The "holy grail" of online measurement has always been tracking to offline sales. Indeed, 95 percent of retail sales happen in stores and clicks are often a poor proxy for those in-store activities (comScore has long made this point regarding online display advertising). Accordingly there are now multiple initiatives going on to try and "close the loop" between online ads and offline sales. Google Wallet and Offers have online-to-offline tracking as one of their long-term objectives. And the advent and growth of smartphones has made online-offline tracking more feasible generally. Facebook [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Features & Analysis | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Last night at the equivalent of a midnight movie opening, Apple iPhone 5 pre-orders went on sale. Unlike some of my colleagues here at SEL/ML I was not up ordering one. But lots of people were and it appears the initial run of pre-orders has "sold out." Shipping and availability dates have now been pushed to "two weeks" rather than September 21. It took the previous iPhone (4S) roughly 24 hours to "sell out" initially. Last night Apple was apparently cleaned out of its first tranche of iPhones in roughly an hour, with a heavy load on servers. Would-be iPhone buyers can still potentially get [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Legal: Privacy | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

According to a Google job listing and several stories this morning Google is building an internal "Red Team" to address privacy and security issues. The job description reads: As a Data Privacy Engineer at Google you will help ensure that our products are designed to the highest standards and are operated in a manner that protects the privacy of our users. Specifically, you will work as member of our Privacy Red Team to independently identify, research, and help resolve potential privacy risks across all of our products, services, and business processes in place today. Top candidates will hav [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy

It's official. As earlier reported, Google will pay $22.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it placed tracking cookies and served targeted ads to Safari browser users, after it said it wouldn't. The cookie placement violated the privacy settlement Google reached with the FTC in October of last year. It's the largest penalty ever posed for violation of an existing order by the FTC, according to the Commission, but it represents a drop in the bucket for Google, which had Q2 revenues of more than $12 billion. When questioned about the sufficiency of the penalty, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Reuters is confirming that the civil penalty Google will pay to settle the "Cookiegate" episode, in which it bypassed the default Safari privacy settings on the iPhone, is $22.5 million. This figure was previously reported and represents a fine of $16,000 per violation per day. In February the Wall Street Journal first reported that Google and other ad networks (i.e., Gannett’s PointRoll) were discovered circumventing mobile Safari’s default “no third party cookies” settings. Google said it was simply trying to make its +1 buttons work on iOS and nothing sinister was intended. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: General | Legal: Privacy

Despite assurances to the contrary, Google told the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) today that it still has some of the WiFi payload data that it's Street View cars collected in 2010. That data may include personal information such as usernames, passwords and email addresses that Google collected via unsecured WiFi networks. Google's collection of such data has sparked numerous governmental investigations around the world -- some of which are still in progress. Google had previously promised the UK government and public that it had deleted all of the data. But Google attorne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Google: Street View | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Facebook's use of facial recognition technology will be discussed during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. According to The Hill, Facebook will send Rob Sherman, its Washington DC-based Manager of Privacy and Public Policy to meet with a sub-panel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Al Franken called for the hearing. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Privacy subcommittee, has voiced concern about Facebook not including sufficient privacy protections in the tagging feature. In comments to the Department of Commerce, Franken has written that Facebook likely holds the la [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook: Legal | Facebook: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

The Wall Street Journal reports Google and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to announce the terms of 'Cookiegate' fine. This fine is due to Google bypassing the default privacy settings in Apple’s Safari web browser. The Wall Street Journal says they expect the fine to be the "largest penalty ever levied on a single company" by the FTC. The amount is a whopping $22.5 million according to sources. For Google, $22.5 million is not much but for their reputation, it just tacks on one more dent to their "do no evil" reputation. The penalty is $16,000 per violation per day, a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Last month Facebook settled the "Sponsored Stories" lawsuit brought on by 5 Facebook members and the total numbers have been disclosed this week.  The lawsuit alleged that Facebook violated California's laws by leveraging user photos, content and likelihood without consent. The lawsuit was filed in San Jose, California and Judge Lucy Koh found that the plaintiffs had "shown economic injury could occur through Facebook's use of their name, photographs and likenesses" according to Reuters.  Facebook has agreed to pay $10 million to charity to settle the lawsuit.  The settlement arrang [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Facebook: Legal | Legal: Privacy

When it comes to tracking web users across the web, no one does it more than Google and Facebook. Those two companies filled out the top five spots in Evidon's Global Tracker Report, which was released on Tuesday. The report uses data from the 1.6 million users of Evidon's Ghostery web browser plugin, which monitors what tracking scripts/tags/etc. are installed on web pages. Evidon's data shows that Google products are Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 8 (DoubleClick), as well as No. 17 overall (AdWords). Facebook, meanwhile, has the 3rd and 5th most-prolific trackers. (Image via PC World) It s [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook: Privacy | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Last week Google notched a major victory for Street View in Europe. The Swiss have affirmed its basic right to exist in the country, which is widely regarded to have among the toughest privacy laws on The Continent. The Swiss privacy regulator had demanded that Google guarantee it would be able to blur faces, car license plates and other images with complete accuracy, 100 percent of the time. That requirement was seen as a threat to Google's ability to continue to operate Street View in Switzerland -- because it could only blur faces (etc.) with 99 percent accuracy. In what was described [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Business Issues | Google: Legal | Google: Street View | Legal: Copyright & Trademark | Legal: Privacy

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a nonprofit digital consumer advocacy and civil liberties group, released its annual "When the Government Comes Knocking, Who Has Your Back?" report. The report analyzes the policies of major internet companies and some not so major ones, "including email providers, ISPs, cloud storage providers, and social networking sites — to assess whether they publicly commit to standing with users when the government seeks access to user data." The report assesses who will stand up for consumers and protect their data privacy when the government "comes a kn [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Legal: Privacy

Governments that had previously closed the book on Street View privacy investigations appear to be considering "round two," in the wake of the FCC report that asserted that the personal data collected was not inadvertent but intentional. Privacy regulators in both the UK and Australia are now considering reopening Street View privacy cases that were previously closed. Several other European nations had concluded similar investigations with either no penalties or relatively minor fines assessed against Google. Those generally favorable outcomes for Google were largely based on earlier sta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: International | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Google: Street View | Legal: Privacy | Top News

As we reported back in December, a Sponsored Stories lawsuit was allowed to proceed against the social media giant as Facebook failed to have it thrown out.  Today, the lawsuit was settled "in principle"at a federal court in San Jose, CA. Originally five Facebook members sued Facebook with claims that their privacy was infringed upon as their likeness was used in ads without their permission or ability to opt-out.  Sponsored stories match users who have liked or commented on a page/post with ads for Facebook pages. More information on the specific ads can be found in the video below: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Facebook: Legal | Legal: General | Legal: Privacy

Google's CEO Larry Page made an apperance on Charlie Rose yesterday, and he didn't have many nice things to say about Facebook.  Rose asked Page about Facebook's competition in search which led to an exchange about Facebook's semi-closed policy on contact information. Page was quick to point out that Facebook users are not aware that they are inputting information in that they can't take out.  Additionally, Page went on to say that this policy was unfortunate and that Facebook may be forced to share this in the near future. In regards to working with Facebook?  The Google CEO st [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Facebook: Privacy | Google | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Today, on the day of Facebook's IPO, Bloomberg reports that Facebook (FB) is being sued for $15 billion for improper user tracking. The suit claims that Facebook invaded privacy by tracking users, logged in or out of Facebook. The lawsuit was filed in Federal Court in California and combines 21 cases from across the country according to Stewards Law US LLP, a firm leading the claim. The main basis of the tracking claims is that Facebook continued to track users, even after they had signed out of their accounts. The total of $15 billion comes from the U.S. Wiretap Act and the lawsuit sta [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Facebook: Legal | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Social network MySpace told users it wouldn't share personally identifiable information (PII), but then it gave advertisers individual Friend IDs that could be easily connected with user profiles and the information publicly posted there, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency says MySpace also incorrectly told users it complied with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework related to personal data. The FTC says MySpace misled "millions of users." MySpace has agreed to a settlement with the FTC over the charges, which has the company saying it won't make privacy misrepresentation [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Legal: Privacy | MySpace

I've heard a few rants against Facebook and Google in my time, but listening to Truthdig's Robert Scheer say on Friday that Facebook is involved with a "denial of basic human rights" was really a new over-the-top one. Scheer is an old-school veteran journalist. He has several books to his credit, is a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California and editor-in-chief of the Truthdig web site, motto: "Drilling beneath the headlines." He was speaking on Left, Right & Center, a program on the well-known Southern California public radio station of KCRW. I happened to c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Privacy | Features & Analysis | Google: Critics | Legal: Privacy

Google is reportedly negotiating with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to determine the fine it will pay for bypassing the privacy settings on Apple's Safari web browser. That's according to a Bloomberg report that cites a "person familiar with the matter." Bloomberg's source says that Google could face a fine of "tens of millions of dollars." Back in February, the Wall Street Journal revealed how Google was getting around Safari's privacy settings so that it could make its +1 buttons work on advertisements in Safari. In doing so, the company may have violated the terms of its Google B [...]

Related Topics: Apple: Safari | Channel: Content Marketing | Google: Legal | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

The Consumers Union, the entity behind Consumer Reports, is launching an aggressive campaign for a national privacy law that would offer more transparency and control to online users in connection with data mining, online ad targeting and tracking. In particular, Consumers Union is taking aim at Facebook as the exemplar of practices that it believes should be made more transparent to consumers and/or reined in. The advocacy group took out a full-page ad (.pdf and above) critical of Facebook in the print version of Politico according to AdAge. AdAge remarked that "While the ad copy seems [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook | Facebook: Legal | Facebook: Statistics | Legal: Privacy