Obama says that Europeans are using privacy rules to protect their firms against U.S. competition. Is he right? (regulatory imperialism... the new enemy!)

In an interview with the tech site ReCode, President Obama has suggested that European distrust of U.S. tech firms has base motivations. In his description:

We have owned the internet. Our companies have created it, expanded it, perfected it in ways that they can’t compete. And oftentimes what is portrayed as high-minded positions on issues sometimes is just designed to carve out some of their commercial interests.

He’s responding to a question about differences between how Europe and the United States deal with privacy. The United States does not have any strong comprehensive regulations covering how the private sector deals with your personal data. Under U.S. law, a few kinds of data (e.g., weirdly, video rental records) are heavily protected, but large categories of personal data get very little protection. If a company promises not to use your data in certain ways and then breaks its promises, the FTC can go after it. But if it doesn’t make any specific promises, or if it reserves the right (as many companies do) to change its mind, there is very little protection.

read full article at WashingtonPost

Google Agrees to Spot Checks by Italian Privacy Regulators (what a nice idea!)

Google’s latest agreement with a European privacy regulator includes spot checks at its U.S. headquarters to monitor how the Internet giant is complying with an order to improve its privacy policy, add new opt-outs for targeted advertising, and disclose how long it keeps users’ data.

The Italian data-privacy authority Friday outlined a process for Google to comply with the country’s privacy laws and an order imposed on the company in July. Google has until Jan. 15, 2016 to comply.

A spokesman for the Italian authority said this is the first time in Europe that Google will be subject to regular checks to monitor progress. The regulator will get quarterly updates from Google and the ability to send a privacy officer for “on-the-spot checks” at Google’s Mountain View, Calif., offices. The regulator hasn’t decided yet how often it will visit the campus, the spokesman said.

read full article at WSJ

AT&T is putting a price on privacy. That is outrageous

Imagine if the postal service started offering discount shipping in exchange for permission to scan every letter you receive and then target you with junk mail based on the contents of your personal mail.

One of the largest telecommunications companies in America, AT&T, is doing just that for customers of its super-fast gigabit broadband service, which is rolling out in select cities. Though a few months ago, it dropped the use of an undeletable “supercookie” that tracked subscribers’ web browsing activity, AT&T reportedly plans to track and monetize its broadband customers’ internet activity – “webpages you visit, the time you spend on each, the links or ads you see and follow, and the search terms you enter” – to deliver targeted “ads online, via email or through direct mail”.

The tracking and ad targeting associated with the gigabit service cannot be avoided using browser privacy settings: as AT&T explained, the program “works independently of your browser’s privacy settings regarding cookies, do-not-track and private browsing.” In other words, AT&T is performing deep packet inspection, a controversial practice through which internet service providers, by virtue of their privileged position, monitor all the internet traffic of their subscribers and collect data on the content of those communications.

read full article at TheGuardian

Public has no faith in (UK) press regulator, says children’s privacy campaigner

Children’s privacy campaigner Hannah Weller has said the public has no faith in the new press regulator, which she said acted in just the same way as the discredited regime it replaced.

Weller and her husband, musician Paul Weller, won a high court battle with Mail Online over its publication of seven unpixellated photographs of their children last year.

She told MPs on Tuesday that nothing had changed under the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), which replaced the Press Complaints Commission in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and subsequent Leveson inquiry.

read full article at TheGuardian

Gemalto hack probe finds no massive privacy leak

A Dutch SIM-maker allegedly targeted by British and U.S. spying agencies said it believes there was a hacking operation, but that it didn't result in a massive privacy leak.

Gemalto, which makes SIM cards used in cellphones and credit cards, said an internal investigation gave it reasonable grounds to believe an operation by the U.S. National Security Agency and its British counterpart Government Communications Headquarters "probably happened."

The operation was reported last week on the website The Intercept using documents supplied by Edward Snowden.

read full article at USAtoday

In Privacy Update, Reddit Tightens Restrictions on Nude Photos (so long user self-regulation...)

For nearly a decade, Reddit, the huge online message board, has been known for its freewheeling stance on letting its users govern themselves. 

That has resulted in an outpouring of user-generated content — for better or, sometimes, for worse — that attracts nearly 160 million regular users to the site.

Now, Reddit is starting to change its views, if only ever so slightly. Reddit announced a change to its privacy policy on Tuesday that prohibits posting nude photos or videos of people engaged in sex acts without their prior consent to have it posted.

read full article at NYT

Facebook privacy policy slated by Belgian data watchdog

Facebook has been accused of breaking European data-protection laws, in a report written for Belgium's privacy watchdog.

The social network placed "too much burden" on users to navigate its complex settings, said the report.

Also, it said, people were not told enough about how data Facebook gathered on them was used in adverts.

read full article at BBC

Tripadvisor fined by Italian competition regulator

Italy's competition watchdog has fined travel website Tripadvisor €500,000 (£392,000) for publishing misleading information in its reviews.

The regulator began a seven-month investigation following a complaint from a consumer group and hotel owners.

Tripadvisor was accused of presenting its reviews as "authentic and genuine" despite not taking measures to avoid contributors publishing false opinions

read full article at BBC