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Hellgate, a soon-to-be-released video game includes a license agreement that forces players to accept the harvesting of identifying information from their machine. This is part of an in-game advertising scheme that, so far, doesn't quite reach the level of what the Penny Arcade cartoonists prophesied, but it's getting closer.

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Adding another nail to the coffin for citizen trust in Verizon (assuming there was any to begin with), it turns out that they did in fact participate in the illegal spying program.

Let the lawsuits begin…

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I don't like OnStar. That said, here's an article about how OnStar can be used to remotely slow down and then disable stolen cars (particularly those involved in a high-speed chase).

I wonder how long it will be until they incorporate automatic ticketing for people who exceed the speed limit.

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Because Walmart isn't addressing the privacy concerns with rfid, I can't help but cheer when I hear their efforts to get RFID into all their products has failed.

Wal-Mart's change of plan demonstrates the need for retailers and suppliers alike to tread carefully with RFID. As retailers such as Best Buy have observed, widespread adoption is still years, not months, away. At the same time, some of the greatest benefits may not be in applications first thought to be ripe for the technology, such as automating distribution centers. Instead, retailers are finding early gains closer to the sales floor, where they are using RFID to track consumer buying patterns and ensure products are on shelves in time for promotions.

It used to be that Walmart's market power was so high that they could force anything they wanted, but I guess that's starting to slip a little.

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In the UK, ever the pinnacle of freedom and privacy, you can now be forced to decrypt any data that they believe has bearing on a criminal or terror investigation. Here's the really fun part (emphasis mine):

Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

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Even though cameras have been shown to be a great big boondoggle in the UK, Chicago apparently plans to repeat history.

Virtual Shield will capture, monitor, and "fully index" video from the Windy City's surveillance cameras. The software used to run the system will be able to recognize specific license plates, vehicle descriptions, and even patterns of behavior. If someone drops a briefcase on the El platform and it stays unattended for more than a minute, the system could alert the OEMC, which could then dispatch police officers to the scene.

Lovely.

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Pudding Media offers calling without any toll charges.

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation.

Did we really need any further invasion of privacy?

I hope this company falls flat on its face.

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They say it's to prove that someone actually is related to someone in France before allowing them to move to France. But not to worry! They say the test is "voluntary"… assuming you don't want to enter France that is.

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TransUnion becomes the first credit reporting company committed to providing U.S. consumers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with the ability to freeze their credit files, should they feel that step is warranted.

The pricing is as follows:

-- Free to add, lift or remove for all ID theft victims -- $10 to add, lift or remove for non victims

Before, there were only certain states with freeze laws, but Transunion is making the move to allow freezes anywhere!?

That's a surprising move. With this, they've basically voluntarily shot themselves in the foot as far as selling credit monitoring services.

This is probably some kind of public relations "first strike", but as long as there aren't any scary drawbacks or fine print (and it doesn't appear there are any so far), this is awesome. Let's hope the others follow suit.

They dropped their "don't be evil" motto for a reason

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Google, trying to hold up their former image of being a rebel company who "doesn't do evil", has proposed a universal privacy standard that they say all companies should follow. The main idea is that there should be a minimum set of standards that everyone agrees to follow when dealing with private user data.

I sure hope it's not their standards since they hold your private data hostage for months.