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The Telecom Digest for February 16, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 41 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Google under fire for sending users' information to developers (Monty Solomon)
Power and the Internet: play or pay (Telecom Digest Moderator)
Has Rachel gone away? (Jim Haynes)

====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 01:36:44 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Google under fire for sending users' information to developers
Message-ID: <p06240835cd4387b26a0c@[10.0.1.2]>

Google under fire for sending users' information to developers

By Jessica Guynn
February 14, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sebastian Holst makes yoga mobile apps with his 
wife, a yoga instructor.

The Mobile Yogi is sold in all the major mobile app stores. But when 
someone buys his app in the Google Play store, Holst automatically 
gets something he says he didn't ask for: the buyer's full name, 
location and email address.

He says consumers are not aware that Google Inc. is sharing their 
personal information with third parties. No other app store transmits 
users' personal information to third-party developers when they buy 
apps, he said.

"Google is not taking reasonable steps to ensure that this data is 
used correctly," said Holst, whose app has 120,000 users.

Google is coming under fire just as regulators in the U.S. and 
overseas are stepping up their scrutiny of how all the players in the 
industry -- mobile apps, stores, advertising networks and others -- 
handle consumers' private information. Regulators are pushing for 
greater transparency of what information is collected by apps and how 
it's shared. 

Google Play has worked differently than Apple Inc.'s iTunes since it 
launched in October 2008. An app developer sets up an account through 
the mobile payment system Google Wallet, which makes them a merchant 
in the store. When someone buys his or her app from Google Play, that 
transaction -- and the customer's information -- is sent to the 
developer. The developer has to comply with rules about what he or 
she can do with the information.

But at Apple, iTunes is the merchant. App developers say they never 
receive customer information.

Google defended how Google Play operates in an emailed statement.

...

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-under-fire-for-sending-users-information-to-developers-20130213,0,7558815.story




Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:02:03 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Power and the Internet: play or pay 
Message-ID: <20130215150203.GA7831@telecom.csail.mit.edu>

The February, 2013 issue of Cryptogram, writen by Bruce "Secrets and
Lies" Schneier, contains a warning to Internet users: either play the
game with the big boys, or pay more and more to stand on the
sidelines. 

   All disruptive technologies upset traditional power balances, and
   the Internet is no exception. The standard story is that it
   empowers the powerless, but that's only half the story. The
   Internet empowers everyone. Powerful institutions might be slow to
   make use of that new power, but since they are powerful, they can
   use it more effectively. Governments and corporations have woken up
   to the fact that not only can they use the Internet, they can
   control it for their interests. Unless we start deliberately
   debating the future we want to live in, and the role of information
   technology in enabling that world, we will end up with an Internet
   that benefits existing power structures and not society in general.

   ...

   Now powerful interests are looking to deliberately steer this
   influence to their advantage. Some corporations are creating
   Internet environments that maximize their profitability: Facebook
   and Google, among many others. Some industries are lobbying for
   laws that make their particular business models more profitable:
   telecom carriers want to be able to discriminate between different
   types of Internet traffic, entertainment companies want to crack
   down on file sharing, advertisers want unfettered access to data
   about our habits and preferences.

Mr. Schneier has an unusual talent for pointing out what is later
obvious: he is the man who created the "Security Theater" label for
the Transportation Security Administration. I agree with his warning:
those who participate are the only ones who count.

http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-1302.html

-- 
Bill Horne
Moderator




Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:29:45 -0600
From: Jim Haynes <jhaynes@remove-this.cavern.uark.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Has Rachel gone away? 
Message-ID: <slrnkht6lp.ch2.jhaynes@Frances.localdomain>

I haven't heard from her lately, but have got calls 3 days in a row
now from a peddler of senior medical security alarm systems.

-- 
jhhaynes at earthlink dot net






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