Over on Taking Liberties, Declan McCullagh has some commentary on provisions in the proposed health care bill, H.R. 3200, that relate to privacy. Some of the provisions in the massive bill include: Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income,…
Category: Laws
Do DNA ‘prints’ invade privacy?
Being fingerprinted upon arrest is so commonplace, few people think twice about it. But what if the arresting agency wanted to take DNA? And run it against an index of unsolved crimes? And then store it in a database for eternity? Over the past several years, DNA collection has become more common, and it’s regularly…
Discussion underway about privacy cause of action
Richard Ackland in the Sydney Morning Herald and the editorial in The Australian today comment on the NSW Law Reform Commission recommendation for a statutory cause of action for breach of privacy. Ackland is somewhat bemused about aspects of the report, but doesn’t dismiss the recommendation and the earlier Australian Law Reform Commission proposal, suggesting…
Judge rejects challenge to overseas wiretap law
A judge rejected a challenge to a law letting the United States eavesdrop on overseas conversations Thursday, saying fears by Americans that their conversations will be monitored and their rights violated were ”purely subjective.” U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ruled that the latest version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act could not be challenged by…