Bloomberg Law Features Televised Interview with Hogan Lovells Privacy Practice Director

Bloomberg Law conducted a video interview this week with Hogan Lovells Privacy and Information Management practice co-director Chris Wolf on current privacy law issues, ranging from how important privacy is to the continued growth of e-commerce, to EU-US relations, to Do Not Track, to the Right to be Forgotten.

See FPF’s own Chris Wolf here.

Aug. 23, 2011 – New Control Over Privacy on Facebook, NY Times

Other privacy experts say that if users believe they have control over who sees what, they are more likely to share.

“I think it’s part of an evolution to push back at the notion that Facebook is trying to trick you into sharing,” said Jules Polonetsky of the Future of Privacy Forum, which is based in Washington. “You’re more likely to do so when you know what you’re doing.”

 

App-makers are on Washington's radar

App-makers may need to look up from those iPhones, Android and BlackBerry games and other tools they’re developing in order to keep closer watch on Washington, where federal regulators are mulling new ways to protect app users.

To read the full article, and see FPF’s Chris Wolf’s comments, please click here.

FTC Competition Bureau Approves Privacy Self-Regulatory Program

The Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) has received a green light from the FTC’s Bureau of Competition for the CBBB’s “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA),” drafted by a coalition of industry associations. http://www.ftc.gov/os/2011/08/100815cbbbletter.pdf The Principles, administered by the Digital Advertising Alliance, require transparency about the information collected and are intended to give consumers control over whether and how their information is used.  The issue presented to the FTC by the CBBB was whether the accountability program would be viewed as a restraint of trade under the antitrust laws because of the collaboration of businesses in developing and enforcing the standards.

An advisory opinion letter from the FTC determined that accountability program “is intended to increase transparency and consumer control of OBA, which has the potential to increase consumer welfare, and there appears to be little or no potential for competitive harm associated with the proposed accountability program.”   The FTC still could object in the future if the principles as applied were used to limit competition rather than simply promote consumer welfare.

Notably, the  advisory opinion stated that it “is limited to the competition law analysis requested by the CBBB and does not address the adequacy or appropriateness of the industry self-regulatory principles or their administration.”  Translation:  “We don’t speak for our Bureau of Consumer Protection colleagues on the adequacy of the self-regulatory program from a privacy perspective.”

FTC fines app-maker over kids' privacy

Sen. Jay Rockefeller today commended the FTC for cracking down on an app-maker for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act but also called on the commission to finish revising the rules to keep pace with evolving technology. “The FTC’s enforcement action sets a legal precedent that mobile applications targeting children must abide by the protections established by the law,” the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee said in a statement. “And while I am pleased with the FTC’s recent action, I also believe it is crucial that the FTC completes its revision of the COPPA rule to account for changing technology and give consumers the regulatory protections they need for the future.”

To read the entire article click here.

Industry Tries to Streamline Privacy Policies for Mobile Users

For many Internet users, online privacy policies are long and difficult to read. Transfer those same policies to a mobile device, where users can find themselves clicking through multiple screens often with tiny type, and the policies can become almost useless to the average consumer.

View the entire article quoting the Future of Privacy Forum’s own Chris Wolf here.

The Focus on App Privacy Continues

As reflected in this Hogan Lovells’ blog entry http://www.hldataprotection.com/2011/08/articles/consumer-privacy/app-privacy-is-in-the-news-again/ app privacy remains in the news and on the minds of privacy advocates and industry.  This entry links to a quote by FPF’s co-chair Chris Wolf in today’s New York Times on the need for all app developers to invest in privacy, and has a link to the FPF Application Privacy resource as well.  Finally, there is a mention of the upcoming joint FPF/Mobile Marketing Association webinar on app privacy and a link to free registration for that webinar.

Gibberbot Wins Inaugural Develop for Privacy Challenge

The Develop for Privacy Challenge, organized by the ACLUs of Northern California and Washington, the Tor Project, and the Information & Privacy Commissioner’s Office of Ontario, was launched to highlight some of the best privacy-enhancing mobile apps out there — apps that improve, rather than erode, our ability to protect and control our own private information.

View the entire post here.

Aug. 9, 2011 – U.K. Police Seek BlackBerry Messages Following Riots, InformationWeek