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Ben Edelman, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, says that analysis of Google's terms and conditions relating to its Google Play store and Google Wallet transaction system (used for buying apps) doesn't show any clauses where users are specifically told that their emails will be sent on to the developer. He also warns that developers could use that information to "track and harass" people who have given apps low ratings or requested refunds. And hackers – or malicious developers – could create personalised emails to send out to people to steal passwords (phishing) or install "updates" that were actually malware.

Google says it has to provide some location data about which country apps are bought in so developers can calculate the correct amount of tax to pay. But that does not explain why it passes on buyers' names and email addresses, which together with a postcode could be used to identify a person's location and address."Google's prior privacy blunders have put [it] under higher scrutiny," Edelman says, pointing to the 20-year consent order with the US Federal Trade Commission that Google signed in March 2011 in the wake of its Buzz social network fiasco – followed by a record $22.5m fine in August 2012 for hacking Apple users' browsers to install tracking cookies. It has also been fiercely criticised in Europe for its changes in March 2012 to its privacy policies, which data protection chiefs said could mean "uncontrolled" use of personal data.

Eric Butler, a freelance software developer of the Tapchat and Farebot apps, tweeted in July 2012 "I wonder if most Android users realise that when you buy an app in the Play Store the seller [of the app] can see your name, email address and phone."Following the row, he has noted on his blog that "Because the entire experience of purchasing Android apps is so sloppy, it's not unreasonable to assume that this privacy issue was actually an oversight." But, he says, "Google should follow Apple's lead and offer users and developers better privacy protection."

Another developer, Jesse Wilson, pointed out the same problem in November on Google+, and was quickly echoed by Chris Lacy, who said that "as a developer I never asked for this information, I have no need for it, and I simply do not want to be a custodian of such information."Lacy added that "As a consumer, this is distressing on many levels: there is no fair warning that this information will be transferred … trusting my personal information to Google is one thing. But with this system, users are unknowingly having to trust their information to a third party. There's no way to know what security measures that third party might have in place." He added that it meant that the app developer "has gained my personal information without requesting the appropriate permissions via the app."

Google has said that passing on the details does not breach its privacy conditions. In a quote to Siliconvalley.com, a representative told the site that "Google Wallet shares the information necessary to process a transaction, which is clearly spelled out in the Google Wallet privacy notice."

The Safari browser is produced by Apple, and is the browser used by the iPhone.

y default Safari only allows cookies to be stored by the web page a user is visiting, not from third parties such as advertisers

esearcher Jonathan Mayer found that advertisers were still able to store cookies on the computers of internet users browsing with Safari.

We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Google "disabled the code after being contacted by the paper".

Online privacy advocates were highly critical of Google's actions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote: "It's time for Google to acknowledge that it can do a better job of respecting the privacy of web users."

An Apple spokesman said in a statement: "We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari's privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it."

Free versions come with ads, but for a price, people can upgrade to the ad-free experience.

It's also possible that over the next five to 10 years, people's attitudes toward privacy and their data will change, and they'll be willing to share more personal information

Not everyone will want the same level of privacy,

"Do not track" seems like a clear, smart option to give consumers

Companies that provide free services, such as search engines or social networks, have to strike the right balance between respecting their customers' privacy concerns and serving advertisers.

It's also possible that over the next five to 10 years, people's attitudes toward privacy and their data will change, and they'll be willing to share more personal information, attached to their real-world identity, in exchange for more heavily customized computing experiences.

Facebook has dealt with many privacy issues in its nine years on the Web, but unlike most of the past issues that deal with broader concerns like “data mining,” the new promoted posts service could have a greater impact on individuals, like its increased potential for cyberbullying.One problem is your friend doesn’t need your explicit permission to promote your posts. So, for instance, if one of my friends from college decides to promote an old embarrassing photo of me, I won’t be able to prevent the picture from getting to the top of the News Feed for a large percentage of my friends.

We’ve reached out to Facebook to talk about any safeguards that will be put in place to prevent cyber bullying, but they didn’t get back to us by the time this article went up.In addition, there’s no way to determine who promoted the post, so, as TechCrunch notes, a friend promoting an article written by me could be perceived as a shameless plug by me in an effort get more of my friends to check out my article (which is totally true by the way).However, Facebook notes there are a lot of benefits to the service. A Facebook spokesperson released a statement to AllFacebook on Friday, describing the feature:

“If your friend is running a marathon for charity and has posted that information publicly, you can help that friend by promoting their post to all of your friends,” the post said. “Or if your friend is renting their apartment out and she tells her friends on Facebook, you can share the post with the people you and your friend have in common so that it shows up higher in news feed and more people notice it.”As you can see, Facebook’s new feature has a number of potentially beneficial uses like fundraising for a friends’ charity or publicizing events to increase attendance, and can even make somewhat tedious tasks like finding an apartment be a little less difficult.

Facebook will want to monitor this new feature to see how it’s used. It has the potential to be really lucrative and turn Facebook into a network more like Reddit, where popular posts dominate the front page on a merit basis, but it could be used maliciously to embarrass or play pranks on friends – only time will tell. Facebook is planning on emphasizing its mobile platform in 2013, and it will be interesting to see if the Promoted Posts feature will be included in its mobile plans. In the company’s most recent earnings report, Facebook said mobile ad revenue accounts for 23 percent of its total ad revenue. To contact the editor, e-mail: editor@ibtimes.com

To some degree, these developments signal that the industry is working hard to stave off government regulation, which is moving at a glacial pace anyway. There seems to be no movement on broad privacy legislation on Capitol Hill, and no consensus has been reached on standards for “Do Not Track,” a browser setting that would let Internet users indicate that they did not want their activity tracked by marketers.

Whether Internet users are ready to pay to protect their personal data is unclear, though surveys have repeatedly pointed to consumer anxiety.

On the web, the rule is: if you're not paying, then you are what's being sold.

Probably the simplest way to reduce personalisation is to use an anonymising service. Instead of accessing the web directly, you access it via a third-party proxy server, so your that requests are mixed in with thousands of others. These services usually allow you to control cookies, turn JavaScript on and off, withhold "referrer details" and so on.

Nonetheless, it's often useful to have access to an anonymous proxy service, and everybody should find one they like. Examples include The Cloak, Megaproxy, Proxify and ID Zap. There are also networked open source privacy systems such as Tor and I2P.

Google also tracks your progress across hundreds of thousands of websites via Google Analytics. To opt out of this, install the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on (Beta), which Google offers for Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera. However, some sites use different analytics software or track visitors in other ways you will be unaware of. Ghostery may help reduce these.

Finally, Facebook Connect is a potential privacy problem because it "allows users to 'connect' their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site".

In general, the more you do online – social networking, cloud computing etc – the more your privacy and security are at risk. Reducing that risk involves effort and inconvenience, so it's up to you to find an acceptable compromise

from "mainframe" computers

Google's idea is that you need only speak to operate it

"OK, Glass, take video!"

The only other way to get that point of view is to strap a camera to your head.

And yet people are already beginning to fret about the social implications of Glass

the question of privacy

how will we behave in groups

David Yee, the chief technology officer at a company called Editorially

Yee's worry was that the young person might be filming everything

Joshua Topolsky

have tried out Google Glass

This is the company that has repeatedly breached the boundaries of what we think is "private".

forgetting that sometimes deadly enemies have mutual friends

use of personal data without an individual's clear consent.

So how comfortable – or uneasy – should we feel about the possibility that what we're doing in a public or semi-public place (or even somewhere private) might get slurped up and assimilated by Google?

Oliver Stokes

ou could inadvertently become part of somebody else's data collection – that could be quite alarming

Now it's going to be able to compute what it is you're looking at.

Song Chaoming

nalysing mobile phone records

how your smartphone is able to show where you are on an onscreen map

Social media

Where the five million are the wearers of Glass – and the one monitor is Google

Google probably knows what you're going to do before you do.

Twitter

we're more used to the snatched photo or video that tells a story

Google doesn't want to discuss these issues.

this is a live issue,

One of the reasons they're doing Explorers is to get feedback on these things

how will we behave with each other?

hows data such as your speed, altitude, and even ski-resort maps

Concentrating on what was in front of me wasn't hard

they do it without letting others realise you are doing anything

we get too deeply involved with our technology

she pointed out how smartphones change us:

Topolsky

It brought something new into view

the more I used Glass the more it made sense to me; the more I wanted it."

how text messages or phone calls would just appear as alerts

Glass makes you feel more powerful

Hurst

is likely to be annoying

here's where the problems really start – you don't know if they're taking a video of you.

body language change

model seems to require voice control

how much are we going to share with others

Under exi

sting privacy regulations, data protection supervision in EU countries must be conducted entirely independently of public authorities, and data protection controllers are not under the supervision of the European Commission. But the EU wants to weaken this policy and install itself as the data protection agencies' supervisory authority.

"We could see virtual kidnappings – ransoming your ID for real money," Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the problems could go further as other technologies become cheaper

However, he held out hopes that the rise of connectivity, especially through mobile phones with data services, would reduce corruption and undermine repressive regimes.

In each, he said, the need to be connected, first through a mobile phone and then to the internet, became apparent.

"Companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft are expanding their data collection techniques and they are not telling consumers and citizens why,"

The issue is about how you pay for online services and whether you are happy to sacrifice privacy for getting a service for free.

Most newspapers in the world are posting every newspaper they have ever printed, so people are finding that things they did in the past are being made public.

e believes it is the Europeans who are driving the policy debate, while the US strategy is to lobby the Europeans to accept the idea that there can be self-regulation, to trust the Googles and Facebooks and let this market grow.

The users themselves are problems as well," he says "Because they post, blog, tweet and do everything else also."

A lot of times most people click 'Yes' without reading what the privacy policies are” End Quote Frank Ahern

Google has changed its rules to allow information to be shared across all its services.

Internet privacy: Genuine concerns or paranoia?

The Center for Digital Democracy said children's email addresses had been collected without parental consent.

The SpongeBob Diner Dash game asks children to provide a wide range of personal information

The FTC last week published a report on mobile apps for children that showed parents were not being provided with information about what data an app collected, who would have access to that data, and how it would be used.

All of the companies in the mobile app space, especially the gatekeepers of the app stores, need to do a better job. We'll do another survey in the future and we will expect to see improvement."

feature is intended to be helpful to users

But users could just as easily promote embarrassing status updates in jest or out of cruelty.

applies to users with fewer than 5,000 friends and subscribers

pay the $7 fee

Google

has been accused of providing "incomplete and approximate" details raising "deep concerns about data protection and the respect of the European law".

It said that EU data protection laws place limits on such activities and proposed the following changes:

Google must "reinforce users' consent". It suggests this could be done by allowing its members to choose under what circumstances data about them was combined by asking them to click on dedicated buttons. The firm should offer a centralised opt-out tool and allow users to decide which of Google's services provided data about them. Google should adapt its own tools so that it could limit data use to authorised purposes. For example, it should be able to use a person's collated data to improve security efforts but not to target advertising.

Still, the best rule of thumb for individuals concerned about their photographs or other content reaching the public view is to not post them on the internet at all. While this may sound extreme, remember that it only takes one "bad apple" to share your content with those to whom you have not given permission.

personal Facebook photos stolen to create high-profile fictional characters

you have privacy settings on Facebook and obviously it doesn't work because anyone can hijack your picture

Identifiably personal information (IPI, if you must) is any set of data which by inspection could lead to the identification of an individual from a group, with a given level of confidence in a given time

is based on solid academic work on differential privacy and security threat modelling.

could turn data science into data surveillance.

Data mining by many businesses seeks to predict trends in purchasing behaviour, monitor customer response to service delivery and assess their marketing strategy against those of their rivals.

The real power of social media mining is establishing a "pattern of life" from which anomalies might stand out