Category: Privacy

Mobile and internet privacy

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| Freedom of Expression, Privacy

In honour of European Consumer Day today, and World Day Against Cyber-censorship earlier this week, two privacy reports have caught my eye. Privacy is concerned as much with what we wish to keep private as it is with how we control what others do with our private data. Both reports cover both issues. First, the Article 29 Working Party (the co-ordinating group of EU data protection commissioners) have published an opinion addressing the key data protection risks of mobile apps (press release | opinion). Mobile devices increasingly store larger and larger amounts of personal data, and this poses many risks for individual privacy, both in terms of keeping the data private and secure, and in terms of what developers can do with the data collected by their apps. The Working Party recommend that all those in the app ecosystem should understand their own responsibilities, but they also acknowledge that, to achieve the highest standards of privacy and data protection, collaboration with other parties in the app ecosystem is necessary.

Mobile apps are simply one of a plethora of modern technological challenges to privacy. Many of the others are addressed in a new UNESCO publication (cover pictured above left): Global survey on Internet privacy and freedom of expression.…

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Privacy from Birth to Death and Beyond

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Cyberlaw, Privacy

PrivacyThe image on the left is a detail from a poster advertising a symposium on Friday 8 March 2013 in NUI Galway on:

Privacy from Birth to Death and Beyond: European and American Perspectives

The exciting line-up of speakers includes:

José Maria Baño (José María Baño León Abogados, Madrid) “Case C-131/12 Google Spain, SL, and Google Inc v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos and The Right to be Forgotten”

Prof Joshua Fairfield (Washington and Lee University School of Law) “Do-Not-Track as Default: Transaction Costs in US Consumer Privacy”

Damien McCallig (NUI Galway School of Law) “Privacy on and after death”

Dr Sharon McLaughlin (Letterkenny Institute of Technology) “Children & Privacy: Protection v Participation – A Tangled Web”

Paul Lambert (Merrion Legal Solicitors) “Privacy issues in practice: A Litigation Light on Norwich, Abuse, Cyberbullying, Defamation, Privacy and Data Protection Concerns”

Dr Ciara Hackett (Queens University Belfast) Rapporteur’s Report

The symposium is organised by the LLM in Public Law and the LLM in Law, Technology and Governance at the School of Law, National University of Ireland Galway. You can register online. CPD certificates (4 hours) can be provided.…

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I will always know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen

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| Press Council, Privacy

Mail apology to Cowen, via @davidcochraneThe image is a thumbnail of an apology printed in yesterday’s Irish Mail on Sunday; click through for a full-size twitpic by David Cochrane. It is headed “Brian Cowen”, and it consists of four paragraph. The first paragraph (which consists of a single sentence) begins by referring to their story (update: which is no longer available at this link) of Cowen’s attendance at the Executive Education Programme at Stanford University which has been the subject of two earlier posts (here and here) on this blog, speculating as to the strength of Cowen’s possible complaint to the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman that article invaded his privacy. The Sunday Independent yesterday reported that Cowen’s complaint had indeed been submitted, that it had drawn a robust response from the Irish Mail on Sunday, and that it was being considered by the Press Ombudsman. Where appropriate, the Ombudsman seeks to mediate a resolution to a complaint, and, if the Sunday Independent is right that the matter was before the Ombudsman last week, then this apology may very well be the product of such a mediation process.

The second paragraph in the apology (which also consists of a single sentence) says that Cowen has made it clear that he paid for the course entirely out of his own resources.…

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I still know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen

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| Press Council, Privacy

Photo of Artwork at StanfordThis image, by Corey Seeman on Flickr, is the Monument to your Future Collaborators, on the pavement outside the Knight Management Center in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where Brian Cowen attended the Executive Education Programme last Summer. Cowen probably walked past it, if not over it, several times. But he now says that his attendance at that course was a private matter, and it seems he intends to complain to the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman that newspaper articles about it invaded his privacy. In my earlier post, I know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen (also here), I was not very sanguine about his chances. However, on his recently-started media law blog, MediaBelf, Jonathan McCully has taken me to task on this. In his post The Prime Minister who went to America to learn how to be a leader (also here) he makes a compelling case the other way.

One of his key points is that Cowen is no longer a public figure: “It is difficult to connect information relating to Mr. Cowen’s college activities, such as eating lunch and attending lectures, with the validity of what he had done in public office”.…

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I know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen

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| Press Council, Privacy

Press Council and Ombudsman logoI know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen, and in fact we all know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen, because the the Irish Mail on Sunday reported on your enrollment in the Executive Education Programme at Stanford University in California. However, it is now clear that you would prefer that we didn’t know, that you consider that the Mail‘s coverage infringed your right to privacy, and that you intend to complain about this to the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman. I’m glad you are looking to pursue this matter before the Ombudsman and Council and not in the courts, but I do not think that your complaint is likely to be upheld. I know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen. Indeed, as you are a public figure, I am entitled to know what you did last Summer, Mr Cowen.

The Office of the Press Ombudsman ensures that members of the public have access to an independent, quick fair and free mechanism for complaints of breaches of the Code of Practice for Newspapers and Magazines. If Prof John Horgan, the Ombudsman, considers that a complaint is valid, he reeks to resolve the matter by conciliation.…

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Santa’s Privacy Policy (via McSweeney’s)

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| Privacy

On McSweeney’s:

Santa’s Privacy Policy

By Laurence Hughes [Originally published December 23, 2010.]

Onine Santa, via Kids Privacy BlogAt Santa’s Workshop, your privacy is important to us. What follows is an explanation of how we collect and safeguard your personal information; the kind of information we collect; and your choices regarding our use and disclosure of this information.

Why Do We Need This Information?
Santa Claus requires your information in order to compile his annual list of Who is Naughty and Who is Nice, and to ensure accuracy when he checks it twice. …

What Information Do We Collect?
We obtain information from a variety of sources. Much of it comes from unsolicited letters sent to Santa by children all over the world listing specific items they would like to receive for Christmas. Often these letters convey additional information as well, such as the child’s hopes and dreams, how much they love Santa, and which of their siblings are doodyheads.

The letters also provide another important piece of information—fingerprints. We run these through databases maintained by the FBI, CIA, NSA, Interpol, MI6, and the Mossad. If we find a match, it goes straight on the Naughty List. …

There’s lots more detail where that came from; I suppose Santa had to introduce his privacy policy after the Federal Trade Commission imposed a record fine against him for violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.…

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On Ars Technica: How one law student is making Facebook get serious about privacy

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| Privacy

According to Facebook’s “About” page, millions of people use the site everyday “to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet”. That’s a lot of data, and Facebook has a detailed data use policy, but not everyone will be comfortable with every element of that policy. As well as the inevitable online contact form, Facebook invites questions or complaints about its data use policy or practices by mail, to its California headquarters for enquiries from the USA or Canada, or – since Dublin became the centre of Facebook’s international operations in 2008 – to its Dublin address for enquiries from everywhere else. So, when an Austrian student raised queries about Facebook’s data policies, the appropriate regulator was the Irish data protection commissioner. His story is the feature story on the front page of Ars Technica right now.

How one law student is making Facebook get serious about privacy

Max Schrems requested his personal data from Facebook, got a 1,000-page PDF.

words by Cyrus Farivar; pic, in thumbnail above left, by Aurich Lawson

The world’s largest legal battle against Facebook began with a class assignment.

…

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Fighting anonymity with anonymity: open justice and cyberbullying

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| Defamation, Open Justice, Privacy

Stop Cyberbulling logo, via WikipediaSay you are a 15-year old girl. What would you do if you find a fake Facebook profile which contains a photograph of you, a slightly modified version of your name and other particulars which identified you, which discusses your physical appearance and weight in derogatory terms, and which includes scandalous sexual commentary about you? First, you’d contact Facebook, to have the fake profile taken down and to identify the IP address associated with it. Facebook take safety and security very seriously, especially where minors are concerned, and once they have verified the cyberbullying, they will no doubt be quick to help you out. Once you have the IP address, you can identify the relevant ISP, and ask them to reveal the names of the users associated with it, perhaps to identify potential defendants for an action in defamation or invasion of privacy. But what if Facebook or the ISP decline, and require you to get a court order before they give you that information. At this point, you run into a problem. Since justice is administered in public, you will have to disclose your identity and the facts surrounding the cyberbullying if you are to succeed in your claim against the Facebook or the ISP.…

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