In the late 1990s, the New Hampshire Legislature decided to restrict access to driving records maintained by the Division of Motor Vehicles. The result was the Driver Privacy Act, which has become a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. A law that was intended to protect the privacy of citizens whose driving records…
Category: Laws
Alaska giveth, Alaska taketh away – or vice versa?
The Alaska bill that would permit warrantless arrests for misdemeanors that I mentioned previously on this blog has now made it out of committee. Curiously, while Alaska’s legislature seems prepared to erode citizens’ protections in one area, it seems willing to consider protecting them in another area. Michael Carl writes on World Net Daily: To…
U.S. Educ. Dept. Proposes New Student Data Privacy Rules
Sarah D. Sparks reports: In its effort to clarify student data privacy rules for researchers and education officials alike, the U.S. Department of Education proposed several changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, on Thursday and named its first chief privacy officer. “Data should only be shared with the right people…
Justice Department opposes digital privacy reforms
Declan McCullagh reports: The U.S. Justice Department today offered what amounts to a frontal attack on proposals to amend federal law to better protect Americans’ privacy. James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, warned that rewriting a 1986 privacy law to grant cloud computing users more privacy protections and to require court approval before tracking…