From the Hill, Markey has a draft of a cellphone privacy bill: The Mobile Device Privacy Act would require companies to disclose if they are using tracking software like Carrier IQ and what information the software collects. Consumers would have to consent to any data collection or transmission, and third parties would have to have [...]
During the AT&T- T-Mobile merger, consumer groups warned that T-Mobile customers would suffer post-merger. Well, the merger was killed but the result for T-Mobile customers is almost immediately a downgrading of service: the mobile carrier is making roaming changes in order to “continue providing competitive pricing options in the industry.”… The limits will be staggered: [...]
Intellectual property is a broad term, covering everything from formal patents and copyrights registered with the government to the informal know-how protected by trade secret law. Companies protect some trade secrets through non-compete clauses and other trade secret lawsuits when employees leave for another company. But some states — and California is one of them [...]
Lawmakers largely from the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to Google demanding to know how its announced plans to consolidate and share data across all its services will effect user privacy: Google’s consolidation of its privacy policies potentially touches billions of people worldwide.As an Internet giant, Google has a responsibility to protect [...]
This study should put money in the pockets of online ad sellers: Millennials (people born between 1980 and 2000) are described in the report as less interested and more difficult to reach, but also more likely to develop a lasting impression of a TV commercial. Overall, digital advertising appears to work better on relative terms [...]
Following North Carolina last year passing a law to shut down community-owned telecom projects, the Georgia Senate is considering SB 313, to remove the authority of local governments in matters of broadband Christopher Mitchell, who directs the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative with the New Rules Project, writes: massive companies use their lobbying clout to stop [...]
A damning Wall Street Journal article paints a pretty damning picture of how far Google ad execs collaborated with illegal pharmaceutical companies in promoting their ads. The story focused on a con artist who was caught by the feds and collaborated with them in creating a sting operation that led to Google’s $500 million fine. [...]
Google dominates Internet advertising, with 44.1% of the $113 billion per year global online advertising market, but it’s quietly gunning for control of the even larger television advertising sector. As Robert Kyncl, a senior manager at Google’s YouTube operation said in a recent New Yorker interview that “this industry [i.e. TV] is worth three hundred [...]
The European Union is readying what the NY Times calls a sweeping new law to protect consumer privacy online. Provisions expected include: requiring Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use of their personal data delete data forever at the consumer’s request compel Web sites to tell consumers [...]
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that police violate the Fourth Amendment when they attach a physical GPS device to a suspect’s car in order to track it when they don’t have a warrant. But the court divided five-four on the reasoning on the case. Five judges, led by Justice Scalia, emphasized that [...]
