But the lawsuit attracted coverage, and if there is anything that is toxic to a company, it's a story containing the words "privacy concerns, " no matter what the context.
While New York-Presbyterian did fail to notify the police there had been a shooting injury, hospitals are trained to guard patient privacy like it's a state secret.
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"As long as you have no intention of defrauding anyone, as long as you don't profit from it, you can just walk away and that's it, " says Frank Ahearn, a privacy consultant in New York City and author of How to Disappear.
In December, Facebook overhauled it's privacy controls, adding a handful of features while simplifying and clarifying how existing features work.
It's a way to preserve the privacy of young men who say they were sexually abused as children, men who are swallowing their own shame and embarrassment to step forward at a high profile trial.
Excepting Jersey Shore participants, people generally value privacy and it's a bigger issue when so much data is stored online.
Only four weeks later, Beacon's privacy violations had thrown it into a PR tailspin.
It's understandable if the prospect creeps you out -- it should -- but the end goal isn't to invade a user's privacy (though the data mined would be significant), it's to anticipate and assist.
Yes, it's possible to protect a client's right to privacy while rooting bad guys out of the banking system, and Switzerland is showing the way.
It's less likely the government will be able to tap into private databases anytime soon, but it's still a cause for concern down the line, privacy advocates say.
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If the U.S. does create a sole privacy watchdog, it will be following in the footsteps of a host of other countries that have passed Privacy Acts and created Privacy Commissioners to oversee them.
But in the meantime, if you're in California and are concerned about privacy and your constitutional rights, it's a good idea to protect your cell phone and other electronic devices with a password or encryption.
In 2009, Facebook faced a more serious outcry after it adjusted the site's privacy controls.
It's a way to manage both sides of your life without sacrificing privacy or security, and without dragging around two separate devices as some BlackBerry users have been doing.
But one feature built into Intel's new chip is drawing flack from privacy advocates -- it contains a distinct serial number that others may be able to track.
It's a paradox, but also a fact: the only way to experience privacy is in the midst of a crowd.
Instead, it held out a lightning rod: Ask's initiative has sparked a feud between privacy advocacy groups and spotlighted the simmering controversy over how search engines handle private information.
As a nation as a whole, they value privacy and everyone's right to it, powerful or not.
But I believe it is possible to preserve a measure of privacy while enhancing security on U.S. flights and I will continue fighting to achieve that goal.
"On the one hand, it's a really good start, " said Sarah Andrews, research director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in Washington.
"It's a pretty clear case of deception, " said Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet advocacy nonprofit that gets some of its funding from Google.
"It's a slippery-slope deal, " says Dr. Deborah Peel, founder of Patient Privacy Rights, which advocates for medical-data confidentiality.
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And EPIC charges that most at odds with the privacy policy is a portion of Ask's terms of service that says it will start tracking an AskEraser user's searches again at the request of a law enforcement official--without notifying the user.
"All I can say is that based on the e-mails we receive, privacy is an issue that a lot of people care about deeply, and it's just starting to register with a larger proportion of the public, " he says.
The online Aladdin's cave and AMA forum Reddit has revealed a revamped privacy policy intended to make clear exactly how it deals with users' data.
Although it has the same kind of simple approach to a login as a Facebook or Twitter pop-up window, Persona's emphasis is on privacy: it stops paying attention the moment credentials go through, keeping any diatribes or subscription details from landing in social streams or central databases.
With its most recent privacy backlash seemingly behind it, Facebook surged ahead to a new traffic record in the U.S. during the month of June.
"Once a piece of information is out there, it's nearly impossible to obliterate, " says Christine Varney, a former commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission and a privacy crusader.
Well, it's safe to say that more privacy controls doesn't equal more vigilance in protecting personal data, and it's certainly not a stretch to call Facebook's settings confusing.
Sky News' managing editor, Peter Lowe, wrote in a blog post Thursday that the satellite broadcaster, which is also part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. empire, did not intend to publish because it accepts that Harry "has a reasonable expectation of privacy" while in a hotel room on vacation.
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