Pamela Jones Harbour writes: Concerns about privacy practices in the data broker industry, and the privacy implications about the lack of transparency “behind-the-scenes,” will remain a topic of intense regulatory and legislative focus in 2014. The Federal Trade Commission has defined “data brokers” as companies that collect personal information about consumers from a variety of…
Category: Govt
Telecom Believed to Be at Center of Gov Court Fight Files Surveillance Transparency Report
Kim Zetter reports: A small telecom believed to be at the center of a historic court battle over government surveillance published its first transparency report on Thursday noting that it had received 16 government requests for customer data in 2013. But the report may be most significant for what it doesn’t say. Credo Mobile, the…
FCC Seeks Public Comment to Protect Phone Record Privacy
EPIC notes: The Federal Communications Commission has invited public comments on a petition requesting the FCC to rule that the sale of consumer phone records to the government is a violation of the federal Communications Act. EPIC joined the petition, which was organized by Public Knowledge. In 2013, EPIC urged the FCC to determine whether AT&T violated the Communications Act when…
Linchpin of Pentagon’s School-based Recruitment: Student Testing Program (ASVAB) Rife with Errors and Contradictions
In late December, 2013 the Department of Defense released a database on the military’s controversial Student Testing Program in 11,700 high schools across the country. An examination of the complex and contradictory dataset raises serious issues regarding student privacy and the integrity of the Student Testing Program in America’s schools. The data was released after…