Hibnick v. Google Inc.
Filing
121
OBJECTIONS to re 120 Proposed Order by Electronic Privacy Information Center. (Attachments: # 1 Appendix 1, # 2 Appendix 2, # 3 Appendix 3, # 4 Appendix 4, # 5 Appendix 5, # 6 Appendix 6, # 7 Appendix 7, # 8 Appendix 8, # 9 Appendix 9, # 10 Appendix 10, # 11Appendix 12, # 12 Appendix 13, # 13 Appendix 11)(Friedman, Philip) (Filed on 3/30/2011) Modified on 4/1/2011 (cv, COURT STAFF).
Appendix 8 – The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse’s Application for cy pres Funds in In Re:
Google Buzz Privacy Litigation (submitted to the Rose Foundation Mar. 14, 2011)
Application Coversheet
1.
Name of Applicant Organization and EIN Number
March 14, 2011
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, an independent program of the Utility Consumers’ Action
Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. EIN Number: 33-0002313.
Type of organization: Xo 501c(3)
2.
o Other - Please describe: ______________
Contact Information:
Contact Person, Title Beth Givens, Director
Address
3100 5th Ave., Suite B
San Diego, CA 92103
3.
Telephone: (619) 298-3396
Email: bethg@privacyrights.org
Financial Information:
(a) Your organization’s overall annual 2011 operating budget: $376,387
(b) Total amount of money spent on Internet privacy or Internet education programs in 2010:
Approximately 60% of our 2010 budget, $313,972, or $188,383. [The portion of our 2011
budget spent on Internet privacy education is higher, approximately 80%.]
(c) Total amount of funding your organization received, if any, in contributions from Google,
Inc. or the Google Foundation in 2010: None
(d) Amount of funding you are requesting from this Settlement fund: $265,000
4. The PRC’s existing policy or education programs concerning Internet privacy issues –
the number of years you have had programming focused on Internet privacy.
Guides: Our Internet-related education began 16 years ago in 1995 with the publication of
“Privacy in Cyberspace,” which has since been updated many times. We have published several
more Internet-specific guides since then, including social networking, security breaches,
employee monitoring, anti-spam resources, children’s online safety and privacy, online
shopping, online job scams, smartphones, and online privacy for nonprofits. We have also
included information on online privacy in many more of our guides, including identity theft,
medical records, SSNs, responsible information-handling practices, stalking, public records, and
employment background checks. All of our guides, and a great deal of additional information,
are posted on our website, www.privacyrights.org, consisting of more than 500 pages of content.
Individual assistance: We invite consumers’ questions and complaints in what we call our
“Dear Abby” function. About half of our assistance is Internet-related. Data brokers: Our
resources on online data brokers were first published in 2004 and remain the most
comprehensive list regarding this industry. Alerts: We publish numerous online-related “Alerts,”
which are emailed to our 6,000+ subscribers and posted on our website – at least one per month.
Media: About half of our media interviews and media “mentions,” a potent form of consumer
education, are on the topic of online privacy (nearly 300 in 2010). Social networking: We use
social media on a daily basis to inform consumers about online privacy issues. We currently have
nearly 1300 Twitter followers and over 800 Facebook fans. These numbers increase each day.
Policy -- regulatory agency comments and legislation: Regarding policy, we have submitted
comments to the FTC, FCC, Commerce, and HHS on online privacy issues. We have actively
supported online privacy-related legislation in the California Legislature since the mid-1990s.
5. The particular program that funding from this Settlement would support and how it
would benefit the Class by furthering policy or education concerning Internet privacy.
A significant amount of Internet-related educational resources are text-based, including our own.
We propose to develop a fun and engaging interactive learning experience for consumers on
online privacy risks and practical privacy protection tips using graphic presentations, including
videos, photos, diagrams, and screen shots. The online learning experience (a complete
microsite) will be visually interesting, include interactive quizzes, and offer ways to share the
content via social networking channels such as Facebook and Twitter. The site will offer up to 50
pages of educational content covering about twenty different online privacy topics, including
browser settings, cloud computing, social networks and cookies.
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Narrative:
Introduction:
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) is a nonprofit consumer education and advocacy
organization, established in 1992, and based in San Diego, California. It has a national presence.
The PRC’s staffing level is four full-time equivalent employees: Beth Givens, Founder and
Director, with more than 30-years experience in successful program management, grant
compliance, consumer education, and policy advocacy; Paul Stephens, Director of Policy and
Advocacy (part-time), with expertise in administrative law and wide range of informational
privacy issues; Amber Yoo, Communications Director, with expertise in social media and
nonprofit marketing; Meghan Bohn, Staff Attorney, with expertise in electronic privacy issues
and intellectual property; and Tena Friery, Director of Research (part-time), with expertise in
regulatory agency filings, and in several informational privacy subject areas.
4. Describe any of your organization’s existing policy or education programs concerning
Internet privacy issues – make sure to include the number of years you have had
programming focused on Internet privacy.
Our history of education programming on Internet privacy: Our Internet-related education
began 16 years ago in 1995 with the publication of “Privacy in Cyberspace.” This Fact Sheet
has since been updated many times and is currently titled “Online Privacy: Using the Internet
Safely.” The original guide even preceded our website, which was launched in 1996.
Today, our website has more than 500 pages and provides extensive information and resources
on online privacy-related issues. We extensively redesigned our website in November 2009. Our
site receives about 300,000 unique visitors each month. For many topics, our site is listed among
the top “hits” for the major search engines, including the topic “Internet privacy.”
Guides: As mentioned above, our Internet-related education began in the mid-1990s with the
publication of “Privacy in Cyberspace.” We have published several more Internet-specific
guides since then, including:
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social networking
security breaches
employee monitoring
anti-spam resources
children’s online safety
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children’s online privacy
online shopping
online job scams
smartphones
online privacy for nonprofits.
In addition, we include information on online privacy in many more of our guides, including:
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identity theft
medical records and PHRs (personal
health records)
Social Security numbers
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responsible information-handling
stalking
public records
employment background checks.
Individual assistance: We invite consumers’ questions and complaints in what we call our
“Dear Abby” function. About half of our direct assistance is Internet related. This direct one-toone contact with consumers is especially valuable in noting emerging issues and trends. For
example, we have led the way in compiling complaints and filing public comments about the
unregulated industry of online data brokers, based largely on the questions and complaints we
have received from individuals who have contacted us.
Data brokers: Our resources on online data brokers were first published in 2004 and remain the
most comprehensive online compendium regarding this industry. This topic is consistently
among the top issues on our hotline (phone and email). We have filed several comments with the
Federal Trade Commission, calling for their increased scrutiny of this unregulated industry.
Alerts: We publish numerous online-related “Alerts,” which are emailed to our 6,000+
subscribers and posted on our website – at least one per month. Recent alerts have included: do
not track, smartphone geotagging, online reputation management, social networks, computer
zombies, and malicious links.
Media: About half of our media interviews and media “mentions” are on the topic of online
privacy. Media coverage is a potent form of consumer education, reaching an untold number of
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individuals. In 2010, the PRC was mentioned in nearly 300 media outlets (newspapers and online
sources, radio, TV).
Social networking: We actively use social media to inform consumers about online privacy
issues. We currently have nearly 1300 Twitter followers and over 800 Facebook fans. These
numbers increase each day. We send “tweets” to our “followers” one or more times each day,
and update our Facebook page frequently.
Policy -- regulatory agency comments and legislation: Regarding policy, we have submitted
numerous comments to the FTC, FCC, NTIA (Commerce), and HHS on online privacy issues. In
early 2011, we filed comments with both the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Federal
Trade Commission about online privacy policy in response to their reports on this topic.
We have also participated in national coalitions with other privacy and consumers groups
nationwide in advocating for strong federal online privacy legislation. And in California, the
PRC facilitates a coalition of state privacy and consumer groups and hosts an annual meeting to
develop strategies for pro-consumer privacy-related legislation in the California Legislature.
Increasingly, such legislation is Internet-related. The PRC has actively supported online privacyrelated legislation in the California Legislature since the mid 1990s.
5. Describe the particular program that funding from this Settlement would support and
describe how it would benefit the Class by furthering policy or education concerning
Internet privacy.
A significant amount of Internet-related educational resources are text-based, including our own,
although educational videos are increasing in number. We propose to develop a fun and
engaging interactive online learning experience using graphic presentations. These resources will
be of use to all consumers, but will be especially useful to individuals who, for any number of
reasons, are more likely to benefit from graphic presentations (pictures, diagrams, screen shots,
flash animations) than print-based resources.
Microsite that provides graphic instructions on online privacy settings:
The Problem: Americans now spend as much time online as they do watching television,
spending an average of 13 hours per week browsing the Internet, using social networks and
shopping online. Yet Americans are largely unaware of online privacy risks and how to protect
themselves. And those who are aware of such risks may not know how to take steps to protect
their privacy and secure their personal information.
The Solution: We propose to develop an interactive learning experience for consumers on
online privacy risks and practical privacy protection tips. The online learning experience (a
complete microsite) will be visually interesting with an emphasis on graphic tutorials. It will
include interactive quizzes, and offer ways to share the content via social networking channels
such as Facebook and Twitter. The site will offer up to 50 pages of educational content covering
about twenty different online privacy topics, including browser settings, cloud computing, social
networks and online information brokers.
A. Topics to address on the microsite may include, but are not limited to, these:
10. online shopping
11. encryption
12. cookies, web beacons, and flash cookies
13. IP addresses and anonymizers
14. malicious links
15. cloud computing
16. privacy policies and terms of service
17. Virtual Private Networks (VPN)
18. instant messaging and chat rooms
19. online banking and bill paying
20. scams and other illegal activities
1. browsers
2. behavioral advertising/ targeting and do
not track
3. social networking
4. computer security (firewalls, anti-virus,
anti-malware)
5. drive-by downloads (war-driving)
6. automatic updates
7. avoiding p2p networks
8. secure password creation
9. Wi-Fi hotspots
Each topic will include a concise and easy-to-understand written overview, an engaging
image, two to three video tutorials (that are also posted on YouTube), and a before-andafter quiz. Users will be able to share quiz results, privacy tips, and video tutorials via
social networking channels.
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The site will be designed in a way that is easy to navigate. The site’s design will have two
primary goals: to educate and engage. The idea will be to keep visitors engaged in the
learning process and encourage return visits. The topics will be laid out in a logical
format so that visitors can move from topic to topic in a way that allows them to
gradually build a solid foundation of online privacy issues and solutions. To facilitate
this, the site will offer a “progress bar” (similar to the one offered by LinkedIn for new
users). The progress bar will “fill up” as the visitor progresses through the video tutorials
and quizzes. The goal is for visitors who complete the learning process to come away
with a better understanding of what the privacy risks are online and with foundational
knowledge for how to protect themselves.
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B. We will provide tie-ins from the pages listed above to existing PRC Fact Sheets
for more detailed information. This will be a two-way street. In order to be as
informative as possible, our existing Fact Sheets are text-heavy. We cover privacy
issues in a great deal of depth, and our guides often exceed ten pages. We will
link from our Fact Sheets to the visual guides and vice-versa.
C. An example of the type of interactive educational content we will provide: For the
browsers topic, we will include a functionality that shows all the cookies, flash
cookies, type of browser, operating system (OS), IP address, and other types of
information that can be seen by any site anytime you visit a site. Existing
examples are: http://panopticlick.eff.org/ and www.TraceMyIp.org. Our
functionality will have features of both. Based upon the type of browser detected
with the above functionality, we will provide a walk-through visual explanation
on how to adjust the browser settings to maximize privacy. We will cover the
major browsers: Microsoft IE, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple
Safari.
Budget narrative:
We request $265,000 for this project.
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The majority of this amount is for the services of a contractor, an individual or
company with expertise in instructional design who can develop the graphic
presentations in an engaging manner. We will seek an individual or company
proficient in all the major browsers and operating systems. We have already
solicited three estimates for this project, and our budget is based on these
estimates.
The technologies and features covered by this proposed project are expected to
change. In fact, change is a given in the online privacy arena. The budget includes
funding to develop, maintain and update the microsite for a total of three years.
The majority of the work would be completed in the first year.
The budget also includes funding for our own in-house administrative costs for
managing this project.
Finally, the budget includes the cost of our own website administrator.
Conclusion:
We sincerely appreciate the opportunity to submit this proposal for consideration for
funding. If you have any questions or need additional information, do not hesitate to
contact PRC director Beth Givens.
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