The Week in Privacy and Online Safety, December 9, 2012
A weekly global roundup of online safety news, policy developments, research, and influence

General Online Privacy
News (U.S.) - You’d Need 76 Work Days to Read All Your Privacy Policies Each Year, Time, Dec. 4, 2012 

General Online Safety
News (U.S.) -  Washington Drops Defense of Online ‘Adult Services’ Law, Wired, Dec. 7, 2012
News (U.S.) -  Square Enix Pulls Ad for ‘Hitman’ After Cyberbullying Complaints, Wired, Dec. 2012
News (U.S.) -  Google Reportedly Working On Parental Controls For Chrome, Tech Crunch, Dec. 6, 2012

Advertising & Search
News (U.S.) – Advocates on FTC Panel: Free market doesn't work for online privacy, IDG, Dec. 6, 2012
News (U.S.) - Which Websites Are Sharing Your Personal Details?, The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 7, 2012

Mobile
News (U.S.) - Delta sued in first action under California online privacy law, Reuters, Dec. 6, 2012
News (U.S.) -  Kindle FreeTime Unlimited: a kid-friendly subscription service, Tech Hive, Dec. 4, 2012

Social Networks
News (U.S.) -  Judge gives initial OK to revised Facebook privacy settlement, Reuters, Dec. 4, 2012
News (Germany) - Facebook sued over App Center data sharing in Germany, TechWorld, Dec. 6, 2012
News (U.S.) - Facebook opens polls, users vote against privacy-policy changes, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 4, 2012

Legislation & Regulation
News (U.S.) -  FTC Settles Complaint with Epic Marketing, Over ‘History Sniffing,’ Salon, Dec. 5, 2012
Government E.U.) -  The right to be forgotten - between expectations and practice, ENISA, Dec., 2012

 -- Compiled by David Burt, CISSP, CIPP

The Week in Privacy and Online Safety, December 17, 2012
A weekly global roundup of online safety news, policy developments, research, and influence

General Online Privacy
News (U.S.) -  Reputation.com Sells ‘Personal Privacy Vaults’, The New York Times, Dec. 09, 2012 

General Online Safety
Advocates (U.S.) - New Report and Advocacy Toolkit on Intermediary Liability, CDT, Dec. 13, 2012
News (EU) - 48 countries worldwide join forces to fight child sexual abuse online, European Comm., Dec. 4, 2012
News (U.S.) - Most Cyberbullies Are Bullies at School, Cyberbullying Research Center, Dec. 14, 2012
News (Germany) -  German law to blame for Europe-wide Wii U eShop content restrictions, EuroGamer, Dec. 10, 2012

Advertising & Search
News (U.S.) -   Microsoft Sticks with Do Not Track, Bloomberg News, Dec. 13, 2012
News (U.S.) -   Gigya launches privacy certification and seal for websites , Ad Week, Dec. 13, 2012
News (U.S.) -   Google adjusts image search to avoid accidental porn hits, IDG, Dec. 12, 2012

Mobile
News (U.S.) -  Privacy group files complaint against kids' mobile game maker, IDG, Dec. 11, 2012
News (U.S.) -  Apps for Children Fall Short on Disclosure to Parents, FTC Says, The New York Times, Dec. 10, 2012
Advocates (U.S.) - Key Elements of a Code of Conduct for Mobile Apps Transparency, Future of Privacy, Dec. 11, 2012

Social Networks
News (U.S.) -  Twitter, privacy advocates eye Occupy case after guilty plea, Reuters, Dec. 12, 2012
News (Italy) -  Milan prosecutor wants jail terms upheld for Google autism video, Reuters, Dec. 11, 2012
News (U.S.) -  Facebook’s chief privacy officer works to keep 1 billion friends in the loop, The Hill, Dec. 10, 2012

Legislation & Regulation
News (U.S.) -  Senate panel approves Franken's location privacy bill, The Hill, Dec. 13, 2012 

-- Compiled by David Burt, CISSP, CIPP

Posted by Brendon Lynch
Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft

Today, I’m happy to share a new Microsoft publication, Building Global Trust Online: Policy Perspectives on Privacy, Safety and Security. It’s intended as a starting point for discussions with policymakers on these important and sometimes difficult issues and also provides good insights into Microsoft’s perspective on key issues. Building Global Trust Online relies on extensive work and ongoing research by Microsoft’s internal teams as well as consultation with external subject-matter experts.

Within Building Global Trust Online, you’ll find overviews of key issues; a summary of Microsoft’s response to these issues, which includes products, services and global collaborations; and a list of helpful resources and links for further reading and support. We’ve provided information about topics such as:

• Current online privacy issues and practices.

• Issues related to the protection of youth online.

• Current efforts and resources used to address, mitigate or resolve today’s cyber threats.

• Microsoft’s products, services, partnerships and ongoing work to promote a safer Internet.

We offer Building Global Trust Online in a variety of formats to fit different needs, including a single 64-page brochure booklet, or as individual 2-page topical guides. Both the full booklet and the individual guides are available in printed form, on CD-ROM and as downloadable documents on our Trust Online website at http://www.microsoft.com/TrustOnline

Building Global Trust Online is intended to be a relevant and useful guide for any decision-maker with responsibility for developing new ideas and solutions for online privacy, security and safety. We appreciate the scope and changing complexities of these issues – as well as the tremendous value of collaborative efforts to provide the most up-to-date information, support and guidance.

I recently contacted Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at Florida Atlantic University about cyberbullying statistics for countries outside the United States. The Cyberbullying Research Center and blog is terrific and unique resource for this kind of information.  I shared what I found with Sameer, and he wrote this great blog post summerizing international cyberbullying research:

Being Americans, we tend to focus a lot of attention on offline and online peer harassment here at home.  It is interesting, though, to consider the cross-cultural research that has been done on traditional bullying and think about whether they parallel similar trends in cyberbullying across various countries. From a recent International Journal of Public Health article, this figure depicts bullying rates among boys aged 11, 13, and 15 years of age from the 2005-2006 school year across 40 countries, while this figure focuses in on girls in that age range. 

We are not aware of any major cross-cultural studies involving cyberbullying, but it is interesting to look at some of the prevalence rates in specific countries across the world.  We’ve been working with David Burt over at Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, and he dug up most of the following statistics:

European Union
6% of Internet-using teens ages 9-16 reported they had been sent nasty or hurtful messages online, while 3% reported they sent such messages to others
Risks and safety on the internet: The perspective of European children,  EU Kids Online, Summer 2010. 

Belgium
34.3% of Belgian teenagers have been bullied via internet or mobile phone
European Commission Survey, Nov. 2009. 

Poland
52% of Polish Internet users aged 12-17 have been exposed to abuse on the Web or via mobile phones
European Commission Survey, Nov. 2009. 

Germany
14.1% of students also experience the kinds of incidents (harassment, denigration, outing & trickery and exclusion) that constitute cyberbullying
Cyberbullying in Germany, Psychology Science Quarterly, 2009. 

Japan
Ten percent of high school students said they have been harassed through e-mails, websites or blogs
Survey by the Hyogo Prefectual Board of Education, 2007 (Citied in Reuters article). 

Spain
Between 25% and 29% of all teenagers have been bullied via their mobile phone or the internet over the past year
University of Valencia (UV), 2010. 

South Korea
A survey of 272 students at four South Korean universities found that three-fourths knew a victim of cyber bullying and more than half knew a cyber bully.
University of South Florida, 2010 

Sometimes I am quick to blame the media in our own country for glamorizing verbal and physical violence in different ways – by adults and teens alike.  That said, the frequencies of real-world bullying in the aforementioned charts and those of cyberbullying across a spattering of European and Eastern countries seem to demonstrate that these problem behaviors occur with pretty similar regularity.  While it is easy to scapegoat the media because some of what we see these days shocks our collective conventional conscience, I feel we must conceive of peer harassment as a problem with human nature rather than national origin. 

Justin and I will continue to dialogue about this in the weeks ahead – we’d love to hear your perspectives on how strong an influence culture actually is, and what other contributing factors may be more important.  We also hope to work on a major international cyberbullying cross-cultural study in the future, which will hopefully provide some answers to these questions.

Related posts:

1. Rates of cyberbullying in Australia, and the reasons why…
2. More Research on Electronic Dating Violence as Cyberbullying

Brad Smith, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft, expressed the company's support for the Protect IP act on the Microsoft on the Issues Blog:

We support the goals and approach of this important legislation, and urge the committee to report it.  The PROTECT IP Act is aimed at providing new tools to challenge the proliferation of “rogue sites” -- Internet sites that are dedicated to infringing content or counterfeit goods. It would establish both governmental and private rights of action in an effort to address what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates to be a multi-billion dollar a year problem that threatens U.S. creators and innovators, places U.S. consumers at risk, harms our economy and costs American jobs.

At the same time, Smith expressed Microsoft's desire that the "free flow of information" not be stifled:

Safeguards should be included to ensure that rogue sites are identified clearly and appropriately, and that the responsibilities of companies required to take action to ensure compliance are well defined and their liability appropriately limited. In addition, steps should be taken to ensure that the private right of action is not subject to abuse, and that the new actions and resulting orders do not stifle free speech or the free flow of information.

The full text and other information about S.968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (Protect IP) can be found on THOMAS