When the FBI uses a national security letter (NSL) to force the cooperation of an ISP or phone company in the surveillance of a suspect, the agency typically slaps a gag order on the service provider to prevent it from revealing the existence of the NSL. Civil liberties groups have successfully challenged the DOJ on…
Category: Business
Privacy policies: public vs. private sector
In a Brookings Institute study, “Comparing Technology Innovation in the Private and Public Sectors” (pdf), authors Darrell M. West and Jenny Lu compared the sectors on a number of factors, including privacy and security. They report, in part: A growing number of websites offer privacy and security statements, yet they remain more prevalent on commercial…
Clear explains plans to protect data
The operator of Clear, a Registered Travel program, e-mailed members on Friday describing how it intends to protect all of the private information it had collected on members. The email, published in the Denver Business Journal, says, in part: How is Clear securing personal information? Clear stands by our commitment to protect our customer’s personally…
FTC settles bogus computer scan case
Two defendants in a case involving a massive “scareware” scheme will settle Federal Trade Commission charges of deceptive advertising and forfeit more than $100,000 in assets that were frozen last year at the Commission’s request. The two settling defendants were part of a massive deceptive advertising scheme that tricked more than a million consumers into…