Time to Question “The Internet of Hal” The Facebook Scandal and the Dawn of Internet Skepticism This year the web will reach a major milestone as more than half of the world’s population will be online. Worldwide web founder Tim Berners-Lee announced this on the web’s 29th birthday in March, while questioning “are we sure…
Facebook CEO Marc Zuckerberg escaped from the five-hour Senate hearing relatively unscathed. Below are the highlights and fallout from today’s hearing. Zuckerberg’s Opening Statement The Facebook CEO continues to argue that mistakes were made because of Facebook idealism. Senator John Thune (R-SD) “After More Than a Decade of Promises, Why Should We Trust Facebook?” Commerce…
Below is an outline of the hearing times, how to watch, a preview of the key Committee members, Facebook’s prepared testimony and a link to a Washington Post annotated version. Also below are links to analysis on what to expect from the hearings. Hearing Time and Streaming The Senate Judiciary Committee and Committee on Commerce,…
The year was 2010. That was the last time Congress seriously contemplated privacy regulation. In November that year, the Republicans retook both the House and the Senate. When President Obama attempted to offer a “Privacy Bill of Rights” in 2015, it went nowhere. The only significant privacy legislation since then has been the repeal of…
As this story is rapidly developing, we will update some articles and videos that provide insight into this scandal. Last Updated: March 27, 2018. Overview How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions https://t.co/Og2VCZx7J7 — The New York Times (@nytimes) March 17, 2018 Here’s what you need to know about how a political data…
Terrorist Social Media Cases Test Scope of CDA § 230 Three recent cases against involving Twitter, Facebook and Google seek to hold social media platforms liable to the families of terrorist attacks by ISIS and/or Hamas since they provided material support to their cause. While this would appear to be barred under Section 230 of…
EU Preliminary Ruling Puts US-EU Safe Harbor in Jeopardy A Preliminary Opinion on a challenge to Facebook’s privacy practices has put in question the continued viability of the US-EU Safe Harbor program which permits data transfers between the US and European businesses. FACEBOOK’S EUROPEAN NEMESIS. Austrian Maximillan Schrems has become Facebook’s European nemesis after spending…
The Mounting Cost of the NSA Scandal: “Severe and Getting Worse” In the last few weeks, the New American Foundation (NAF) released its report, “Surveillance Costs:The NSA’s Impact on the Economy,Internet Freedom & Cybersecurity,” and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) chaired a roundtable with Silicon Valley executives on this very point. Both events highlight what is…
Last month, a publication of the National Academy of Sciences published the results of an experiment conducted by Facebook on 689,003 users that involved controlling user news feed to either include or exclude positive information. As summarized by Forbes’ Kashmir Hill , “[i]f there was a week in January 2012 where you were only seeing photos of…
ROBERT ELLIS SMITH RETURNS TO CLBR TO DISCUSS PRIVACY AND MOBILE APPS With California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ enforcement action filed against Delta for its lack of privacy policy for its mobile app and the FTC indicating that it is investigating mobile compliance with children’s privacy protections, mobile privacy has become the hot domestic internet…
DAN TYNAN RETURNS TO CLBR For a Free Wheeling Discussion on Facebook Likes, Broken Internets, Banana Endorsements and a Surprise Dan Ackroyd Appearance (Kind of) Background More Privacy Perils: Facebook Data Is Greater Than The Sum Of Your Likes (Forbes) The Internet: You broke it, you own it. Now fix it. Would you trust a LinkedIn…
CLBR YEAR END SHOW NAMES CYBER HEROES AND ZEROES In the final CLBR edition for 2012, a panel of Dan Tynan and Brenda Christensen joined host Bennet Kelley in naming the Cyber Heroes and Zeroes for 2012. 2012 HEROES Big Data Doug Gansler, Maryland Attorney General Kamala Harris, California Attorney General Jayne Hitchcock, Working to Halt…
In March Facebook was hit with an antitrust lawsuit by PageRage which helps users customize their Facebook page. PageRage claims that Facebook not only demanded that users remove PageRage skins from their profile pages but also organized an advertiser boycott. On November 29th, the complaint was dismissed with the judge stressing: There is no fundamental right…
Court Rejects Settlement in Facebook Sponsored Stories Settlement The class action lawsuit was brought in response to Facebook’s unauthorized use of user’s identities to advertise their products and called for a $10 million payment not to affected Facebook members but to privacy groups. The court said the parties must provide further detail why payment to…
Facebook Pays $10MM to Settle Sponsored Stories Class Action Facebook settled a class action lawsuit over its Sponsored Stories program that used members likenesses to reveal to their friends that such user had liked a certain product or service without prior consent or compensation. To put the $10MM payment to charity in context, Venture Beat…
Cyber Report 