privacy | Internet Marketing Blog

"Instant personalization" brings more privacy issues to Facebook

Facebook is thinking big with its new releases this week. The social network unveiled several new features at the company's f8 developer conference in California, including an expansion of Facebook Connect that adds social aspects of Facebook to partner sites, without any work for users.

This new feature, called “instant personalization,” is a way to access your social graph in more places online. But if users don't particularly want to know their friends' opinions on new sites — or if they have privacy concerns — opting out will become increasingly tricky.

by Meghan Keane 22 April 2010 22:29pm 4 comments

A tale of two Googles

Google is arguably one of the most interesting companies to rise to prominence in the past decade. And the reason isn't just that, in the space of a few years, it grew to become a billion-dollar company and the world's most recognizable online search brand.

One of the reasons is so interesting: it is, for lack of a better word, often paradoxical. Two Google-related news items in the past two days highlighted this.

by Patricio Robles 21 April 2010 09:03am 0 comments

Cookies under fire as regulators move in

A massive push on securing opt-ins from consumers on cookies is well under way both here and in the US.

For the record, and contrary to what you might think, I’m glad, if only because it forces us to review how we failed so badly to keep the wider world informed about how online advertising works.

by Paul Cook 25 March 2010 11:44am 3 comments

Aggressive data mining isn't a problem, but...

This weekend, AdAge published two articles discussing the lengths to which advertisers are collecting and using data to target consumers for ads. One article details some of the techniques, and the other discusses the potential negative implications.

In short, marketers are increasingly taking data from offline sources and finding ways to apply this data to ad targeting across channels, including the internet.

by Patricio Robles 22 March 2010 09:04am 4 comments

Will opt-out threaten Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is one of the most popular analytics services for online publishers, especially smaller publishers. And for good reason: it has most of what the average publisher needs, and it's free.

But Google Analytics is offered, of course, by Google, and Google is no stranger to privacy complaints. That means that Google often has to look for ways to prove to the world that it cares about privacy. One way it's planning to 'protect' user privacy: allowing internet users to opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

by Patricio Robles 19 March 2010 10:31am 12 comments

SxSW: The lines between privacy and publicity may be blurring. But they still matter.

Every year around this time, the social feeds of people who know attendees of the SxSW festival are swarmed by photos, updates and digressions about activities happening in and around Austin's convention center.

This year, the output from individual attendees was at an all time high. Between Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and Flickr, there are more venues than ever for those who lean toward oversharing. And not just with techies in Austin. Teens, adults and professionals around the world are increasingly comfortable sharing information online.

But as various talks, panels and discussions during SxSW this year revealed, the shift toward sharing information online by no means suggests that those oversharers are ready to forgo their privacy.

by Meghan Keane 17 March 2010 23:43pm 1 comment

Is the Chatroulette fun about to come to an end?

Chances are you've heard of Chatroulette, the clever website that pairs users up for random video web chats. It's one of the hottest websites on the internet right now.

It reportedly receives upwards of 500,000 visits each day and its creator, Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, is now being courted by some of the world's most recognizable technology investors, including Russia's DST, which owns stakes in hot American social networking companies like Facebook and Zynga.

by Patricio Robles 11 March 2010 08:54am 17 comments

Google Buzz: Google's Microsoft moment?

Google isn't afraid of failure. The company loves experimenting and will readily accept failures if they mean it finds success sooner. But if there was any new product for which Google would probably want a 'do over', it would be Buzz.

The Gmail-based social network sparked a user revolt, and a formal complaint has been lodged with the Federal Trade Commission alleging that Google is violating the law and its own user agreements with Buzz. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner in Canada is already looking into Buzz as well.

by Patricio Robles 17 February 2010 09:48am 6 comments

The FBI wants in on behavioral targeting

It's funny how the federal government's position on behavioral targeting changes when it wants to use the information gathered. According to CNET:

"The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes."

by Meghan Keane 05 February 2010 22:07pm 2 comments

Online advertisers bring a little blue square to the privacy debate

Can a little blue square save the online advertising industry from regulation? The Future of Privacy Forum hopes it will. The advocacy group created the icon (at right) to provide more information to consumers about the ads being served to them online.