California and Privacy Legislation

The Privacy Journal conducted a survey of state legislation related to privacy issues, and ranked California at the top of the list due to its pro-active institution of protections for its citizens, via legislation, but also through the courts and in its constitution. This information comes from the organization’s Compilation of State and Federal Privacy …

Subjects: Privacy

Survey of Online Campaign Finance Info

The Center for Governmental Studies published the Electronic Filing and Disclosure Survey, 2002 Update, which is a 27 page report in PDF, encompassing answers to 23 questions. The document includes data from the federal government, 50 states, and six Canadian provinces. Virtually all of the jurisdictions surveyed provide online campaign finance, lobbyist and personal financial …

Subjects: E-Government, Freedom of Information

Total Information Awareness Overview

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 …

Subjects: Privacy

China Censors Danish Websites

The Copenhagen press reported that the Chinese government has systematically censorsed access to the Danish search engine, Jubii. This is in no small measure due to the fact this engine provides access to sites banned by the Chinese government, including Amnesty International and the Falun Gong spiritual movement. Note: I was not familiar with Falun …

Subjects: Censorship, Freedom of Information, Internet

CA Law on Computer Database Hacking

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 …

Subjects: E-Government, E-Records, Privacy

Homeland Security and Surveillance

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 …

Subjects: Privacy

FTC and Spam Scams

The FTC has developed and initiated a joint effort among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to protect consumers from fraudulent and deceptive actions perpetrated via the use of spam e-mail messages. As a result of their investigations, the FTC posted a useful web page here with facts on spam scams and advice for …

Subjects: E-Mail