Government Privacy

Date	Article Title	Publication	Author	Synopsis

7/15/2008	Bill would require more privacy officers	Federal Computer Week	Michael Hardy	The House of Representatives is considering a bill to add more privacy officers to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). H.R. 5170 calls for privacy officers in each of DHS's nine components. Currently only four of these components have full-time privacy officers.
6/20/2008	GAO: Senior privacy officials need authority	Federal Computer Week	Mary Mosquera	A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report says that agencies should give their senior privacy leaders full oversight over all key privacy functions. After reviewing 12 government agencies, the GAO concluded that in order for agencies to ensure consistent implementation of privacy protections and effectively protect the personal data collected by the government, privacy officials must have more oversight.
6/19/2008	FCC expected to rule Verizon violated privacy laws	Associated Press	Dibya Sarkar	A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling on allegations against Verizon Communications, Inc. could come as soon as today. The company was accused by its competitors of violating privacy laws by retaining customer information after customers cancelled voice services.
6/18/2008	Immunity likely for phone companies in spy bill	Reuters	Thomas Ferraro	A measure to grant U.S. phone companies retroactive immunity for participating in the Bush Administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program is poised for approval.
6/17/2008	Report: Feds need better privacy protection for data	USA Today	Mimi Hall	The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that Congress should update the Privacy Act of 1974 in order to ensure that citizens' data is protected, says a USA Today report. The results of a new GAO report showing that the government is not doing enough to secure the data it collects on citizens will be shared in today's hearing by the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
6/11/2008	FTC wants strong civil penalties for spyware distributors	Network World	Layer 8	The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is urging the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee to consider the civil penalty provisions in Senate Bill S. 1625, the Counter Spy Act, currently under review by the committee.
4/2/2008	Everything You Wanted to Know About the Wiretap Debate	Wired	Ryan Singel	Returning last week from a two-week break, Congress looks ahead to negotiating with the Bush administration a compromise on wiretapping powers and amnesty for the telecoms that released U.S. citizens' data to the federal government.
3/27/2008	Kovacic Appointed New FTC Chairman	Washington Post	Annys Shin	William Kovacic is the new chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Kovacic started yesterday, taking over for Deborah Platt Majoras.
3/26/2008	Leahy Calls For Privacy Legislation	wcax.com	Kristin Carlson	Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy proposes legislation to fortify privacy-related laws and penalties.
3/19/2008	Help Name the Homeland Security Privacy Pig	Wired	Ryan Singel	Who could forget that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a Privacy Incident Handling Guidebook, better known as PIHG, in its stable of readiness materials?
2/29/2008	Bush Nominates Three to Empty Privacy Board	Wired	Ryan Singel	After remaining empty for a month, President George Bush last week nominated three individuals to fill the five vacancies on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
2/26/2008	Senate antiphishing bill outlaws…what's already illegal	Cnet News.com	Declan McCullagh	Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson (Fla.) and Republicans Olympia Snowe (Wash.) and Ted Stevens (Alaska) introduced a bill this week called the Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act. It contains 31 pages of new regulations that could raise the cost of doing business for legitimate companies--but will do little to stop the malcontents behind phishing attacks.
2/18/2008	Bush Surveillance Directive A Policy Mistake, Experts Say	Federal Computer Week	Jason Miller	President Bush's cybersecurity directive, issued last month, was a policy error that gives Defense Department surveillance authority over civilian data networks.
2/11/2008	DHS Delivers Privacy Report To Congress	Federal Computer Week	Ben Bain	The Privacy Office of the Department of Homeland Security delivered its annual report to Congress providing a summary if issues faced by, and progress made by the department in carrying out its mandate.
2/8/2008	DHS Sued For Interrogation Tactics	San Francisco Chronicle	Bob Egelko	The Department of Homeland Security is facing a law suit brought by the Asian Law Caucus and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in response to complaints lodged by South Asian and Muslim travelers returning to the United States after traveling abroad.
2/7/2008	Privacy Laws Make Progress In California	Direct Mag		Two new laws aiming to boost consumer privacy protections are progressing through the California legislature.
2/4/2008	Federal Privacy Oversight Committee Lacks Nominees	Wired	Ryan Singel	As memberships to the federal Privacy and Civil Liberty Oversight Board approach expiration, the Bush Administration is coming under fire from members of Congress for failing to nominate potential new appointees.
1/2/2008	Government Records Routinely Contain SSNs	Washington Post.com	Bill Brubaker	Social Security numbers are readily available in government databases, Web sites and in files, including public records in courthouses. There is little uniformity among states about the protection of sensitive personal data.
12/30/2007	Joanne McNabb: California's Public Sector Privacy Pioneer	San Francisco Chronicle	Deborah Gage	A profile of Joanne McNabb, CIPP/G, Chief of the California Office of Privacy Protection, the first state agency in the nation dedicated to consumer privacy.
12/10/2007	Government Risk Manager Issued Warning Three Years Before Breach	vnunet.com	Matt Chapman	Treasury Risk Manager Richard Fennelly warned in a March 2004 letter of lax security and access procedures involving the child benefit database.
12/4/2007	GAO praises TSA for its handling of sensitive info	Federal Computer Week	Ben Bain	The Homeland Security Department’s Transportation Security Administration has improved how it handles some sensitive but unclassified data.
11/28/2007	TSA Plans To Require Collection Of Birth Dates, Gender For Airline Passengers	USA Today	Thomas Frank	The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is planning to require passengers to provide birth dates and their gender, in addition to their full names, when they make their airline reservations. The airlines oppose the move, but the TSA said the additional information will assist agents in conducting more precise background checks.
11/8/2007	Survey Of Government Security Officials Finds Increased Concern About Threats	Information Week	Thomas Claburn	Federal IT officials are more concerned about security than they were in previous years despite increased spending to prevent data leaks.
9/20/2007	GAO: VA In Danger Of Another Breach	SC Magazine		The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has conducted an audit of physical controls at four U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' facilities. The outcome indicates that shortcomings in physical controls of laptops are putting the department at risk for another security failure.

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