Privacy issues By: Joshua Junious Date: December 4, 2012 Course: CpSc 420 Instructor: Dr. Grossman

Privacy Act of 1974  “The Privacy Act of 1974, as amended at 5 U.S.C. 552a, protects records that can be retrieved from a system of records by personal identifiers such as a name, social security number, or other identifying number or symbol” (  “The Privacy Act prohibits disclosure of these records without written individual consent unless one of the twelve disclosure exceptions enumerated in the Act applies” (

I see you  “New Scientist reports that the FBI is spending $1 billion to add facial recognition technology to its national fingerprint database as part of a broad upgrade aimed at making it easier to identify alleged criminals” (Reed, 2012).  According to the FBI, the facial recognition database will only include official mug shots of known criminals.  The database upgrade will also add biometrics such as iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification.  The Next Generation Identification (NGI) System  Nationwide database of mug shots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples and other biometrics.

Sharing is caring  Google plans to replace dozens of separate privacy policies with a unified policy.  “But while the new policy does not expand the personal information it collects, it introduces new ways for Google to combine and share data across its own services” (Gideon and Losey, 2012).  The users’ data will be shared across different Google services such as Google Docs within Gmail and Google Maps within Google+.  “Forcibly bridging services without the choice of a partial opt-out is an attempt by Google to leverage user dependency on some services to increase the usage of others – most notably Google+” (Gideon and Losey, 2012).

Time to face the music  “Accusing Facebook of engaging in “unfair and deceptive” practices, the federal government announced a broad settlement that requires the company to respect the privacy wishes of its users and subjects it to regular privacy audits for the next 20 years” (Sengupta, 2011).  “The order, announced by the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, stems largely from changes that Facebook made to the way it handled its users’ information in  The commission contended that Facebook, without warning its users or seeking consent, made public information that users had deemed to be private on their Facebook pages.  The order also said that Facebook, which has more than 800 million users worldwide, in some cases had allowed advertisers to glean personally identifiable information when a Facebook user clicked on an advertisement on his or her Facebook page” (Sengupta, 2011).

Europe says no!!!  Google  “European privacy regulators have found flaws in Google’s privacy policy, which may breach EU data protection laws” (Whittaker, 2012).  European data and privacy watchdog, the Article 29 Working Party, asked Google to put their new privacy policy on ice.  Facebook  “Facebook has come under fire in the EU for using facial recognition software to identify the people in users’ photos and suggest friends to tag in those photos” (Brodkin, 2012).

Conclusion  Privacy Act of 1974  FBI’s new Facial Recognition Technology  Google’s Privacy Policy  Facebook’s Privacy Policy  Europe vs. Google and Facebook

Questions

References Reed, B. (2012, September 7). Fbi plugs $1 billion into facial recognition tech to turn america into its own game of ‘where’s waldo?’.. Retrieved from dollars/ dollars/ Gideon, T., & Losey, J. (2012, February 10). The real problem with google’s new privacy policy.. Retrieved from _the_missing_opt_out_isn_t_the_only_problem_.html _the_missing_opt_out_isn_t_the_only_problem_.html Sengupta, S. (2012, November 29). F.T.C. settles privacy issue at facebook.. Retrieved from settlement-on-privacy.htmlhttp:// settlement-on-privacy.html Whittaker, Z. (2012, October 15). EU regulators find legal problems in google privacy policy.. Retrieved from google-privacy-policy / google-privacy-policy / Brodkin, J. (2012, September 21). Facebook bends to Europe's will, disables facial recognition (for now).. Retrieved from policy/2012/09/facebook-bends-to-europes-will-disables-facial-recognition-for-now/ policy/2012/09/facebook-bends-to-europes-will-disables-facial-recognition-for-now/