Consumer Watchdog

Expose. Confront. Change.

Consumer Watchdog

Privacy

Consumer Watchdog investigations and advocacy on data privacy, surveillance, AI, and your right to control your personal information.
Experts Positive on Facebook’s New Privacy Controls

Experts Positive on Facebook’s New Privacy Controls

<p> <b>Privacy advocates and security experts have given Facebook a preliminary thumbs-up on the upcoming changes designed to improve privacy controls on its site.</b></p> <p> Privacy advocates and security experts have given Facebook a preliminary thumbs-up on the upcoming changes designed to improve privacy controls on its site.</p>
Facebook to improve privacy settings

Facebook to improve privacy settings

<p> <img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2203" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/images_johndrawingname.gif" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; float: right;" width="133" height="200" />Facebook apparently is beginning to understand that users of the social networking site care about their privacy and would like simple control over who can read which posts.  It took long enough, but <a href="https://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150251867797131">new privacy controls announced Tuesday</a> give users much clearer options.<br /> <br />
FTC says it’s ‘carefully monitoring’ online tracking

FTC says it’s ‘carefully monitoring’ online tracking

<p> <img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2203" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/images_johndrawingname.gif" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; float: right;" width="133" height="200" />I just received an <a href="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/resources_ftcsimpsonltr.pdf">encouraging letter from the Federal Trade Commission</a> assuring me that its Division of Privacy and Identity Protection is "carefully monitoring the privacy issues associated with online tracking."</p>
Microsoft Disables ‘Supercookies’ Used on MSN.com Visitors

Microsoft Disables ‘Supercookies’ Used on MSN.com Visitors

<p> <strong>New tracking technology a 'colossal privacy gaffe,' researcher says</strong></p> <p> Microsoft said it has disabled an online tracking technology that, according to a Stanford University researcher, allowed the company to sneakily track users on MSN.com -- even after they deleted their browser cookies and other identifiers.</p>
Does Google-Motorola Pose Anti-Competitive Danger?

Does Google-Motorola Pose Anti-Competitive Danger?

<p> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2211" alt="" class="right" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/images_jamie5drawingname.gif" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; " width="133" height="200" />What if Google, the master of the cloud computing universe and the Internet's information monopolist, were to buy Intel, Apple, or IBM? Would we want the company that controls information outside of our computers all along the Internet to also have control over a principal computer hardware maker and its patents?</p>
We need a right to be forgotten

We need a right to be forgotten

<p> <img class=" alignright size-full wp-image-2203" alt="" src="https://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/images_johndrawingname.gif" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; float: right;" width="133" height="200" />I remember as a young newspaper reporter going to different jurisdictions where public records were kept and putting together background information on an individual.</p>
AT&T Bid for T-Mobile Faces California Review

AT&T Bid for T-Mobile Faces California Review

<p> <a class="web_ticker" href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=T:US" title="Get Quote">AT&T Inc. (T)</a>, looking to win approval for its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, is facing a challenge in California where regulators have raised questions about the deal’s effect on consumers and corporate customers.</p>