PrivacyIssues posts

Bought anything online using your credit card lately? You're not alone. Statistics show that Canadians are more comfortable using their credit cards online these days. The numbers aren't small either. Compared to 2007 numbers, orders jumped $2.3 billion to reach $15.1 billion in 2009.

Where books and magazines used to dominate, clothing and jewelry, toys, games, gifts and music – items which better reflect our offline shopping interests – all rose in the two years since Statistics Canada last examined our online shopping habits.

Related:
Millions Stolen in Credit Card Fraud - Are You at Risk?
How to Protect Your Identity, Credit, and Life as You Know It
Check Your Credit Score (It's Easier Than You Think)
Best Websites for Back to School Shopping

Have you ever lost your cell phone, even just for a few minutes? I'm sure it's happened to the best of us once or twice. Well, if you happen to have an iPhone, you may not always know where it is, but it always knows where you are. According to Apple's latest privacy policy, the company knows where all of its iPhones users are, all the time, and it's sharing the information with third parties.

Surprisingly, this has yet to raise many privacy alarms. It wasn't very long ago that we learned Facebook was sharing our user names with advertisers without our permission, and we were outraged. So outraged that the practice stopped, almost as soon as the media got wind of it. And Google is facing a privacy investigation for collecting user data from Wi-Fi networks in neighbourhoods across Canada.

So what's the difference here? At the very least, Apple is letting iPhone users know that their location is being tracked, as long as they read the privacy policy. Also, it seems many iPhone users (arguably) want their location tracked, because it makes iPhone applications run better. And Apple does promise to keep the information anonymous, but as one writer asks, if enough information is provided, how hard can it be to identify people based on where they go?