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On April 7, OMB Watch launched a portal to monitor how data quality guidelines impact the timeliness and range of information which state and federal government agencies make availalble to the public. The Tracking Data Quality site includes links to the following areas: Analysis and Background Challenges Agency Guidelines Legislation Correspondence
Incentives to Preserve Digital Materials: OCLC Research White Paper by Brian Lavoie. (via David Mattison)
Internet News reported on April 3 that the FTC “has finalized its Gramm-Leach-Bliley Safeguards Rule, which requires financial institutions under the FTC’s jurisdiction to develop and implement appropriate physical, technical, and procedural safeguards to protect customer information. The rule becomes effective on May 23.” In related news, this press release, The FTC Targets Security to …
As a follow-up to my posting, HIPAA Security Standards Final Rule Published, see this New York Times article from April 6, Health System Warily Prepares for Privacy Rules. The new standards, effective April 14, require the health care industry to implement new privacy protections related to the disclosure of patient data. For another perspective on …
The Information Law Weblog was launched March 28, is by librarian/researcher/author Paul Pedley, and focuses on copyright, data protection and freedom of information issues in the UK. Well worth a visit. (Thanks to DC for the link.)
The Nando Times 24-hour free news service, and the free Nando SportServer, will both cease operations within 60 days, according to their parent company, Internet and newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. See the respective announcements from each site here and here.
This US News and World Report’s article, Digging through data for omens, addresses information gathering challenges inherent in the TSA’s new airline screening program, CAPPS II. The article states the program is… “a delicate dual challenge: accurately spotting suspicious patterns across multiple databases while minimizing false alarms and safeguarding individual privacy.” Within the context of …
A headline from today’s New York Times states, Librarians Use Shredder to Show Opposition to New F.B.I. Powers. This article provides further details to a previous posting on the stance of public librarians in Santa Cruz County against provisions of the Patriot Act that permit the FBI to access patron data. The librarians are using …
The American Library Association (ALA) launched a new website today. The press release states the following: “The new site will feature a better search engine, one-stop pages detailing ALA’s work in major areas of interest, a more modern look and feel and more content to help library professionals in their daily work. The home page …
Here is a link to the new Yahoo search engine. An online tour of the new features available indicates the following changes: More relevant, comprehensive results Cleaner, easier to use interface A new search start page Image search Customizable preferences Timesaving shortcuts for news, yellow pages and maps See also Yahoo alights on new search …
CNN reported the availability to the public of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Access to Archival Databases System (AAD) in this April 5 article. The database was actually released on February 12, and represents a substantial e-gov program to provide a single user interface for researchers to facilitate searching, retrieving and dowloading approximately …
Heather Newman at the Detroit Free Press reports that the damages sought by the RIAA in just one of the four lawsuits they filed on April 3 against college students total the unbelievable sum of $97.8 million (incorrectly stated as trillion in the article). This calculation results from multiplying the maximum damages per copyright violation …