Nate Anderson reports: When Pennsylvania’s Lower Merion school district installed remote control anti-theft software on student laptops, it had no intention of dragging Congress into a national debate about wiretapping laws and webcams—but that’s exactly what it got (in addition to some unwanted FBI attention and a major lawsuit). The key question: should the school’s…
Category: Laws
Critics challenge B.C. privacy law proposals
The B.C. government is getting stiff opposition to proposed changes to privacy laws that would make it easier for public bodies such as the RCMP to gather and share personal information about residents of the province. A senior civil servant related told a legislative committee hearing this week that in some cases, lives could be…
EFF to Press for New Privacy Protections Against Hidden Video Surveillance in Senate Hearing Monday
From EFF: On Monday, March 29, at 10 a.m., the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing in the Philadelphia federal courthouse on whether the federal electronic privacy laws need to be updated to better regulate secret video surveillance. Senior Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston of the…
Senators push Obama for biometric national ID card
Declan McCullagh reports: Two U.S. senators met with President Obama on Thursday to push for a national ID card with biometric information such as a fingerprint, hand scan, or iris scan that all employers would be required to verify. In an opinion article published in Friday’s edition of the Washington Post, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and…