Personal Privacy

Date	Article Title	Publication	Author	Synopsis

7/15/2008	Lawyers in YouTube lawsuit reach user privacy deal	Reuters	Eric Auchard	Google has reached an agreement with Viacom regarding the release of YouTube user information in Viacom's $1 billion copyright infringement lawsuit against that company.
7/13/2008	Printer dots raise privacy concerns	USA Today	Thomas Frank	Many color laser printer manufacturers are turning out products that print a pattern of near-invisible tiny yellow dots that represent the product's serial number. These patterns allow printed documents to be traced back to the owner of the machine, a capability watchdog group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says represents a violation of personal privacy.
7/11/2008	Is the do-not-call list not working?	Info World	Ed Foster	Ed Foster wonders if the Do-Not-Call Registry is losing its effectiveness as telemarketers have worked their way around so many of the penalties intended to keep them from phone spamming consumers.
7/8/2008	U.S. Seeks Data Exchange	Washington Post	Ellen Nakashima	The United States is negotiating data exchange agreements with new European Union member nations that would facilitate travel between countries without a visa.
7/8/2008	No Privacy on Fingerprint Provision	Wall Street Journal	John Berlau	John Berlau, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, countered charges that his recent editorial in that paper panning a proposed federal fingerprint law was misleading. On June 28 senators Dianne Feinstein and Mel Martinez charged Berlau with misrepresenting the bill.
6/30/2008	Laptops Lost Like Hotcakes at US Airports	PC World	Agam Shah	A study released yesterday reveals that hundreds of thousands of laptops are stolen from U.S. airports each year, and most contain unprotected confidential company information
6/26/2008	Laptop Searches in Airports Draw Fire at Senate Hearing	New York Times	Austin Bogues	A Senate Judiciary subcommittee yesterday heard from those concerned about Border Patrol searches of the laptops of United States citizens re-entering the country from abroad.
6/24/2008	Target's (The Retailer) Swipe At Privacy	Information Week	George Hulme	George Hulme relays his experience of having his driver's license swiped at a large retailer when purchasing Nicorette gum, raising questions about just what license information is captured during the swiping, if any, and how well that information may be protected once captured.
6/22/2008	Plan to fingerprint foreigners exiting U.S. is opposed	The Washington Post	Spencer S. Hsu	The U.S. government wants airlines and cruise companies to collect the digital fingerprints of all foreign passengers leaving the U.S., but the airline industry and embassies of 34 nations oppose the plan.
6/12/2008	ACLU files lawsuit on behalf of Virginia privacy advocate	ComputerWorld Security	Betty Ostergren	The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of privacy advocate Betty "BJ" Ostergren, whose failed quest to stop Virginia state and county offices from posting public records containing Social Security numbers on their Web sites instead resulted in a law prohibiting others from reposting publicly-available sensitive information.
6/11/2008	Conn. Governor Signs Bill to Safeguard Personal Data	Government Technology		Connecticut governor M. Jodi Rell yesterday signed into law a bill to safeguard personal information. The law requires anyone possessing Social Security numbers or other personal information to protect it or face civil penalties up to $500,000.
6/6/2008	Bush pushes biometrics for national security	FCW.com	Ben Bain	A presidential directive issued last week requires federal agencies to collaborate on methods used to collect, store and share biometric data--such as fingerprints, face and iris recognition data and behavioral characteristics--of people thought to be a threat to national security.
5/29/2008	Big Brother Is Watching Your Travel Habits	Wired Blog Network	Alexander Lew	Police access to customer transit card information continues to provoke debate.
5/25/2008	Exposed	New York Times	Emily Gould	In a New York Times Magazine cover story, Emily Gould reveals her life as a blogger --personal and professional-- where she shared the most personal details of her life with thousands of people every day.
5/23/2008	What your cellphone knows about you	Forbes.com	Andy Greenberg	Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are looking to cell phones to measure wellness.
5/22/2008	Cathay to fight watchdog ruling	The Standard	Nishika Patel	Cathay Pacific is seeking judicial review in hopes of overturning a 2007 ruling by the Hong Kong privacy commissioner, reports The Standard. The ruling deemed that the company had acted unfairly by collecting medical records of employees with high absence rates under the threat of disciplinary action for refusal to submit.
5/18/2008	SECURITY, PRIVACY OFFICES MUST COMBINE RESOURCES	Information Security Magazine	Ben Halpert	In an article for Information Security Magazine, Ben Halpert says that the technical realities of today make it all too easy for outside parties to have access to information that pertains to the individual. He suggests that organizations' security and privacy teams work together at protecting personal information, noting that currently, consumers must take "overt actions" to protect their privacy.
5/13/2008	Five IRS Employees Charged With Snooping on Tax Returns	Wired Blog Network	Kevin Poulsen	Snooping is on the rise at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to a Treasury Department investigator who testified before Congress last month. Five hundred twenty one cases of unauthorized access were reported last year and, earlier this week, five employees at the Fresno, California processing center were charged with computer fraud and unauthorized access to tax return information for unnecessary viewing of taxpayers' files.
5/9/2008	Sidney's High Data Privacy Lecture Part of Internal Report	Sun Telegraph	Klark Byrd	A privacy presentation for students at Sidney High School in Sidney, Nebraska, was included in an international report as an example of the sort of outreach envisioned by the founders of International Data Privacy Day.
5/8/2008	Age verification' device invades privacy	Tennesean.com	Virginia Crowe	Identification procedures at a local restaurant have at least one Nashville resident concerned.
5/1/2008	When UPMC wrist ID tells too much	Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	Steve Twedt	The use of Social Security numbers as patient identifiers on admissions' wrist bracelets has come under scrutiny at a Pennsylvania hospital, says a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story.
4/30/2008	Travel Group warns: Corporate data at risk from laptop searches at border	Computer World	Jaikumar Vijayan	A recent ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals worries the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), which has issued a warning to members about private information and border crossings.
4/27/2008	Using kin's DNA to track suspects	San Francisco Chronicle	Ellen Nakashima	Soon, California will adopt a protocol to allow familial DNA searches for crime investigation, and Massachusetts and Colorado are also exploring the technique.
4/21/2008	Feds see strong demand for border-crossing cards	Washington Technology	Alice Lipowicz	Washington Technology reports that demand is high for the new U.S. border-crossing card that frequent travelers can use instead of a passport to enter the country at certain points.
4/21/2008	Study: Consumers Misunderstand RFID and Its Security	RFIDUpdate.com	John Burnell	A new study suggests that consumers are ignorant of the data risks inherent with the use of RFID-enabled identification, according to an article in RFIDUpdate.com.
4/15/2008	Doyle wants new state safeguards for data	Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	Stacy Forster	Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is calling for state government agencies to reform their data collection and security procedures, including doing away with the use of Social Security numbers as a means of identifying citizens.
4/9/2008	Group calls for teen privacy protections on Facebook, MySpace	CNET News.com	Stefanie Olsen	A coalition of child privacy advocates, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children Now and the Center for Digital Democracy, is urging the Federal Trade Commission to expand the scope of existing child privacy law and increase the age restrictions on data collection from 13 years to 18 years of age.
4/4/2008	City installing homeless person database on Nashville City Paper	Nashville City Paper	Nate Rau	Nashville city officials will soon begin collecting information on the local homeless population and creating a database in line with the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Homeless Information Management System (HIMS).
4/2/2008	Pentagon Uses FBI to Collect Data on People in the U.S.	Wall Street Journal	Siobahn Gorman	In an apparent workaround, the Pentagon has colluded with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to gather information on people in the U.S. Pentagon documents, released after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued for disclosure, confirm that the Defense Department took advantage of the FBIs wider domestic spying powers to gather financial and communications data using national security letters, administrative subpoenas that don't require court approval.
4/2/2008	U.S. Gives Maine a Deadline of Today to Say It Will Comply with ID Law	New York Times	Katie Zezima	Maine officials have a matter of hours to agree to comply with the federal Real ID Act, which requires states to tighten driver's license issuing regulations using a variety of measures.
3/31/2008	Defiant South Carolina Wind Real ID Extension	Wired Blog Network	Ryan Singel	The Department of Homeland Security granted South Carolina an extension for Real ID Act compliance. The Real ID Act aims to make it more difficult for terrorists to obtain driver's licenses, but many states have passed laws barring participation in the program, citing concerns about privacy and cost, among other issues.
3/31/2008	State leads way on RFID policy	Seattle Times	Kristi Heim	Washington governor Christine Gregoire last week signed into law two bills designed to help protect citizens' privacy, says a report in the Seattle Times. Starting in June it will be a felony to possess information from an RFID-enhanced driver's license.
3/30/2008	City Sobpoenas Creator of Text Messaging Code	New York Times	Colin Moynihan	Lawyers for the city of New York have subpoenaed the text message records of thousands of people involved in demonstrations at the 2004 Republican National Convention. A New York Times report says that Tad Hirsch, MIT doctoral candidate and creator of the TXTmob code that enabled convention demonstrators to transmit messages to thousands of telephones, has been instructed to release the content of messages exchanged on the service and to identify people who sent and received messages.
3/29/2008	2 States in Jeopardy With Federal ID Law	New York Times	Katie Zezima	Travelers from Maine and South Carolina may need to use passport IDs for domestic travel if the federal government does not grant those states extensions for the Real ID Act compliance deadline.

3/21/2008	FAQ: The passport breach: What exactly is in those records?	ComputerWorld	Jaikumar Vijayan	Following last week's disclosure that employees of government contractors charged with processing passport data for the U.S. Department of State had inappropriately accessed the files of presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
3/18/2008	ACLU 1, state 0 in battle to protect your privacy rights	The Virginia Pilot	Kerry Dougherty	The Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has joined the fight to protect the privacy of Virginia's citizens. Virginia Pilot columnist Kerry Dougherty reported in her blog this morning that the ACLU will oppose SB133, which goes into effect on July 1 this year, and which prevents individuals from re-distributing Social Security numbers obtained legally from Virginia state Web properties.
2/28/2008	Consumers Inconsistent With Privacy	The Mercury News	Mark Boslet	Consumers claim they are protective of their privacy and complain loudly when companies fail to protect their personal information, but seem content to share that very information with complete strangers, according to research presented by the San Jose Mercury News.
2/26/2008	Media Measurement Hits Expansion Snags	New York Times	Louise Story	As television becomes less of a centerpiece to the American media experience, the Nielsen Company, long known for its network of "Nielsen Families" whose TV watching choices influence network broadcasting and advertising, is seeking to expand.
2/24/2008	Tucson Golfers' SSNs At Risk	Arizona Daily Star	Shelley Shelton	Residents of Tucson, Arizona who use their resident identification cards when paying for their rounds at municipal golf courses are being cautioned to hold on to their receipts.
2/21/2008	Cell Phone Snooping Now A Simple Feat	Forbes.com	Andy Greenberg	At the Black Hat conference this week, two tech whiz kids demonstrated a technique for capturing and decrypting cellular telephone conversations broadcast using the GSM standard, used by such carriers as AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile. According to Forbes, the pair said they soon plan to make their breakthrough, a process which takes about 30 minutes, available to the public.
2/20/2008	Privacy and Behavioral Targeting: How Much Data Is Too Much?	ClickZ.com	Elyse Tager	Elyse Tager writes of the conundrum facing the behavioral targeting industry.
2/16/2008	Bush, Congress Spar Over Immunity	New York Times	David Herszenhorn	President Bush and Congress sparred this week over a provision of the proposed renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would grant telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for handing call data over to federal authorities following the 9/11 terror attacks.
2/15/2008	Washington State Outlaws RFID Skimming	RFID Journal	Claire Swedberg	The Washington State House of Representatives has approved a privacy bill addressing concerns related to the use of personally identifiable information in conjunction with RFID technology. HB1031, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Morris, would make it a felony to "skim" RFID tagged items in order to capture an individual's personal data and would prohibit vendors from capturing and retaining PII contained on an RFID tag without the user's consent.
2/13/2008	Maine Adoption Records Law Takes Interesting Turn	USA Today	Wendy Koch	The passage of Maine State Senator Paula Benoit's bill making it easier for adoptees to have birth records unsealed took an interesting turn when she learned she was an aunt to two of her legislative colleagues, but the law also opened a privacy debate.
2/12/2008	Woman Sues Best Buy For $54 M Over Lost Lap Top	MSNBC	Bob Sullivan	Six months after bringing a damaged laptop computer into a Best Buy electronics store for repairs, and three months after the firm admitted losing it, Raelyn Campbell filed the whopper of a lawsuit recently in Washington, D.C., Superior Court.
2/9/2008	Ford Develops RFID Tool Inventory System for Trucks	efluxmedia.com	Max Brenn	Ford Motor Company recently announced a new RFID-based inventory system for its trucks and vans that will allow contractors to keep track of high value tools.
2/8/2008	Belizeans Continue To Contend With Privacy Issues	The Reporter	Niall Gillette	The Carribean nation of Belize is coming to grips with a number of privacy issues.
2/7/2008	Security Matters For Online Shoppers	Information Week	George Hulme	George Hulme says that a recent study by Gartner shows that the number and pace of security breaches is having a detrimental effect on consumers' willingness to make online purchases.
2/7/2008	RFID At Center Of Many Stories Worldwide	RFID Journal		A summary of a number of stories for the industry, many of which have direct privacy connections.
2/7/2008	South Carolina Latest to Pass Consumer Privacy Law	scnow.com	Kelly Gillespie	South Carolina may be the latest state to adopt a consumer privacy law following the state legislature's approval of a bill that would allow consumers who suspect their identity is at risk to freeze on their credit at no cost.
2/6/2008	FBI Touts, Critics Decry Biometric Database	cnn.com	Kelli Arena & Carol Cratty	The FBI prepares to award contracts for the creation of a $1 billion database that will house the biometric profiles of criminals.
2/5/2008	Eye Scan Among New Hotel Door Lock Options	USA Today	Roger Yu	As hoteliers around the world search for new options that offer better guest security while also lowering cost and producing less waste, biometrics and RFID are among the technologies being considered.
2/1/2008	Opinion: RFID Payment Systems Too Risky	Info World	Brian Chee	Brian Chee writes of feeling less than comfortable with the new RFID-enabled payment cards issued by American Express and Master Card.
1/30/2008	Colorado DA Warns Of Bogus Calls To Harvest PII	CBS 4 Denver News	Tom Mustin	Carol Chambers, district attorney for Douglas and Arapahoe Counties in Colorado is warning residents in her region to be on the alert after reports of an individual pretending to be a court official placing fraudulent calls and requesting personal information on the pretext of gathering information for jury duty.
1/30/2008	Directory Of Cell Phone Numbers Raises Concern	MSNBC	Alex Johnson	Consumers, wireless carriers, politicians and privacy advocates have expressed concern over an online database of cellular telephone numbers made available by Intelius. More than 90 million private cell phone numbers are contained within the directory, and each is available for sale.
1/30/2008	Congress Passes 15-Day Surveillance Extension	Washington Post.com	Paul Kane	Under threat of veto, Congress has passed a 15-day extension to temporary wiretap authority granted after 9/11. President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a proposed 30-day extension of the law, but officials said he was likely to agree to the added time in order to allow deliberation on permanent expansion and renewal of the Protect America Act, which had been due to expire today.
1/29/2008	Security Cameras Cannot Record Voice	Out-law.com		The Information Commissioner's Office has stated that, except in rare instances, operators of video surveillance cameras must not record conversations.
1/29/2008	Travelers, Politicians Say Terror Watch List Redress Ineffective	The Wall Street Journal	Scott McCartney	The system established by the federal government to assist travelers whose names erroneously appear on terror watch lists is not working, say travelers and members of congress.
1/26/2008	Indiana Legislator Wants Disclosure On Car Event Recorders	Indianapolis Business Journal	Chris O'Malley	State Representative Earl Harris has sponsored a House Bill 1324 that would require companies selling, leasing or renting new cars to provide disclosure of the presence of an event data recorder -- more commonly known as a "black box" -- in the vehicle.
1/26/2008	Secret Directive gives NSA Snoop Power over Fed Networks	Washington Post.com	Ellen Nakashima	President Bush signed a directive this month that expands the intelligence community's role in monitoring Internet traffic to protect against a rising number of attacks on federal agencies' computer systems.
1/25/2008	Like It Or Not, RFID Is Everywhere (Or Will Be)	Associated Press	Todd Lewan	RFID chips in cars, appliances, consumer goods -- even people; it's not science fiction, it's with us today, and it is making plenty of people uncomfortable.
1/23/2008	Media Coverage Of RFID More Balanced	RFID Journal	Mark Roberti	Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal, observes in the magazine's blog that depictions of radio frequency identification technology in the media are becoming less alarmist and more balanced of late.
1/23/2008	VP Cheney Pushes For FISA Renewal	MSNBC	Associated Press	Vice President Dick Cheney is urging Congress to pass a bill that would renew federal powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act saying that the bill, which gives law enforcement authority to eavesdrop on telephone and Internet communications, is an important bulwark against terrorism.
1/18/2008	Missouri Latest State To Protest Real ID	STLtoday.com	Lee Logan	The Missouri state legislature yesterday became the latest to pass a law prohibiting the state from complying with provisions of the Real ID Act, creating a set of standard identification elements for all state drivers' licenses.
1/17/2008	Personal, Professional Lives Intersect Through Social Networks	USA Today	Janet Kornblum	How one woman's eyes were opened to the far-reaching implications of posting personal information to a social networking Web site.
1/17/2008	Security Preparations Begin For Super Bowl	ABC News	Jason Ryan & Pierre Thomas	State and federal law enforcement agencies are preparing themselves for activities surrounding the Super Bowl following the completion of a threat assessment by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.
1/16/2008	Family Farms Bristle At Animal Identification Program	Los Angeles Times		A Bush Administration program requiring all U.S. farms to register their stock with the Department of Agriculture and affix an identification tag to individual animals is drawing criticism from small farms and other groups who complain that the program is a unnecessary "Big Brother" burden.
1/15/2008	Wisconsin Is At It Again	Milwaukee Journal Sentinel		Wisconsin Secretary of Administration Michael Morgan announced this week that 5,000 more residents had their Social Security numbers exposed in the mail, mere days following another mailing error that exposed 260,000 SSNs on address labels.
1/14/2008	DHS Funding Development Of Advanced Screening Tech	Computer World	Robert L. Mitchell	The Department of Homeland Security is funding the development of advanced surveillance and screening technology that will use real-time data input to detect high-risk travelers at security checkpoints.
1/12/2008	Tennesseans Worried REAL ID Will Ground Them	Tennesean.com	Devlin Barrett	Following last week's announced five-year extension for states to begin to come into compliance with the federal REAL ID Act, designed to establish a national driver's license standard, some states expressed concern that their citizens may be punished at airport security checks because of state laws rejecting the measure.
1/10/2008	Gun Registry Posting Did Not Violate Privacy	The Ottawa Citizen	Glen McGregor	Canadian gun owners who filed a complaint following the Ottawa Citizen's online posting of a searchable copy of the a federal gun registry, obtained from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, learned this week that their privacy was not violated.
1/10/2008	National Do Not Call Registry On Verge Of Renewal	Associated Press	Eileen Alt Powell	Responding to worries over the pending expiration of the hugely popular Do Not Call Registry and the need to renew the more than 150 million phone numbers currently included in the anti-telemarketing list, Congress is set to automatically renew the Registry.
1/8/2008	Wisconsin Prints SSNs On Mailing Labels - Again	Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	STACY FORSTER and PATRICK MARLEY	For the second time in a little over a year, a Wisconsin state agency has printed Social Security numbers on mailing labels. On Tuesday the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services disclosed that nearly 260,000 recipients of Medicaid information had their SSNs compromised when the data was printed above their name on the envelope.
1/8/2008	ACLU Critical Of Plan To Track R.I. Grade-Schoolers	International Herald Tribune	Associated Press	The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has issued a statement critical of a plan to track Aquidneck School students with RFID tags, calling the plan a "solution in search of a problem." The RFID tags, used to track students while they are on the bus, would be provided by MAP Information Technology.
12/8/2007	Privacy Commissioner Questions Quality of Data-Matching Program	The Dominion Post	Nick Venter	Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff is has detailed in her annual report three incidents in which a new government data-matching program has led police to intercept the wrong people at airports in an effort to collect overdue fines.
11/28/2007	Federal Judge Rails Against Government Attempt To Obtain IDs Of Book Purchasers	newsfactor.com	Frederick Lane	The FBI's attempt to force Amazon.com to reveal the identities of more than 24,000 individuals who bought used books from the subject of a tax fraud investigation is "an unsettling and un-American scenario," wrote a federal judge who prevented federal prosecutors from gaining access to the Amazon.com records.
11/16/2007	Newspaper Reveals Boeing's Employee Surveillance Tactics	Seattle Post-Intelligencer	Andrea James	This story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer details employee monitoring tactics in The Boeing Co. in the wake of a firing of an employee who was under investigation because of suspicions that he spoke with the media about the company's corporate reform law.
11/16/2007	Public Employees Face Trend Toward GPS Monitoring In Government Vehicles	The Boston Globe	Frank Eltman	Local and state governments increasingly are adopting a policy to equip government vehicles with GPS devices in an effort to reduce waste and abuse.
11/16/2007	Public Employees Face Trend Toward GPS Monitoring In Government Vehicles	The Boston Globe	Frank Eltman	Local and state governments increasingly are adopting a policy to equip government vehicles with GPS devices in an effort to reduce waste and abuse.
11/14/2007	IAPP Privacy Academy 2007 Offered Wide-Ranging RFID Discussion	Government Technology	Gina M. Scott	Privacy concerns related to RFID and offered some solutions for privacy protection.
11/7/2007	FTC Launches Biggest DNC Crackdown In Two Years	USA Today	Paul Davidson	Bedmaker Craftmatic has agreed to pay $4.4 million to settle claims that it called consumers at home despite their inclusion on the Do Not Call (DNC) registry.
11/7/2007	Nashville Schools To Implement Face Recognition Technology	eSchool News	News Staff	In what is believed to be the first school system in the nation to use face-recognition security cameras, the Metro Nashville Public Schools will begin a pilot project to test the technology.
11/5/2007	Alameda County Launches Iris Scanning Project	San Francisco Chronicle	Demain Bulwa	In an early application of new technology that could become commonplace in the future, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office is launching a project to require convicted sex offenders to undergo iris scanning.
11/4/2007	Condo Tower Will Offer As Much -- Or As Little Privacy -- As Residents Want	New York Times	Penelope Green	Residents of a planned glass condo tower known as the W Downtown will offer lots of glass -- inside and outside. The concept is to allow residents to decide how much or how little personal privacy they want.
11/2/2007	TSA Moves Forward With Plan To Issue Smart Cards To Transportation Workers	Computer World	Jaikumar Vijayan	The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is expanding its Transportation Worker Identity Credential program in the Texas port of Corpus Christi -- the second port undergoing enrollment in the program, which requires all transportation workers to carry a DHS-issued biometric smart card.
10/23/2007	FTC to delay purge of Do Not Call list	DMNews	Lauren Bell	With the 5-year limit looming on the Do-Not-Call (DNC) list, lawmakers are seeking solutions to extend the list without having to require consumers to register again for the popular solution to annoying telemarketing calls at home.
9/21/2007	Feds Abandon Effort To Obtain Records Of Online Book Purchases	Comcast News	Jennifer Kerr	The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it will be easy for consumers to sign up again to include their names on the national Do-Not-Call list. However, at least one lawmaker has filed legislation to make the registrations permanent to spare consumers the trouble of having to re-enroll in the program.

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