New York Times on Government Use of Cookies:
Kudos to the New York Times for addressing the government’s use of cookies in an editorial in this morning’s paper . As the piece indicates, currently there is no ban in place which prevents a federal agency from using tracking devices, such as cookies. Unfortunately, it is an all or nothing policy, which allows agencies […]
Web Analysis, Behavioral Targeting and Advertising: Individual Visitors Tracking v/s Aggregate Data
http://webanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/individual-visitors-tracking-vs.html In our comments on the federal government’s request for input on the use of cookies, we made the point that for the purpose of Web site analytics use of data in the aggregate was quite sufficient. This discussion and debate between analytics industry experts from Google and Comscore provides some insight on the issues […]
FPF's Reply Comments to the White House Cookie Policy
The Future of Privacy Forum is providing the below suggestions to offer a roadmap for enabling the use of analysis, site optimization and tracking technologies by government agencies. Personalizing site content for users who wish to have a setting remembered, enabling long term shopping carts and capturing analytics information over time to improving site usage […]
FPF’s Reply Comments to the Federal Websites Cookie Policy
The Future of Privacy Forum is providing the below suggestions to offer a roadmap for enabling the use of analysis, site optimization and tracking technologies by government agencies. Personalizing site content for users who wish to have a setting remembered, enabling long term shopping carts and capturing analytics information over time to improving site usage […]
FPF's Reply Comments to the Federal Websites Cookie Policy
The Future of Privacy Forum is providing the below suggestions to offer a roadmap for enabling the use of analysis, site optimization and tracking technologies by government agencies. Personalizing site content for users who wish to have a setting remembered, enabling long term shopping carts and capturing analytics information over time to improving site usage […]
Time Will Tell…
What a difference six months makes! Six months ago, the staff of the Federal Trade Commission released a set of proposed principles to guide the development of self-regulation in online behavioral advertising, which it described as an “evolving area”. Industry groups reacted by agreeing to a set of principles focused around ensuring that all behaviorally […]
New White House Policy on Cookies On the Way
Look out today for a Federal Register request for comment and a post at the White House Open Government site about ways for revising the current prohibition on persistent cookies. The goal is to continue to protect the privacy of people who visit Federal Government websites while at the same time making these websites more […]
Facebook Canadian Privacy News
Some thoughts on the Report of Findings by the Assistant Privacy Commissioner of Canada into the complaint filed by CIPPIC against Facebook. Overall this is a very well informed and thoughtful decision. The majority of the issues raised by CIPPIC (Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic) are either denied or found to have […]
How close to your actual home is the geo-info companies have about your IP address?
The debate around IP addresses as personal information hinges primarily around the fact that an ISP will usually have the identity of the subscriber assigned an IP address. So the real issue isn’t really about IP adresses, but rather how to handle information which may be non-personal to one party, but which is linked to […]
Court: IP Addresses Are Not 'Personally Identifiable' Information
Court: IP Addresses Are Not ‘Personally Identifiable’ Information Media Post By Wendy Davis July 6, 2009 In a ruling that could fuel debate about online privacy, a federal judge in Seattle has held that IP addresses are not personal information. “In order for ‘personally identifiable information’ to be personally identifiable, it must identify a person. […]