Privacy

NEWARK, N.J. - Newark Liberty International Airport has become the first New York-area airport to install body-scanning technology that will replace a system harshly criticized for invading travelers' privacy by displaying naked images. Transportation Security Administration officials unveiled the software Friday at the airport, where more than eight million passengers boarded planes last year. The technology was originally tested in February at Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Washington, and was rolled out in July.

BERLIN - A German data protection authority is "unliking" Facebook's "Like" button. The state of Schleswig-Holstein's data protection commissioner, Thilo Weichert, on Friday ordered state institutions to shut down the fan pages on the social networking site and remove the "Like" button from their websites, saying it leads to profiling that violates German and European law. Facebook insisted Friday that is in full compliance with European data...

The last time I told you about Walter Spencer, the Center City resident stood accused of being the cause of his own grief. I'm back today to report that he was apparently the victim of a red herring - and that the Walter Spencer mystery remains an open case. Before I share the latest in this medical-privacy whodunit, let me bring you up to date. Back in May, Spencer had raised questions about a drug-company mailing that suggested a breach of his privacy rights. He had received an eight-page brochure pitching the drug Abilify with the slogan, "when an antidepressant alone isn't enough.

As of mid-2011, privacy is at a low ebb on the Web. If you use a computer or a mobile device, you're seeing news about how the Web is not a secure place for your personal information. "Face it," says Scott Vernick, a privacy and data-compliance attorney for Fox Rothschild L.L.P. in Philadelphia: "Nothing's safe. " So what should we worry most about? The swashbuckling Web equivalents of the pirates of the Caribbean - hacker groups with names such as LulzSec and Anonymous? They board the online galleons of the world's biggest governments and companies, raid the holds, and scatter the contents (including personal info)

Shopping online recently for life insurance gave me a disturbing window into websites' "privacy policies," as they are quaintly called, and drove me back for now to a traditional, off-line agent. The widely touted website where I started seemed to have modest plans for any data I entered. Essentially, it promised to use my personal information only to provide quotes or other product pitches, send me surveys, answer my requests, or offer me information "on products and services offered by our select business partners.

NEW YORK - The intense rivalry between Facebook and Google just got juicier as characters behind the latest Silicon Valley drama evoked chatter of smear campaigns, secrecy, and even Richard Nixon. It took the once-secret blogger known as Fake Steve Jobs to help sort everything out. Facebook hired prominent public relations firm Burson-Marsteller to try to plant stories harshly criticizing Google's privacy practices in leading news outlets. Rather than getting news outlets to circulate stories about privacy problems facing Google, Facebook found itself having to answer questions about why it wanted to maintain secrecy.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The disclosure of a hidden file on iPhones late last month drew an outcry because it seemed to record users' every move. But that isn't the only way mobile phone users' movements are being tracked. In addition to the location data collected by Apple, as well as Google and other companies, wireless carriers have detailed records of their customers' movements based on the cell towers their phones connect to. But privacy advocates most worry about the vast amounts of data collected by the fast-growing and largely unregulated industry of application providers and mobile marketers, who increasingly ask for and gain access to consumers' locations - yet typically offer little information about how they use that data.

LONDON - Shunning an immediate overseas honeymoon and opting instead for a quiet weekend at a secret British location, Prince William and Kate Middleton made it clear Saturday they want to carve out some space for themselves. The fight for privacy is crucial if they are to avoid being hounded like William's mother, Diana, whose every move was followed. The royal newlyweds started the day by asking the media not to intrude this weekend and to leave them alone when they eventually start their honeymoon.

NEW YORK - It's a sight many Americans would surely love to see: a recovering Rep. Gabrielle Giffords watching as her astronaut husband blasts off into space. But it's unlikely they will see it. Giffords will attend Friday's space shuttle launch in Florida but watch in private, and her staff says there are no plans to release photos of her, though that could change. Why is the congresswoman, whose recovery from catastrophic wounds has inspired so many, being kept out of public view?

LONDON - A topless model has juicy details of a six-month affair with a married soccer star. A prostitute wants to dish the dirt about a sex romp with a British actor. But British courts have gagged the women and journalists from reporting the lurid details or the men's identities. The cases are the latest in a series of British court orders issued to protect the privacy of public figures, usually men involved in extramarital affairs. Press freedom and legal advocates say the public figures - and the mostly male judges issuing the gag orders - are abusing and misinterpreting European human rights law. They ask what would happen if everyone were allowed to stop everyone else from talking about them.