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This presentation, RFID and the Public Policy Void, by Beth Givens, founder and director of the non-profit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, was delivered to the Joint Committee on Preparing California for the 21st Century. Radio frequency ID tags, used by manufacturers and merchants in a wide range of products ranging from automobiles to clothing, are the …
From a posting on Lisnews.com written by Nancy Macomber: “The U.S. Department of Education has decided to shut down the 16 subject-specific ERIC Clearinghouses on December 31, 2003. The Department is running a competition to select a contractor to maintain the database portion of ERIC. This “new” ERIC is expected to begin operating in mid-October …
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has issued a list of questions for reporters to ask Attorney General Ashcroft as he pursues his national PR campaign in support of the Patriot Act. The questions focus on the impact of Sec. 215 of the Act (Access to Records and Other Items Under the Foreign …
From the Oxford Dictionary of English press release, news of the addition of 3,000 new words and phrases to their database of 350,000 entries, including the following techie terms: blog, bounce (as in e-mail), CD-RW, CGI, click rate, cyberstalking, data smog, DNS, DoS, and many more. A full list of the new additions and their …
The GPO Access Training Booklet, July 2003, 73 pages in pdf, is available here. GPO Access is one of the premier e-gov resources, providing access to over 2,900 databases, including the daily editions of the Federal Register and the Congressional Record. This manual’s content, which includes a number of screen shots, covers searching strategies, resources …
Fishing for Information? Try Better Bait. Congrats to Tara Calishain whose book Google Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools receives much deserved recognition in the beginning of this article that focuses on advanced search features specific to the major search engines.
The California State Senate passed SB 1 yesterday, by a vote of 32 to 6. This bill would enact the California Financial Information Privacy Act, which would require a financial institution, as defined, to provide a specified written form to a consumer relative to the sharing of the consumer’s nonpublic personal information. See also, Lawmakers …
Day Three of the W32/SoBig.F virus, which is hitting home users hardest. Counterpane Internet Security has identified 1,500 malicious file attachments associated with the virus, and counting. For more information, see the following links: McAfee Security Virus Profile Symantec Security Response, W32.Sobig.F@mm The virus is apparently set to self destruct after two weeks, making that …
The Department of Justice is hosting what can only be described as a PR website, Preserving Life & Liberty, that promotes the USA PATRIOT Act. The site links to documents that include: major speeches by Attorney General Ashcroft, a list of point/counterpoint statements that are presented using the caption “Myth” vs. “Realty”; a detailed Senate …
3rd Circuit OKs Posting Addresses of Convicts Under Megan’s Law: “The decision in A.A. v. State of New Jersey overturns a lower court’s injunction that limited the state to posting only the offenders’ county of residence on the Internet registry.” See also my previous posting on two Supreme Court rulings from earlier this year upholding …
Internet Search Companies Could Face Fight on Ads: “Some of the biggest Internet search services (Google and Overture) could be setting the stage for a legal battle with companies that object to the way these sites are using their trademarks.” (thanks Donna)
From PCWorld: The RIAA, the MPAA and the NMPA “have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson” denying the entertainment groups’ request to shut-down music downloading services Grokster and Morpheus. For more details on the case, see my previous posting here. …
