Privacy Guard .net

What’s Behind Google’s Requirement For AdSense Users To Modify Privacy Policies?

admin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:55:49 +0000

In early March 2009, Google notified users of its new AdSense option, “interest-based advertising”. With this announcement, Google also stated that “your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising”.

What’s behind this announcement, what is “interest-based” advertising, and what modifications may be required for your privacy policy if you use this advertising option?

Contextual Advertising; Behavioral Advertising

In its beginning, Google AdSense pioneered in the field of contextual advertising. In simple terms, the goal of Google AdSense with contextual ads was to match the context of a website with relevant ads from the Google inventory of advertisers and to serve these ads to the site. Relevance was determined by the context of the site. So, for example a sports-related site would attract relevant ads for sporting goods.

Behavioral ads take relevancy a step or two deeper. Behavioral technology tracks a user’s behavior on the Web, including sites visited, length of visits, content read, and searches made. All this data is then analyzed and a behavioral pattern is produced for a user which classifies that user by his or her online demographic. Behavioral ad networks then serve targeted ads that are relevant to that online demographic.

Google’s new advertising approach clearly involves another pioneering effort — this time into the field of behavioral advertising. Google’s recent announcement regarding its “interest-based” ads states: “Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. ’sports enthusiast’). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the ’sports enthusiast’ interest category.”

The FTC Weighs In

Since behavioral ads facilitate the display of targeted and personalized online ads, they represent a more effective way to monetize free websites. This is a good thing.

The not-so-good thing - behavioral ads raise serious privacy concerns such as the lack of transparency regarding collection practices and the risk of disclosure of the information collected, particularly sensitive information.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been following the development of behavioral advertising with great interest. In November 2007, the FTC conducted a town hall discussion to discuss privacy issues raised by online behavioral advertising. Afterward, the FTC developed proposed principles based on comments received at the town hall discussions.

In February 2009, the FTC issued a staff report entitled “Self-Regulatory Principles For Online Behavioral Advertising” (Principles). It’s important to note that the FTC report excluded from its Principles:

* “first party” behavioral advertising, in which a website collects consumer information to deliver targeted advertising at its site, but does not share any of that information with third parties, and

* contextual advertising, which targets advertisements based on the web page a consumer is viewing or a search query the consumer has made, and involves little or no data storage.

Included within the scope of the Principles is “third party behavioral advertising”. The FTC report states: “If a website collects and then sells or shares data with third parties for purposes of behavioral advertising, or participates in a network that collects data at the site for purposes of behavioral advertising, however, such practices would remain within the scope of the Principles.”

What’s Required?

Given Google’s specific language in its announcement - “we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network” - it’s clear that the new AdSense policy will involve third party behavioral advertising that is regulated by the Principles set out in the FTC report.

So, what’s required? Here’s a brief summary of the applicable Principles.

* Transparency and Consumer Control - provide consumers with clear notice if behavioral data is collected for behavioral advertising purposes. Consumers should be provided with a choice if data is collected that could be associated with a specific consumer or with a specific computer or device.

* Reasonable Data Security Measures and Limited Data Retention - provide consumers with reasonable data security measures. Data should be retained for only as long as necessary for legitimate business use or law enforcement requirements.

* Obtain Affirmative Consent Before Using Sensitive Data - sensitive data includes social security numbers and data about children, health, finances, sexual orientation, and precise geographic location.

* Obtain Express Affirmative Consent Before Making Material, Retroactive Changes - consumers are protected from the practice of collecting data under one set of policies and subsequently changing these policies to allow effective retroactively. For new policies to be effective retroactively, express, affirmative consent from affected consumers is required.

The Deadline Is April 8, 2009 For Google AdSense Users

Google states that if you use AdSense and its “interest-based advertising”, you should make any necessary changes to your privacy policy by April 8, 2009. This does not leave much time for participating websites.

For many sites, strict compliance with the Principles of the FTC report may not be as simple as merely posting a new privacy policy notice regarding third party behavioral ads. This is due the fourth principle — Obtain Express Affirmative Consent Before Making Material, Retroactive Changes. So, if data collected prior to the notice is going to be used in behavioral ads, prior, express, affirmative consent from the affected consumers is required.

About the Author
Chip Cooper is a leading intellectual property, software, and Internet attorney who’s advised software and online businesses nationwide for 25+ years. Visit Chip’s http://www.digicontracts.com site for his online contract drafting service, and download his FREE newsletter and Special Reports: “Determine Which Legal Documents Your Website Really Needs”, “Draft Your Own Privacy Policy”, and “Write Your Own Website Marketing Copy — Legally”.

Network Security - 8 Tips for Managing Your Internet Privacy

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:49:39 +0000

A few nights ago, too keyed up to sleep after teaching one of my Privacy, Safety, Security, Identity Theft and Asset Protection™ workshops, I lay in my hotel bed fully awake staring at the ceiling. I began to see shadows zip from one side of the room to the other and then disappear …The next morning when I awoke, I thought about the shadows and how they linked to the conversation I had had with a number of the participants in my class the night before as we discussed the internet and how everything ever posted online will always be there.

Do you remember being a kid and discovering your shadow; how it followed you but then disappeared when the sun went down or the lights went out? Remember how your parents comforted you by saying that shadows were not “monsters” waiting to attack once you fell asleep. Well, I hate to break it to you, but your parents didn’t know about digital shadows, the internet and how the text, images, sound clips and virtual material you cast today can disturb your sleep in the future.

With a memory better than an elephant, the internet serves as the best information retrieval and archiving tool ever created. It takes snapshots of our digital lives and stores them forever. When we log-on to the internet, we continually create our digital identities. We create official documents, consumer profiles, provide personal and professional opinions, share our political and religious beliefs, offer personal information and data that can be preserved and seen by friends, relatives, rivals, employers and potential employers, creditors, landlords, insurance companies, neighbors, and even identity thieves and perpetrators.

We cast online shadows through . . . mailing lists , forum posts, blogging, linking to others, sites we visit, searches we generate - we become a part of the big picture as search engines index us, tagging our stops, quotes and comments we leave on various sites. Our personal information and data is captured from our websites, articles we write, profiles we create on Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, and videos we upload to Youtube, etc . . . all are a part of the tracks we leave and the shadows that follow.

Here are 8 important tips for managing your internet privacy and network security. You will be more likely to stop a digital predator if you remember these tips each time you use the internet.

1. There is no such thing as “anonymous surfing”

2. The internet has no rewind button and the delete button does not erase

3. You are not protected by anonymity on the web

4. What you did is done, and it will be remembered

5. Take responsibility for all that you do on the internet today — as you never know when you will see your shadow.

6. Before you “publish” ask yourself: Would you shout this message in a public place? Will you be happy dealing with the consequences?

7. Remember when you get “404: File Not Found”, it doesn’t mean that the information and data is gone; it just means that it can’t be located in the way you searched for it.

8. The First Amendment’s freedom of expression and association clause protects information about those with whom we associate (e.g., political groups and social organizations) and offers protections for the materials that we create, read, view, etc., in theprivacy of our homes, but does not limit others from seeing what we’ve made public record when we’ve communicated on the internet.

Realize that people in cyberspace are the same people you encounter every day in the physical world: neighbors, colleagues, people you pass on the street and greet in the stores. Use common sense and ask questions in your online environment as you would in your offline environment and digitally generate only those things that will not create “skeletons in your closets” or shadows from your past. The Internet is a new medium, as was the telephone more than a century ago. If you use it wisely, it can connect you to a world of people, ideas and information.

About the Author:
And now Ifida Known, “America’s Ambassador for Privacy, Safety, Security and Identity Theft Protection” invites you to get “Your Ultimate Guide to Privacy” (30 pages) FREE at http://www.powerofprivacy.com Read other articles at http://www.IfidaKnown.com Copyright 2005-2008 © Ifida Known Enterprises
More Details about Network Security Tips here.

Website Behavioral Ads May Be Cool But Beware Of Privacy Concerns

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 13:15:22 +0000

If you’re a small ecommerce business, you know that virtually anything that provides significant increases in conversion rates will get a lot of attention.

Behavioral ads promise just that — higher conversion rates than conventional contextual ads — so they’ve been getting a lot of attention lately.

If true, this could be a very good thing for ecommerce sites looking to boost revenues. But the buzz over behavioral ads has also raised the concerns of privacy advocates, and recently even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has weighed in — and the FTC’s interest could lead to congressional action.

Contextual Advertising; Behavioral Advertising

The first major contextual advertising program was Google AdSense. In simple terms, the goal of Google AdSense was to match the context of a website with relevant ads from the Google inventory of advertisers and to serve these ads to the site. Relevance was determined by the context of the site. So, for example a sports-related site would attract relevant ads for sporting goods.

Behavioral ads take relevancy a step or 2 deeper. Behavioral technology tracks a user’s behavior on the Web, including sites visited, length of visits, content read, and searches made. All this data is then analyzed and a behavioral pattern is produced for a user which classifies that user by his or her online demographic. Behavioral ad networks then serve targeted ads that are relevant to that online demographic.

The FTC Weighs In

In November 2007, the FTC conducted a town hall discussion to discuss privacy issues raised by online behavioral advertising. Afterward, the FTC developed proposed principles based on comments received at the town hall discussions. These principles are discussed below.

1. Transparence and control. Sites collecting behavioral data for ads should provide a clear and prominent statement disclosing data being collected and providing a choice for consumers regarding such collection.

2. Reasonable security and limited data retention. Sites collecting behavioral data for ads should provide reasonable security for the data and retain the data only for so long as necessary to fulfill a legitimate business purpose or a law enforcement requirement.

3. Affirmative, Express Consent For Material Changes to Privacy Policies. Before a company may use data for purposes that are materially different from existing privacy policies, affirmative, express consent from affected consumers is required. So, if a privacy policy does not expressly disclose that data may by collected for behavioral ad purposes, it will have to be amended, and all consumers who were subject to the prior policy will have to provide consent.

4. Affirmative, Express Opt-In Consent For Sensitive Data. Sites may collect sensitive data — medical information or children’s online activities — only if consumers specifically opt in.

Conclusion

The scope of the proposed principles is relatively broad, and some industry pundits are somewhat surprised at the proposals. The comment process that is always an indispensable part of new regulations is well under way. The final principles that are adopted will have a significant impact on any company that engages in Internet advertising or permits online ads to be served on its website.

About the Author
Chip Cooper is a leading intellectual property, software, and Internet attorney who’s advised software and online businesses nationwide for Chip’s 25+ years. Visit Chip’s http://www.digicontracts.com site and download his FREE newsletter, Website Law Alert and Special Report, and learn how you can draft your own legal contracts and website documents online and fast, with confidence.

Can Consumers Fight Back Against Credit Fraud?

admin — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 03:52:04 +0000

Sometimes I long for the days of old, the days when we could trust the people we deal with and never question their integrity. Unfortunately, if we choose to use the internet consistently, we must be prepared to be extremely careful when we deal with anyone. When it comes to protecting our credit, we must be even more careful than ever. In this age of information, credit fraud is not a difficult crime to perpetrate. The idea that a thief could gain access to your account information or personal data is not as implausible as you might think–social security number misuse has increased over the last two years, resulting in a variety of credit-related crimes.

Fortunately, you can fight back against credit fraud by learning how credit fraud and identity theft occur, and by actively monitoring your credit report for unauthorized account use on a regular basis. Your credit report will list any new activity on accounts you haven’t been using, as well as new accounts that you did not open.

One of the best ways to keep track of new information that is added to your credit report is the CreditCheck Monitoring Service, which provides Online Monthly Monitoring Alerts to inform you of new derogatory information, recent inquiries into your credit, and several indicators of possible credit fraud.

To have credit report information at your fingertips is the best way to shut an identity thief down–you can begin the process of notifying your creditors of the fraud, changing your passwords, and closing down fraudulent accounts before they wind up in the hands of collectors and compromise your good credit.

How Credit Fraud and Identity Theft Occur

Specific personal data, such as your Social Security number, home address and mother’s maiden name, can be all a thief needs to obtain a fraudulent driver’s license, take over existing bank or credit accounts, divert card statements to a different address, or even apply for new credit card accounts under your name. Thieves can obtain this information in variety of ways, including fishing through trash for account statements, lifting cards from lost or stolen purses, wallets and briefcases, or through telephone or Internet scams.

How to Prevent Credit Fraud and Identity Theft

Customers may be in a position to prevent potential identity theft by closely guarding their personal data. For example, never give out your Social Security number over the phone unless you know the company you are dealing with and have initiated the call.

Similarly, if your mother’s maiden name is not likely to be a secure password, consider changing it to something a little more difficult for a thief to obtain. Also, carry only the cards you are actually going to use, and leave official documents like Social Security cards, passports and birth certificates at home or in a safety deposit box.

Account Takeover Fraud

Credit card account statements contain a lot of sensitive information that you don’t want thieves to get a hold of, and even store receipts will frequently have your credit card number printed on them. Sometimes an account number is all a thief needs to make charges and obtain cash advances. It’s a good idea to shred all financial documents before discarding them.

A thief in possession of sensitive information about you may also be able to go one step further, and commit account takeover fraud, simply by calling your creditor, reading off your account number, a partial Social Security number and your mother’s maiden name, and asking them to change the mailing address on the account. For this reason, if you don’t receive a credit card statement on time, you should call your creditor immediately to verify that the address has not been changed.

Pre-Approved Credit Offers

Another source of potential credit fraud is pre-approved credit offers. A thief who intercepts one may fill out the application and change the address to obtain a credit card in your name for which you will never receive a statement. (To combat this, some creditors will not issue a card to a new address on a pre-approved offer certificate, but this policy isn’t universal.) This makes checking your credit report especially important, because it will show you if there are accounts being reported in your name of which you are not aware.

The thief may even make the minimum payments for a while, until such time as the card is maxed out. Then the account would eventually be turned over for collections–in your name, and listed on your credit report.

About the Author
Mike Powers

info@mwpowersnet.com
More Details about credit repair here. Mike Powers is an internet marketer who has developed a website that gears itself towards helping people repair their credit. The site offers tips and resources to get people back on the right track. You can vist Mike’s site at: http://www.mwpowersnet.com

The Differences Between Spyware And Adware

admin — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:15:36 +0000

So many people will use the term spyware and adware together as if they are exactly the same thing. However, the thing that people need to know is that sure, they are both invading your privacy in some ways but what you may not already know is that their intents are much different in several different ways.

Spyware is much worse than adware because it’s main intents are truly done in a malicious manner. Spyware is trying to get your personal information such as, your banking account numbers, passwords to your emails or other members only websites, possibly your credit card account numbers, along with your social security numbers, where in fact it can just steal your identity, a small piece at a time, without you knowing anything about it. It is invisible and has the ability to not only damage your computer system and it’s performance but worse than that, it can also create many unwanted heartaches in your life.

Adware is not normally invisible like spyware, it creates itself in such ways as pop up advertisements. These advertisements may be trying to sell you something and when doing so you will then give it personal information it may need, allowing it the ability to give this information to many manufacturers trying to sell you their products. Most of the time adware will ask you to download something and ofcourse it will be offered to you, free of charge. Another little trick up it’s sleave in getting what it wants from you, with your permission. How clever is that? Using firewalls will indeed help prevent a lot of this from occurring. You will find that there are several different firewalls available for your needs. Your firewall will give you an advanced warning when it figures out that this sort of thing is happening, allowing you the opportunity to stop it.

Trying to protect yourself is one of the most important things you can remember with all of this. There are options available to you online for free or software that you may be able to purchase that would best suit the needs of your computer system. Whatever you do, just remember that spyware and adware are not going away any time soon, they are growing more and more each year, unfortunately. The only things that you can do is try and prepare yourself for when in fact it happens to you. By installing a spyware detection program or using your anti virus program that most computer systems already come with, you are helping in preventing these kinds of problems from happening, the best that you can anyway. Keep your fingers crossed and maybe someday we will be rid of these types of irritating, security threatening occurrences. As long as computers are around though, I seriously doubt that they will just go away. Perhaps technology will advance enough so that we are able to protect ourselves more than we can now.

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About the Author

By Peter Cheongkh, professional engineer in IT Industry

Spyware - How To Get Rid of Spyware

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:38:09 +0000

Spyware is malicious software designed to send your private information such as browsing habit to the hackers and it can bring many disasters to you and your computer. It can make your computer to become slow in performance, change your home page, and you will also have a slow Internet connection if there is spyware in your system.

It can also cause you a new PC if you don’t learn how to remove it. Lavasoft reported that 850,000 people have replaced their computer because of spyware infection and these stats only shows the first half of 2007. 90% of computer users in U.S are infected by the same type of infection and most of them don’t know how to remove it.

In this article, I will explain briefly on how to detect this type of infection and how to remove it and I will also tell you two symptoms if you got infected. First of all, if you notice that your home page has changed without you changing it, it may be caused by malicious software. Second, your computer performance speed and online browsing speed have become so slow. These two reasons show that you’ve been infected and you need to remove the threats as soon as possible.

Nowadays, spyware work almost similar with adware. It will also display advertisements while you’re online. How you can get infected by this type of infection? You might have downloaded software that contains malicious software or maybe you’ve clicked pop-up ads that want you to update your security settings. Another reason is that you’ve visited websites that download the malware without your consent to your computer.

In order to remove it, you need to download anti-spyware programs that can detect and remove any malicious software installed in your system. Another type of protection software that you need is software that has a real-time protection. Having this feature is essential and will make you safer from some threats.

Unlike antivirus, you can have more than one anti-spyware in your system. Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy are software that I recommend for you to use in your system. If you’re using Microsoft Windows XP operating system, download Windows Defender because it has a real-time protection. If you prefer other software, I would like to recommend Spyware Terminator because it also has a real-time protection.

Download and update the software that I’ve mentioned and you can get rid of those nasty pests inside your computer. However, you can still get infected if you don’t arm yourself with essential knowledge about online threats.

About the Author
Azwan Asmat is the author of Chuang Computer Tips - http://chuangcomputer.blogspot.com - Want to know the secret of securing your PC from dangerous spyware, adware, and malware programs that can ruin your PC, your finances, and your sanity?!Visit http://www.chuangcomputer.com/pcsafety for more info.

Spyware - Is somebody watching you?

admin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 02:24:38 +0000

Spyware is computer software that is installed stealthily on a personal computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s knowledge or consent.

Unlike a computer virus, spyware does not directly spread in the manner of a worm. Generally, an infected system does not attempt to transmit the infection to other computers; the issue is contained to your local system.

They will reach your system by exploiting security holes or are packaged with user-installed software, such as Limewire. Spyware is often hidden alongside other programs, and you may unknowingly install spyware when you download a program from the Internet or install software from disks.

Spyware normally interferes with networking software, which commonly causes difficulty connecting to the Internet. Spyware, along with other threats, has led some Windows users to move to other platforms such as Linux or Apple Macintosh, which are less attractive targets for malware. However these platforms are not full-proof so don’t fall into an out of sight trap.

The scariest part of being attacked is the privacy implications, as spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers. It’s important to stop spyware today!

Not only can spyware programs collect various types of personal information, but they can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity, or diverting advertising revenue to a third party.

Microsoft has an entire Windows Update site devoted to automatically updating users’ systems with all the latest fixes and patches for a wide range of Microsoft software, including Windows, Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access), and Internet Explorer.

Anti-spyware software programs can be used solely for detection and removal of spyware software that has already been installed onto your computer. Anti-virus software can detect many but not all forms of malicious software before they have a chance to affect your computer.

Anti-spyware applications must also be able to remove programs on reboot for spyware/adware that refuses to be removed through normal processes. Of course, anti-spyware applications alone can’t protect you entirely from unwanted spyware and adware. For example, recent test results show that bundled software (WhenUSave) is ignored by popular anti spyware free program AdAware, (but removed as spyware by most scanners) because it is part of the popular (but recently decommissioned) Edonkey client. To address this dilemma, the Anti-Spyware Coalition has been working on building consensus within the anti-spyware industry as to what is and isn’t acceptable software behavior.

Another form of spyware is Adware, it’s similar to viruses in that they can be malicious in nature, however the focus now is money as people are now profiting from these threats making them more and more popular.

Adware is often hidden alongside other programs, and you may unknowingly install it when you download a program from the Internet or install software from disks. Adware is software that displays advertisements to computer users. Although most adware is spyware in a different sense for a different reason: it displays advertisements related to what it finds from spying on you.

Malware is software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent. Malware will log your keystrokes, steal your passwords, observe your browsing choices, spawn pop-up windows, send you targeted email, redirect your web browser to phishing pages, report your personal information to distant servers, and serve up pornography. Malware hijacks your browser and redirects you to advertising or a phishing-con web page.

It’s important that you lockdown your computer today and protect yourself from the threats on the Internet today. Check out our website for the latest info on removing spyware and how to protect yourself from Spyware and more.

Spyware Doctor has consistently been awarded Editors’ Choice, by leading PC magazines and testing laboratories around the world, including United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany and Australia.

About the Author
Rusty wants you to stop spyware and tracks the latest news on spyware and viruses on his website. Checkout the latest news on Free Spyware Removal, Anti Spyware Free downloads and more.