Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
This site provides a flowchart of the TIA System objectives and strategy….very short on facts. This Washington Post article offers more information on the new Pentagon project including links to other press coverage, both pro and con, mostly focused on privacy concerns associated with its goals and objectives. If you are interested in hearing about …
The California state government learned the hard way the repercussions of not acting swiftly to respond to, secure and disclose that employee personal data was comprised by a wide scale database hacking operation in April 2002. Fast forward, and their legislature is now the first in the country to pass a law to prevent the …
William Safire’s Op-Ed piece, You Are a Suspect, generated considerable reaction from readers as he enumerated how each and every daily transaction that you consider innocuous and routine (purchases with credit cards, filling prescriptions, surfing the web) will become part of the DOJ’s vast new, Total Information Awareness database. Needless to say, Safire condemns the …
On October 24, 2002 the ACLU filed a FOI lawsuit to obtain DOJ documents pertaining to the government’s various Patriot Act surveillance programs and initiatives. In a press release issued today, the ACLU is again demanding that the DOJ comply with their demand to release documents the government admits to having compiled, but to date, …
Wired has an interesting article on a number of new applications now available that are used to track and monitor the range of non-work related activities that employees engage in while using corporate e-mail and Internet access.
The Supreme Court today agreed to review a challenge to the constitutionality of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) (United States v. American Library Association, 02-361), which stipulates that libraries receiving federal funds install filtering software on public access PCs. This law is vigorously opposed by the American Library Association (ALA) and the ACLU. For …
The Citizens Action Project is sponsored by the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. This organization has created a database detailing specifically what public records pertaining to sex offenders are made available by states via their respective Web portals. Information provided includes references to state statutes and case law, but no …
This case, State of Washington v. Donald Theodore Townsend, addresses the privacy of e-mail and instant message (IM) communication in a police sting operation involving an adult and a fictitious minor. Townsend’s messages were stored on a police officer’s PC, printed, and used as evidence. The court determined that Townsend’s messages were not covered under …
The Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at Boalt Hall is actively involved in educational efforts focused on privacy law, digital rights management and copyright issues. The site maintains a BriefBank, to which public interest groups and legal scholars contribute briefs on law, technology and public policy. The site has a basic search engine …
This New York Times article details plans for a Pentagon database currently under development that would be used to mine, collect and analyze personal data collected from the Web, e-mail, telecommunications, government documents and online transactions. The stated purpose of this unprecedented effort: homeland security. This program has the support of the executive director of …
Been to Washington, D.C. lately? Did you have a feeling that you were being watched?
About a month after colleges and universities were warned about file sharing and associated piracy issues by the RIAA, and in turn sounded the alarm, EPIC has chimed in with another warning. The non-profit privacy rights organization informs educational institutions that aggressive monitoring of online activity impacts students privacy and their right to academic freedom.
