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A Secure Submission System for Online Whistleblowing Platforms. Volker Roth, Benjamin Güldenring, Eleanor Rieffel, Sven Dietrich, Lars Ries (Submitted on 26 Jan 2013) An abridged version has been accepted for publication in the proceedings of Financial Cryptography and Data Security 2013. “Whistleblower laws protect individuals who inform the public or an authority about governmental or …
“The Internal Revenue Service is collecting a lot more than taxes this year — it’s also acquiring a huge volume of personal information on taxpayers’ digital activities, from eBay auctions to Facebook posts and, for the first time ever, credit card and e-payment transaction records, as it expands its search for tax cheats to places …
EPIC: “EPIC has submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for the release of the privacy assessments of Facebook and MySpace submitted to the Federal Trade Commission. As a result of privacy violations, both companies are required to implement comprehensive privacy programs and submit to independent, biennial evaluations for 20 years. Previously, EPIC obtained a copy …
Privacy Impact Assessment for the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning – Publicly Available Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative, DHS, Update April 1, 2013 “To monitor social media, National Operations Center Media Monitoring analysts only use publicly available search engines, content aggregators, and site-specific search tools to find items of potential interest to …
EPIC: “The Department of Homeland Security has released a Privacy Impact Assessment for Einstein 3 – Accelerated. Einstein 3 is a government cybersecurity program that monitors Internet traffic. The monitoring includes scanning email destined for .gov networks for malicious attachments and URLs. According to DHS, the basis of the governments authority to perform the monitoring …
“Verizon’s 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) provides truly global insights into the nature of data breaches that can help organizations of all sizes to better understand the threat and take the necessary steps to protect themselves. The breadth and depth of data represented in this years DBIR is unprecedented. It combines the efforts of …
EFF: “Recently, we published a blog post that described how to opt out of seeing ads on Facebook targeted to you based on your offline activities. This post explained where these companies get their data, what information they share with Facebook, or what this means for your privacy. So get ready for the nitty-gritty details: …
CRS – Submission of Mental Health Records to NICS and the HIPAA Privacy Rule, April 15, 2013 “Questions about the scope and efficacy of the background checks required during certain firearm purchases have gained prominence following recent mass shootings. These background checks are intended to identify whether potential purchasers are prohibited from purchasing or possessing …
Machine-to-Machine Communications – Connecting Billions of Devices, Publication Date, 30 Jan 2012. Bibliographic information No.: 192 Pages. 45. DOI 10.1787/5k9gsh2gp043-en “This document examines the future of machine-to-machine communication (M2M), with a particular focus on mobile wireless networks. M2M devices are defined, in this paper, as those that are actively communicating using wired and wireless networks, …
“EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the FBI to obtain documents about “Next Generation Identification“, a massive database with biometric identifiers on millions of Americans. The EPIC lawsuit follows the FBI’s failure to respond to EPIC’s earlier FOIA requests for technical specifications and contracts. According to EPIC’s complaint, “When completed, the …
Drones in Domestic Surveillance Operations: Fourth Amendment Implications and Legislative Responses. Richard M. Thompson II, Legislative Attorney. April 3, 2013 “The prospect of drone use inside the United States raises far-reaching issues concerning the extent of government surveillance authority, the value of privacy in the digital age, and the role of Congress in reconciling these …
News release: “The Internal Revenue Service…issued its annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to use caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. The Dirty Dozen listing, compiled by the IRS each year, lists a variety of common scams …
