Consumer Privacy

Some Online Loan Applications Endanger Consumers

Have you ever filled out an application online for a “loan matching service”? If so, you have to hope that you didn’t fill out an application on one of the websites operated by a company called Blue Global. They ran websites like autoloansusa.com, loanmarketplace.com, moneytoday.com, 247loan.com, 100dayloans.com, and others. Court documents released this week by the US Federal Trade Commission reveal that after the company collected consumers' financial information, it sold most of that information to non-lenders, including SSNs, bank account numbers, and ...

WPF at RightsCon to Present on Digital Identity, Digital Rights

We are honored to be speaking on two panels at this year’s RightsCon, an event that takes place 29-31 March in Brussels, Belgium. Both of our panels will be on the 31 of March. Here is some additional reading and information for each of the panels: Panel 1: Managing Concerns Around Digital Identity, Fri, 9:00-10:15, Innovation, 1st Floor....

United States' Postal Service "Informed Delivery" plan puts consumers at risk

The US Postal Service's new Informed Delivery system has the potential to impact every household in the United States that receives mail. It's important, and there are plenty of privacy issues. The World Privacy Forum wrote extensive comments to the United States Postal Service warning it about certain consumer privacy and security risks of its Informed Delivery service. Here's more information about Informed Delivery, and why it may create new phishing risks.

Risk indicators for senior financial fraud and abuse: new red flags

Elder financial abuse is a terrible crime, and it has not gotten nearly the attention it deserves. Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a important report to financial institutions about what they can do to spot this issue. The World Privacy Forum has testified about senior identity theft ...

Consumer Tips: World Privacy Forum's Top Ten Opt Outs

Many people have told us that they think opting out is confusing. We agree. Opting out can range from the not-too-difficult (the FTC’s Do Not Call list is a fairly simple opt out) to the challenging (the National Advertising Initiative opt out can be tricky). Our hope is that this list will clarify which opt out does what, and how to go about opting out.

Collections Scoring, Privacy, and Consumer Impacts

This coming Thursday, Pam Dixon will be presenting new research on collections scoring, privacy, and impacts on low and middle income consumers. The Dixon/Gellman report, The Scoring of America , sparked a national conversation about analytics and fairness in the realm of consumer scores. This talk focuses on one particular ...

FTC’s Data Broker Report Brings New Facts to Light about how Consumer Data is Captured and Sold

Forget worrying about loyalty cards or programs: it’s the everyday purchases you make tied to your name with a debit or credit card that can land you on data brokers’ lists. That is one of the many facts that the new FTC report on data brokers sets forth. The report offers a high-level analysis with establishing new fact patterns about the industry based on the Commission’s investigation of nine major data brokers. Overall, we find things to like in the report, but we wish the FTC had gone further in some areas. Here are some of the high points that stood out to us.

WPF Analysis: Implications of the Google Spain Case

The European Court of Justice has recently decided an important case involving privacy and search engines. The decision may have enormously broad implications for privacy, for search engines, and for the Internet as a whole. This brief analysis provides context and highlights of the court's decision, with a discussion of the implications, which are far-ranging.

European Court of Justice rules affirmatively on "Right to be Forgotten" online

May 20 Update: see our full analysis of the ruling here . In a ruling with far-reaching implications for online privacy, the European Court of Justice has ruled that online search companies are subject to the European Data Protection Directive, (Directive 95/46/EC) . Search engine companies that are based in ...

Snapchat Settles FTC Charges; FTC says Snapchat transmitted user location and collected address books without notice or consent

Mobile messaging app Snapchat, which promised its users ephemeral, disappearing picture and video messages, has settled FTC charges that pics and videos sent through its app weren't as ephemeral as the company promised. According to the FTC, Snapchat transmitted users' location data, and collected users' address books without notice or ...

Video: Congressional Testimony on Data Brokers - Senate Commerce Committee

Video of Congressional Testimony on data brokers. Pam Dixon gave this testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee on December 18, 2013 at a hearing dedicated to shedding light on data broker industry practices and how that affects consumers. The full testimony contains numerous examples of data broker activities, consumer scoring, and discusses the solutions that are needed, including a requirement for data broker opt out.

Consumer Tips: What to do about the NSA address book snooping

The Washington Post published new revelations from Edward Snowden’s leaked documents that revealed that the NSA is scooping up millions of email and IM address books globally. This is a serious piece of snooping business, and it deserves immediate attention on a policy level. For people who are reading this and wondering what you can do today, right now, here are some immediate steps to take.

Consumer Tips: Facebook Privacy Guide - How to Turn On Secure Browsing

Facebook gives you the option to use use secure browsing when a secure connection is available. This is a security option that all Facebook users should use. It is a no-brainer to say yes to. Facebook has turned this option on by default, but the rollout for this option may not have reached your area. Also, there may be some country-level differences. It is worth taking a few steps to make sure turn this option is on. It is well worth it, and we highly recommend it for all users.

Consumer Tips: Search Engine Privacy

We have updated our much-visited Search Engine Privacy Tips in light of recent events surrounding online privacy. First, search engine encryption has become much more important for a number of reasons, which we discuss in the revised tips. Several search engines are now using encryption by default, including Google, DuckDuckGo and others. Additionally, WPF has been receiving reports from consumers about "fake" search engines containing viruses. Our new tipsheet has been refreshed to reflect these recent trends and issues.

Health Information Exchanges in California

WPF's new interactive map identifies Health Information Exchanges in California. A Health Information Exchange, or HIE, is technology that enables the electronic movement of health-related information among health care providers and others. HIEs are an increasingly popular way for hospitals, pharmacies, labs, and emergency room physicians to share patient information. HIEs can exchange records across one hospital, across multiple hospitals in a region, or across a whole state. If your health information is being shared through an HIE, your lab test results, medications, medical history, or other clinical information related to your health care may be included in the sharing. See more about HIEs and our California HIE Map here.

How unique are you?

How unique are you? We played with a data privacy tool today here at WPF that showed us if the combination of our birthdate and zip code made us statistically unique. The more unique you are, the more identifiable you are in a sea of supposedly "anonymous" data. This tool was developed by Dr. LaTanya Sweeney at Harvard's Data Privacy Lab, and using it will tell you how easily you can be identified from records that may not even have your name on them.