Privacy

Google discovered a privacy glitch that inappropriately shared access to a small fraction of word-processing and presentation documents stored on the company's online Google Docs service.

"We've identified and fixed a bug which may have caused you to share some of your documents without your knowledge. This inadvertent sharing was limited to people with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document," the company said in a note, quoted at TechCrunch, that the search giant sent to affected people. "The issue only occurred if you, or a collaborator with sharing … Read more

BERKELEY, Calif.--Six years after California enacted the country's first data breach notification law, many state residents have received letters warning them that their data was exposed by a breach but usually they don't know how or how long, experts said at a privacy conference on Friday.

That would change with the passage of a measure proposed by California State Sen. Joe Simitian, who authored the country's first bill requiring companies to notify customers when a breach has occurred that exposes their data.

Senate Bill 20 would require that notification letters to consumers have a standard set of information such as information about the timing and circumstances of the breach.

It would also require that a state entity be notified at the same time so that law enforcement, lawmakers, and researchers "can spot larger trends and don't have to rely on what they read in the newspaper," Simitian said in a luncheon address at the Security Breach Notification Symposium in Berkeley.

… Read more

I've been conference-hopping through Europe for the past two weeks. In Berlin, I discussed new "quality of life" concepts for Germany, and in Geneva I listened to speakers who held Utopian visions from an earlier era accountable for what could have been but wasn't. My own personal well-being was more mundane. I schlepped two big suitcases with me and saw the sun shine only twice. When you travel so much, you start to feel like Tyler Brule: quality of life is defined by the quality of the airports you pass through, the quality of the Wi-Fi … Read more

This two-in-one program offers data protection in the form of a secure drive and a file shredder. After testing the program for ourselves, we were left with a few unanswered questions.

At first glance, Kemo Data Safe's main use seemed pretty straightforward, with three large buttons that take you where you want to go--Data Safe, Shredder, and Backup My Safe--but looks are deceiving. Novices will appreciate the tutorials and Help file for getting started, but we found a few misspellings that, in our opinion, were unacceptable for a paid program. Safeguarding your files was simply a matter of selecting … Read more

Responding to criticism from privacy activists, YouTube in the past two weeks has rolled out a number of new privacy features. Chief among these is a "delayed cookie" option thatYouTube promises will not leave cookies in the browsers of users who have not yet clicked the "play" button to view a video.

While this statement is true for traditional Web browser-based cookies, YouTube's cookie-lite solution still leaves long-term, non-session Flash cookies behind in the Web browser of visitors who have yet to actually click play to watch the YouTube videos.

As revealed on this blog … Read more

Editors' note: Correction, March 3, 12:46 p.m. PST: This post, which originally carried the headline "White House ditches YouTube after privacy complaints," significantly misconstrued the White House's policy on and use of YouTube. In the interests of disclosure and transparency, we are leaving the contents as originally posted, with two subsequent update notes and with the exception of the headline change. See also our follow-up story, "No, the White House hasn't ditched YouTube."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * Original story follows * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Updated at 5:50 p.m. PST March 2: The New York Times is reporting that … Read more

Just in time for the weekend, social networks Facebook and MySpace were dealing with several new security issues on Friday that could expose personal information and communications from friends.

Facebook said it had removed a new rogue application that was spamming users and exposing their information. Before it was halted, the application sent messages claiming that a friend had reported the recipient for violating Facebook's terms of service and offered a link to click to find out more information.

Users who clicked on the link were providing the app access to their profile and personal information as well as … Read more

Carl Malamud, the tech activist campaigning to be named head of the Government Printing Office, appears to have the support of at least one Washington politician.

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) sent a letter Friday to the federal court system with concerns about whether court documents are sufficiently accessible to the public and whether private information in those documents is appropriately secured. The letter cites research Malamud conducted showing that personal information is not well protected.

In his letter to Judge Lee Rosenthal, who chairs the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Judicial Conference of the United States, … Read more

This simple, little, Internet Explorer privacy tool may not look like much, but it successfully password-protected user-selected Web sites.

IEProtect requires that you enter a master password that you will enter each and every time you access the program. The user interface is extremely simple to operate, with all of your menu commands at the top of a small window. The help feature provides a link that takes you to the publisher's Web site. Each Web site that you add is displayed below the command buttons. Password protecting sites is as easy as clicking the Add Site button, entering … Read more