6th Annual Carnegie Mellon Conference on the Electricity Industry

Jules Polonetsky will be participating in Carnegie Mellon’s 6th Annual Conference on the Electricity Industry on Tuesday, March 9. Click here for event details.

White House seeking Smart Grid Privacy Input

The White House is seeking smart grid privacy input. Details can be found here.

Useful commentary from the Smart Grid Security Blog

Check out this useful privacy commentary from the folks at the Smart Grid Security Blog, “An Informed Public and an Informed Grid.

Useful Commentary from Smart Grid Security Blog

Check out this useful privacy commentary from the folks at the Smart Grid Security Blog, “An Informed Public and an Informed Grid.”

Feb. 22, 2010 – Google Buzz Fallout Could Hurt Future Cloud Prospects, Sci-tech-today

 

 

WMACCA Tech & IP Forum: Behavioral Advertising – How to Protect Your Brand While Taking Advantage of Advanced Advertising Techniques

WMACCA Tech and IP Forum: Behavioral Advertising – How to Protect Your Brand While Taking Advantage of Advanced Advertising Techniques

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

LIVE at the offices of Morrison & Foerster LLP

1650 Tysons Boulevard

Suite 400

McLean, Virginia

OR by WEBCAST

Overview

The online collection of information over time, used to create profiles for

targeted advertising campaigns (better known as behavioral advertising),

creates more effective advertising and helps web publishers support their

sites. However, behavioral advertising has also raised privacy issues among

legislators, regulators, and consumer advocates. This program will include

a discussion of the current regulatory, self-regulatory, legislative, and

policy environment around behavioral advertising, how to take all of those

factors into account when deciding to engage in behavioral advertising, and

a look forward to what the business community can expect in 2010.

Speakers

Presented by Reed Freeman of Morrison & Foerster LLP;

Michelle Rosenthal, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission;

C. Lee Peeler, President & CEO, National Advertising Review Council and Executive Vice President, Council of Better Business Bureaus;

Jules Polonetsky, Co-chair and Director, Future of Privacy Forum.

Power vs. Privacy: Smart Grid Could Turn Appliances Into Spies, Experts Say

Power vs. Privacy: Smart Grid Could Turn Appliances Into Spies, Experts Say

CBC News Canada

By Paul Gallant

February 18, 2010

Do you want your fridge talking about you behind your back?

With the rapid adoption of a North American “smart grid” aimed at helping consumers conserve electricity, it’s also possible that smart appliances will be able to transmit information about their activities (and yours) through the power lines. Your electricity utility may not yet be able to determine when you snack, do laundry or shower, but privacy advocates are sounding the alarm that systems need to be put in place to guard details about a household’s electricity usage from prying eyes.

A paper released last November by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario and the U.S.-based Future of Privacy Forum proposes building privacy controls right into the smart grid before the system is fully rolled out.

Although different utilities define the smart grid in different ways, the key feature is a two-way communication system between a household’s meter and the electricity utility so that energy consumption can be tracked with incredible — sometimes even minute-by-minute — detail.

“The Smart Grid will enable third parties to peer into your home,” says commissioner Ann Cavoukian. “You can imagine how tempting the marketing opportunities will be.”

Christopher Wolf quoted:

“There always needs be a policy to provide levels of protection, or at least transparency, about how the data will be used,” says Christopher Wolf of the Future of Privacy Forum. “It’s not the technology that’s bad, it’s the use of the technology.”

Click here to read the full article.

Smart Privacy For the Grid

Gridwise Alliance & Future of Privacy Forum Present

“Smart Privacy For the Grid”

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Embassy of Canada

Theatre Room

501 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Click here to register for the event. (link expired)

Featured Speakers:

Dr. Ann Cavoukian, Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

Andrew McLaughlin, United States Deputy, CTO

More Speakers:

Mike Oldak, Utilities Telecom Council, VP & General Counsel

Nuala O’Connor Kelly, GE, Senior Counsel, Information Governance & Privacy

Lillie Coney, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Associate Director

Jennifer Urban, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, UC Berkeley, Director

Ari Schwartz, Center for Democracy & Technology, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer

Michael Winters, Hydro One, CIO

Nick Sinai, Federal Communications Commission

For any questions or comments regarding the event please contact Rich O’Neill at [email protected]

New Article 29 Working Party Chair Jacob Kohnstamm

We are pleased to congratulate Jacob Kohnstamm, Chair of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, for being elected the new chairman of the Article 29 Working party.  Mr Kohnstamm visited the Future of Privacy Forum offices during his last visit to the U.S. and we enjoyed greatly the chance to discuss with him the issues on our agenda.  By chance, the House Energy and Commerce Committee was holding a privacy hearing the next day, and so we arranged for Mr. Kohnstamm and his staff to attend the hearing and observe the action as Congressman Boucher questioned online companies about behavioral advertising practices.

We look forward to working with Mr. Kohnstamm and his staff on efforts to advance responsible and practical data practices.

Online Behavioral Advertising "Icon" Study

Executive Summary:

In May 2009, the Future of Privacy Forum launched a research initiative to examine new methods for communicating with users about online advertising and privacy. This study assessed the communication efficacy of behavioral advertising disclosures based on icons and short disclosures placed near webpage advertisements as an alternative to providing transparency and choice via traditional online privacy notices.

The study employed an internet panel to assess the communication efficacy of behavioral advertising disclosures on the web. Disclosures were tested at 2 levels: (1) a level-1 disclosure comprising of a symbol and a short (2-3 word) phrase that was placed above an ad on the webpage (e.g., “interest based ads” or “ad choice”), and (2) a longer (18-20 word) level-2 disclosure that was revealed when surfers moved their cursor over the level-1 disclosure. This level-2 disclosure was intended to inform people that (a) information about their visit to this site is used to select ads they see here and elsewhere, and (b) to provide a link to “opt out” of this type of advertising.

The study involved five phases or sections:

• Part A: Exposure to webpage with level-l disclosure. Measure recall of level-1 disclosure;

• Part B: Re-exposure to webpage with level-l disclosure. Measure comprehension of level-l disclosure;

• Part C: Re-exposure to webpage with level-2 disclosure. Measure comprehension of level-2 disclosure;

• Parts D & E: Participation in 13 online activities and attitudes toward online behavioral advertising and privacy.

The sample size was 2,604 U.S. adults. The majority of the study participants were active internet users. The average respondent participated in 9 of 13 online activities, with approximately half or more of the sample participating in 12 activities. Only 2% had not participated in any activities. More than half of the sample spent at least 15 hours online/week.

Concern for privacy was measured by nine items using a 5-point scale (5=strongly agree). Average for this scale was 3.88. We also asked whether people had taken any of eight steps to protect their privacy online. The average was 4 steps, with approximately 40% of the participants engaging in 7 of 8 activities. Only 8% had never taken any of these steps.

We measured comfort with OBA with and without two key fair information practices (transparency and choice). Without transparency and choice, only 24% are comfortable with OBA. When transparency and choice are offered, 40% are comfortable with OBA. Approximately 30% are neutral about OBA with or without transparency and choice. Transparency and choice increase comfort for people who are most active online and engage in more privacy protective behaviors.

We tested 14 level-1 disclosures: 2 symbols (“Power I” and “Asterisk Man”) combined with seven phrases (Interest based ads, Custom ads, AdChoice, Your choice, Your info and ads, Why did I get this ad?, and a control phrase, Sponsor ads). We tested one level-2 disclosure which provided transparency and choice.

We measured comprehension of the level-1 disclosure with two multiple-part questions (Q8 and Q9). Comprehension of the level-2 disclosure was measured with one multiple-part question (Q11). Results show that for the level-1 disclosures, two of the seven tested phrases (“Why did I get this ad?,” and “Interest based ads”) generally do the best on comprehension. The remaining four phrases don’t do as well as the top two, but still outperform the control phrase (“Sponsor ads”). Also, while the phrase “Adchoice” did not perform as well as the top two on comprehension, it was in some cases less likely to generate agreement with decoy statements (that were unrelated to key communication objectives) than the top phrases. It is important to note, however, that while there were differences in the communication effectiveness of the six different level-1 phrases we tested, in an absolute sense it is not clear that they communicate well enough without additional support. Thus, consumer education will be needed to improve their communication effectiveness over time.

The testing also showed a very slight advantage for the asterisk man icon on some of the comprehension measures (specifically, Q8). Finally, the level-2 disclosure appears to communicate the key issues effectively.

To view the full report click here.

To view the presentation click here.