Category: Privacy

I’m very proud of the Know Privacy team, a group of three students who performed a broad analysis of online privacy issues for their master’s project at UC Berkeley’s School of Information. The study is featured today on the New York Times Bits blog. Several findings are notable: They found: “From our analysis, it is…

Following up on my earlier post about Beyond Google and Evil, I just came across this article from the Wall Street Journal on one of Google’s detractors, Consumer Watchdog. Believe it or not, Google went after their funding! …In January, Consumer Watchdog circulated a press release alleging a “rumored” lobbying effort by Google to enable…

I apologize for the infrequent blogging. A tough semester. I did have time, however, to publish an essay about Google’s rhetoric that might be of interest to Denialism readers. No, I’m not calling Google denialist, but am trying to explain what Google means when the company talks about privacy (most companies interpret information privacy to…

We’re discussing a junk mail case from the 1970s in my information privacy law case. In Rowan, Justice Burger laments: …the plethora of mass mailings subsidized by low postal rates, and the growth of the sale of large mailing lists as an industry, in itself, have changed the mailman from a carrier of primarily private…

If you are socking money away in offshore banks, pay attention to this man’s expression. He’s saying, you’re screwed. Yes, taxpaying citizens, you can rejoice, because tax cheats across the country are having panic attacks. They’re thinking about refiling their tax returns, or going to the IRS to beg forgiveness with a check to cover…

I’m very pleased with today’s decision from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on recently-strengthened privacy protections for phone records. The short history goes something like this: the FCC created strong opt-in (affirmative consent) provisions for the sharing of phone records (who calls whom, for how long, etc). In 1996, the 10th Circuit held that…

I’ll be on Minnesota Public Radio this morning with LA Times consumer reporter David Lazarus, talking about identity theft. Here’s the preview and I’ll post the stream later. I’m going to be talking about my recent articles on identity theft: Identity Theft: Making the Known Unknowns Known and Towards a Market for Bank Safety.

“All that remains is . . . recognition of a man.” Patrick McGoohan, the creator of one of my favorite television series, The Prisoner, has died at 80. The Prisoner was a challenging and entertaining series that explored civil liberties, privacy, individuality, and democracy. My favorite episodes were Free for All and A Change of…

I am really proud of my colleagues here at UC Berkeley for performing a first of its kind (in the US) study of the efficacy of police surveillance cameras. Its findings are limited to San Francisco’s system, but it is valuable in thinking through whether and how surveillance cameras should be implemented. I have to…