Dear startups and other relevant parties: It’s 2012. It is no longer ok to
- Not offer a way to download our data in some sort of a standard, transparent, and at least somewhat human-siftable format
- Hide or otherwise be opaque about precisely what personal data you smuggle out of our devices
- Not offer a one-to-two-click process for deleting our accounts
- Fail to actually remove our data from your servers after we delete our accounts (while complying with applicable regional laws governing data retention)
- Believe that taking VC and selling your customers’s private information is the only way to get a company off the ground, let alone run a successful business
- Not use SSL for passing even the slightest bit of private information
- Offer Facebook Connect as your only signup option [hat tip to Zwei in the comments]
Did I miss anything?
I wholeheartedly agree.
Facebook Timeline Privacy Tips
On February 7th Facebook’s timeline feature will go live for all users.
what used to be an opt-in feature will be mandatory for all users.
A consequence is that many things the user might think long forgotten, will be easily accessible and many posts that were private will now be visible to the public.
The linked site gives an overview of the things you can do to protect your privacy and tweak the way your new MySpace Facebook timeline works.
Flash Player for Mac 10.3 adds preference pane
Well done Adobe!
Before this the preferences of the Flash plugin could only be accessed through an active Flash video or animation on a website. Now Mac users can change Flash’s privacy settings and other options in the settings application of Mac OS X.
This was long overdue, but at least it’s finally here.
Ad-companies angered by mobile Safari's default blocking of third party cookies
From the original article at MediaPost:
All browsers can present challenges for advertisers, but Apple’s focus on consumer privacy limits the viability of third-party cookie-based tracking systems.
[Emphasis by me.]
Another example where Apple regards consumers to be their customers, not cellular carriers, not advertisers, not publishers.
![thedailywhat:
Venn Diagram of the Day: “Internet VS Privacy” by Dave Makes.
Rule of thumb.
[datavis.]
This should hang framed in every computer education classroom around the world.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lajjwnmdOO1qa6ke2o1_500.jpg)
Venn Diagram of the Day: “Internet VS Privacy” by Dave Makes.
Rule of thumb.
[datavis.]
This should hang framed in every computer education classroom around the world.
