Airline Plan Suggests No Pilot Privacy
Pilots would lose privacy protection for health records and airlines would need insurance when the employees lose their license under a proposal from the French air-safety agency that investigated the deliberate crash of a Germanwings passenger jet into a mountainside. Authorities should re-examine how pilot health is monitored and assessed, and consider forcing medical practitioners to share any concerns with airlines in instances...
New Limits on Sharing Web Tracking Proposed
Internet providers such as AT&T and Comcast face new federal restrictions on distributing information about their customers’ Web browsing. Broadband providers would need to get permission from consumers before divulging online habits to other companies under the proposal from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. The rules need to succeed in two votes, including an initial test at an FCC meeting on March 31,...
Consumer Confidential: Is the Apple iPhone Really Any Different From Other Consumer Products?
Apple lawyer Ted Olson said last week that the tech heavyweight has good reason not to help federal investigators hack an iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. The company, he said, “has to draw the line at re-creating code” and “changing” its product. To which there’s a two-word response: seat belts. And here’s two more: air bags. In both those cases, the auto industry said federal officials had no right to make...
Consumer Confidential: FTC Is Falling Short in Protecting Consumers’ Data Used by Businesses
Federal regulators have served notice: They’re watching how businesses use — and possibly abuse — consumers’ personal information. And that’s great. It’s about time more official attention was paid to ways that companies invade our privacy. But federal authorities can do more, much more, to level the playing field. In a report titled Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion? the Federal Trade Commission stopped short of laying down...
Consumer Confidential: TiVo Users: Your TV Watching Is Being Watched
If you’re a TiVo user, your digital video recorder may be ratting you out to advertisers. In the latest example of consumer privacy being threatened by Big Data, TiVo’s number-crunching subsidiary earlier this month announced a partnership with media heavyweight Viacom that helps advertisers target TV viewers with specific commercials. Think of it like this: A car company wants to reach men in their 20s. Viacom knows that younger guys...
