Tag Archive for ‘personal privacy’
California Courts Rule that Merchants Can No Longer Collect Zip Codes at Point of Sale
In a landmark privacy ruling, the Supreme Court of California has stated that an individual’s zip code is now personal information and is therefore protected under privacy laws. According to the court, the decision was primarily made because of the power of zip codes to detect a consumer’s address. As privacy advocates know, a point-of-sale [...]
California Senate Passes Expansion to Reader Privacy Bill
In a vote this week, the California Senate expanded the Reader Privacy Bill, a bill protecting bookstore and library records from government snooping, to include online bookstores. The Reader Privacy Bill is important to protecting individual privacy, since our personal reading choices reflect the things we think, feel, and want to know more about. If [...]
Mobile Privacy: What Your Apps Know About You
Smartphone users collect apps, especially the free ones. But, unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Smartphone apps collect data about you as you use them, and many deliver this data not only to the app owner but to third parties as well. An investigative report by the Wall Street Journal found that [...]
Apple Tracks iPhone Users, Twenty-Four Hours a Day
Researchers discovered this week that the iPhones and iPads constantly track the location data of the phone and save this information to a file on the user’s computer when the user plugs in the phone to sync. The file, named consolidated.db, contains the GPS coordinates of the phone, presumably for technical support or in case [...]
Top 10 Safety Tips for Online Dating
If you’re single, you may be using online dating services to meet that special someone. After all, it has become common practice and there’s definitely something thrilling about connecting with somebody online and then meeting him or her in-person for the first time. Cyber-romance is here to stay, so keep these safety tips in mind [...]
Googled Yourself Lately?
Ever wondered what people can find out about you, or better yet – what they already know about you? A quick Internet search on Google can reveal what type of information about you is public, and the results may influence more things than you realize. For example, let’s say you’re interviewing for the job of [...]
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