News Byte

Twitter Tailors Your “Who to Follow List,” but Only if You Want It

Twitter began rolling out tailored suggestions for users to follow on Thursday, aiming to give Twitter newcomers better direction in learning how to navigate the somewhat abstruse microblogging platform. The suggestions stem from a tracking cookie Twitter sends to new users, allowing the company to see sites visited within the past 10 days. Twitter then uses that information to recommend who to follow. Users can also opt out of this service.

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Google in New Privacy Probes

Regulators in the U.S. and European Union are investigating Google Inc. for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Web browser, according to people familiar with the investigations. Google stopped the practice last month after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal.

News Byte

Former Dow Jones Digital Boss Gordon McLeod Lands at Krux

Gordon McLeod, the former head of Dow Jones’s digital publications, has a new job at an ad tech start-up. He’s now president at Krux, a two-year-old “data management platform” that helps publishers control “cookie” data that tracks Web surfers’ movements. Last fall, Krux raised $11 million in a round led by Accel and IDG. McLeod left News Corp.’s Dow Jones, where he oversaw business operations for multiple sites, including this one, in 2010.

Social Ad Guys 33Across Buy Copy/Paste Guys Tynt

An ad tech linkup that makes sense.
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Google Spends for New Consumer Education Campaign

Google today rolled out a new effort designed to educate consumers on technology terms like “cookies” and “IP addresses” and explain a few things about privacy online.

Ireland Gives Facebook’s International Privacy and Data Protection a Passing Grade

The Irish Data Protection Commission today concluded that Facebook has “a positive approach and commitment” to protecting the privacy of its international users.
Dublin

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FTC’s Proposed Changes to Web Privacy Rules Give Parents More Control

The Federal Trade Commission wants to give parents more control over what information Web sites can collect about their children.

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Latest in Web Tracking: Stealthy “Supercookies”

Major websites such as MSN.com and Hulu.com have been tracking people’s online activities using powerful new methods that are almost impossible for computer users to detect, new research shows.

Eat Your Cookies: EU Privacy Directive Takes Effect Wednesday

New European Union privacy regulations that require Web sites to get consent from EU users before tracking them around the rest of the Web will go into effect Wednesday. The directive is aimed at cookies used for targeted advertising, and applies to companies operated in any country.
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Google Joins Mozilla With Opt-Out Plug-In for Chrome

Like Mozilla, Google has heeded the call of U.S. regulators to give Web users an easy way to stop companies from tracking their online activities for targeting advertising.