Category «Privacy»

Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Program Assessment

News release: “All U.S. agencies with counterterrorism programs that collect or “mine” personal data — such as phone, medical, and travel records or Web sites visited — should be required to systematically evaluate the programs’ effectiveness, lawfulness, and impacts on privacy, says a new report from the National Research Council. Both classified and unclassified programs …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Privacy

Senate Commerce Committee Hearing: Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy

Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation – Hearing on: Broadband Providers and Consumer Privacy, September 25, 2008 Testimony of Gigi B. Sohn, President, Public Knowledge: “Today’s hearing on consumer privacy comes in the wake of two high-profile online consumer privacy violations, both of which involved the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology on …

Subjects: Congress, E-Commerce, Internet, Privacy

EFF Sues NSA, President Bush, and Vice President Cheney Over Domestic Surveillance Program

Follow up to previous postings on the government’s domestic surveillance program, today news that “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit [full complaint in Jewel v. NSA] against the National Security Agency (NSA) and other government agencies today on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal, unconstitutional, and ongoing dragnet surveillance of their …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Legal Research, Privacy

FTC Challenges Reed Elsevier’s Proposed $4.1 Billion Acquisition of ChoicePoint, Inc.

News release: “The Federal Trade Commission today issued a complaint charging that Reed Elsevier Inc.’s (Reed Elsevier) proposed $4.1 billion acquisition of ChoicePoint Inc. (ChoicePoint) would be anticompetitive and in violation of the antitrust laws, as it would combine the two largest providers of electronic public record services to U.S. law enforcement customers. To eliminate …

Subjects: E-Commerce, E-Government, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

Google Announces Revised User Record Retention Policy

Official Google Blog: “we’re announcing a new logs retention policy: we’ll anonymize IP addresses on our server logs after 9 months. We’re significantly shortening our previous 18-month retention policy to address regulatory concerns and to take another step to improve privacy for our users.” Related: Google Response to the [EU] Article 29 Working Party Opinion …

Subjects: EU Data Protection, Privacy, Search Engines

CERT: Understanding Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Cyber Security Tip ST05-018 – Understanding Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): “Because VoIP relies on your internet connection, it may be vulnerable to any threats and problems that face your computer. The technology is still new, so there is some controversy about the potential for attack, but VoIP could make your telephone vulnerable to viruses …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Government, Government Documents, Privacy

Court Files: Personal Data Identifiers May Not Be Part of the Record

The Third Branch: “To protect the privacy of litigants, the Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure require that certain personal data identifiers be modified or partially redacted from federal court case files. These identifiers are Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial account numbers, and names of minor children, and in criminal cases, also home …

Subjects: Courts, E-Records, Privacy

UK Government Plans Massive Personal Data Collection Effort

Surveillance made easy, NewScientist.com news service, Laura Margottini: “This data allows investigators to identify suspects, examine their contacts, establish relationships between conspirators and place them in a specific location at a certain time.” So said the UK Home Office last week as it announced plans to give law-enforcement agencies, local councils and other public bodies …

Subjects: Blogs, Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Mail, Privacy

Secretary Chertoff Addresses Secure Identity Challenges

News release: “Secretary Chertoff spoke on the balance between privacy and secure identity August 13 at the University of Southern California National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events. He addressed crimes involving identity theft, and talked about identity validation and authentication, the associated financial costs, the effect on illegal workers, the universe …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Government, Government Documents, ID Theft, Privacy

Study: State AGs Fail to Adequately Protect Online Consumers

News release: “State attorneys general received thousands of consumer complaints of online fraud and abuse in 2006 and 2007 and yet, with the exception of several notable standouts, brought few significant cases in response, according to a report released today from the Center for American Progress and the Center for Democracy and Technology, Online Consumers …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Government Documents, ID Theft, Privacy