Privacy Net – November 21, 2011

Since we can’t really go a post without mentioning Facebook around here, might as well start there – as you may or may not have heard by now, at the end of last week, Facebook actually opened up to USA Today about how it “tracks” users across the web (you probably remember that recently it has been accused of doing so even if they’re not logged in), and how it uses the data it collects to “help improve security and its plugins”… [USA Today via Mashable]

Well, if “the Feds” thought the legislation that would allow them to obtain peoples’ cell phone records without a warrant was going to sneak by, apparently they would be wrong – as it only took a district court judge but one page to strike down the law as unconstitutional… [WSJ via Gizmodo]

While we haven’t spent much time talking about it here, one of the bigger digital privacy debates is whether or not to institute electronic health records. To that end, Pew Research Center apparently recently revealed survey results indicating that a majority of people would be open to the idea if it meant better “coordination of their care,” or helped “support real-time decisions in their care”…among other things… [InformationWeek]

But one thing we spend a good deal of time talking about is the privacy around digital advertising and how regulating it may or may not shake out. Well, if it helps at all, apparently the FTC’s former Chief Privacy Officer, Marc Groman, is leaving the Commission to become the Network Advertising Intiative’s – a group “promoting self-regulation in online advertising” – new Executive Director (and General Counsel)… [NY Times]