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Privacy Ref
4 months ago

Balancing user convenience and consent in system updates

Over Thanksgiving, a Facebook post from a local community police department caught my attention, warning about an automatic feature called NameDrop in the Apple iOS17 update. Once I returned to work, I decided to delve into the issue surrounding this automatic feature. It also reminded me that th...
Privacy Ref
9 years ago

Radio Shack’s Privacy Notice Oversight

Growing up I spent a good amount of time at Radio Shack. I liked to “play” with electronics just to understand how things worked. It always bothered me that they asked for my zip code for every transaction, but they still got my money. That may be in part why I became a privacy profes...
Privacy Ref
10 years ago

Business and wearable technology

Over the past few weeks I have been wearing my Google Glass in public. The experiences have been invaluable to my understanding of the privacy implications of wearable technology. Lately I have been giving some thought to the business policy challenges the technology presents.
Privacy Ref
10 years ago

A Privacy Pro and Wearable Technology

Privacy professionals, including myself, have been warning of the dangers to privacy from wearable technology. The concerns I have been expressing have been based on reported product capabilities, anecdotal evidence, and published reports. So when I had the opportunity to join the Google Glass Ex...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

“There is no privacy, get over it”

I am sure you have heard this several times since Scott McNealy, Sun’s CEO, first said it back in 1999, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it”. After 14 years it seems Americans haven’t gotten over it. A Pew Research study shows more people are concerned about the gov...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

A visit to a new doctor raises privacy questions

Recently my wife and I have begun finding new doctors and dentists. While filling out the paperwork at each office we are being asked for our driver’s license numbers and I was not sure why.  Also, being a privacy person, I read the privacy policies at these offices and sometimes had questi...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Privacy and the Cloud

Cloud computing provides an opportunity for businesses to lower costs and increase their computing infrastructure’s flexibility. When utilizing a cloud service provider for additional storage, computing power, or a full application you should look into the privacy implications as these are ...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Valuable functionality can cause a privacy breach

Last Friday it was revealed that reporters from Bloomberg News could retrieve information from the profiles of subscribers to Bloomberg’s data terminals as well as the subscribers’ system usage (NYT article here). While I agree with the characterization of this incident as a “mi...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Fingerprints, privacy notice, and theme parks

My wife and I recently visited a major theme park and were surprised that our fingerprints were requested when we entered. While I understand the good business reason the fingerprints were requested, I remain dumbfounded why I could not find a privacy notice that disclosed how the information was...