When I read this sentence in a New York Times review of the Apple Watch, I thought of the privacy spectrum of the digital age: Apple "seems to be pushing a vision of the Watch as a general-purpose remote control for the real world, a nearly bionic way to open your hotel room, board a plane, call up an Uber or otherwise have the physical world respond to your desires nearly … [Read more...] about The real privacy dilemma: Private or convenient?
data security
From ‘Big Data’ to ‘Big Parent’: Student privacy developments
Are you part of the Big Parent response to Big Data? Great lede from Politico.com's Stephanie Simon: "You’ve heard of Big Oil and Big Tobacco. Now get ready for Big Parent." She's talking about an unpredicted mobilization in recent months that has "catapulted student privacy … to prominence in statehouses from New York to Florida to Wyoming" and "attracted powerful allies" from left (ACLU) to … [Read more...] about From ‘Big Data’ to ‘Big Parent’: Student privacy developments
Companies competing to protect our privacy?
It'd be an exaggeration to say that tech companies are falling over themselves to protect our privacy, but you might say that it's becoming a "social norm" for US businesses. At least, that's what the New York Times reports, and that must be at least a sign that it's true because it's far from normative for newspapers to report good news. As evidence, the Times cites a Microsoft executive saying … [Read more...] about Companies competing to protect our privacy?
Why we do ‘let our guard down’: Online privacy
We care about our online privacy, but we also like convenience a whole lot. And not only convenience, but often a good deal or discount beats out any worry about data security. What do deals and convenience have to do with privacy? A whole lot. An article by Somini Sengupta at the New York Times is all about what is new about "letting our guard down," as I touched on yesterday. Why we (and our … [Read more...] about Why we do ‘let our guard down’: Online privacy
FTC finds kid apps’ privacy practices ‘disAPPointing’
The US Federal Trade Commission has turned this week's wakeup call about mobile-app privacy into a conference call, adding kids' privacy to the conversation. The title of its just-released report "Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures are Disappointing" (that's the FTC authors' cute italicization) summarizes the Commission's conclusions well. But to make their point crystal clear, the … [Read more...] about FTC finds kid apps’ privacy practices ‘disAPPointing’