by Marc Goodman
12 To put that in perspective: Nate [user name], “How Much Is a Petabyte?,” The Mozy Blog, accessed March 5, 2014.
13 Around the world, Google: The company has been sued for all these reasons, with varied results. For more detailed reviews on the large number of violations alleged against Google, see www.googlemonitor.com.
14 After a lawsuit: David Streitfeld, “Google Admits Street View Project Violated Privacy,” New York Times, March 12, 2013; David Kravets, “An Intentional Mistake: The Anatomy of Google’s Wi-Fi Sniffing Debacle,” Wired, May 2, 2012.
15 In October 2013, a federal judge: Claire Cain Miller, “Google Accused of Wiretapping in Gmail Scans,” New York Times, Oct. 1, 2013.
16 In early 2014, Google Glass was the subject: David Pierce, “The Simpsons May Have the Smartest Thoughts Yet About Google Glass,” Verge, Jan. 27, 2014.
17 Even the former head: Michael Chertoff, “Google Glass, the Beginning of Wearable Surveillance,” CNN, May 1, 2013.
18 With more than 1.2 billion: PRNewswire, “Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2013 Results,” Facebook: Investor Relations, Jan. 29, 2014.
19 It has been sued: Karen Gullo, “Facebook Sued over Alleged Scanning of Private Messages,” Bloomberg, Jan. 2, 2014.
20 For example, did you realize: Robert McMillan, “Apple Finally Reveals How Long Siri Keeps Your Data,” Wired, April 19, 2013.
21 The Web site with the most: “What They Know,” Wall Street Journal series, http://blogs.wsj.com/wtk/.
22 So if you use your university: Adi Robertson, “Angry Email Users Can Take Google to Court for Keyword Scanning, Judge Rules,” Verge, Sept. 26, 2013.
23 “a person has no”: Ibid.; Cooley LLP, “Google’s Motion to Dismiss Complaint Memorandum of Points & Authorities,” U.S. District Court, San Jose Division, Sept. 5, 2013, http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/; Gregory S. McNeal, “It’s Not a Surprise That Gmail Users Have No Reasonable Expectation of Privacy,” Forbes, June 20, 2013.
24 It’s not just your friends: Steve Stecklow, “On the Web, Children Face Intensive Tracking,” Wall Street Journal, Sept. 17, 2010.
25 Well-known companies such as McDonald’s: Josh Smith, “Children’s Online-Privacy Violations Alleged Against McDonald’s, General Mills, 3 Others,” National Journal, Aug. 22, 2012.
26 In another case, Sony: Federal Trade Commission, “Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a General Partnership Subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, United States of America (for the Federal Trade Commission),” accessed March 6, 2014, http://www.ftc.gov/.
27 That is why you: Roben Farzad, “Google at $400 Billion,” Bloomberg Businessweek, Feb. 12, 2014.
28 A study published by the Wall Street Journal: Doug Laney, “To Facebook You’re Worth $80.95,” CIO Journal (blog), Wall Street Journal, May 3, 2012.
29 As the computer scientist Jaron Lanier: Joe Nocera, “Will Digital Networks Ruin Us?,” New York Times, Jan. 6, 2014; Jaron Lanier, Who Owns the Future? (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014).
30 Its inventory is personal data: Lori Andrews, “Facebook Is Using You,” New York Times, Feb. 4, 2012.
31 This way when your friends: Salvador Rodriguez, “Google to Include User Names, Pictures in Ads: Here’s How to Opt Out,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 2013.
32 Google introduced “shared endorsements”: Drew Guarini, “Facebook Finally Axes Controversial ‘Sponsored Stories,’ “Huffington Post, Oct. 1, 2014.
33 If one were to read: Alexis C. Madrigal, “Reading the Privacy Policies You Encounter in a Year Would Take 76 Work Days,” Atlantic, March 1, 2012.
34 A study in the Wall Street Journal: Missy Sullivan, “It’s Not Your Eyes … the Fine Print Is Getting Really, Really Small,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 15, 2012.
35 While the point was irreverently: See shrink-wrap license agreements are valid and enforceable, i.e., ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg, Microsoft v. Harmony Computers, Novell v. Network Trade Center, and Ariz. Cartridge Remanufacturers Ass’n v. Lexmark Int’l, Inc. may have some bearing as well.
36 Facebook’s privacy policy: Nick Bilton, “Price of Facebook Privacy? Start Clicking,” New York Times, May 12, 2010; Facebook, “Privacy Policy,” accessed March 3, 2014, https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy.
37 By comparison, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”: Tom Gardner, “To Read, or Not to Read … the Terms and Conditions: PayPal Agreement Is Longer Than Hamlet, While iTunes Beats Macbeth,” Mail Online, March 22, 2012.
38 Worse, many companies: Guilbert Gates, “Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options,” New York Times, May 21, 2010.
39 Moreover, even if you did: Jessica Guyn, “With Privacy Battle Brewing, Facebook Won’t Update Policy Right Away,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5, 2013; Ryan Singel, “Public Posting Now the Default on Facebook,” Wired, Dec. 9, 2009; Epic, “Facebook Privacy,” http://epic.org/privacy/facebook/.
40 Three months after it was purchased: “Instagram Seeks Right to Sell Access to Photos to Advertisers,” BBC News, Dec. 18, 2012.
41 “When you upload or otherwise”: Google Terms of Service, accessed on 3/10/2014, http://www.google.com/; Steve Kovach, “A Lot of People Are Freaking Out over Google Drive for Nothing,” Business Insider, April 24, 2012.
42 There are currently more mobile phones: “2014: Mobiles ‘to Outnumber People Next Year,’ Says UN Agency,” BBC News, May 9, 2013.
43 Sixty-three percent of Americans admit: Lookout, “Survey Reveals Consumers Exhibit Risky Behaviors Despite Valuing Their Privacy on Mobile Devices,” Oct. 22, 2013.
44 In fact, making calls: O2, “Making Calls Has Become Fifth Most Frequent Use for a Smartphone for Newly Networked Generation of Users,” The Blue, June 29, 2012.
45 These gadgets form: Meena Hart Duerson, “We’re Addicted to Our Phones: 84% Worldwide Say They Couldn’t Go a Single Day Without Their Mobile Device in Their Hand,” New York Daily News, Aug. 16, 2012.
46 That device in your purse: Peter Maass and Megha Rajagopalan, “That’s Not My Phone, It’s My Tracker,” New York Times, July 13, 2012.
47 In the United States alone: Jeff Jonas, “Your Movements Speak for Themselves: Space Time Travel Data Is Analytic Super-Food,” Jeff Jonas.typepad.com, Aug. 26, 2009.
48 Mobile phones provide: Kai Biermann, “Data Protection: Betrayed by Our Own Data,” Die Zeit, March 26, 2011.
49 The Android mobile phone software: Samsung Tomorrow, “What You May Not Know About GALAXY S4 Innovative Technology,” April 10, 2013.
50 Given all these new technological: Ted Thornhill, “Is Nothing Off Limits? Now Google Plans to Spy on Background Noise in Your Phone Calls to Bombard You with Tailored Adverts,” Mail Online, March 22, 2012.
51 Using its ambient sound: Megan Garber, “Yep, Google Just Patented Background Noise,” Atlantic, March 22, 2012.
52 Facebook too has now added: Andrea Peterson, “New Facebook Feature Is a Friendly Reminder Your Smartphone Can Eavesdrop on You,” Washington Post, May 21, 2014; Kurt Wagner, “Facebook’s New Shazam-Like Tool Knows What You’re Watching and Hearing,” Mashable, May 21, 2014.
53 When Facebook revealed in the fourth quarter: David de Jong, “Zuckerberg Gains $3.2 Billion as Facebook Soars on Mobile,” Bloomberg, Jan. 30, 2014; Facebook, “Investor Relations,” Jan. 29, 2014, http://investor.fb.com/; J. O’Dell, “Facebook’s Mobile Moment: Nearly a Billion Mobile Users & Majority of Revenue from Mobile,” VentureBeat, Jan. 29, 2014.
54 Since its launch in 2008: “App Store Sales Top $10 Billion in 2013,” Apple Press Info, Jan. 7, 2014; Jordan Golson, “Apple Reports Strongest Ever Quarterly Earnings: $13.1 Billion Profit on $57.6 Billion in Revenue in Q1 2014,” MacRumors, Jan. 27, 2014.
55 It also helps to explain: Emma Barnett, “Angry Birds Company ‘Worth 5.5bn,’ ” Telegraph, May 8, 2012.
56 For example, the mere act: Violet Blue, “Norton: Android App Skips Consent, Gives Faceboo
k Servers User Phone Numbers,” ZDNet, June 29, 2013.
57 Once Facebook has been downloaded: Dylan Love, “It Looks like the Facebook Android App Can Control Your Camera and Take Pictures Without Telling You,” Business Insider, May 10, 2013; Chris Gayomali, “Why Is Facebook’s App Asking to Read Your Text Messages?,” Fast Company, Jan. 28, 2014.
58 More recently, Facebook began: “Facebook Mobile Update Raises Serious Privacy Concerns,” RT, Dec. 3, 2012.
59 This occurs without any clear warning: Liam Tung, “Microsoft Points Scroogled War Machine at Privacy Worries over Android Apps,” ZDNet, April 10, 2013.
60 As you probably now suspect: Emily Steel and Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Facebook in Privacy Breach,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 8, 2010.
61 While putting birds in slingshots: Kevin J. O’Brien, “Data-Gathering via Apps Presents a Gray Legal Area,” New York Times, Oct. 28, 2012.
62 McAfee reported that 82 percent: Irfan Asrar et al., Who’s Watching You? McAfee Mobile Security Report, Feb. 2014.
63 McKinsey has estimated: McKinsey Global Institute, Big Data: The Next Frontier for Innovation, Competition, and Productivity, June 2011, 85.
64 Apps like Tinder and Grindr: Rip Empson, “50M Matches Strong, Hot Mobile Dating App Tinder Is Ready to Go Global, and Move Beyond Flirting,” TechCrunch, May 24, 2013.
65 In 2012, a Russian company: Nick Bilton, “Girls Around Me: An App Takes Creepy to a New Level,” New York Times, March 30, 2012; John Brownlee, “This Creepy App Isn’t Just Stalking Women Without Their Knowledge, It’s a Wake-Up Call About Facebook Privacy [Update],” Cult of Mac, March 30, 2012.
66 By aggregating your locational data: For more information, see United States v. Jones (2012), Wikipedia, which discusses the privacy implications of locational data; Editorial Board, “The Court’s GPS Test,” New York Times, Nov. 5, 2011.
67 As you are about to discover: For a good overview of the privacy implications of location-based services, see the ACLU’s report Location-Based Services: Time for a Privacy Check-In.
Chapter 5: The Surveillance Economy
1 Leigh Van Bryan was looking: Richard Hartley-Parkinson, “ ‘I’m Going to Destroy America and Dig up Marilyn Monroe’: British Pair Arrested in U.S. on Terror Charges over Twitter Jokes,” Mail Online, Jan. 31, 2012.
2 While citizens around the world: Kharunya Paramaguru, “Private Data-Collection Firms Get Public Scrutiny,” Time, Dec. 19, 2013.
3 Just one company alone: Natasha Singer, “Acxiom, the Quiet Giant of Consumer Database Marketing,” New York Times, June 16, 2012.
4 Each profile contains: Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 43; Natasha Singer, “A Data Broker Offers a Peek Behind the Curtain,” New York Times, Aug. 31, 2013; Brandon Bailey, “Online Data Brokers Know You—Surprisingly Well,” MercuryNews.com, Sept. 8, 2013.
5 Acxiom sells these consumer: Alice E. Marwick, “How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined,” New York Review of Books, Jan. 9, 2014.
6 For example, people in cluster: Lori B. Andrews, I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy (New York: Free Press, 2013), 35.
7 Those in the Christian family: Stephanie Armour, “Data Brokers Come Under Fresh Scrutiny: Consumer Profiles Marketed to Lenders,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12, 2014.
8 For example, some brokers offer lists: Paramaguru, “Private Data-Collection Firms Get Public Scrutiny”; “ ‘Data Brokers’ Selling Personal Info of Rape Victims to Marketers—Report,” RT, Dec. 19, 2013.
9 Printed on the address label: Matt Pearce, “Dad Gets OfficeMax Mail Addressed ‘Daughter Killed in Car Crash,’ ” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 19, 2014.
10 It wasn’t until a local: Nesita Kwan, “OfficeMax Sends Letter to ‘Daughter Killed in Car Crash,’ ” NBC Chicago, Jan. 19, 2014.
11 As a result of Seay’s experience: Armour, “Data Brokers Come Under Fresh Scrutiny.”
12 “Our digital reach will”: Judith Aquino, “Acxiom Prepares New ‘Audience Operating System’ amid Wobbly Earnings,” Ad Exchanger, Aug. 1, 2013.
13 For example, researchers in the U.K.: David Talbot, “A Phone That Knows Where You’re Going,” MIT Technology Review, July 9, 2012.
14 As a result, researchers were able: Steve Lohr, “How Privacy Vanishes Online,” New York Times, March 16, 2010.
15 At least ten individuals: Carolyn Y. Johnson, “Project ‘Gaydar,’ ” Boston.com, Sept. 20, 2009; Matthew Moore, “Gay Men ‘Can Be Identified by Their Facebook Friends,’ ” Telegraph, Sept. 21, 2009; Mona Chalabi, “State-Sponsored Homophobia: Mapping Gay Rights Internationally,” Guardian, March 10, 2014.
16 While these findings: Emine Saner, “Gay Rights Around the World: The Best and Worst Countries for Equality,” Guardian, July 30, 2013. 71 A study of fifty-eight thousand: Josh Halliday, “Facebook Users Unwittingly Revealing Intimate Secrets, Study Finds,” Guardian, March 11, 2013.
17 “If you have something”: “Google CEO on Privacy (VIDEO): ‘If You Have Something You Don’t Want Anyone to Know, Maybe You Shouldn’t Be Doing It,’ ” Huffington Post, March 18, 2010.
18 “privacy is no longer”: Bobbie Johnson, “Privacy No Longer a Social Norm, Says Facebook Founder,” Guardian, Jan. 10, 2010.
19 “expressing authentic identity”: “Sharing to the Power of 2012,” Economist, Nov. 17, 2011.
20 As the computer security researcher: Moxie Marlinspike, “Why ‘I Have Nothing to Hide’ Is the Wrong Way to Think About Surveillance,” Wired, July 13, 2013.
21 “My daughter got this”: Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier, Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013), 58.
22 Given Target’s 2013 hacking: Elizabeth A. Harris and Nicole Perlroth, “For Target, the Breach Numbers Grow,” New York Times, Jan. 10, 2014.
23 In response to the irreparable harm: Geoffrey A. Fowler, “When the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Face book,” Wall Street Journal, Oct. 13, 2012.
24 In an ensuing investigation: Daniel Zwerdling, “Your Digital Trail: Private Company Access,” All Tech Considered (blog), NPR.org, Oct. 1, 2013.
25 A handful of tech start-ups: Katie Lobosco, “Facebook Friends Could Change Your Credit Score,” CNNMoney, Aug. 27, 2013.
26 Facebook may become the next FICO: Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier, Big Data.
27 In the United States: See United States v. Miller, 425 U.S. 435 (1976), a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court and involved the subpoenaed seizure of bank records from Mr. Miller. Miller’s attorneys argued that the bank’s compliance with the subpoena amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The Court, however, ruled in a 6–3 opinion that the documents subpoenaed were not Miller’s personal papers but instead part of the bank’s business records; as such, his rights were not violated when a third party—his bank—transmitted the information that he had entrusted to it to the government. The legacy of Miller is with us today, and privacy advocates have blasted the Miller decision as no longer valid with our modern techniques of information sharing, production, and storage. See also Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979), regarding the use of “pen registers” to track and trace all inbound/outbound phone numbers dialed and received.
28 Accordingly, the word “Facebook”: John Stevens, “The Facebook Divorces: Social Network Site Is Cited in ‘a THIRD of Splits,’ ” Mail Online, Dec. 30, 2011.
29 A survey conducted by Microsoft: Mathew Ingram, “Yes, Virginia, HR Execs Check Your Facebook Page,” Gigaom, Jan. 27, 2010; Cross-Tab, “Online Reputation in a Connected World,” Job-hunt.com, Jan. 2010.
30 Applicants in all of these jurisdictions: Manuel Valdes, “Job Seekers Getting Asked for Facebook Passwords,” Yahoo! Finance, March 20, 2012.
31 While some states, including California: Jonathan Dame, “
Will Employers Still Ask for Facebook Passwords in 2014?,” USA Today, Jan. 10, 2014.
32 That’s what happened to a twelve-year-old: “Minnesota Girl Alleges School Privacy Invasion,” CNN, March 10, 2012.
33 Even college athletes: Pete Thamel, “Universities Track Athletes Online, Raising Legal Concerns,” New York Times, March 30, 2012.
34 A survey by the International Association: International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2013 Social Media Survey Results, accessed March 12, 2014, http://www.iacpsocialmedia.org/.
35 The IRS too began: Marcia Hoffman, “EFF Posts Documents Detailing Law Enforcement Collection of Data from Social Media Sites,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 16, 2010. See also “IRT-WBT Content 2009,” IRS social network training course overview, 2009, and John Lynch and Jenny Ellickson, “Obtaining and Using Evidence from Social Networking Sites,” presentation, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, August 2009.
36 The demands for information: Don Reisinger, “AT&T Reports More Than 300,000 Data Requests in 2013,” CNET, Feb. 18, 2014.
37 In 2009, Sprint disclosed: Kim Zetter, “Feds ‘Pinged’ Sprint GPS Data 8 Million Times over a Year,” Wired, Dec. 1, 2009.
38 It makes perfect sense: Marwick, “How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined.”
39 Revelations from Edward Snowden: Charlie Savage, “CIA Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data,” New York Times, Nov. 7, 2013.
40 “Congress today reauthorized funding”: “CIA’s ‘Facebook’ Program Dramatically Cut Agency’s Costs,” Onion News Network, accessed March 15, 2014.
41 Instead, one study has estimated: Drew F. Cohen, “It Costs the Government Just 6.5 Cents an Hour to Spy on You,” Politico, Feb. 10, 2014.
42 Upon learning of the true extent: Charles Cooper, “Ex-Stasi Boss Green with Envy over NSA’s Domestic Spy Powers,” CNET, June 28, 2013.
43 A New York Times article: Maria Aspan, “How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free,” New York Times, Feb. 11, 2008; Chamakhe Maurieni, Facebook Is Deception (Volume one) (WSIC EBooks Ltd., 2012).