Facebook and other social networks are employing keyword-sniffing programs that monitor our private communications such as chats and direct messages. When a potential criminal activity is found, the communication is presented to human auditors who determine whether or not to inform law enforcement. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? This was one of the most thought provoking questions I’ve ever explored before writing an editorial. The conspiracy-theory-loving, “leave my internet alone” part of me was absolutely outraged (albeit not a bit surprised) once I heard about this practice….

There’s a rush going on in Washington DC right now. It has been going on for over 2 years now and will continue until they get something done. The topic – cybersecurity. The latest failed legislation – CISPA. US News is reporting that the US Senate will not take up the cybersecurity bill but will draft different legislation to go after cybersecurity – and some would say our privacy as well – in the coming months. Their biggest concern according to Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WVa) is that the bill’s “privacy protections are insufficient.” This echoes President Barack Obama’s sentiment and is the reason…

“Damn you, Facebook. I don’t like you but everyone I know is on it. If I want to see pictures of little Timmy sliding into third base or hear what’s happening with my ex-, I’ll have to keep playing your game.” Similar thoughts run through the minds of millions of people all the time. People complain. They say that Facebook is bad. Then, they go right back to it to see the latest gossip, pictures, or cat videos. The social network has reached a tipping point that keeps us coming back. In a recent study by WebPageFX, 61% of respondents said that they do not trust Facebook at all versus only 2% who said they trust…

SOPA was a black eye for the US government. Nothing in the last few decades can compare to the complete turnaround Washington DC had to make once the people of the internet and websites across the web made their opposition to the bill known back in January, 2012. Now, the politicians and other entities have learned from their mistakes. This time, they have been able to pull off the unthinkable. They have successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of the American people. The public outrage that stopped SOPA has been replaced by solemn acceptance by some, disinterest from others, and a complete lack…

There are two sad realities about online tracking. One reality is that the majority of people have their online activities tracked on nearly every website that they visit and these tracking protocols have very little oversight, nearly no rules associated with them, and can be stored indefinitely by anyone, even sites or companies that you’ve never visited. The other sad reality is that everyone has the ability to stop the tracking, but it would mean doing things that few are willing to do. These things include setting cookies to expire automatically when browsers are closed, ending the use of…

Before anyone starts chanting that the conspiracy theorists were bound to find something in the Cybersecurity Executive Order to attack for the sake of attacking, keep one thing in mind. I like the order as a whole. In many ways, it’s pretty impotent and stays in line with what privacy activists (myself included) had hoped for – a one-way street of information sharing that will allow public and private entities involved in critical infrastructure to better defend themselves. My hope was that the sharing would be even deeper, that there would be more tangible ways that the government could educate…

For a man who built an online empire that is dedicated to make as much of our lives as public as possible, Facebook co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been able to keep his personal life in the dark and his media attention under control for the most part. We know very little about the man other than what he has been willing to share. Is he really that boring or is he simply a master of privacy in the public world he’s building? It could be a mixture of the two. He knows about privacy. He may know more about online privacy than any CEO in the world. It’s his job to make people disregard their privacy, to encourage…

The greatest threat to startups is lack of momentum. For companies that make it over the startup hump, it’s competition. Once a tech company is big, innovation is often the biggest challenge. Once you get to be the size of Facebook, Google, and Apple, the biggest roadblocks to continued prosperity can be Washington DC and other governments. For this reason, many of the largest tech firms in the world spend hefty amounts of money on lobbyists to make sure that the actions of the US government do not deter them from heading down the paths they choose. Facebook is the latest to hit the lobbying trail hard…

As military and domestic surveillance technology continues to advance, many fear a “Big Brother” society that is emerging around us. It’s no longer just terrorists that are being targeted by drones and cellular tracking according to some conspiracy theorists. The various governments around the world including the United States are secretly installing ways to covertly track and account for everyone if the “wackos” are to be believed. For those who buy into the possibilities, there’s Stealth Wear. New York artist Adam Harvey has designed a heat-censor-shielding cloak that when seen through…

We were so close. A non-controversial bill,  the Video Privacy Protection Act, flew through the Senate and was sent to President Obama last week. The bill itself isn’t important; it allows people using services like Netflix to post the movies that they were watching directly from the service onto Facebook and other social media sites just as they can do now with music sites like Spotify. This is currently against the law because of legislation from 1988 when Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork’s video rental history was leaked. That’s not the important part. What was important was that a section…