1. Privacy
(Gov’t Surveillance & Online Advertising)
Bryce Newell, J.D.
Ph.D. student, UW iSchool
Jan. 25, 2012

2. Megaupload.com (privacy issues)
• DOJ coordinated an investigation spanning
eight countries
• DOJ retrieved private emails:
▫ 'Gee, aren't we pirating? Isn't this going well? And
hey I'm looking for a copy of a movie myself, does
anyone know where it is?‘ – Jonathan Zittrain (see here)
▫ Check out: Megaupoload.com
• Articles from Reuters and NPR
• What about legitimate uses of these services?

3. Fourth Amendment
• The right of the people to be secure in their persons,
houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation, and particularly describing
the place to be searched, and the persons or
things to be seized.

4. US v. Jones (Jan. 23, 2012)
• Facts
• Procedural background
• 9-0 decision (5 majority, 4+1 concur)
• Scalia‘s opinion:
▫ Physical v. non-physical intrusion
▫ Property (trespass) v. reasonable expectations
 ―…Jones‘s Fourth Amendment rights do not rise or
fall with the Katz formulation.‖

5. US v. Jones (Jan. 23, 2012)
• Alito‘s opinion:
▫ ―I agree—that ―we must ‗assur[e] preservation of
that degree of privacy against government that
existed when the Fourth Amendment was
adopted.‘ But it is almost impossible to think of
late- 18th-century situations that are analogous to
what took place in this case. (Is it possible to
imagine a case in which a constable secreted
himself somewhere in a coach and remained there
for a period of time in order to monitor the
movements of the coach‘s owner?)‖

6. OBA & Online Data Privacy
• Targeted Online Behavioral Advertising
▫ Discussion of Nehf article
▫ Facebook Apps
▫ FTC‘s approach to OBA
▫ Industry coalitions and Congressional reactions

7. Nehf (2005)
• FTC history – law/industry self-regulation
• Market driven solutions led to widespread
adoption of privacy policies
• But policies don‘t protect information, only
disclose how it is being sold, used, etc
• ―encouraging posting of privacy policies without
regulating their content‖ = less info privacy for
consumers ―than an efficient market would
produce‖

8. Nehf (2005)
• ―Until privacy becomes a salient attribute
influencing consumer choice, Web site operators
will continue to take and share more personal
information than consumers would choose to
provide in a more transparent exchange.‖

9. Facebook

10. Facebook (2)
• ―Many of the most popular applications, or "apps,"
on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have
been transmitting identifying information—in
effect, providing access to people's names and, in
some cases, their friends' names—to dozens of
advertising and Internet tracking companies…
• ―The issue affects tens of millions of Facebook app
users, including people who set their profiles to
Facebook's strictest privacy settings. The practice
breaks Facebook's rules, and renews questions
about its ability to keep identifiable information
about its users' activities secure.‖
- Wall Street Journal, Oct 18, 2010

11. Facebook (3)
• Who can see what?
▫ Public
▫ Friends
▫ Apps
• Facebook settles with the
FTC: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/tech
nology/facebook-agrees-to-ftc-settlement-on-
privacy.html

12. Online Behavioral Advertising
• ABC News Story [link]
• For discussion of some of the recently proposed
"Do Not Track" legislation in Congress look here,
here, and here.

13. Problems
• ―…there is no single definition of what it means to be
tracked, so expressing a preference does not
guarantee users that they will be able to block all
web sites and content that they may view as being
associated with tracking behavior.‖
- From Microsoft.com
• Industry self-regulation does not provide for any
enforcement mechanism beyond current FTC
powers (e.g. to prosecute for engaging in deceptive
practices)

14. What Do “They” Know?
• Google Dashboard
• The Open Data Partnership allows a glimpse
into what information is being collected and by
whom.
▫ http://www.evidon.com/partners/open_data_par
tnership - contains list of 1021 companies that
engage in online behavioral advertising, many of
which also have multiple advertising products.

15. Who Knows?
* Ghostery results from NAI‘s
Opt-Out page.

16. FTC Report
• FTC report calls for ―browser based do-not-track
mechanism‖ in December 2010
• Industry self-regulation
▫ Browsers build in do not track options
▫ Industry groups set up opt-out mechanisms (DAA,
NAI)
▫ BUT self-regulation has no teeth (enforcement
mechanism) and may only mean you don‘t see
targeted ads, not that you won‘t be tracked.
• FTC sues Chitika, reaches settlement

17. AdChoices Evolution

18. LinkedIn Ads
• Rolled out in June 2011, LinkedIn exposed the
products and services of interest to members for
use with advertising. Advertisers could then
display which members ―endorsed‖ products
and services from an advertiser. The lack of
solicitation from an opt-in process led to a
backlash from users and LinkedIn backing down
to consumer pressure.
▫ Forbes.com

19. Recent Legislation
• Europe
▫ 2009 amendments to the EU ePrivacy Directive
require member states to implement by May 25, 2011
• United States
▫ S. 913: Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011
▫ S. 799: Commercial Privacy Bill of Rights Act of 2011
▫ H.R. 1528: Consumer Privacy Protection Act of 2011
▫ H.R. 654: Do Not Track Me Online Act
▫ H.R. 1895: Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011
▫ California: S.B. 761

22. Wikipedia Blackout
• One page remained live:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_
initiative/Action

23. 1 Last Note: London’s CCTV Cameras
• On London's Surveillance Cameras, Bruce
Schneier
• 1000 cameras solve one crime, BBC
• England Riots 'Changed Public Attitudes
Towards CCTV' Survey Claims