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News release: “A group of the nation’s largest media and marketing trade associations…released self-regulatory principles to protect consumer privacy in ad-supported interactive media that will require advertisers and Web sites to clearly inform consumers about data collection practices and enable them to exercise control over that information…This cross-industry self-regulatory task force represents the first time …
Predicting Social Security numbers from public data, Alessandro Acquisti1 and Ralph Gross, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, May 5, 2009 (received for review January 18, 2009) “Information about an individual’s place and date of birth can be exploited to predict his or her Social Security number (SSN). Using only publicly available information, we observed a …
News release: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Justice [on June 24, 2009], demanding the public release of the surveillance guidelines that govern investigations of Americans by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI’s Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines went into effect in December of 2008 and detail the Bureau’s …
News release: “CDT’s Health Privacy Project released a paper advocating the need for stronger standards for “de-identified” personal health information when used for medial research, to promote public health, or other specialized purposes. The paper notes that stronger standards are needed to ensure the “de-identified” data cannot be re-identified in order to maintain patient privacy …
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Inspector General, Information Technology Audits Division – Incident Handling and Privacy Act Controls over External Web Sites, Final Audit Report, Redacted, ED-OIG/A11I0006, June 10, 2009. “Based on our review, the Departments Chief Information Officer (CIO) must improve security controls over the incident response and handling program and accelerate two-factor …
“Corporate websites generally offer more innovative features than public-sector sites, largely because the private sector spends about a third more on websites, according to a Brookings Institution study, Comparing Technology Innovation in the Private and Public Sectors. The study, released in mid-June, compares the websites of leading U.S. corporations with state and national governments, grades …
“The Federal Trade Commission today described its comprehensive efforts to combat identity theft before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census, and National Archives of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The FTC also recommended legislative remedies to enhance the effectiveness of these efforts. The testimony presented by Betsy Broder, Assistant Director of …
Joshua Gomez, Travis Pinnick, and Ashkan Soltani, UC Berkeley, School of Information – KnowPrivacy – June 1, 2009 “Online privacy and behavioral profiling are of growing concern among both consumers and government officials. In this report, we examine both the data handling practices of popular websites and the concerns of consumers in an effort to …
2009 Trust, Security & Passwords Survey Research Brief: “This global “snooping” survey is the third in a series of benchmark studies focused on identifying security and privacy trends among IT workers. Results are intended to raise awareness about the risks associated with powerful, and often unmanaged, privileged users and passwords. While seemingly innocuous, these accounts …
News release: “United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) policy permits officials to search the laptops and other electronic devices of travelers without suspicion of wrongdoing, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU filed the FOIA request with CBP, a component of the …
Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University report: Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies: Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States in December of 2008. “Many youth in the United States have fully integrated the Internet …
News release: “A rogue Internet Service Provider that recruits, knowingly hosts, and actively participates in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content has been shut down by a district court judge at the request of the Federal Trade Commission. The ISPs upstream providers and data centers have disconnected its servers from …
