Electronic Privacy Information Center

A federal court has agreed to speed up a case that could delay the rollout of Google's new privacy policy. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy watchdog, is suing the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over the controversial new policy, which it says will allow the Internet search giant to harvest more information about Google's users in violation of a settlement it struck with federal regulators last year. The court gave the FTC until Feb. 17 to respond to two briefs EPIC filed Wednesday.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center is demanding that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission release the complete report on its Google Street View investigation. The Washington advocacy group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see the full 25-page report . The version that the FCC released last Friday was heavily redacted. The FCC has proposed imposing a $25,000 fine on Google for stonewalling its investigators about how its street-mapping service collected and stored personal data including names, email addresses, text messages and passwords from unprotected wireless networks.

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.

The radiation doses emitted by the most common walk-through airport scanners are extremely small and pose no significant health risk, according to a new report by a UC San Francisco radiology specialist. Still, Dr. Rebecca Smith-Bindman, a professor at the university's radiology and biomedical imaging department, recommends more independent testing to ensure the scanners are operating as designed. The report published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine comes in response to opposition from privacy rights groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center to the use of full-body scanners.

WASHINGTON - As federal authorities accelerate plans to license thousands of surveillance drones over U.S. soil by late 2015, some legal experts and lawmakers are warning that unmanned aircraft could threaten privacy on an unparalleled scale. An opening shot in an expected battle to limit use of domestic drones came Wednesday when 24 civil liberties and privacy organizations submitted a formal petition to U.S. Customs and Border Protection demanding that the agency stop flying 10 unarmed Predator drones along the Mexican and Canadian borders until clear guidelines are established.

The FBI's controversial e-mail surveillance tool, known as Carnivore, can retrieve all communication that goes through an Internet service--far more than FBI officials have said it does--a recent test of its potential sweep found, according to bureau documents. An FBI official involved with the test stressed Friday that, although Carnivore has the ability to grab a large quantity of e-mails and Web communication, current law and specific court orders restrict its use.

Twenty-four hours after Facebook opened the polls , more than 100,000 users have cast their votes 10 to 1 against Facebook's proposed changes to its policies. That includes a proposal that would do away with Facebook users' right to vote on future changes. Hoping to get out the vote, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy have joined forces with Facebook critic Julius Harper. They say they are campaigning to raise awareness about the vote.

A privacy-rights group said it plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over Facebook Inc.'s facial-recognition feature for photo tagging. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, based in Washington, is working on the complaint and will present it to the agency today or tomorrow, Marc Rotenberg, the group's executive director, said in an interview. Other privacy and consumer groups plan to sign onto the complaint, Rotenberg said, declining to identify them.

Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said Thursday she will accelerate a promised review of the FBI's e-mail surveillance system and do everything she can to calm privacy advocates' worries about it. In a weekly media briefing, Reno reiterated that she will have an independent panel of experts critique the inner workings of "Carnivore," the FBI's system.

When America Online has a problem, it's bad news for the service's 19 million members. But it's great news for rival Internet service provider EarthLink Network, which tailors its marketing pitches to appeal to disaffected AOL users. Last week, AOL gave EarthLink new ammunition by declaring that its customers would begin receiving pop-up ads--widely considered a nuisance--unless they made a special request to opt out of them. Even AOL members who previously told the Dulles, Va.