Privacy

Although it initially denied involvement in the National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program, Microsoft has in fact worked closely with U.S. intelligence agencies to monitor users' communications, even helping the NSA circumvent its own encryption to do so, new documents from whistleblower ...

Google Glass has generated a more or less steady stream of privacy criticisms and concerns since it was first announced, but the company's latest effort to satisfy critics has apparently fallen short. Specifically, Google's recent response to a letter sent in May by eight members of the Bipartisan...

A U.S. Federal Trade Commissioner is urging consumers to take more control over their data. The call to action comes as revelations that the NSA is spying on Americans to an unprecedented degree continue to shake the country. Unease has been mounting over the amount of data companies are handing ove...

In the wake of recent revelations that the government has been tapping their networks to monitor users, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft in recent days have all published more information about those monitoring requests. Facebook, for example, on Friday reported that for the six months ending December ...

Verizon is on the hot seat. It is at the center of the story about releasing customer information to the U.S. National Security Agency. While Verizon does make information about every call available to the NSA, the actual conversation is still private -- for now, at least. To date, Verizon has been ...

Rep. Hank Johnson last week introduced into the U.S. House a new bill that could considerably change mobile app development. The bipartisan legislation would require application developers to gain explicit consent from consumers before collecting their data. It also would require developers to secur...

Google has engaged the Behavio team in a "hiring exercise." The startup uses mobile sensors to collect data and predict behavior. Its technology recognizes data such as location, contacts, nearby destinations, recent phone activity, daily movement, and even surrounding physical information such as t...

Facebook fans will get the chance to have the social network take over their lock and home screens on certain Android phones as of April 12, thanks to the introduction of the company's Home apps. That prime mobile phone real estate will also serve as comfortable surroundings for advertisements when ...

Proposed changes to the popular Mozilla Firefox browser that would block third-party cookies have sparked the ire of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which claims the move will hurt how small businesses use ads to attract customers. Mozilla's proposal will let users give their permission for the ...

Google has settled its Street View privacy case with 38 states and the District of Columbia. As part of the settlement, the company will destroy the personal information it collected under the project, train its employees on privacy issues for a 10-year period, launch a campaign to educate consumers...

There are more than 6 billion mobile devices in the world. As of last July, there were more than 321 million wireless subscriber connections in the U.S. alone. Of course, it is impossible that 101 percent of U.S. residents have wireless connections, so that means many of us have multiple subscriptio...

Facebook users will soon see ads in their feeds that are more specifically targeted to what they like and where they've shopped -- both online and offline -- thanks to a series of agreements with data companies announced Wednesday. The agreements expand the social network's Custom Audiences program ...

The Federal Trade Commission last week reached a settlement with HTC America over charges the company failed to take reasonable steps to secure the software in its smartphones and tablet computers. The security flaws could have compromised the privacy of millions of consumers, the agency said. This ...

Periodically we are reminded that the Federal Trade Commission plays a major role in regulating the Internet. For instance, the FTC is in charge of protecting privacy on the Internet in the U.S. and continually starts new privacy initiatives as the use of the Internet evolves. Unlike the EU, which h...

Facebook, which already has a long history of skirmishes with privacy advocates, may be heading toward another fight following reports that the company is working on a mobile location-tracking app. The app, set for release in mid-March, would reportedly run in the background even when other apps are...