Catalin Cimpanu writes: This past Thursday, the FBI proposed that its biometric database be exempt from several provisions of the Privacy Act, US legislation that mandates that any federal agency must inform individuals about the records they collect and keep about them. The FBI’s Next Generation Identification System (NGIS) is a database of biometrics information such as…
Category: Govt
Twitter Bars Intelligence Agencies From Using Analytics Service
Christopher S. Stewart and Mark Maremont report: Twitter Inc. cut off U.S. intelligence agencies from access to a service that sifts through the entire output of its social-media postings, the latest example of tension between Silicon Valley and the federal government over terrorism and privacy. […] Dataminr executives recently told intelligence agencies that Twitter didn’t want the company…
FTC’s Jessica Rich Argues IP Addresses and Other Persistent Identifiers Are “Personally Identifiable”
Lindsay Tonsager writes: In a blog post published on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website, Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, recently stated that: “we regard data as ‘personally identifiable,’ and thus warranting privacy protections, when it can be reasonably linked to a particular person, computer, or device. In many cases, persistent identifiers such as device identifiers,…
Canadian legion admits accessing government files on veterans without their consent
David Pugliese reports: Some employees of the Royal Canadian Legion accessed the confidential files of Canadian veterans held by the federal government without the veterans’ consent. The Privacy Commissioner is investigating one complaint about unauthorized access, but the legion has acknowledged additional incidents. Such files contain the medical and, in some cases, financial details of…