The following editorial urging Congress to pass a national data protection law is from today’s New York Times: In 2006, a Veterans Affairs Department analyst lost a laptop and external drive with Social Security numbers and other personal data from more than 26 million veterans and active duty troops. There was a national call for…
Category: Misc
Database anonymity at risk, warns researcher
From Out-Law.com: Increasing amounts of personal information are collected by organisations and stored in massive databases. That information is sometimes used or released after being stripped of elements that could identify individuals in a process called ‘anonymisation’. University of Colorado Law School Associate Professor Paul Ohm, though, has said that the techniques used no longer…
Crossing the line: Reporters – and editors – aren’t cops
A PogoWasRight.org commentary on media invading privacy. Steve Bornfeld has a commentary in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “Channel 8 crosses privacy line with Fredericks story” that deals with media crossing lines and invading individuals’ privacy. He writes, in part: Privacy lost to prurience. That was the result when Channel 8 last week reported the humiliating…
Privacy issues and the Smart Grid
The Smart Grid brings many benefits – but privacy protection must be built into the design of this new technology before an explosion of personal data erupts, Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, cautioned today in a new white paper. “The overarching privacy concern associated with Smart Grid technology is its ability to…