Resources

Hey Siri, search for online privacy news  

 

The news is constantly churning out more articles about online privacy every day. These are some recent

articles that may pique interest: 

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• The Privacy Project - a series of opinion pieces from The New York Times that cover topics from being poor in the digital age to facial recognition machines. 

• Facebook Will Finally Pay - Billions - For Its Privacy Missteps - a Wired article that explores the significance of Facebook being fined $3-$5 billion by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. 

• Big Business Is Poking Holes In California's Landmark Privacy Law -  this article from Fast Company discusses how "nation's strongest privacy law" actually lacks stringent privacy protections and looks at various follow-on amendments to it.

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Ok Google, show me the project sources 

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For more information on the content that is covered in this project, check out these articles: 

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Brandom, Russell. “The Breach That Killed Google+ Wasn't a Breach at All.” The Verge, The Verge, 9 Oct. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/10/9/17957312/google-plus-vulnerability-privacy-breach-law.

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This source discusses how Google suppressed the news for seven months that a bug had

infiltrated Google+, a social network that was trying to compete with Facebook, Twitter, etc., and

compromised the data of 500,000 users. Due to the fact that no data was taken and was only

available to developers, this was not considered a data breach legally. Yet, as Google did not

notify users in a timely manner, there was a breach of trust.

 

DePillis, Lydia, and Ivory Sherman. “Amazon's Extraordinary Evolution: A Timeline.” CNN, Cable News Network, 4 Oct. 2018, www.cnn.com/interactive/2018/10/business/amazon-history-timeline/index.html.

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This source provides a timeline of Amazon’s rapid expansion from 1994 to 2019. It covers

important events throughout the years, such as Amazon going public on the stock market (May

15, 1997), Amazon securing the “1-Click” patent (September 28, 1999), the debut of Amazon

Prime (February 2, 2005), and acquiring Whole Foods for $13.7 billion (June 16, 2017).

 

“Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2523.” Justice Information Sharing, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Assistance, it.ojp.gov/PrivacyLiberty/authorities/statutes/1285.

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This source provides an overview of the parts that make up the Electronic Communications  

Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA), including background information, general and specific provisions,

and amendments. There are hyperlinks to access related acts and full documents of the titles from

provisions.

 

Frenkel, Sheera, et al. “Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook's Leaders Fought Through Crisis.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Nov. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/technology/facebook-data-russia-election-racism.html.

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This source is an investigative report into the strategies Facebook used to manage the crises

around the Russian infiltration of the social network in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Sheera goes into detail discussing Facebook’s strategy with handling hate speech, congressional hearings, and news coverage. It also detailed how the crisis affected various people at Facebook, with several executives leaving the company and Mark Zuckerberg going on a “listening tour” across the

country.

 

Gartenberg, Chaim. “'Privacy Matters' in Apple's Latest iPhone Ad.” The Verge, The Verge, 14 Mar. 2019, www.theverge.com/2019/3/14/18266276/apple-iphone-ad-privacy-facetime-bug.

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This source discusses the iPhone ad that was released in March 2019, which emphasizes Apple’s long-standing commitment to privacy. Gartenberg states that the marketing tactic is in line with the billboard

at the Consumer Technology Association (CES) 2019, where Apple asserted that “What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone.”

 

Germain, Thomas. “How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings.” Consumer Reports, 15 Mar. 2019, www.consumerreports.org/privacy/facebook-privacy-settings/.

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This source provides detailed instructions on changing privacy settings on a user’s Facebook

account. Germain goes through changes such as turning off facial recognition, limiting data

collection by Facebook’s partners, protecting the account from hackers, and making the profile

page harder to find.

 

Germain, Thomas. “How to Use Google Privacy Settings.” Consumer Reports, 22 Jan. 2019, www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-use-google-privacy-settings/.

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This source describes detailed instructions on changing privacy settings on a user’s Google

account. Germain touches on specific Google products, particularly Chrome and Search. He

reviews how to stop location tracking, making ads less personal, stopping Google from using

credit card data, and deleting activity history.

Graham, Jefferson. “Is Apple Really Better about Privacy? Here's What We Found Out.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 18 Apr. 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/04/17/apple-make-simpler-download-your-privacy-data-year/521786002/.

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This source looks at Apple’s commitment to user privacy through policies, responding to data

requests, and selling ads. According to Graham, Apple has stated that it looks at usage patterns

from app data (Siri, App Store, News, etc.) by “scrambling” the information collected and does

not share it with outside companies. Notably, it also takes much longer (a few days) to receive a

data report from Apple than from Facebook or Google (a few hours). Apple also wants user information (full name, Apple ID, serial numbers, etc.) when making a data request, while a click of a button is all one needs to do with Facebook and Google.

 

Komando, Kim. “5 Ways to Protect Your Privacy While Using Amazon Products and Services.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 27 July 2018, www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/07/27/5-obscure-settings-amazon-update-your-privacy/827840002/.

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This source provides detailed instructions on changing privacy settings on a user’s Amazon

account. Komando reviews changes such as making the shopping and wish lists private, stopping

Amazon from tracking browsing, and removing the Amazon public profile.

 

O'Brien, Sara Ashley. “Equifax Data Breach: 143 Million People Could Be Affected.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 7 Sept. 2017, money.cnn.com/2017/09/07/technology/business/equifax-data-breach/index.html.

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This source discusses the impact of the 2017 Equifax data breach on approximately 143 million

Americans. Private data was exposed to cybercriminals, such as names, social security numbers,

addresses, and even credit card numbers. Not everyone affected by the breach knew that they

were customers of Equifax, as data is processed from banks, credit card companies, retailers,

etc. to track and rate the financial behavior of consumers.

 

Palmer, Danny. “What Is GDPR? Everything You Need to Know about the New General Data Protection Regulations.” ZDNet, ZDNet, 23 May 2018, www.zdnet.com/article/gdpr-an-executive-guide-to-what-you-need-to-know/.

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This source presents information about GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in a Q&A

format so readers understand how the policy impacted everyone, not just those in the European

Union. Some of the information Palmer provides is what “personal data” means under

GDPR, the fines and penalties for non-compliance, and the impact of Brexit on GDPR. The new

policy caused a dip in monthly users and advertising revenues for companies such as Facebook

due to the regulations forcing businesses to ask users if they wanted to opt into data storage

services.

 

Satariano, Adam. “Google Is Fined $57 Million Under Europe's Data Privacy Law.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 21 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/technology/google-europe-gdpr-fine.html.

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This source reviews the French data protection authority’s decision to impose a $57 million fine

on Google in January 2019 for not telling users how it collects data on Search, Google

Maps, YouTube, etc. to show personalized ads. The company was also fined $5.1 billion in July

2018 to prevent itself from favoring its own search and other apps on mobile devices, so more

competition could enter the European mobile market. These ruling suggest that the EU is more

determined than ever to take stringent action against large tech companies misusing their power.

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Valinsky, Jordan. “Amazon Reportedly Employs Thousands of People to Listen to Your Alexa Conversations.” CNN, Cable News Network, 11 Apr. 2019, www.cnn.com/2019/04/11/tech/amazon-alexa-listening/index.html.

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This source discusses Amazon’s confirmation that there is a global team of employees and

contractors being paid to listen to at least 1,000 audio clips in shifts that last up to nine hours.

According to Valinsky, Amazon has claimed that it only utilizes an “extremely small number of

interactions from a random set of customers” to help advance Alexa’s grasp of human speech for

more efficient responses in the future. It is possible to opt out of Amazon using the data in

the privacy settings of the Alexa app.

 

 

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