TelecomPaper is reporting that the Dutch upper house of parliament rejected a government proposal to require telecom operators to store communications data for 12 months. A majority reportedly voted against the proposal “and called for the government instead to stick to the minimum period of six months indicated in the EU legislation.” Update of 7-08: …
Category: Govt
Bombshell study: SSN relatively easy to predict
In a study that challenges current initiatives to reduce identity theft, researchers Alessandro Acquisti and Ralph Gross of Carnegie Mellon University have released the results of a study showing how easily all nine digits of an individual’s Social Security Numbers can be accurately predicted from information that is readily available in numerous public databases. Based…
New cellphone laws in Zambia
Experts have lambasted new laws to collect information about prepaid cellphone users, citing their “severe” privacy implications. One academic described existing rules that forced operators to retain personal call data for a minimum of three years as “excessive”. And as of last Wednesday the government will collect more data. Operators now have to obtain the…
Judge orders release of public pension data
California’s leading taxpayers’ rights group says the public scored a major legal victory this week when a judge ruled that a county’s pension records are not entirely confidential. The judge ruled that the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, a public pension watchdog group, are entitled to a list of names…