The ability for companies to follow you from one platform to another — from your phone to your laptop to a physical store — is called cross-device tracking, and for businesses that want to market and sell stuff to you, it is basically the holy grail. With robust tracking, a company can follow you basically Read more about 5 Things We’ve Learned About How Companies Track You Online And Off[…]

A U.S. judge has ordered Google to comply with search warrants seeking customer emails stored outside the United States, diverging from a federal appeals court that reached the opposite conclusion in a similar case involving Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O). U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter in Philadelphia ruled on Friday that transferring emails from a foreign server Read more about Google, unlike Microsoft, must turn over foreign emails: U.S. judge[…]

California electronics maker Vizio will cough up $2.2m after its smart TVs spied on millions of people. America’s trade watchdog, the FTC, said today the payment will settle a complaint filed by the state of New Jersey accusing Vizio of violating privacy regulations: the biz had collected the viewing habits of 11 million television sets Read more about Vizio coughs up $2.2m after its smart TVs spied on millions of families[…]

Previously, tourists, travelers and visa holders were warned they may have to hand over their online account names and handles so their public profiles can be studied by border agents and immigration officials. Now Kelly wants to take that further, by demanding passwords from some visa applicants so g-men can log into Twitter, Facebook, online Read more about Want to come to the US? Be prepared to hand over your passwords if you’re on Trump’s hit list[…]