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The Telecom Digest for December 14, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 292 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: California sues Delta for failing to put privacy policy on mobile app (Gordon Burditt)
Re: California sues Delta for failing to put privacy policy on mobile app (Barry Margolin)

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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 *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
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