Posts tagged StreetView
Companies exposing Canadians’ personal information face no penalty
Dec 9th
By Brian Jackson
As social networking becomes more popular and online advertisers seek more effective ways to target their messages, our society is trying to cope with how to protect our privacy while sharing more details about ourselves than ever before via the Web.
If you doubt that the collection of personal details online is the top privacy concern, just look to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s work over the last several years. It has been preoccupied with Facebook, protecting children’s’ online privacy, fighting spam, and Google Streetview, just to name a few. Now we hear that commissioner Jennifer Stoddart will be turning a watchful eye towards companies engaging in online behavioural advertising.
Brian Jackson, Associate Editor, ITBusiness.ca
Appearing at a conference hosted by the Association of Canadian Advertisers, Stoddart said advertisers can’t use tracking technology that users are unaware of or unable to decline. If they do, they could face disciplinary measures such as an audit by the office, or being taken to Federal Court and publicly shamed. But we’ve heard this watchdog bark before, and rarely have we seen it bite.
Give Google a break
May 17th
Yesterday’s revelation that Google’s StreetView cars collected more than just anonymized pictures of buildings and cars (and some comical situations) came as a surprise to many, including regulatory bodies in a number of countries that are now considering miscellaneous lawsuits and penalties, according to the BBC.
Claudiu Popa
To wit, the issue was that these ‘photographic cars’ included the ability to sniff wireless data from open networks as they drove around neighbourhoods, so they likely collected the various device and network identifiers along with some snippet of content that happened to be transferred at that particular moment.
People feel violated. Privacy advocates smell blood and lawyers are rubbing their hands in anticipation. Read the rest of this entry »
