From an editorial in the Tampa Bay Times: In a four-month investigation, Tampa TV station WTVT-Fox 13 found that the DHSMV sells private driver records in bulk to more than 75 companies, despite federal and state laws deeming the information confidential. The federal Driver Privacy Protection Act, passed in 1994, says state motor vehicle agencies cannot…
Category: Govt
Court Authorizes Service of John Doe Summons Seeking the Identities of U.S. Taxpayers Who Have Used Virtual Currency
The government’s press release on an issue mentioned yesterday: a broad warrant for records on everyone who used Coinbase: A federal court in the Northern District of California entered an order today authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to serve a John Doe summons on Coinbase Inc., seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who conducted transactions…
FTC Releases Privacy Disclosure Staff Summary
Hannah Lepow writes: On November 30, the FTC released a staff summary of its September 15, 2016 public workshop, Putting Disclosures to the Test. Numerous goods and services, from home appliances to financial services, make use of disclosures to inform users of their privacy practices. These disclosures—whether delivered offline or online, via text, video, or audio—are a key…
IRS Quest for Coinbase Data Sets Dangerous Precedent
I had covered the government’s filing over on DataBreaches.net a few weeks ago, but this article by Jerry Brito is something more people should read – even if you’ve never used bitcoin and don’t envision yourself using it: It is understood and accepted that, if someone is investigated for tax evasion, a bank or brokerage may…