GROWMAP.COM » Privacy and Data Mining http://www.growmap.com MAP Your Path to GROW Your Business Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:37:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 SOPA Blackout Strike Already Started; Why Major Sites and Blogs Went Dark in Support http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/ http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:04:47 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=14339

If you haven’t heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) so far, most are bound to have noticed Tuesday, January 18, 2012 when they were unable to get to many of their favorite sites from Wikipedia to Reddit to WordPress to Mozilla to Craigslist.

NEW: Where do members of Congress stand on SOPA
MUST WATCH VIDEOS: CBS C/Net Complicit in Piracy

SOPA LOSING SUPPORT VIDEO

Do not fall for the red herring that these bills – both SOPA (in the House) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) (in the Senate) are ONLY about stopping “renegade pirate sites”. 

ANY site could be taken down!

SOPA Content Blocked Image

MUST READ post: Click Image for MPAA Rant against SOPA Blackout

SOPA and PIPA are NOT only a threat to big sites.
See this MUST WATCH video:

Look at all the videos that have been removed from YouTube because of copyright violations. That could be YOUR blog or any site you visit!

“This bill is about using the government to shut
down the competition from bloggers, podcasters,
Web TV and other independent content creators.”
~ Rick Calvert, BlogWorld Co-Founder ~

SOPA and PIPA would make it simple for YOUR blog or favorite site to be “reported” and taken down or cut off from PayPal and other payment gateways without proof of wrongdoing or any chance to defend your innocence.

Wikipedia SOPA Blackout

Wikipedia SOPA Blackout - What Wikipedia Looks Like Wed Jan 18 12:46 a.m. CST

Did you know that it is ILLEGAL to sing Happy Birthday in a restaurant
unless that restaurant pays royalties to the people who wrote that song?
Or that you could be found guilty and sentenced to up to FIVE YEARS
in prison for posting a video on your site or YouTube or anywhere else
online that contains any part of that song?
And some actually believe you should report others and
PAY UP if you unknowingly sang Happy Birthday to anyone!

GOOGLE SOPA BLACKOUT LOGO:

Google SOPA Logo

Google SOPA Logo

Google is NOT going dark – but they did post a message
“Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!”

MEDIA IN DENIAL:

As has been their usual response, major media ignores what they don’t want the public to know about for as long as they can:

“Living in what can only be described as pure denial, the MPAA announced today that the SOPA/PIPA protests “failed to enlist big sites.” Honestly, there’s really not much more to say about that. Google. Wikipedia. Facebook. Amazon. Craigslist. All participating. Let’s just stare in wonder at the MPAA’s hubris and ability to deny reality.” ~ TechDirt ~

HOW TO JOIN SOPA BLACKOUT:

MORE INSANE LAWS

WHAT IS SOPA?

WHAT IS PIPA?

WHAT IS COPPA?

  • Proposed FTC COPPA Changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act includes yet ANOTHER call for a National ID – does NOT protect children but does threaten privacy, free speech and freedom.

EFFECTS of SOPA / PIPA:

]]> http://www.growmap.com/sopa-blackout/feed/ 94 Proposed FTC COPPA Changes Include Yet ANOTHER Call for National ID http://www.growmap.com/ftc-coppa/ http://www.growmap.com/ftc-coppa/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:00:23 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=10808

FTC logo

Internet Attorney Richard B. Newman keeps me apprised of important legal issues that affect all of us and I make sure others know about them.

The day after the FTC announced proposed changes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Richard had already done an in-depth analysis on how COPPA changes will affect businesses, publishers, advertisers and mobile app developers.

The next three quotes are from that analysis:

“The FTC has now proposed significant modifications to COPPA that will have a significant effect on the operation of websites, online services, and mobile applications that collect personal information from children.”

Lest anyone discount the huge impact these changes can have on all of us, the same day that his analysis was published by Adotas, Mashable published How Would You Change COPRA and the Wall Street Journal wrote about these proposed changes to the Web Privacy Rules.

“The FTC has clarified that COPPA applies not only to websites, but also to technologies that can be considered “online services.”  This includes mobile apps that permit children to play network-connected games, engage in social networking activities, and some text messages. “

Most of the coverage thus far of these proposed changes fails to analyze how they will affect those doing business on the Internet or Internet users. Hopefully in the near future there will be more comprehensive analyses of how those impacts.

“The definition of “personal information” has also been expanded and will almost certainly impact companies’ behavioral advertising activities. ”

Special thanks to their Editor Gavin Dunaway for recognizing the importance and publishing Richard’s analysis on how COPRA will affect businesses which I encourage anyone working online to read and understand.

I suspect the way many sites will deal with these requirements is to have users check a box claiming they are over 13 – something that many already do and which can not be verified – at least not easily – which leads me to point out something related but of broader danger to Americans who love freedom and privacy.

The changes proposed by the FTC to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act include a proposal to have parents provide “government-issued ID numbers that the operator can check against a database”.

How many different ways will a national ID system be foisted upon us in the name of the illusion of keeping us or children safe? All of these have been given as reasons we would be safer if we all had to present our papers everywhere we go to do anything and everything in life:

  • Prevent another 9-11 incident
  • Enhance national security
  • Unmask potential terrorists
  • Guard against illegal immigrants
  • Fight crime and make our neighborhood’s safer
  • And now keep our children safe

Nothing could be further from the truth. Multiple bills have been proposed and will continue to be proposed and wording pushing us towards the use of a National ID system for every reason under the sun will continue.

That is why we are continually losing our freedom: because those who want ultimate power have persistence and a long term view AND they are very sneaky about hiding what they want in unrelated legislation. Consider this:

In September of 1996, President Clinton signed into law, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Buried at approximately page 650 of the new national Defense Bill, also known as Public Law 104-208, Part B, Title IV, the American public was given a national ID card. With no fanfare, no publicity and no scrutiny, the bill easily avoided the watchful eyes of even its most aggressive opponents.

I encourage you to read the Electronic Frontier Foundation Organization’s (EFF) official position against a National ID which they call “A Solution in Search of a Problem” and refute each and every one of the so-called reasons we need a National ID system.

There is a growing movement at the state level to oppose a national ID system that I encourage everyone to get behind while we still can. Ask anyone from the UK how many CCTV video cameras monitor their every move (estimated in 2003 at about 4.2 million or 1 for every 14 people) or about their “problem family monitoring“.

I can already hear the simple folk saying, “that’s ok – we should monitor bad people – I’m not a bad parent – that could never happen to our family. WRONG! Who decides? It CAN happen to you and NO ONE should have their privacy invaded like that. The system is worse than the problem!

We must be ever watchful and unless you want to leave the system entirely it is necessary to try to stop these changes. The Intel Forum has a discussion board that includes the status of Real ID Mandatory State Compliance.

Here is just one of many more bills being considered:

Worker Biometric ID Under Consideration in US: Senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham have proposed a new national identity card. The Senators would require that “all U.S. citizens and legal immigrants who want jobs” obtain a “high-tech, fraud-proof Social Security card” with a unique biometric identifier. The card, they say, would not contain private information, medical information, or tracking techniques, and the biometric identifiers would not be stored in a government database.

Notice the clever wording. The CARD won’t contain that information but it WILL link to a database that does, but the database won’t contain the biometric identifiers. So what? Between the two your every move will be tracked and could prevent you from being able to get a job, a loan, insurance, rent an apartment or eventually possibly even make purchases.

There is a good reason people are opposed
to a National ID: privacy makes freedom possible.

How do you get people to agree to what they have fought against for generations? Make them the only “easy” way to do something else so that busy people who aren’t very savvy will automatically go along – like the only easy way to permit your children access to what they want to do online.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

  • The FTC is soliciting public comment on the proposed COPPA Rule amendments.  Comments will be accepted through November 28, 2011.
  • If you have other actions my readers can take leave them in the comments. DO please include relevant links to further information.

WHY PRIVACY MATTERS:

WHY WE ALREADY HAVE NO PRIVACY:

MONITORING PROPOSED or ALREADY IN PLACE:

MORE on FTC COPRA CHANGES:

National Strategy for Trusted Identifies in Cyberspace:

REAL ID aka BIOMETRIC NATIONAL ID:

FTC GUIDELINES:

STALKING RESOURCES:

Intelligent con artists are a serious threat to personal safety and finances. They can obtain almost any kind of information and talk anyone you know into revealing your personal information and even your current location. These links can assist those dealing with stalkers:

 

]]> http://www.growmap.com/ftc-coppa/feed/ 17 Internet Legislation Proposed to Address Consumer Privacy and Data Security Issues http://www.growmap.com/internet-privacy-legislation/ http://www.growmap.com/internet-privacy-legislation/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:57:01 +0000 RBNInternetAtty http://www.growmap.com/?p=10577

Internet Privacy Legislation

Image Credit: NetChoice ~ Click image to read Privacy: A Solution in Search of a Problem

This is a guest post by Richard B. Newman – Internet Attorney

Data security and consumer privacy are hot-button issues these days.  They are gaining momentum and many – including the Obama administration – believe that it is time for a new regulatory framework.

Proposed regulations could have a direct impact on any entity that collects, stores, or shares data on a large scale.

Data brokers, online marketers, advertising agencies and networks, media and publishing companies, mobile application developers, retailers, web browsers and operators, credit reporting agencies, and financial services companies must be intimately aware of the status of these debates so that they can prepare for an almost certain new regulatory framework.

Numerous high-profile incidents have accelerated
legislative discussions for increased regulation.

Everyone from large corporations to government entities have fallen victim to large-scale data  breaches, and many mobile devices have been discovered to allow the tracking and recording of a user’s locations.

Sensitive information such as names, dates of birth, Social
Security numbers, e-mail addresses, passwords, locations, and
health and financial related information increasingly seem at risk.

Over a dozen bills have been introduced this year in response to privacy advocates’ clamoring for heightened regulation.

In fact, the FTC and Department of Commerce have published their own recommendations.

THREE TYPES OF PROPOSED PRIVACY LEGISLATION

Generally, the proposals pertain to three specific areas:

  1. Online and point-of-sale privacy
  2. Mobile device privacy
  3. Data  security and  breach  notification

Now is an ideal time for any business entity that may be at risk to critically examine their privacy and data security procedures to ensure compliance with legal and industry best practice standards on both the national and state levels.

The following is intended as a brief overview of pending regulatory proposals in Congress and the federal agencies, the implications of proposed regulations, and what companies should do to comply with the confusing patchwork of privacy regulations currently in place.

Legislative proposals in recent bills on consumer privacy and data security generally pertain to three topics:

  • Consumer privacy bills seek to help consumers control what personal information is collected, used, stored, or shared based on their online and point-of-sale behavior.
  • Mobile privacy bills seek to help consumers take control of what information is collected, used, stored, or shared based on their mobile device usage and their geolocation.
  • Data security and breach notification bills seek to implement new protocols for protecting data and to create a national standard for notifying affected individuals and government agencies when a data breach has occurred.

Six bills have been introduced this year pertaining primarily to online and point-of-sale privacy.

When browsing the Internet or making purchases at a store, consumers reveal valuable, sometimes highly-sensitive, information that is used to construct user profiles based on their location, their preferences, and their contact information.

This data can be very valuable for behavioral marketers, which is the precise reason that the market for such consumer data continues to grow so rapidly.

The purpose of the privacy bills is to change how consumer information is collected, stored, used, and shared, and what and how consumers are informed told about these practices. Bills regarding data collection call for opt-out or opt-in mechanisms that require prior, express consent from the consumer before any personal information can be collected.

Bills contemplating data storage impose new limits on the scope and duration of data retention, as well as new security procedures to safeguard information.  Bills regarding data use and sharing impose limits on the purposes for which data may be used, restrict with whom a data collector (e.g., a retailer) can share information, and set new standards for whether consumer consent or notification is necessary before information can be used in certain ways or shared with a third party.

While the themes discussed above generally characterize the current group of legislative proposals, there exist slight differences between each of the privacy-focused bills.

KEY ONLINE PRIVACY BILLS:

  1. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.): Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011.  This bill would require opt-out mechanisms for the collection or use of online and personal data;
  2. Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.): Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011.  This bill would require opt-out mechanisms for  data  use or sharing, as well as opt-in consent for the collection, storage, or sharing of sensitive personal information;
  3. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.): BEST PRACTICES Act.  This bill is similar to the Kerry-McCain proposal and calls for opt-out mechanisms for  data  collection and storage, as well as opt-in consent for certain third-party information sharing;
  4. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.): Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011.  This bill would allow consumers to opt-out of having their personally identifiable information shared with third parties;
  5. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.): Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011. This bill would give consumers the ability to opt-out of having their online data tracked and stored.  This proposal would go one step further than the other privacy bills by also imposing limits on data collection from mobile devices;
  6. Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas): Do-Not-Track-Kids Act.  Markey and Barton’s proposal would preclude online companies from using personal information for targeted marketing to children, would enable parents to delete the history of their children’s online behaviors, and would require parental consent for any data tracking online r on mobile devices.

MOBILE DEVICES LEAVE AN ELECTRONIC TRAIL

An entirely separate group of bills focuses their attention on mobile devices.  To begin with, users who access GPS-enabled applications on their mobile devices, tablet devices, and smartphones are leaving an electronic trail that can be utilized to reveal both present and past physical locations.

KEY MOBILE PRIVACY BILLS:

Some of the key proposals in this particular area include:

  1. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah): Geolocation and Privacy Surveillance (GPS) Act.  These bills would prohibit companies from collecting or sharing geolocation information without the user’s express consent;
  2. Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.): Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011.  This bill would require any covered entity to offer prior notice and obtain express consent from consumers in order to track and collect their geolocation information;
  3. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.): Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) Amendments Act of 2011.  Enacted in 1986, the ECPA restricts third-party access to private electronic communications, such as online activity and e-mails. However, the ECPA does not cover GPS-based information.   Therefore, Leahy proposed this update to add geolocation information as a new class of private communications subject to the protections of the ECPA.

DATA SECURITY and BREACH NOTIFICATION:

Key proposals that focus primarily on data security and breach notification have recently been introduced.  The purpose of these bills is to require entities that collect or store data  to take steps to prevent bad actors from accessing personal information and to create a standard for notifying government agencies and consumers if an organization’s data  is breached.

Limits on the scope and duration of data storage are the main focus.

The theory goes – if less data is stored and for a shorter period of time, then less data is necessarily at risk.  Proposed security and notification legislation also mandate security policies to prevent unauthorized third-party access to data, as well as procedures and time frames to alert affected individuals and government agencies when a data breach has occurred.

DATA SECURITY and BREACH NOTIFICATION BILLS:

The key bills in this particular area include:

  1. Sens. Rockefeller and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.):  Data Security and Breach Notification Act of 2011. This bill requires businesses and nonprofit organizations that store personal information to implement reasonable security measures and alert consumers when their data has been compromised.  In the event of a  breach, affected individuals would be entitled to free credit monitoring services for two years;
  2. Leahy: Personal Data Privacy and Security Act.  This bill is similar to bills Leahy has introduced in the past and his proposal calls for businesses to enact security procedures to protect sensitive data.  It would create a federal standard for notifying appropriate parties of a breach;
  3. Bono Mack (R-Calif.): SAFE Data Act.  Her proposal requires businesses to notify consumers and the FTC within 48 hours of containing and assessing a breach and would entitle affected individuals to free credit monitoring services for two years;
  4. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.): DATA  Act of 2011.  Stearns’  data  security and  breach bill is similar to Rep. Rush’s in its call for tighter protections of  data  storage systems, in addition to setting a standard for notifying affected individuals and government authorities in the event of a  breach.

Of note, California recently amended its data breach notification law and as of January 1, 2012, California businesses are required to provide notice to individuals of the breach of their personal data, and must also notify the state Office of the Attorney General if the breach requires notification of more than 500 California residents.

For the first time, California will also require that notices to individuals include certain information, such as the type of information breached, the time of the breach, and a toll-free telephone number of major credit reporting agencies.

Despite the number of competing legislative proposals, Congress
will almost certainly pass a national standard on these issues soon.

The FTC and the Department of Commerce have issued their own recommendations addressing online and point-of-sale privacy, mobile device privacy, data security, and breach notification.

The aim of the FTC and Department of Commerce plans include limits on what information can be collected, how long it can be stored, simpler and more easily understood privacy policies, do-not-track preferences that follow a user from website to website, increased transparency on the part of  data  collectors, and requiring companies to build security and privacy measures into products.

Broad sweeping changes in these areas will almost certainly have far reaching practical implications that could reach just about every consumer and business in the country.

Data privacy regulations, as currently proposed in “do-not-track” and geo-location bills, would significantly change operations for entities that purchase consumer information for behavioral marketing purposes.  Third-party purchasers would be affected by stricter privacy regulations.

New regulatory standards could change the online advertising landscape.  It could significantly impact mobile phones because data privacy and geo-location bills could conceivably curtail data -centric, targeted marketing.

Under many of the proposals, ad networks, retailers, content websites, data brokers, mobile network providers and application developers, and any type of entity that collects and stores personal information would likely be impacted and limited in their ability to collect, store, use, or share consumer information.

If data security and breach notification proposals are adopted, covered entities would be mandated to comply with specific regulatory methods for storing consumer information and responding to breaches.

New data breach and privacy regulations will, undoubtedly, create countless hurdles and landmines in the information trade sector.

In the meantime, the wise thing to do is to evaluate policies in terms of existing law and best practice standards.  If businesses do not currently meet regulatory standards, raising the threshold “if and when” will be much more difficult.

Currently, no comprehensive federal privacy law governs
the collection, use, storage, and sharing of consumer information.

Instead, a constantly evolving patchwork of sector-specific and data -specific state and federal privacy laws makes such compliance assessments difficult.  Therefore, steps should be taken to minimize data privacy and security risks.

HOW TO MINIMIZE YOUR LEGAL EXPOSURE:

So, what can be done to safeguard sensitive information and minimize exposure?  Here are some simple steps regarding the design and implementation of a sound data security plan:

  1. Implement reasonable written privacy and security policies, immediately.
  2. Identify risks and implement appropriate technological solutions.
  3. Assign one individual to oversee privacy and security issues.
  4. Take stock.  Inventory what you have and train workers on privacy and data security matters.
  5. Scale down and pitch it.  Keep only what you legitimately need.
  6. Lock it - physical security.
  7. Plan your response to security incidents, ahead of time.
  8. Consult with an experienced Internet Law Attorney.

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Richard B. Newman is an Internet Privacy Lawyer and Internet Defamation Attorney at Hinch Newman LLP (New York & California)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

PROPOSED INTERNET LEGISLATION:

  • Atlantic.com: The Legislation That Could Kill Internet Privacy for Good: The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011
]]> http://www.growmap.com/internet-privacy-legislation/feed/ 26 Facebook End Run Around YOUR Privacy Settings http://www.growmap.com/facebook-end-run-around-your-privacy-settings/ http://www.growmap.com/facebook-end-run-around-your-privacy-settings/#comments Sun, 29 May 2011 20:57:23 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=8546

While their PR machine claims Facebook is getting better about protecting your privacy, their new permissions prove the exact opposite. Here is a screen capture of the new Facebook request for permission:

Facebook New Permissions PRIVACY

Screen Capture of Actual Facebook Permissions

Did you read that last one?:

Access my FRIENDS’ Information
Family Members and Relationship Statuses,
Current Cities, Likes, Music, TV, Movies, Books, Quotes,
Education History, Work History, Websites,
Groups and Photos and Videos of them.

In other words, if YOU or YOUR FRIENDS choose NOT to give Facebook permission to access that information, Facebook can get YOUR information AND THEIRS from any other Facebook user you interact with who clicks allow.

Make no mistake about this. MOST Facebook users will just click allow – and that means simply this: 

Whatever you share with them on Facebook is shared publicly!

It is abundantly clear from these latest Facebook permissions and the new authorization Twitter privacy concerns that we don’t really have many choices. We either accept these permissions – knowing full well that in the future both Twitter and Facebook will be able to target our followers and friends with anything they wish – or stop using their services.

If you use Facebook your friends will – and many already have
given Facebook permission to access all your information
even if you refuse or object!

Besides what is written above, these permissions give other companies, Web sites, and individuals permission to post “status messages, notes, photos and videos” to  your wall on Facebook or “Post Tweets on Your Behalf” (the exact wording on Twitter’s news permissions) to your followers on Twitter.

Others may do this even if you never see it yourself because
they could actually make ads or anything else
visible only to your followers and not to you.

Right now if we raise these objections we will most likely be told that they only mean posting Tweets we ask for using Tweet and Retweet buttons on various sites. But the wording is ambiguous and can later be used to post anything any time.

(If you know of ANYTHING ANYWHERE that contradicts this I challenge you to link to it in my comments.)

Facebook has a long history of moving to change privacy expectations. Even though there is nothing we can really do about where all this is going, if you wish to share what you think about it please leave a comment. Links to related content are always welcome.

What we need to offset this bummer news is some comic relief from Rhett and Link:

Whenever you could use a break, watching their hilarious commercials (how they do it to be documented by film producers @jokeandbiagio) is a good way to relax. On Twitter you can follow Rhett @rhettmc and Link @linklamont. Congratulations to all of them on their new Commercial Kings television show.

]]> http://www.growmap.com/facebook-end-run-around-your-privacy-settings/feed/ 48 TWTPOLL: Should Marketers Use YOUR Private Emails to Family and Friends to Target Ads at You? http://www.growmap.com/gmail-ads/ http://www.growmap.com/gmail-ads/#comments Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:46:14 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=7881

I believe this has actually been in the works for many, many years, but now they are publicly promoting this capability. You can read How Gmail Ads work

Personally, I consider this unethical because emails between you and your family, friends, clients and others should be PRIVATE – not data-mined so ads can be targeted at you.

Some people have been embarrassed by inappropriate intimate ads appearing in their email. Others have found creative ways to Massacre Gmail Ads.

I have a better way. I don’t use gmail.

Oh, I HAVE gmail accounts. You can’t work online and avoid them easily. (I even told Buzz NO but it appeared anyway.) I just don’t use them. But since many of the people I email to do the emails I send them are data mined.

In a recent post Big Brother Yahoo and Google Too I shared this information from a user of Yahoo email who experienced another type of email data mining.

I was in a dialogue with a distant relative via email. This relative had not seen or heard from me in 20 years. I temporarily forgot where I was during our email exchange [which was on Yahoo.com email ] and told her my age.

Within 48 hours my age appeared in my Youtube.com channel, without my consent, without my permission and without me even knowing it until I logged and found it posted. I quickly deduced where this information had been datamined from. Someone from Yahoo.com had provided it to Google, which owns Youtube and it appeared in my Youtube account so quickly I was stunned. And furious too.

Do you suppose most people have an expectation of privacy that what they send directly to a close friend or family or client is PRIVATE? How many know that what they type into an email can end up on unrelated sites online?

I don’t know about you but I find ads following me from blog to blog CREEPY! No way will that work on me. (Maybe it will work on people who don’t wonder why they see the same ad everywhere they go online.

What do YOU think?

One final thought. It is likely that all of our email, chat, blog posts, and social networking activities are being recorded. As one of many of my older posts about data mining and privacy quotes:

“You Have Zero Privacy Anyway – Get Over It”

]]> http://www.growmap.com/gmail-ads/feed/ 54 Big Brother Google and Yahoo! Too http://www.growmap.com/big-brother-google-yahoo/ http://www.growmap.com/big-brother-google-yahoo/#comments Sat, 19 Mar 2011 01:10:33 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=7587

Big Brother TV ImageImagine my surprise when I logged into a ymail account that is TOTALLY separate from this blog and saw blog posts going back to Dec 6, 2008 in someone else’s Yahoo account.

I log into lots of other people’s email and AdWords advertising accounts and that causes some serious problems.

Did you know that if you log out of one Google account and do not log into another Google account that everything you do is placed in the Google history of the account you were last logged into?

Consultants could end up with some serious client issues if they
do searches for one client that end up in the history of another.

You can clear Google Search History but is it REALLY cleared?

The screen capture below shows the page in that Yahoo account that appears when I went straight to mail.yahoo.com – that account has this page but other ymail accounts I checked do not so this could be something new they’re testing or rolling out OR it could be some setting.

Yahoo Updates Section
Yahoo Updates Section – Click to see Full Size

I would definitely NOT choose any setting that would add content from unrelated blogs into any Yahoo! email account so either that is the default OR they will claim it was a computer glitch. I found settings in Contacts toturn off Share My Updates and See Updates in Yahoo! Mail (screen capture below).

Yahoo Email Contacts UpdatesIt pulled Melissa from a reply made from that email account to someone in a Yahoo! Group so this thing automatically accumulates your activities in whatever Yahoo! can track. This updates feed also included reviews I wrote as GrowMap on Yahoo Local. I am turning this off in every account.

If you don’t want to be tracked everywhere everywhere you go, I would turn it off – but realize that it probably doesn’t actually stop them from storing all this information. All it does is make it less publicly available to you and other Internet users.

No Yahoo!

Click image to read about Protests Over Yahoo! Use of Flickr Data

UPDATE: Just how bad is this situation? This just in about Yahoo Data Mining and sharing that data with Google and YouTube from a trackback on this post:

I was in a dialogue with a distant relative via email. This relative had not seen or heard from me in 20 years. I temporarily forgot where I was during our email exchange [which was on Yahoo.com email ] and told her my age.

Within 48 hours my age appeared in my Youtube.com channel, without my consent, without my permission and without me even knowing it until I logged and found it posted. I quickly deduced where this information had been datamined from. Someone from Yahoo.com had provided it to Google, which owns Youtube and it appeared in my Youtube account so quickly I was stunned. And furious too.

I need to warn all readers and subscribers not to EVER discuss anything of a private or confidential nature on yahoo.com email. Your emails are being archived, examined and harvested for details about you with each send.

I have been telling trusted people for many years there is only ONE BORG and Microsoft / Bing, Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter are all part of it and they all SHARE DATA. Even the wise people I know have trouble believing that, so you have to pay attention to the patterns!

Any company that is suddenly mentioned – as Twitter was – on the same day across every Major Media site – is part of that Borg. No PR agency is so good they can get your company mentioned ON THE SAME DAY on the late night news on EVERY CHANNEL, in the soap opera episodes that day, on the prime time shows, the reality shows and even OPRAH – all on the same day.

Wake up, people. Stop rationalizing so you can ignore the obvious!

]]> http://www.growmap.com/big-brother-google-yahoo/feed/ 59 SEO, SERPS, Is There a Google Search Engine Fairy? http://www.growmap.com/google-fairy/ http://www.growmap.com/google-fairy/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:31:28 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=6938

“Google is not your friend
In fact, you are not even Google’s customer.
You are the PRODUCT Google sells to its customers.”
~ Adam Toporek in Google+ and the Illusion of Privacy

Credit for sharing this video @MicalJohnson in Don’t be Evil Google
Mical in turn credits @Ed_Dale who just published
*BOOM* Google Upends Search - I Warned You!

See also Google’s Real Name Policy: Why YOU are the product

Pete from Currency Exchange commented in my Google Monopoly post, writing,

“I must admit I have an implicit trust in Google to deliver authentic and trustworthy results. So long as the company adheres to clear principles and punishes those that manipulate the SERPS I won’t object its influence. Is there such a thing as a benevolent dictator?”

His comment is an excellent example of so many reasons why we are all losing our rights and freedoms every day. This short comment set off so many warning bells in my brain that this post is the result.

“Implicit trust in Google”

This is based on pure and simple PR from continuously being mentioned and written about in the mainstream media in everything from movies, prime-time television shows, soap operas, and major newspapers and news coverage both online and off.

Google’s “don’t be evil” is akin to
used car salesmen saying “trust me”.

Google Trustworthy? NO:

  • Google NSA Secret Relationship (Their relationship with both the NSA – U.S. National Security Agency – and NASA)
  • Google CEO Retracts Street View Privacy Joke – Google CEO told CNN reporter Parker that “if she didn’t want to be on Street View, she could just move.” How long are we going to allow companies to claim it was just a “computer glitch” or “innocent mistake” every time they get caught red-handed?
  • EU Google Antitrust Probe – European investigation into “Google stifling competition by juicing its search results to favor its services over its rivals”.
  • Google Lets People Block Your Domain – fair enough if you want to block a site for yourself – but those blocks are REPORTED TO GOOGLE. Have you read all my posts about the problems with Akismet blacklisting blogs – not junk blogs – the very best blogs we regularly read? Hello Google Search Akismet! See my CrowdSourcing Failure post for more details on this.
  • Invading children’s privacy by asking for their city of birth and last four digits of their Social Security numbers in order to submit a doodle drawing to a Google-sponsored contest. THAT is Google evil. << Read this <<
  • Google Privacy – they value THEIR OWN but not ours
  • Google pays income taxes of only 2.4% to the U.S. on their income; the average American company pays 28.3% – Does that sound like Google pays taxes fairly? The story mentions Facebook and Microsoft use the same tax loopholes Maybe they learned them from GE – a corporation long famous for paying next to no taxes.
  • Read the post on Tax Justice that includes this quote: “The $3 in my wallet is more than ExxonMobil, GE and Bank of America paid in taxes last year, combined,” said Carl Gibson, founder of US Uncut Mississippi. “There’s a direct connection between corporate tax dodging and what’s happening to real people’s lives. Because of overseas tax havens and other tax loopholes, US corporations are making profits in America but barely paying taxes here. If we close those loopholes, we wouldn’t have to be cutting back on firefighters, library hours and student loans.”
  • Google’s growing undisclosed “conflicts of interest” are baring their teeth
  • Googleopoly: The Google-DoubleClick Anti-Competitive Case

Clear principles? Which principles might that be?

How authentic and trustworthy are Google’s results?

Don’t take my word for it. Read these:

Are those the principles Pete meant?Google Fairy

Manipulating the serps?

We need to get clear on what is meant by that and WHY Google does not want businesses to know how they can be found in the search engines. Is Google Playing Fair? To imply that if you proactively make your sites easy to find that they will Google slap you scares businesses into inaction.

Do you believe in the Google search engine fairy?

NO? Well then you HAVE to actively seek out related links somehow – whether that is by commenting in blogs or using Twitter or Facebook or other Social Media or doing article marketing or asking related sites to link to your site.

If you DON’T take action to make your site easy to find
no one will be finding you in their search engine anyway.

  • Links and the words that are actually linked are one of the ways search engines “know” what is on a Web page.
  • If you build a site that has zero incoming links, how really do you believe anyone will ever find it – no matter how good it is – to give you a link out of the goodness of their heart? Most people are selfish and they do NOT seek out ways to give their valuable time (time IS far more valuable than money) to strangers by linking to them. Yes, some of us DO go out of our way to do that but most people do not.
  • Do you believe in the if you build it they will come school of Web design? Read my post on building traffic for why that will not work and what site owners MUST do to be found.

The best site for understanding search engines, serps and SEO is SEOBook and a good place to start is AaronWall’s excellent post Two Diametrically Opposed Google Editorial Policies.

If there has ever actually been a benevolent dictator it might be the stuff of fiction such as King Arthur and Camelot or possibly the kingdom of David, but finding an example in modern times may be impossible.

For 23 years I worked for IBM, arguably the most apparently paternalistic corporation in the world, who “took care of” their employees as though they were children – at least that is what we all thought until they converted our REAL pensions to illegal cash pensions, eliminated benefits that we had been promised IN WRITING and suddenly reduced salaries for some employees by 25% – all when they were making profits and before the economic declines.

What was our “loving” corporation really up to? Read IBM and the Holocaust and my readers may start to understand why I am such a champion for privacy rights. IBM’s technology was used to round up those sent to the death camps and technology today WILL be used in the same way in a not-too-distant future.

As luck would have it, the No Verichip Movement has a video that not only explains IBM’s connection to the Holocaust but also the IBM Verichip connection:

There are many other videos on that site and on YouTube and around the Internet. This is NOT a secret and you don’t need to be a prophet to know what is happening. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND WATCHING THE OTHER RFID VIDEOS.

Did you read Aaron’s post highlighted in the box above? In it he wrote,

“Some bloggers who didn’t know any better got torched based on a single blog post” ~ Aaron Wall of SEOBook, #1 for SEO training ~

THAT is the power of Google. So you might want to start saving the URLs of your favorite sites and blogs somewhere YOU control – so you can find them should posts like this one or even innocent things they say that are not even controversial – get them booted from Google’s search engine.

If that happens, be brave and make noise about where your favorite sites have gone across Social Networks or we are all already oppressed beyond belief and any “freedom” we perceive is TRULY an illusion. July 26, 2010 I wrote in this comment that hyperinflation ends Fiat currencies and what to do to prepare. There is much good information in that post.

A final P.S. to everyone and especially Pete. Read my post What Caused the Great Depression is Now and the exceptional explanations it links to regarding currency, the sliding dollar, how the worldwide economy works and the real history of the United States. What is coming is unavoidable so you may was well know what you’re up against and be better prepared.

“The Google Webmaster Guidelines are an arbitrary device used to oppress the small and weak, but do not apply to large Google ad partners.” ~ Vancouver SEO Rob Woods ~

GOOGLE ALGO CHANGE REACTIONS:

Manipulating SERPS:

JUNK SERPS:

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
]]> http://www.growmap.com/google-fairy/feed/ 73 Everything You Do Online is Being Tracked. Find Out How, By Whom, Why, Now What http://www.growmap.com/how-google-web-history-works/ http://www.growmap.com/how-google-web-history-works/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 11:58:39 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=358

If Google isn’t Big Brother they’re doing a pretty good imitation. And escaping them is no easier than getting away from the Thought Police was for Winston. Once you understand how Google Web History works you’ll have a pretty good idea how all the others who are following us around work.

SOCIAL MEDIA PRIVACY:

LATEST GOOGLE PRIVACY ISSUE LINKS:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES on PROTECTING YOUR INTERNET PRIVACY:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES on GOOGLE WEB SEARCH and Other Forms of GOOGLE TRACKING:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON ONLINE DATA MINING:

WHO ELSE IS TRACKING YOU AND YOUR VISITORS?:

COMPETITORS OR?:

]]> http://www.growmap.com/how-google-web-history-works/feed/ 16 If GrowMap is About Growing Your Business, Why All the Posts on Privacy? http://www.growmap.com/why-privacy/ http://www.growmap.com/why-privacy/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:33:30 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=347

Before you start using any online method to grow your business – whether that be blogs, directories, social networking, advertising or any other method – you MUST understand how your activities online are being tracked so that you can control to which accounts your activities are being linked.

Bear with me because this is a very important concept that all Internet users really need to understand and absolutely critical to those who are using the Internet to promote their business, non-profit, personal interests or any worthy cause.

There is no way to know how many sites are in collusion to track your activities across the Net. If you’re very observant you’ll see new linkage between sites every day. What this means is that you must understand and learn to protect and differentiate between actions you take for yourself, those others who may use your computer or log-in information have taken, and what you do for clients or businesses.

All of the major Internet sites including search engines, ecommerce, news, business, social networking and everywhere else you visit online is tracking what you do and attributing those actions to a specific profile. They assume – often incorrectly – that whoever visits a site is the person who was last logged into any other site they collect data from. In other words:

They assume that if your user information OR your computer were logged in that YOU are the CURRENT user! This can be true EVEN IF YOU LOGGED OFF!!!

If you plan to be active online and especially if you are going to be doing client work you absolutely must understand and control the above behavior. If you don’t, at a minimum you will be very embarassed. You’re highly likely to lose clients. And you may end up endangering everyone you interact with online.

What am I talking about? You have got to understand all this stuff so you can keep your online activities separate! (And those of anyone else who uses your computer(s) or any computer you have ever used!) First you have to know WHY that is important:

  • Everything you do online is tracked
  • Your activities end up in various databases that are accessible to others
  • Many sites use cookies that automatically log you in – even if you have never been to that site before!
  • Sites often have partner sites that share these cookies and assume the person using the computer NOW is the last person who was logged into any partner site
  • Some sites add what you’re doing to their history databases EVEN IF YOU LOGGED OUT!

The above behaviors can result in these serious issues for you:

  • YOUR searches can end up in history files belong to YOUR CLIENTS
  • Posts you make online can be attributed to someone else
  • Someone else’s posts may be attributed to you
  • New accounts you create may be associated with other unrelated accounts
  • Correcting these issues can be time-consuming and may not even be possible

If you have multiple clients these issues can be particularly problematic. They can reveal personal information and research you have done for one client to another. Searches you do for friends, family or other clients may be visible to clients even if you logged out of whatever you were working on for them.

The first time you run into this problem is likely to be because of a Google site. According to Google’s Privacy FAQ for Google Web History:

“Web History saves information about your web activity, including pages you visit and searches on Google.”

That is actually not true. If you use my computer - even if you log out – if I do not log into anything Google after you use it, their system assumes what I am doing is YOU doing it!

Everything someone who does not sign into anything Google does is attributed to the last Google login used on that computer

Have you ever let someone check their Webmail from your computer? If they’re using gmail and you don’t use anything Google, Google may start tracking you as though you were them! (And you can’t always tell what email addresses are using gmail. Domains can be set up to use gmail so the address appears to be @anyotherdomain name and actually be on gmail!).

While you can remove history from what you see you can NOT remove it from Google’s database! Any data that they have collected – whether valid or garbage – has permanently been connected to you. Because of the way this data is being collected it is invalid and corrupted. Unfortunately, they don’t really care – but you should.

There is no easy way to control these issues; however, we will share methods we use to prevent such challenges in new posts soon to come starting with how Google Web History works.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

]]> http://www.growmap.com/why-privacy/feed/ 11 When FREE Is Definitely Not: What Those Free Services Are Really Costing You http://www.growmap.com/not-free/ http://www.growmap.com/not-free/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:04:16 +0000 growmap http://www.growmap.com/?p=318

When most companies – and especially corporations – provide extremely desirable and advanced services without charging you it is definitely NOT out of the goodness of their hearts. You can be assured that there is always a profit motive – always. That is a given – the obvious truth; what is not so obvious is what the means of generating profit is.

In the past, the most common way the cost of anything we receive that is free in theory has been paid for is by advertising. Magazines and newspapers subsidize the cost of subscriptions with advertising. Local free publications provide the end user with a free copy which is actually paid for the ads they contain. Free to you; paid for by the advertiser. That has been the most common model.

Profit is one thing; freedom is another. Instead of paying for services with advertising we are now trading our privacy for computer services such as email and Web analytics. This is a very dangerous trade because our personal information is not being used only to better target advertising – although that IS what we are told. It is increasingly likely to be used to take away our last vestiges of freedom.

The majority of humans are quick to judge, easily swayed, and lack understanding of common logic faults. Combine those traits with an abundance of information and the potential for the innocent to be condemned, imprisoned, or worse is all too likely.

Here is a real life examples of assumptions of guilt made:

  • Drug dealers buy lots of plastic baggies; therefore, anyone who buys large quantities of plastic baggies is a drug dealer
  • Have you ever bought such common items as scouring pads, alcohol, cigarette lighters? What if you bought one or more of these items for someone else? What if a relative uses your phone number to buy them? What do these items indicate you could be? You may already be considered guilty and not even know why!
  • Before it hit the evening news how many knew that cold medicines are used for something else?
  • What other common items you buy have other uses you may not even know about?

Jumping to conclusions is highly dangerous to our liberty. Most people are only too happy to believe someone else is guilty based on superficial “evidence” and how it is presented. Many would instantly believe that someone IS a drug dealer because they buy lots of plastic baggies! Even if wiser heads come to your defense it may be too late to reverse the tide of public opinion.

Who else might buy lots of plastic baggies? How about someone having a bake sale? Or providing the snacks for children’s activities?  Or someone who gives out sandwiches to the homeless?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Montana Supreme Court Justice James C Nelson Warns 1984 Has Arrived:

“I don’t like living in Orwell’s 1984; but I do. And, absent the next extinction event or civil libertarians taking charge of the government (the former being more likely than the latter), the best we can do is try to keep Sam and the sub-Sams on a short leash.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

THE DANGERS of LOYALTY PROGRAMS and RFID TRACKING:

INNOCENT PEOPLE ARRESTED BASED ON LOYALTY CARDS:

Know of any others? Please leave information and related links if any in comments.

]]> http://www.growmap.com/not-free/feed/ 18