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The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) published a new report, Why Am I Getting All This Spam? (16 pages in PDF), which documents the volume of spam received over the course of six months by hundreds of accounts created specifically to research this issue. Although the report offers no absolute methods for beating spam, …
Brown University temporarily terminated Internet access for 67 students after they were identified as having downloaded files using P2P applications through the campus network. See also this Message to the Brown Community on Illegal Downloading of Music and Videos and Your Vulnerability, which links to the Using Computing Resources at Brown University guidelines.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been pursuing a high-profile campaign against P2P file sharing that stretches from college and university campuses to the cubicles of corporate America. On March 12, RIAA President Cary H. Sherman sent letters to 300 companies warning that “significant legal damages” could result from employers and employees who …
Georgia State Senator Eric Johnson spearheaded the “Know Thy Neighbor Act” in 1997 which required that the Board of Pardons and Paroles create an online database through which citizens could ascertain the addresses and respective crimes of the state’s parolees. The Geogia Parolee Database is now available on the web, and users may access information …
The Ninth Annual National Conference sponsored by the non-profit think tank Privacy & American Business took place in Washington, D.C. March 13-14. The draft agenda for the Privacy Practitioner’s Workshop, which included more than a dozen presentations, is available in PDF here. A link to the conference speaker’s page is here, and includes California State …
From this article in Security Focus, news that Verint Systems, “a global organization providing analytic software solutions for communications interception, digital video security and surveillance,” to governments around the world, has launched a sophisticated new application called ULTRA IntelliFind that monitors telephone communications and creates a database of specified key words which are then searchable …
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced yesterday that the Senate Commerce Committee approved an amendment that would put into place Congressional oversight of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) controversial Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II). The CAPPS II system is at the center of a contentious battle between advocates of the privacy and civil liberties …
From the New York Times article, Measuring Lost Freedom vs. Security in Dollars, this statement, “In a notice published last month, the budget office asked experts from around the country for ideas on how to measure “indirect costs” like lost time, lost privacy and even lost liberty that might stem from tougher security regulations.” The …
A bill passed by the Virginia House and Senate, H.B. 2426, “relating to posting certain information on the Internet; prohibitions” stipulates that “Beginning January 1, 2004, no court clerk shall post on a court-controlled website any document that contains the following information: (i) an actual signature; (ii) a social security number; (iii) a date of …
Subsequent to the hacking of UT Austin’s computer system last week, resulting in the theft of personal data from more than 50,000 records as reported in my previous posting here, Texas lawmakers are giving closer consideration to a previously introduced bill banning the use of social security numbers on student IDs. The act, HB 1026, …
European Parliament and Council decision amending Decision No 276/1999/EC adopting a multiannual Community action plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks, COM(2002) 152 Final.
H.R. 395, The Do-Not-Call Implementation Act, P.L. 108-10, 117 Stat. 557; 2 pages, “To authorize the Federal Trade Commission to collect fees for the implementation and enforcement of a “do-not-call” registry,” was signed by the President on March 11. For more information on the procedure to remove your name from the telemarketers registry, see this …
