Hasta La Gadget!

The apparent incoming settlement between Google and the FTC is giving privacy groups a reason to celebrate today, as news of the possible $22.5 million deal is making headlines as the largest ever of its kind. Google, as many of you already know, is suspected of circumventing Safari’s do-not-track settings and installing cookies on users’ computers anyway, a revelation that did not sit too well with those who would prefer to have their surfing as private as possible. With a settlement likely in sight, privacy groups took time today to applaud the hefty fine the FTC imposed on Google for apparently ignoring Safari’s settings.

It’s true that having to pay $22.5 million is nothing to Google, but these privacy groups argue that it’s more about the precedent set during the high-profile case than it is about the money. “The FTC fine’s impact on Google can’t just be measured in dollars,” Center for Digital Democracy executive director Jeffrey Chester tells Computerworld. “It sends a strong signal to Google users that the company is still failing to do right by their privacy. If they don’t do a better job protecting privacy, it will face larger fines and greater political consequences.”

Still, Google says that whatever violation occurred was purely unintentional and declined to comment on the possible settlement. Whether Google is guilty in this case or not, the hope is that the massive company realizes that it is not immune to public outcry, and that it would look to prevent these problems from happening in the first place from here on out.

As always, privacy will remain a hot topic regardless of how this case is settled. Here’s hoping that the FTC’s hard line against Google will scare off other companies which would knowingly disregard user privacy, but whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. For more information on Google’s privacy controversy, check out the story timeline below!

Privacy advocates applaud incoming Google, FTC settlement is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google is likely to pay $22.5m to settle its privacy argument with the FTC, the largest such fine ever imposed, but a drop in the ocean for the search giant. The penalty – which amounts to $16,000 per violation per day – is over Google’s decision to ignore Safari browser users’ privacy settings around cookies, and will be officially announced soon according to the WSJ‘s sources; however, it also highlights the comparative limitations of such fines, with Google on average making $22.5m in the space of five hours last year.

That disparity between what the US Federal Trade Commission can levy and what might represent a legitimate threat to Google’s bank balance has prompted frustration from privacy activists. With the $22.5m figure such a small portion of the company’s yearly profit, it is hoped that it will instead serve to highlight the flippant attitude Google took to users’ privacy preferences.

At fault was how Google circumnavigated Safari preferences to block tracking, taking advantage of a loophole in the system that allowed the company to track users between sites. Subsequent investigation discovered Internet Explorer users were also being affected.

Back in March, Google admitted it had done wrong, but argued that it had not intended to track web users in that way. “We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. We created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google’s servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for personalized ads and other content” the company said in a statement.

“However, the Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser” Google continued. “We will of course cooperate with any officials who have questions. But it’s important to remember that we didn’t anticipate this would happen, and we have been removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers.”

According to the sources, the proposed settlement was thrashed out over the past few weeks, though it still awaits approval by FTC commissioners. That could see it modified before being publicly revealed.

Google faces measly $22.5m fine in Safari privacy gaffe is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Color us unsurprised that US law enforcers would push hard for surveillance access. Congressman Ed Markey has published a new report on requests to cellular carriers that shows a recent rush of demand for information, including last year. The rates vary sharply, but T-Mobile has seen a yearly hike of 12 to 16 percent, while Verizon has seen its own grown 15 percent — and Sprint took nearly twice as many surveillance requests as AT&T or Verizon in 2011, despite its smaller size. Markey’s concern is that police and other investigators are casting too wide a net and sweeping up innocent customers through widescale requests, potentially violating their privacy in the process. Whether or not cell tower dumps and other broad fishing attempts are problems, carriers have been quick to point out that they have huge teams in place to deal with police requests and cling steadfastly to requiring a warrant when the law demands it. Needless to say, there are a few groups that strongly disagree with that last claim.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet

Carriers face big surge in cellphone surveillance requests, raise a few alarm bells originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cisco has already tried to soothe angry customers by scrapping a key section in its new Linksys privacy agreement — a clause which allowed the company to monitor a person’s internet history via their router. However, realizing that probably wasn’t enough to quell the sense of intrusion, it’s now gone one step further. Writing on an official blog, Cisco VP Brett Wingo has declared that Linksys customers will no longer be pushed into signing up for Connect Cloud, the service which lay at the heart of the problem:

“In response to our customers’ concerns, we have simplified the process of opting-out of the Cisco Connect Cloud service and have changed the default setting back to traditional router set-up and management.”

In other words, you’ll no longer have to hook up to a convoluted cloud service just to access advanced settings on your router, and neither will you have to sign away an even greater chunk of your personal space — which is just how it should have been (and indeed how it was) in the first place.

Cisco climbs down another rung over unpopular Connect Cloud service originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) was an EU treaty to protect copyright—but many feared that it was too restrictive and would in turn lead to online censorship. Fortunately the European Parliament has has just rejected the agreement. The internet lives to fight another day. More »