Melissa Ngo writes: In a letter (pdf) to Google CEO Eric Schmidt (and CCed to Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz), fifteen advocates (from organizations including the American Library Association, EPIC and World Privacy Forum) objected to changes to the company’s privacy policies that were announced Sept. 3 and went into effect Oct. 3. The letter said…
Category: Featured News
UK: Project Champion Review – CCTV and ANPR mass surveillance ghettos in Birmingham
The Guardian has a good summary of a limited investigation conducted by the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, Sara Thornton QPM, into the public relations disaster which was the West Midlands Police Project Champion. This was a Labour government approved and funded plan to literally create CCTV Camera and Automatic Number Plate Recognition enforced…
In the Supreme Court on Wednesday: free speech vs. privacy
I’ve often said that whenever I hear the words “balance” and “privacy” in the same sentence, I shudder because I know that privacy will lose out against whatever it’s being balanced against. In Snyder v. Phelps, although my heart aches for the families of those who died in service of our country, I think that…
Senate passes bill to limit access to SSN
Before they fled Washington early, the Senate managed to pass S.3789, the Social Security Number Protection Act of 2010. The bill, which had been introduced by Senator Feinstein, is designed to reduce identity theft and has two key provisions: (a) It prohibits governmental agencies from using individuals’ Social Security Numbers on any checks cut by the…