January 28, 2011 is Data Privacy Day.  Sponsored by a variety of businesses, universities, not-for profit organizations, and governmental entities, the purpose of Data Privacy Day is to encourage dialogue about “digital lives in a networked world.”  Privacy is on many people’s minds right now, as we grapple with the often-conflicting desires to reveal and conceal information about ourselves online.

Here are some recent news items about privacy, plus resources that I consult regularly for information:

Here at OSU, the Office of the CIO has resources about privacy, security, and safe computing at Buckeye Secure.

Recently, there was an interesting investigative piece in the Wall Street Journal on personal data sharing from smartphone apps.  One of the offenders they single out Pandora, one of the most popular apps  (and one I use heavily, sigh).

On Wednesday, January 26, Facebook announced that it can now be used completely via https for additional privacy and security.  Also, in some cases, it will start requiring social authentication through identifying people in photographs rather than through the more commonly-used captchas.  

The International Association of Privacy Professionals  has a Knowledge Center with many links and articles about privacy.  It’s a good place to get some background reading or keep up with the latest information on the subject.

Daniel Solove  is one of my favorite writers about privacy and the law.  Two of his recent books, Understanding Privacy and The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet are thoughtful and accessible to the non-lawyer.  He will publish Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security this year.

Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It addresses privacy and more in his discussion about how to preserve the generativity of the Internet.  Zittrain’s blog  is also a good source for commentary on privacy issues in the news.  Zittrain is a professor at Harvard Law School, but much of his work has a heavy technical and social orientation.