It’s that time of the year: time to look back and reflect on the top privacy stories of the year for Americans. Foregoing any pretext of democratic process, I simply looked back through the headlines I had featured during the year to remind myself of what seemed important to me. Here’s a recap and…
Category: Misc
Obama fills vacancies on independent privacy board
Jim McElhatton reports: President Obama has named two lawyers and a former federal judge to an independent privacy board recommended by the 9/11 Commission that has sat dormant for years under he and President George W. Bush. The nominations Thursday fill out the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, where vacancies have left the…
Google Wallet Leaves Sensitive Info Unencrypted
Sara Yin reports: Yesterday, a security researcher discovered that Google Wallet, a groundbreaking app that lets you store and process credit cards with a simple tap of the phone, stores unencrypted pretty much everything except your credit card numbers and CVV numbers. Think credit card limits, transaction times, names, addresses, PIN numbers– all ripe for the taking. A black…
Petitioner Privacy Rights Lost Amid Marriage Equality Fight
Steve Simpson, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, has a thoughtful commentary on the recent Supreme Court ruling concerning public disclosure of the names of those who sign petitions: … When the case was decided by the Supreme Court, the issue in Doe was whether the First Amendment prevented Washington state from publicly disclosing the identities of…