Articles by JScott

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FTC Finally Goes After Flash Cookies

November 8, 2011 1:26 pm JScott 0
The FTC and ScanScout came to a settlement over ScanScout’s deceptive use of Flash cookies.  ScanScout used Flash cookies to track users, but its privacy policy merely stated a user could “opt out of receiving a cookie by changing your browser settings to prevent the receipt of cookies.”…
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Homeland Security moves forward with ‘pre-crime’ detection

October 8, 2011 7:17 pm JScott 0
Documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center through a Freedom of Information Act request show that the Department of Homeland Security is moving forward with a program called Future Attribute Screening Technologies (FAST).  The basic idea is to use various technologies to non-intrusively measure things like heart rate, eye movement, and voice pitch, among other things, to detect individuals who have “mal-intent.”…
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iPhone and iPad Store Location Data of Everywhere You Go

April 20, 2011 12:20 pm JScott 0
Researchers Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan have discovered a file on the iPhone and 3G-enabled iPads that contain the “latitude and longitude of the phone’s recorded coordinates along with a timestamp.”  This file is also copied to the owner’s computer when synced.  …
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Supreme Court Backs Government Transparency Over Corporate Privacy Claims

March 3, 2011 3:50 pm JScott 0
In FCC v. AT&T, AT&T argued it was a “corporate citizen” entitled to “personal privacy” and thus, entitled to the FOIA exemption that protects an individual’s private data.  AT&T was trying to block disclosure of documents pertaining to its participation in the government’s E-Rate program.  …
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Social Network Monitoring

November 8, 2010 8:57 am JScott 0
From article: “New software released by Cisco Systems Inc. on Wednesday makes it much easier for banks, retailers, and other businesses — including your employer — to monitor the mountain of data on social networking websites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.”  …
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HTML5 and Mobile Tracking

October 21, 2010 12:03 am JScott 0
From Ars Technica Article: “A New York-based mobile-web advertising company was hit Wednesday with a proposed class action lawsuit over its use of an HTML5 trick to track iPhone and iPad users across a number of websites, in what is believed to be the first privacy lawsuit of its kind in the mobile space.”  …