Tackling Privacy, One Carnegie Mellon Project at a Time
Last Thursday, the Future of Privacy Forum hosted a conversation among five of CMU’s leading privacy researchers. While the panelists discussed a number of their leading privacy projects, I wanted to highlight some of the interesting takeaways I took from the presentation. Many of the researchers focused on how subtle nudges can be used to change people’s behaviors. […]
Android M and Privacy: Giving Users Control over App Permissions
Android M and Privacy: Giving Users Control over App Permissions Android M promises to deliver several new user-control features built to advance transparency, choice, and predictability. The new App Permissions system allows users to select permissions specific to each app and device feature. The granular system requires apps to request user permissions individually as the […]
Framing the "Big Data Industry"
For all its hype, discussions about Big Data often still devolve into debates about buzzwords and concepts like business intelligence, data analytics, and machine learning. Hidden in each of these terms are important privacy and ethical considerations. A recent article by Kirsten Martin in MIS Quarterly Executive attempts to bring these considerations to the surface by moving past framing […]
Customer Privacy and the National Labor Relations Act
Last month, an Administrative Law Judge for the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Macy’s employee handbook contained overly broad confidential information policies. The decision continues efforts by the NLRB to police employer confidentiality policies, but it also demonstrates how industry efforts to protect privacy can inadvertently run afoul of Section 7 of the NLRA, […]
Comparing the Data Broker Bill to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights
Considering the privacy concerns raised by data brokers, we thought it would be useful to compare how data brokers are treated under Senator Edward Markey’s recent data broker bill, which has considerable support from privacy and consumer advocates (as well as Senators Blumenthal, Franken, and Whitehouse), and under the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. The different receptions […]
FPF Senior Fellow Peter Swire Receives Privacy Leadership Award
The Future of Privacy Forum congratulates our Senior Fellow, Peter Swire, on receiving the 2015 Privacy Leadership Award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Peter has worked with FPF since 2010 on a wide range of privacy and cyber-security issues, such as encryption, Big Data, and many more. His current work with FPF includes […]
Moving the Internet of Things Forward Without Hard Numbers on Risks
Today’s release of the FTC’s long-awaited report on the Internet of Things concludes that connected devices are “likely to meld the virtual and physical worlds together in ways that are currently difficult to comprehend.” It’s this great unknown where it seems many of the revolutionary benefits and more abstract risks from connectivity lie. While the […]
Paper on Video Games and Privacy Released
At the start of the new year, one of the most anticipated video games of the year was Watch_Dogs, an open-world experience where players played the role of a hacker living in near-future Chicago, racing around the city using a mobile device to retrieve sensitive data and harnessing augmented reality feeds to pick up information about […]
Travis LeBlanc on the FCC's New Privacy Role
At today’s FCBA brown bag lunch, FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc discussed the Commission’s recent entrance into privacy enforcement and fielded questions as to what companies might do to avoid running afoul of the Enforcement Bureau. LeBlanc emphasized the innovation continues to outpace regulators, noting that much of the Commission’s investigative and enforcement work […]
Discussing the Merits of Device Encryption
In the wake of Apple and Google’s recent decision to implement “whole device encryption” on their latest mobile operating systems, the FBI has warned that the tech giants’ actions will force law enforcement to “go dark” when it comes to keeping tabs of criminals. FPF has previously explored the question of encryption and law enforcement access, […]