InformationWeek reports on a way to identify individuals by using the bacteria left by people on objects.

Scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder have found that the bacteria trail left behind on objects like computer keyboards and mice can analyzed and used to help identify users of those devices.

“Your body is coated with bacteria inside and out,” says CU-Boulder assistant professor Noah Fierer in a video on YouTube. “You’re basically a walking microbial habitat. And we found that the diversity of bacteria just on the skin surface is really pretty incredible. You habor hundreds of different bacteria species just on your palm, for example. We’ve also found that everybody is pretty unique. So of those let’s say hundred or so bacteria species, very few are of them are shared between individuals.” [...] Read more »

UPDATE: The FCC has released the full plan (pdf). The plan notes, “Increased use of personal data raises material privacy and security concerns. Almost half of all consumers have concerns about online privacy and security, which may limit their adoption or use of broadband. Better security and more control over private information may trigger a more robust applications market.”

MediaPost reports on the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband plan (a summary (pdf) was released), which includes a privacy discussion:

While the six-page summary was short on details, the FCC said it intends to suggest measures to “clarify the relationship between users and their online profiles … including the obligation of firms collecting personal information to allow consumers to know what information is being collected, consent to such collection, correct it if necessary, and control disclsoure of such information to thrid parties.”

The FCC in January asked for comments about online privacy in response to a proposed notice of inquiry submitted by the digital rights group Center for Democracy & Technology. But it wasn’t clear until Monday whether the FCC intended to address the issue in its broadband plan.

In January, Privacy Lives joined eight groups in submitting comments (pdf) to the Federal Communications Commission recommending stronger consumer privacy protections. Read more »

The Wall Street Journal reports on a plan by consumer-research firm Nielsen and digital-marketing Firm eXelat to merge online and offline data in order to create more detailed profiles of consumers for targeted behavioral advertising. (Last month, the Financial Times reported on a new deal in the United Kingdom between Yahoo search engine and Nectar, a loyalty-card company, that would link online ads to individuals’ offline purchases, raising privacy questions.)

EXelate Media, a start-up that collects and sells Web data on consumers, is set to announce an alliance Monday with Nielsen, the big consumer-research firm. The two firms say that under the deal, eXelate will tie its data on more than 150 million Internet users to Nielsen’s database, which includes information on 115 million American households, to provide more-detailed profiles of consumers.

“We can build [consumer] profiles from any building blocks,” says Meir Zohar, chief executive of eXelate, which has offices in New York and Israel. “Age, gender, purchase intent, interests, parents, bargain shoppers—you can assemble anything.” Read more »

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on the issue of privacy and crime-scene photos:

Using the Georgia Open Records Act, a Hustler magazine writer recently requested crime-scene photos of Meredith Emerson, the Buford hiker who was stripped naked and decapitated in the North Georgia woods in 2008. [...]

The [Emerson] family quickly obtained a temporary restraining order barring the photos’ release.

Georgia lawmakers acted almost as quickly as the Emerson family. House Bill 1322, the “Meredith Emerson Privacy Act,” would change the state’s open records law to prohibit public disclosure of gruesome crime-scene photos. Read more »

There are two stories connected with the Google Buzz social-networking site. The New York Times has an update on the privacy settings available in Google Buzz, some of which were changed after numerous concerns were raised about privacy issues after the initial release of the social-networking service.

First, the changes since our last post. As a part of keeping its post-hubbub promise to make it easier to manage privacy on Buzz and opt out of using it altogether, Google added several Buzz items to the Gmail Settings page. To get there, click “Settings” at the very top right of Gmail and then click the Buzz tab on the far right. From there, you can choose to show publicly or hide the lists of people you are following and who are following you, hide the Buzz tab that appears underneath the “Inbox” tab on the left column of Gmail, and disable Buzz entirely.

Google also added Buzz to its Dashboard, a page where people can manage their use of all of Google’s various products, from e-mail news alerts to Picasa photo sharing. The Buzz section shows how many people you’re interacting with on Buzz, a summary of your recent activity and a link to your profile page. It also includes direct links to the settings page called “Edit your profile” where you can add information you want to share on Buzz and restrict it via privacy controls, the privacy policy and help page. You can also quickly click to a page where you can delete your Buzz profile and disconnect from the service altogether. [...] Read more »

The Associated Press reports on privacy questions related to a Netflix contest that the company has canceled. I’ve written before about the ease with which anonymized data can be de-anonymized, allowing for identification of the individuals connected to the data:

DVD-by-mail service Netflix Inc. has canceled a sequel to a $1 million movie-recommendation contest, avoiding a potential courtroom drama over the privacy rights of its subscribers.

The retreat announced Friday settles a lawsuit alleging Netflix’s plans to release millions of movie-rental records that could have illegally exposed sensitive information about its subscribers’ tastes and lifestyles. Read more »