Category «Privacy»

Spear Phishing Target Specific Individual, Corporate, Gov’t Data

Following up on previous postings about phishing, the New York Times yesterday published an article, Gone Spear-Phishin’ detailing the extent, impact and intent of cybercriminals who launch Trojans to steal the data of individuals and corporations, for both profit and personal reasons. See also Business Week, Phishing: Beware the Internal Revenue Scam: “The official-looking e-mails …

Subjects: Cybercrime, E-Records, PC Security, Privacy

Release of Additional Records Pertaining to Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr.

Following up with a link to resources referenced in my posting yesterday, Additional Gov Docs. Released From Alito’s DOJ Tenure, see today’s press release: “The National Archives at College Park will release 31 documents totaling 336 pages from Record Group 60, Records of the Department of Justice, Files of Charles Cooper and Files of the …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research, Privacy

New FTC Study Shows Progress in Combating Spam

FTC press release: “According to a new study released today by the Federal Trade Commission, spammers continue to harvest email addresses from public areas of the Internet, but Internet Service Providers’ anti-spam technologies can block the vast majority of spam sent to these email addresses. The FTC staff report also found that consumers who must …

Subjects: E-Mail, Government Documents, Privacy

Proposals for Expanded Domestic Surveillance to Obtain Actionable Data

Washington Post: Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity, Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers Related references: Report by the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, March 31, 2005 CIFA: Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity

Subjects: Congress, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Privacy

Advocacy Groups Petition FCC For Stay On Web Wiretapping Compliance

Press release: “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology, and representatives of industry, academia, librarians and others today filed a joint request for a stay with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), arguing that the Commission has been “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious” in demanding that broadband Internet access providers and interconnected Voice …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, Government Documents, Privacy

EU Advocate General Recommends Annulling Agreement to Share Passenger Name Records

Nº 98/2005: 22 November 2005, Opinion of the Advocate General in cases C-317/04, C-318/04, Parliament/Council, Principles of Community law – press release – Advocate General Léger Proposed Annulment of the Commission and Council Decisions on Transfer to the American Authorities of Personal Information Concerning Air Passengers. Full-text opinion (in French) May 31, 2004, Passenger Data …

Subjects: Courts, E-Government, EU Data Protection, Government Documents, Privacy

Opposition to Patriot Act Reauthorization Stalls Vote

Yesterday: Patriot Act Reauthorization Encounters Strong Opposition; today news on a deadlock which will delay a vote until December. Preventing passage of any meaningful reforms to this legislation may indeed prove to be a bigger obstacle than anticipated. The work of organizations including the American Library Association, EFF, EPIC, CDT and the ACLU is in …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Legislation, Privacy

Patriot Act Reauthorization Encounters Strong Opposition

Following up on reports of civil liberties protections having been stripped from the draft Patriot Act reauthorization and information that the bill contains “poison pill measures,” news today that a bipartisan group of Senators (including Feingold and Sununu) is attempting to block passage of bill by the full Senate. Their statement is here.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Libraries, Patriot Act, Privacy

ALA Urges Vote Against Patriot Act Conference Report

From American Library Association Washington Office Newsline: “The House is scheduled to vote on the PATRIOT Act conference report as early as Thursday, November 17. The revised bill does not contain important civil liberties safeguards sought by ALA and other advocates…The revised bill sunsets at seven years (The Senate bill sunset was 4 years and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Legislation, Libraries, Patriot Act, Privacy