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Major Gaps Still Exist Between the Perception and the Reality of Americans’ Internet Security Protections, Study Finds Source: National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec Corporation A large number of Americans still fail to use basic Internet security tools and there remains a substantial gap

Over the past few months, lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic have been scrutinizing ISP involvement in online behavioral advertising, with three hearings in the U.S. Congress and multiple inquiries in the EU. For two U.S. firms, NebuAd and Adzilla, the spotlight seems to have shined too brightly.

[Ed. Note: this is the third in a series of blog posts addressing a range of technology and civil liberties issues we believe America's next President and Congress will have the chance to take a fresh look at, and the opportunity to set a policy course for the Internet that will keep it open, innovative

Dear Annoying Credit Card Company, I refer to your credit card received approximately three working weeks ago. The personalised credit card came as a surprise, albeit invasive, for I do not recall applying for one. I hereby would like to enquire how my personal particulars were obtained, granted the lack of my voluntary disclosure.

A new National Research Council report cautions that government data mining programs cannot effectively identify patterns of terrorist activity. Pattern-based or predictive data mining was singled out as likely to generate huge numbers of useless leads.

Privacy & Consumer Education October 7, 2008 by John There has been more written, commented upon and just general noise around the whole topic of privacy and medical records that it is often difficult to separate what truly is important and reason for concern and what is not.

The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on the rapid development of facial recognition technology. While the increased availability of these robust features is something to celebrate, the privacy implications loom especially large.

The European Commission earlier this week released a paper identifying the following as the key challenges for the next stage of the Internet: (1) continuing to update broadband infrastructure to improve accessibility and speeds; (2) keeping the Internet open to new business models and innovation; and (3) addressing privacy and security concerns.

Three major Internet service providers have promised Congress that they do not monitor their customers’ activities online. However -- in an argument worthy of the political venue in which it was made -- executives from these companies went on to equivocate: not that they do monitor users -- at least not to a gratuitous level.

War, financial crisis and the fate of a nation hanging in the balance. It sounds like a back-of-the-envelope outline for a spy novel, but it’s actually the current political climate in the U.S. Given that, it’s no surprise that discussion of Internet and technology issues is adrift, and that civil liberties protection has been pushed to the margins during this intense political season.