Markus Mannheim reports: Almost 600 federal bureaucrats breached their professional code of conduct last year. The latest State of the Service report, issued yesterday, shows misusing the internet and improperly accessing private records remain the most common violations of the Public Service Act. Government agencies carried out 970 investigations in 2009-10, of which three in…
Category: Non-U.S.
UK: Hacker gets another chance to foil US prosecutors
Autistic hacker Gary McKinnon will get another chance to beat his US extradition order next week when the UK Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee considers his plight again. The Committee will consider the case against the 2003 Extradition Act under which the US placed an order for McKinnon’s arrest after he was caught hacking into…
Opinion: “Privacy: the Law in Action” – Heather Rogers QC
Misuse of private information constitutes a serious limitation on free speech. Everyone, including celebrities and other public figures, has a right to protect their private information. Whether the media can publish private information about an identifiable individual, without their consent, will depend upon an ‘intense’ scrutiny of the facts. The court decides where the balance…
Imagine if tennis had different rules in every country: Cookie Confusion comes to the Continent
Peter Fleischer writes: A decade ago, European policymakers debated the level of consent required for data protection purposes when a website uses a cookie. Common sense ultimately prevailed. Policymakers realized that an opt-in regime would drive users mad, as every website would be forced to serve up pop-ups asking users to opt-in, annoying everyone. Alternatively…