Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
Press release: “The Federal Trade Commission has asked a U.S. district court to order a permanent halt to operations that deceptively obtained and sold consumers confidential phone records without their knowledge or consent. The agency alleges the practice is not only unfair and deceptive in violation of federal law, but could endanger consumers safety. The …
Via PBS: Airing on Friday, February 16, 2007 (check for time in your area), “NOW reports on new evidence suggesting the existence of a secret government program that intercepts millions of private e-mails each day in the name of terrorist surveillance. News about the alleged program came to light when a former AT&T employee, Mark …
H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007, was introduced by Reps. Waxman, Platts, Van Hollen, and T. Davis on February 12, 2007. Bill Summary: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 Full Text: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 Written Testimony of Nick Schwellenbach, Investigator, Project On Government Oversight (POGO) before the House Oversight …
Findings from a new study by ID Analytics, reported by ComputerWeek, indicate that “….the riskiest states for ID theft are New York, California, Nevada and Arizona, while the safest ones are Wyoming, Vermont, Montana and North Dakota. The riskiest 5-digit zip codes for ID theft — after Floral Park and Faulkton — are Old Bethpage, …
Declan McCullagh reported last week on the reintroduction of numerous antispyware and ID theft bills, many of which reflect the same language as previous versions of related legislation. The article has links to major bills as well as respective legislative background.
Selected Agencies Use of Criminal Background Checks for Determining Responsibility, GAO-07-215R, January 12, 2007. “This letter and its enclosure respond to the Congressional request for information on selected executive agencies’ policies and practices for making responsibility determinations before awarding contracts. Congress requested this information because of its continued concern for effective pre-contract screening to reduce …
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has launched a service that sends out electronic mail (e-mail) alerts when new and vital information is posted on the FBI.gov Web site. Subscribers select which topics that they want updates on, such as new electronic scams (e-scams) and warnings, most wanted terrorists, top ten fugitives, and local and …
Press release: “The Federal Trade Commission today issued its annual report, Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data on complaints consumers have filed with the agency. For the seventh year in a row, identity theft tops the list, accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received between January 1 and December 31, 2006. Other …
House Judiciary Committee Oversight Plan 110th Congress, February 7, 2007.
“A CDT analysis finds that privacy guidelines issued by the Bush Administration for the Information Sharing Environment are inadequate. The ISE is a potentially revolutionary system for exchanging personally identifiable information that was mandated by the intelligence reform act of 2004. Adoption of detailed guidelines to protect privacy was supposed to be a pre-condition for …
New York State Office of the CIO: “Identity and Access Management (IAM) provides an effective way to protect computer-based services and data for all state and local agencies from unauthorized access. Organizational business requirements often result in the need to grant external users access to services and data or to achieve multi-organizational system interoperability. Demand …
“The World Privacy Forum filed public comments with the Department of Health and Human Services in response to an HHS request for information regarding the use of patients’ genetic data for research, health care, and for use in electronic health records. The World Privacy Forum is requesting that HHS use all Fair Information Principles in …
