TC News: Consumers’ New Online Privacy, Internet Tax Free for 7 More Years, Google Getting More Social
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TechConsumer News is a feature we started out of a hobby of tracking the latest happenings within the consumer related technology sphere. The goal is to provide a concise, compiled overview of the most intriguing stories from the last few days. Feel free to give us feedback or send us tips.
Here’s the latest in TechConsumer news:
Based on the same concept as the do-not-call lists which are meant to keep telemarketers away, consumers will soon be able to sign up for do-not-track lists. The idea is to prevent online marketers and advertisers from having access to your web surfing habits so easily. AOL is one of the first big companies to embrace this concept by launching what it calls a “Innovative Privacy Education Program For Behaviorally Targeted Advertising.”
The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill to extend the soon-to-expire moratorium on Internet taxes by seven years (the current ban on Internet taxes has been in effect since 1998). Now it just has to get approval from President Bush (which is expected). Some are arguing that a permanent tax ban for the Internet is more appropriate. A permanent tax ban? It sounds too much like something the U.S. government would want to change later. With any luck, it can just keep extending this tax ban every seven years…
A couple weeks ago, Google got social by integrating Google “Shared Stuff” profiles into Google Maps so that Google Maps users can post and share photos, links, business reviews, personal maps, etc. Well, Google has gotten even more social by announcing OpenSocial.
It’s basically a platform that will allow developers to make web applications for use across all social networks by utilizing the same profile information, friends information, and activities. It’s a little unclear how this will affect you as an online social networking consumer, but the idea is that eventually you’d have one profile and one set of friends that are the same across LinkedIn, YouTube, Digg, etc. (though this concept may be a little further out). For the closest idea to this till now, see our coverage of FriendFeed.
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