Jasper Copping reports: Councils have used anti-terrorism laws to try to catch people donating goods outside charity shops and to make sure dogs are wearing collars. The investigations are among those uncovered in a survey by The Sunday Telegraph into the use by town halls of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000. The…
Category: Govt
Obama keeps privacy oversight board on ice
Declan McCullagh reports: As a U.S. senator and presidential candidate, Barack Obama pledged (PDF) to “strengthen privacy protections for the digital age.” But after 16 months as president, Obama has failed to appoint anyone to a privacy oversight body charged with ensuring Americans’ civil liberties are not violated. Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat who…
Theriot sues, seeks online identities
Richard Rainey reports: Citing defamation and “suffered embarrassment” allegedly caused by online comments posted at www.NOLA.com, Jefferson Parish interim President Steve Theriot has filed a lawsuit requesting the identities behind 11 user accounts on the website. The suit, which is seeking an unspecified amount of money for damages, alleges that anonymous comments left on the…
Coalition government to roll back privacy and civil liberties intrusions
The U.K.’s new coalition government has issued a statement of agreement on some key issues. What is sure to warm the cockles of privacy advocates’ hearts, here’s the section on civil liberties: The parties agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour Government and…