Product manager for Latitude demos some of the features.
Tag: Children’s Privacy
The mobile phone as an ultimate personal marketing machine
It seems that advertisers have been getting pretty excited about the potential of the mobile phone. This is no surprise when you consider that cellular carriers possess terabytes of demographic data on their users and they even know where the caller is. Your mobile phone gives all of this away. Advertisers today have the potential to mould campaigns that can be aimed at specific age, gender, income and lifestyle segments and locations. This is bringing advertisers around the world close to their long dreamed of vision: the mobile phone as an ultimate, targeted, personal marketing machine.
The new Google phone is right on, dubbed the G1, has been touted as a working man’s smartphone — a cheap, Web-friendly wireless device that can make life easier for millions of consumers. The G1, as it turns out, also stands to make life a whole lot easier for Google — by making it a snap to track your movements on the mobile Web and send you ads as it does on the desktop. The device, sold exclusively by T-Mobile, gives Google access to your e-mail, instant messages, contact lists, Web-search history and geographic location. By keeping tabs on your mobile life, Google (GOOG) can quickly figure out what sort of ads to send your way, and when
“It’s like a walking surveillance device,” says Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer watchdog group.
Mobile advertising is still relatively new — G1 users, for now, get ads only through search results, for instance — but it’s clearly a hot spot. The market is expected to reach $2.2 billion by 2012, from about $800 million now, according to JupiterResearch. Ultimately, it could surpass the traditional Web, now a $20 billion ad market. Read more…
Thank you Jack for sending this my way 🙂
Patient records held to ransom!
Data thieves are threatening to release millions of patient records held by a U.S. prescription drug management company unless the company pays up. The continuing investigation, backed by an offer of a $1 million dollar reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the crooks, stems from an event made public in November. Express Scripts, a large company that manages prescription-drug benefits, reported that both it and its clients had received letters threatening to reveal customer information–including Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and prescription information–if certain extortion demands were not met….
These high profile events are triggering drives to improve privacy legislation in the U.S., this includes hi-tech companies such as Symantec and Microsoft and Google that have joined groups such as the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) that have sounded alarms on several privacy-related issues before the U.S. Congress and federal agencies.
Santa arrested!
Can you believe it that in 2008 Father Christmas was arrested and arraigned on a contravention of the UK Data Protection Act, reports The Spoof. Investigators discovered a list of the world’s children categorised by who is “naughty” and who is “nice.” It appears the list was compiled without the consent of the children. “This is a clear breach of the 1988 Data Protection Act,” said Detective Inspector Phil Inne. The list is described as a “gold mine” of consumer information, including the addresses and wishes of children worldwide. Computerised records are new for Santa, who used to hold his records of naughty and nice children on reindeer hide written in elf blood. However, with the burgeoning of the world’s population of under tens, coupled with the decline in childhood mortality rates, this had become impracticable, forcing Santa into computerising his records 😉
Privvy Awards 2007 – The Bug
This is actually old news from 2007. It’s about ‘The Bug, why didn’t I post on this before? I know when I was on a train on my way out of London in 2008 I was sat next to a guy that told me about these cameras that could talk to you, e.g. if you happen to be a drunk and knock over a rubbish bin, the camera will ask you to place it back…..
The Bug is a cluster of eight cameras that can scan in any direction. The cameras are “smart,” meaning they employ software for advanced functionality. In this case, the software uses algorithms to look for suspicious behavior—sudden running or wild flailing, for example. The Bug can identify 50 suspicious traits. It can then automatically lock on to a subject and follow that person or object. The Bug also has speakers, so someone monitoring can issue instructions or warnings.
Why it has popped up now is that I was just browsing through some links to http://www.csoonline.com/ when I came across ‘Privacy: The Worst Quotes’, i.e. privacy lowlights albeit for 2007 and one is dedicated to this almost Orwellian style surveillance technology….
Privacy is in the Eye of the Beholder
This is a very nice article from 2003 “Privacy is in the Eye of the Beholder“. A bit old I know, but it gives a really nice description of the privacy landscape in the U.S. Apart from that the author is a very well respected colleague of mine in HP Tari Schreider who have had the pleasure of working quite closely with for around 18 months now.
IP address personal?
Discussions continue on whether IP addresses should be considered as personal data.
Resolution on Children’s Online Privacy
Following from my previous post. Here is the resolution on children’s online privacy that was proposed by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
30th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners
Data Protection Authorities from every continent gathered in Strasbourg last week to participate in the 30th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners (www.privacyconference2008.org). The theme of this year’s conference was “protecting privacy in a borderless world”. One conclusion from this meeting was to endorse a resolution brought forward by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada that called for an international effort to protect the privacy of children online.
Interesting read?
Did you know that your personal information is being mined in the fight against terrorism? Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists:
A Framework for Program Assessment