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From Privacy International: “On May 17, 2004 the European Commission approved an agreement to transfer passenger details to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, an agreement established in the name of, but that has little to do with, the war on terror.” Privacy International has published this report, Transferring Privacy and Inadequate Adequacy, documenting what …
May 18, 2004 – Legislative hearing on H.R. 3179, the “Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Tools Improvement Act of 2003.” Witness List, Chairman Howard Coble, Daniel Bryant, Thomas Harrington, and from the prepared statement of Bob Barr, “The question before us today is whether the USA PATRIOT Act should be expanded this year. In short, the answer is …
According to the New York Times, the Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee advises the DOJ, in an report delivered in March, but just made available (although not yet on the TAPAC website), that due to data mining undertaken by the government in the fight against terrorism, there is the need to establish additional legislative protections …
Executive Order 13335 –Incentives for the Use of Health Information Technology and Establishing the Position of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator: “The National Coordinator shall, to the extent permitted by law, develop, maintain, and direct the implementation of a strategic plan to guide the nationwide implementation of interoperable health information technology in both the …
DHS remains committed to contested passenger-screening program TSA’s passenger-screening system criticized by database firm chief . This article reports that ChoicePoint’s CEO stated his company will not participate in the CAPPS II program.
From the June 2004 issue of Reason magazine, take the time to read this article (10 pages, pdf), Database Nation, The upside of “zero” privacy, by Declan McCullagh: “Focusing on government power would keep intact the advantages of databasifcation – such as lower prices and cheaper mortgages – while limiting possible abuses by law enforcement. …
Yesterday, California Senate Bill 1436, the Consumer Protection Against Computer Spyware Act, sponsored by Senator Kevin Murray, won approval by the Judiciary Committee. In addition, Assembly Bill 2787, which prohibits the download of spyware to a computer in California, was approved by the Committee on Judiciary.
Anonymity in the 21st Century (13 pages, pdf), by Randy Barrett: “Before 9/11, the debate over anonymity was largely the purview of legal scholars and a few public-interest lawyers in Washington. As the white dust billowed over lower Manhattan and fires raged in the Pentagon, the dichotomy between individual civil rights and societal safety entered …
From the text of a May 3 letter sent by EPIC, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and the World Privacy Forum, to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer: “We write to urge your office to investigate Google’s “Gmail” service. We believe that Gmail violates California Penal Code § 631, which governs eavesdropping on confidential communications. In light …
Excerpts from an AP interview with ChoicePoint Inc. (CPS) chairman Derek Smith.
The New Surveillance, by Sonia Katyal, Case Western Law Review, Vol. 54, No. 297, 2004. “The goals of this Article are threefold: first, to trace the origins of piracy surveillance through recent jurisprudence involving copyright; second, to provide an analysis of the tradeoffs between public and private enforcement of copyright; and third, to suggest some …
According to this New York Times article, major U.S. air carriers, pursuant to what industry officials characterized as requests of unprecedented scope, provided the FBI with millions of passenger travel records. Northwest alone gave the government 6,000 CDs of data. This article is based on information obtained through FOIA litigation by EPIC.
