31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for December 14, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 292 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:46:41 -0600
From: gordonb.r1nm2@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: California sues Delta for failing to put privacy policy on mobile app
Message-ID: <jfOdnY0PxMhs61fNnZ2dnUVZ_sqdnZ2d@posted.internetamerica>
> Delta Airlines is the first target of California regulators, who are
> enforcing a state law requiring mobile app developers to disclose
> information about their privacy policies.
I'm curious about whether that law says anything about the content
of the privacy policy, or whether they just want one, regardless
of what it says.
Suppose the policy said: You have no privacy. We're going to
broadcast everything you do on Twitter, Facebook, and as many other
places as possible, and that includes your credit card number and
pictures of you in our body scanner. We'll sell your vacation
schedule and address to burglars. We'll sell the location of your
kids to sex slave trafficers. We'll sell your car make, model, and
where it's parked to car thieves. Security will make copies of
everything in your wallet and sell it. We'll sell your current
location from GPS to terrorists with missiles. If you're travelling
with someone not your wife and you're a candidate for a political
office, we may mail video of your ride on the plane to everyone in
the country. Otherwise, we may publish it as porn. Any strip
searches of you will be posted on the Internet. If the plane crashes
with you on it, we're going to grind you up and sell you as meat,
whether you're alive or not.
Now, assuming that they are lying about doing anything mentioned
in their policy that is actually a crime, is that OK with the law?
Or will they fine someone for NOT selling credit card numbers as
promised?
I suspect a lot of people would not bother reading such a policy,
or read it and ignore it. If people are willing to click on a
button saying "Click Here to Upgrade Your Virus to the Latest
Version" at a joke web site using a broken SSL certificate for "The
Mafia" signed by "Satan", they'll probably go for this app, too.
***** Moderator's Note *****
I'd like to see that policy enforced. If everything everyone did
online was public knowlede, and I could look up the online habits of a
potential political leader or priest or teacher, this would be a
better nation.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 22:36:02 -0500
From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: California sues Delta for failing to put privacy policy on mobile app
Message-ID: <barmar-D12CBA.22360213122012@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <jfOdnY0PxMhs61fNnZ2dnUVZ_sqdnZ2d@posted.internetamerica>,
gordonb.r1nm2@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt) wrote:
> I'm curious about whether that law says anything about the content
> of the privacy policy, or whether they just want one, regardless
> of what it says.
The US is pretty lax in its privacy laws. There are a few areas where
they're strict, such as medical records (HIPAA); I also recall a law
passed a decade or so ago protecting video rental and cable viewership
info. I'm not sure about credit card info -- PCI compliance is an
industry standard, but I don't think it's government-mandated.
So rather than imposing strict privacy standards, we just require
everyone to disclose their privacy policies. Then we leave it up to the
free market -- if you don't like a company's policies, don't do business
with them.
> Now, assuming that they are lying about doing anything mentioned
> in their policy that is actually a crime, is that OK with the law?
> Or will they fine someone for NOT selling credit card numbers as
> promised?
That's ridiculous. Disclosure is all about what you're allowing them to
do, not requiring them.
--
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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