Kashmir Hill reports: This week’s news of a U.S. State Department clerk snooping in passport records of celebrities is, sadly, a repeat story. Just two years ago, the State Department was embarrassed by the disclosure that workers had inappropriately accessed passport information of then-presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and John McCain. To assess the…
Category: Breaches
Ca: Close those prying eyes at Veterans Affairs
Over on PHIprivacy.net, I’ve been covering a privacy breach involving the medical/psychiatric records of a veteran. The case has cause quite a stir in Canada with calls for additional measures and investigation. Here’s an editorial in today’s Globe and Mail: Sean Bruyea is a Canadian veteran of the Gulf War whose sensitive medical files…
Former FTC Employee Files Complaint Over Google Privacy (updated)
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries reports: A former Federal Trade Commission employee has filed a complaint with the agency accusing Google Inc. of not adequately protecting the privacy of consumers’ search queries. The complaint was filed September 6 by Christopher Soghoian, who worked until August as a technologist with the FTC’s Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. It…
UK: What we put in our bins is our business – stop this spying
Meanwhile, back in the U.K., more complaints about spying in trash bins leads to an editorial in the Harrow Observer (emphasis added by me): Teams of wheelie bin police began snooping around household rubbish bins in Brent this week. But when does the council take it a step too far and commit an invasion of…