• Instagram Restores Old Terms, Vows To Move Slower In Future
    Instagram has decided to stick with its old terms of service after all. Co-founder Kevin Systrom blogged last night that the Facebook-owned company is reverting to its October 2010 terms, and has no plans at the time roll out any new ad products that would require a change.
  • New Report Bashes Data Caps
    In 2008, Comcast began imposing a monthly limit on the amount of data that broadband subscribers could consume. Since then, a number of other Internet service providers -- both wireline and wireless -- followed suit. But as cable companies and telecoms are embracing data caps, more and more industry observers are criticizing the restrictions.
  • Lawmaker Praises COPPA Expansion, Bashes Behavioral Targeting
    Sen. Jay Rockefeller, head of the Senate Commerce Committee, left no doubt today that he's no fan of online ad networks. Speaking at a press conference announcing new Children's Online Privacy Protection Act regulations, Rockefeller said it was high time that companies were prohibited from tracking children in order to profit from data about them.
  • User Revolt Spurs Instagram To Backtrack On New Terms Of Service
    A user revolt has spurred Instagram to promise to revise a passage in its terms of service that appeared to reserve the right to license people's photos to advertisers.
  • German Regulator Wants To Nix Facebook's Anti-Pseudonym Policies
    Facebook's policy of requiring users to register with their real names has come under scrutiny in the U.S., where digital rights advocates say that people often have good reasons for wanting to use pseudonyms online.
  • Senate Panel Approves Location-Privacy Bill
    For the second time in as many months, the Senate Judiciary Committee has cleared a bill that aims to give people new privacy protections in their digital data. On Thursday, the panel approved a location-privacy bill proposed by Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), which would require that app developers obtain users' opt-in consent before collecting or disclosing their geolocation data. Late last month, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved revamping the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to require that law enforcement authorities obtain search warrants before accessing people's emails or other data stored in the cloud.
  • Analytics Company Offers To Provide Email Addresses Of 'Anonymous' Visitors
    An employee of commercial real estate firm 42floors has publicly called out a lead-generation company for engaging in some highly questionable privacy practices. In a blog post this week, 42floors.com's Darren Nix outlines how a lead-generation company approached him and offered to provide him with email addresses of visitors to the site -- visitors who were under the mistaken impression that they were browsing anonymously.
  • Privacy Policy Fail: Company Tells Users To Change IP Addresses, Stop Clicking On Ads
    You'd think that a company that offers opt-out instructions in its privacy policy would only do so if users could follow those instructions. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong, at least in the case of performance marketing company adMarketplace. The company was called out on Twitter this week for its privacy policy, which gives opt-out advice that's impossible to follow.
  • File-Sharer Asks Supreme Court To Hear Appeal
    Kazaa user Jammie Thomas-Rasset is asking the Supreme Court to hear her appeal of an order requiring her to pay the record labels $220,000 for sharing 24 tracks.
  • Tech Companies Continue To Make Privacy Missteps
    Companies have moved very quickly to develop mobile apps. But when it comes to complying with privacy laws, they haven't acted quite as fast.
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