards and court documents claim that some underground entrepreneurs made up to $10,000 monthly in fraudulent eBay payments. [ Read more ... ]

Google Superbowl Ad Explains The Need for Search Privacy: Via EFF.org Updates.

Google's ad during yesterday's Superbowl explained in less than a minute how the story of someone's life can be pieced together from their search queries. Using only the search terms and user's clicks of the search results, Google told the story of a user who seeks love while studying abroad in Paris, finds it, moves to Paris, marries and has a child.

[ Read more ... ]

Future of Privacy Forum Release Behavioral Notices Study: Via Future of Privacy Forum.

Research Shows Transparency and Choice Significantly Increase Acceptance of Behavioral Ads

WASHINGTON – Today, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) released the results of a research study which tested the effectiveness of using new icons and key phrases to provide web surfers with more transparency and choice about behavioral advertising practices. FPF launched the notices initiative in May 2009 and partnered with a number of divisions at WPP, the global marketing communications company, to launch a consumer focused effort that would rely on the skill of advertising and communications professionals to engage users about efforts to provide relevant banner advertising. In February 2009, the Federal Trade Commission had expressed concern that privacy policies were not being read or understood, and urged the industry to develop new methods of providing notice to users about behavioral advertising practices.

The two phrases that performed significantly better than others in the 2600 internet user panel were, “Why did I get this ad?” and “Interest based ads.” [ Read more ... ]

A Little ‘i’ to Teach About Online Privacy: Via NYT > Privacy.

A LITTLE blue symbol is carrying big implications.

Trying to ward off regulators, the advertising industry has agreed on a standard icon — a little “i” — that it will add to most online ads that use demographics and behavioral data to tell consumers what is happening.

Jules Polonetsky, the co-chairman and director of the Future of Privacy Forum, an advocacy group that helped create the symbol, compared it to the triangle made up of three arrows that tells consumers that something is recyclable.

The idea was “to come up with a recycling symbol — people will look at it, and once they know what it is, they’ll get it, and always get it,” Mr. Polonetsky said.

Most major companies running online ads are expected to begin adding the icon to their ads by midsummer, along with phrases like “Why did I get this ad?” [ Read more ... ]

FTC - Exploring Privacy: A Roundtable Series: Via FTC - Federal Trade Commission.

The Federal Trade Commission will host a series of day-long public roundtable discussions to explore the privacy challenges posed by the vast array of 21st century technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data. Such practices include social networking, cloud computing, online behavioral advertising, mobile marketing, and the collection and use of information by retailers, data brokers, third-party applications, and other diverse businesses. The goal of the roundtables is to determine how best to protect consumer privacy while supporting beneficial uses of the information and technological innovation. [ Read more ... ]

Browser Versions Carry 10.5 Bits of Identifying Information on Average: Via EFF.org Updates.

This is part 3 of a series of posts on user tracking on the modern web. You can also read part 1 and part 2.

Whenever you visit a web page, your browser sends a "User Agent" header to the website saying precisely which operating system and web browser you are using. This information could help distinguish Internet users from one another because these versions differ, often considerably, from person to person. We recently ran an experiment to see to what extent this information could be used to track people (for instance, if someone deletes their browser cookies, would the User Agent, alone or in combination with some other detail, be unique enough to let a site recognize them and re-create their old cookie?). [ Read more ... ]

Help EFF Research Web Browser Tracking: Via EFF.org Updates.

What fingerprints does your browser leave behind as you surf the web?

Traditionally, people assume they can prevent a website from identifying them by disabling cookies on their web browser. Unfortunately, this is not the whole story.

When you visit a website, you are allowing that site to access a lot of information about your computer's configuration. Combined, this information can create a kind of fingerprint — a signature that could be used to identify you and your computer. But how effective would this kind of online tracking be?

EFF is running an experiment to find out. Our new website Panopticlick will anonymously log the configuration and version information from your operating system, your browser, and your plug-ins, and compare it to our database of five million other configurations. Then, it will give you a uniqueness score — letting you see how easily identifiable you might be as you surf the web. [ Read more ... ]

F.T.C.: Has Internet Gone Beyond Privacy Policies?: Via Media Decoder Blog - NYTimes.com .

Two top Federal Trade Commission officials questioned whether the Internet had evolved past privacy policies, at a meeting with editors and reporters of The New York Times today.

The chairman of the F.T.C., Jon Leibowitz, and David Vladeck, chief of the commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, stopped by for an on-the-record chat about online privacy and the news business, among other topics. Mr. Leibowitz was appointed chairman in 2009 after five years at the commission, while Mr. Vladeck is a relatively new arrival to the F.T.C.

Both have signaled to Internet publishers and advertisers that they expect the commission to take a more active role in safeguarding consumer privacy, a subject they discussed on Monday. [ Read more ... ]

Rogue Marketers Can Mine Your Info on Facebook: Via Epicenter | Wired.com .

Got an e-mail list of customers or readers and want to know more about each — such as their full name, friends, gender, age, interests, location, job and education level?

Facebook has just the free feature you’re looking for, thanks to its recent privacy changes.

The hack, first publicized by blogger Max Klein, repurposes a Facebook feature that lets people find their friends on Facebook by scanning through e-mail addresses in their contact list.

But as Klein points out, a  marketer could take a list of 1,000 e-mail addresses, either legally or illegally collected — and upload those through a dummy account — which then lets the user see all the profiles created using those addresses. Given Facebook’s ubiquity and most people’s reliance on a single e-mail address, the harvest could be quite rich. [ Read more ... ]

Google Talks Transparency, But Hides Surveillance Stats: Via Threat Level.

Google likes to trumpet transparency and free expression, especially when it concerns the internet, part of its commitment to the corporate motto, “Don’t Be Evil.”

But despite the company’s recent online public policy posts espousing unfettered online expression, we aren’t buying it.

The Mountain View, California, search and advertising giant said Wednesday, for example, that it was a “company that believes deeply in free expression” and that it was “determined to continue to do our part and make new, significant contributions to promote free expression in 2010.”

But juxtapose those and other recent statements on its public policy blog with the real facts — facts that Google won’t cough up.

We asked Google some simple questions about how much user data it turns over to the government. These are questions at the heart of free expression, especially with a company that wants you to use its operating system, its browser, its DNS servers, its search service and its e-mail and phonecalling programs. [ Read more ... ]

"Godfather of Spam" goes to prison for four years: Via Law & Disorder Section - Ars Technica.

Alan Ralsky, the so-called "Godfather of spam" was yesterday sentenced by a federal judge in Detroit to spend the next 51 months of his life in prison for wire fraud, mail fraud, and violations of the CAN-SPAM act.

Not content simply to move boxes of pills or to sign people up for new mortgages, Ralsky's operation instead pulled in millions of dollars through "pump and dump" schemes of thinly traded stocks in companies you've never heard of. [ Read more ... ]

MPAA Says Copyright-Treaty Critics Hate Hollywood: Via Threat Level.

If you don’t back a copyright treaty being negotiated in secret, you must want to destroy Hollywood, its blockbuster movies and all the jobs they create.

At least that’s the message from the Motion Picture Association of America.

It’s spelled out in a Thursday memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee, urging lawmakers to support the Obama administration’s efforts toward negotiating an intellectual property agreement with more than a dozen countries.

Dan Glickman, the MPAA’s chairman, informs lawmakers that millions of film-related jobs are in peril because of internet piracy. Simply put, those who don’t back the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting and Trade Agreement don’t support intellectual property rights, he wrote. [ Read more ... ]

Facebook Launches “Friends of Connections” Ad Targeting: Via RyanSpoon.com .

One of the biggest stories not heavily discussed this week was Facebook’s new Ads Platform targeting of “Friends of Connections“:

“How do you find more fans for your Facebook Page, more people to interact with your Application, or more people to engage with your business? Target friends!

‘Friends of connection’ targeting is now available for Facebook Ads. Expand your audience reach by delivering your ads to the friends of people already connected with your Page, Application, Group or Event.” [ Read more ... ]

P3P and the Future of PETs: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

I will be speaking on Thursday at the European Commission’s Workshop on the Economic Benefits of Privacy-enhancing Technologies in Brussels. With many calling for a revamping of ideas using metadata to help protect privacy, I felt that it was important to use the occasion to write a short paper entitled “Looking Back at P3P: Lessons for the Future,” which details the successes and failures of P3P (The Platform for Privacy Preferences). [ Read more ... ]

Is Your Facebook Profile As Private As You Think?: Via NPR.

Much has been made in recent years of the so-called Facebook generation, which supposedly consists of 20-somethings who like to go online and spill their guts without regard for privacy. The reality is more complex.

Yes, social network users post a lot of personal information. But they're sharing it within a circle of online "friends." And they fiercely resist outsiders' attempts to get a peek.

Last summer, city administrators in Bozeman, Mont., began requiring job applicants to provide usernames and passwords to their social networking accounts, as part of the background check. The new requirement caused such an uproar, the city manager held a press conference to apologize.

Social network users assume a degree of privacy within their circle of friends — but it's not a safe assumption to make. [ Read more ... ]

Cybercrooks Trick Gawker Into Serving Malware-Laced Ad: Via Threat Level.

Remember when the global economic crisis was supposed to drive legions of desperate, unemployed computer programmers into cybercrime? It turns out the real threat comes from unemployed advertising agents.

Scammers posing as the well-known ad agency Spark-SMG tricked Gawker Media into running a fake Suzuki ad last week that served malicious code, according to a report in Silicon Alley Insider. A similar scam hit the New York Times in September. Unlike the newspaper, Gawker has released the e-mails it exchanged with the scammers, and the messages show just how confidently the perps navigated the ad-buy process. [ Read more ... ]

Woman Sues Toyota Over 'Terrifying' Prank: Via ABC News.

A Los Angeles woman is suing Toyota for $10 million over a marketing campaign that she claims "punked" her into incorrectly believing she was being stalked.

In a lawsuit filed Sept. 28 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Amber Duick claims she had difficulty eating, sleeping and going to work during March and April of last year after she received e-mails for five days from a fictitious man called Sebastian Bowler, from England, who said he was on the run from the law, knew her and where she lived, and was coming to her home to hide from the police.

There was even a fictitious MySpace page reportedly created for Bowler.

Although Bowler did not have Duick's current address, he sent her links to his My Space page as well as links to video clips of him causing trouble all over the country on his way to her former house in Los Angeles, according to the lawsuit.

"Amber mate! Coming 2 Los Angeles. Gonna lay low at your place for a bit till it all blows over," the man wrote in one e-mail.

Ficticious Man Claimed He Knew Alleged Victim, and Was Coming to Her House [ Read more ... ]