Have you ever been tempted to try to find out what information about you is out there in databases? Matt Roper did just that, and sent out requests under the UK’s Data Protection Act to 46 organizations, requesting copies of all of his information. What he got back was a 2-foot high pile of records…
Category: Business
Who’s watching the watchers?
A silicon chip in your Viagra pack reports back to Pfizer on how much you took, and when. You fetch the last Coke from your chip-tagged fridge and your TV airs a Pepsi ad. Your phone company combs your trash for the chips you’ve cast off, selling the data it finds to marketers. And when…
Password-protected comments off limits to boss
In a time when chat rooms, social networking and online forums are commonplace, how far can a company go in monitoring them for negative comments from discontented employees before they are guilty of “cybersnooping”? A case decided last week, involving two servers at the Houston’s Restaurant in Hackensack, posed that question, and a federal jury…
FBI justifies gag order — in secret
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…