As online privacy becomes an ever-more-pressing concern in modern life, Internet titan Google made an announcement yesterday which takes a few steps towards protecting its users privacy in the long term: after about 18 to 24 months, Google will anonymize its server logs so individually-identifying information about sessions, locations, serach terms, and other details can’t be reconstructed. The exception? Google will hang on to complete logs in any instances where it is required to do so by law. Once in effect, Google will apply the policy retroactively to existing logs.
Tag Archive: privacy advocates
Employees Get RFID Chips For Security
Employees at a surveillance equipment company have voluntarily agreed to have RFID chips implanted in their forearm. The company is trying to send a message that RFID can indeed be used as a decentsecurity method. The two employees who volunteered for the chip implant have access to a vault containing data and images from cameras the company has installed. CityWatcher.com has contracts withsix cities to provide cameras and Internet monitoring of high-crime areas. Thus, anyone who gained access to the vault would be in reach of extremely confidential and private material.
Privacy Concerns Grow over Google Desktop
Internet giant Google launched a new version of its Google Desktop for Windows XP and Windows 2000, and already privacy advocates and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are warning users away from a new feature which enables users to search for files across all their computers
Wireless Phone Directory Planned
The database being assembled by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn. is expected to include about 75% of the 163 million mobile phones in the United States, making looking up a wireless number as easy as dialing 411.
The association is pitching the directory as a boon for real estate agents and other on-the-go professionals who want people to be able to find their mobile numbers.
But privacy advocates, some members of Congress and even a major cellular carrier
