Thousands of people have signed a Downing Street petition calling for a posthumous government apology to World War II code breaker Alan Turing. Writer Ian McEwan has just backed the campaign, which already has the support of scientist Richard Dawkins. In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a…
Category: Misc
FBI investigating laptops sent to US governors
Robert McMillan of IDG News Service reports: There may be a new type of Trojan Horse attack to worry about. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to figure out who sent five Hewlett-Packard laptop computers to West Virginia Governor Joe Mahchin a few weeks ago, with state officials worried that they may contain…
Has there been a failure of anonymization?
Paul Ohm recently put out an article where he makes the dramatic claim that de-identification has failed (see http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1450006). I have heard that argument before and the argument’s primary weakness is amplified in this article – therefore I feel compelled to comment. Paul Ohm’s argument about the failure of anonymization is based on evidence that…
FTC hires privacy blogger
In yet another sign that the Federal Trade Commission is serious about examining online privacy, Christopher Soghoian said today that he’s accepted a job as technical consultant to the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.Soghoian, currently with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, is among the most influential researchers…