Chris Soghoian writes: From the New York Times today: In May, the government will no longer pay someone eligible for benefits with a mailed check. Instead, the money will be electronically deposited directly into a bank account or made accessible by a debit card. And by March 2013, the 10 million people who receive checks, out…
Category: Laws
Ph: Mandatory SIM registration pushed after bus blast
Kim Tan and Amita Legaspi report: A senator on Wednesday pushed for the mandatory registration of SIM cards after initial investigations showed that a cellphone was used to detonate the bomb inside a passenger bus the previous day. “This is a wake-up call,” said Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III during a Senate inquiry on the…
Appeasing the Birthers by Changing Hawaii’s laws
Responding to political pressure can lead to bad law. The Associated Press reports: The state would charge $100 for a copy of President Obama’s birth records under a bill introduced in the Legislature by five Democrats. It would change a privacy law barring the release of birth records unless the person seeking them has a…
What the US government can do to encourage Do Not Track
Chris Soghoian writes: Over the past few months, there has been a lot of discussion about Do Not Track. Although both the FTC and Commerce Department have recently issued privacy reports that mentioned Do Not Track, neither agency has the authority under existing law to make Do Not Track a reality. Either the industry can…