Information Privacy

Federal Agents Used Controversial Trackers Without Warrants

Controversial devices used to track cell phones and mobile Internet devices were used by local federal law enforcement without the necessary permission from a judge, according to recent e-mails. Federal investigators in Arizona have been taken to court over the use of "stingrays," electronic devic ... More >>

Kamala Harris' Lawsuit Against Delta Could Change Privacy Policies for Apps

Last week, California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed a lawsuit against Delta Airlines, claiming that the company's smartphone app violates state law because it does not have a privacy policy. It is somewhat of a landmark legal action: the first time an app maker has faced a privacy suit. It ... More >>

Faux Firefighters Are Scamming the Good People of San Francisco

Remember, your local firefighters are here to help you, not harm you ... The San Francisco Fire Department is warning local residents of a callous scam that's started up again. According to department, one too many residents and businesses have contacted the Fire Department lately complaining that f ... More >>

Path Apps Being Sued for "Snooping" on Users

​As if Siri and her spying ways weren't disturbing enough, now a Texas man has filed a federal class action lawsuit against the popular Path app, claiming the San Francisco-based company is using its own app to pry into users' lives. Path's image was already tarnished last month when researchers b ... More >>

Shawn Williams, Former City Employee, Accused of Stealing Personal Information

​A former Human Services Agency employee appeared in court Tuesday afternoon where she pleaded not guilty to multiple charges claiming she stole Social Security and other confidential information from more than 3,000 Medi-Cal applicants. Prosecutors say, starting in 2006, Shawn Williams, who was a ... More >>

Wikipedia: Should it Go Dark to Protest the Stop Online Privacy Act?

​Should Wikipedia shut itself down to protest the bizarrely clueless anti-piracy measures Congress is considering? As with many things about Wikipedia (such as whether an encyclopedia that anybody can edit is a good idea), it's not an easy question to answer. Would it even be effective? It's har ... More >>

Judge Grants Feds Access to Twitter Accounts as Part of WikiLeaks Investigation

Only you and the government know your passwords​In a major blow to Internet privacy, a district court judge ruled today that federal investigators were allowed to collect private records of three Twitter users as part of their investigation related to WikiLeaks.According to the Electronic Frontier ... More >>

Copyright Fight the Subject of Juvenile Flamewars

​To the uninitiated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might sound like a larger version of local chambers of commerce: something like the Elks or the Rotary Club, where dull businesspeople get together for dull meetings to eat rubber chicken and to "network." But the U.S. Chamber is the largest lobb ... More >>

Reroute Your Commute, More BART Protests to Come

Michael ShortAll Anonymous all the time​Protesters are planning yet another BART demonstration next week that will undoubtedly ruin your commute home -- again. The group claiming responsibility for the organized protests, Anonymous, is using Twitter to spread the word of the upcoming protest on Mo ... More >>

Don't Panic

GameStop Sued for Swiping Buyers' Private Information

Personal information is....personal​The thing about giving away your personal information -- it's no longer personal. One Alameda County woman trusted a local GameStop employee who had asked her for her private numbers -- address and credit cards -- as she bought games from the retailer.  She ... More >>

Apple Sued for Privacy Invasion -- Again

What does he know about you?​The number of iPad and iPhone users that claim Apple has passed around their private information is growing by the day.In December, two separate groups of iPad and iPhone users sued Apple, Inc., claiming the company had created apps that distributed personal informatio ... More >>

Wikileaks Supporters Rally in San Francisco

Gil RiegoRainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation speaks in support of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning​ Martin MacKerel wanted to make sure no one got confused about the location of a hastily organized rally in favor of Wikileaks and its founder, Jullian Assange. Around 50 demon ... More >>

Travel writer Edward Hasbrouck sues Homeland Security over travel data

Department of Homeland Security Sued Over Secret Traveller Files

Matt SmithWe'll collect all this personal information, y'see. And then we'll make a giant database...​San Francisco travel writer Edward Hasbrouck has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over what he says is the agency's refusal to give a complete accounting of secret files detailing his ... More >>

Has the Android Data-Stealing Scandal Been Overcooked?

Are Android phones like this stealing your personal information?​The tech world has been buzzing with news that a San Francisco firm, Lookout Mobile Security, has discovered that wallpaper applications used by millions of phones with Google's Android operating system send subscribers' information ... More >>

Nina Draws the Truth

Kamala Harris Calls AG Opponent Chris Kelly Liar, 'Rookie' in Latest Attack Ad

San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris has launched a new television ad attacking former Facebook executive Chris Kelly, her foremost adversary in the Democratic primary for the California Attorney General's race.In this latest bout of mud-slinging between Harris and Kelly, the D.A.'s campaig ... More >>

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Announces Privacy Reforms

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg​Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a raft of privacy reforms today at the company's headquarters in Palo Alto in an effort to stanch outrage from the social-networking site's users over public availability of their profile information. Zuckerberg said th ... More >>

Will Facebook Privacy Ties Wreck Chris Kelly's AG Campaign?

Chris Kelly claims he's not being private about his Chief Privacy Officer gig at Facebook​These days, touting the title "Chief Privacy Officer at Facebook" on one's resume must feel a bit like being the Head of Safety for BP or Lead Acting Instructor at the William Shatner School of Drama. Followi ... More >>

Hackers Take the Person Out of Personal

via flickr by ortizmj12hacker hoopla​Hackers: 1, Gaming Developers: 0Angry Internet users are suing a Redwood-City-based game developer, accusing the company of grossly neglecting to protect personal information of nearly 32 million users. Apparently, RockYou, which claims to be one of the "fastes ... More >>

DJ, Party Guest Given Back Laptops Confiscated By Cops

SF Weekly's Jennifer Maerz earlier this month broke the story about an apparently far-reaching San Francisco Police strategy to keep that damn noise down. Cops, it seems, were systematically seizing the laptops of DJs playing at underground parties -- or, in some cases, even some who claim they were ... More >>

SFPD Returns Laptops to DJ, Party Guest (from The Snitch)

Tom Dougherty​Fellow SF Weekly reporter Joe Eskenazi followed up on the story I broke Nov. 16 about problems DJs and partygoers were having with the SFPD seizing laptops and DJ equipment. This morning, Electronic Frontier Foundation's Jennifer Granick represented a DJ and a partygoer from a SOMA H ... More >>

ACLU Launches Internet Privacy Campaign

Do you know your dotRights?Dot what?A portal to the soul​The American Civil Liberties Union's San Francisco-based Northern California office is launching a campaign to beef up Internet privacy. In a statement released today, the ACLU seeks to "spotlight the need to upgrade laws protecting consumer ... More >>

The Voice of the Mission

Your accountant can no longer sell your social security number to Russian hackers

Russian Sergey Brin and Google: A KGB-style Propaganda and Spying Machine?

CNET/H-P Suit: Good Personal Privacy v. Bad Personal Privacy VIolator

Letters to the Editor

Week of June 11, 2003

Big Doctor Is Watching

As of April 14, the national security police can monitor your medical records without your knowledge. So can the local police.

The International Poindextering of Poindexter

Is it good or bad if 124 Web sites around the world post the home phone number of the architect of Total Information Awareness?

Letters to the Editor

Cyberspies; Fathers and Sons

I Have a Dream 2.0

New Seybold upgrade brings ethics, privacy, adulation, salvation via Internet

Cyperpornocopia

Milpitas residents Carleen and Robert Thomas found a lucrative way to sell the hardest of hardcorepornography to smut fans all over the country: by computer bulletin board. Then their little Silicon Valley startup attracted the interest of a U.S. Postal S