Today, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it has accepted, subject to final approval, a consent agreement from Google that would resolve the Commission’s allegations that Google engaged in deceptive trade practices when it launched its “Buzz” social networking service in February 2010. The FTC’s complaint alleges, among other things, that the launch violated Google’s  privacy policy in…

A few months ago, the Obama Administration introduced its National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC), an ambitious proposal to implement public-private partnerships to implement a new mechanism for identity verification and information sharing online.  The plan has been controversial.  Although there have been many legitimate criticisms of the…

As we’ve described in this recent article, the past year has witnessed a surge in privacy litigation that shows no signs of easing.   Many of these suits involve allegations that defendants have used Flash local shared objects (“Flash cookies”) for the purpose of tracking Internet users’ browsing activity. Flash cookies differ from traditional browser cookies in…

United States District Judge Denny Chin’s decision [PDF] denying final approval of the Google Books Settlement included an interesting discussion of privacy issues that were raised by the proposed settlement agreement [PDF].  The decision may draw attention to the emerging privacy issues surrounding reading on computers and other Internet-enabled devices, such as popular e-Readers. The Google Books settlement agreement…

Just a week after the Obama Administration announced its support for comprehensive privacy legislation in testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has released a draft bill that attempts to respond to the Administration’s call for broad baseline privacy protections for consumers.   Kerry’s bill, which is co-sponsored by Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) is still…

Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller announced that the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, which he chairs, will hold a hearing on cybersecurity issues on March 29.  This is not a new issue for Senator Rockefeller or the Senate Commerce Committee, which approved cybersecurity legislation during the 111th Congress.  The Senate Homeland Security Committee had…

On March 17, the French data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertes (CNIL), imposed a 100,000 Euro fine on Google, for privacy violations arising from its collection of personal data with respect to its Street View product and its Latitude geolocation service.  This is the largest fine assessed by CNIL…