Have you ever been tempted to try to find out what information about you is out there in databases? Matt Roper did just that, and sent out requests under the UK’s Data Protection Act to 46 organizations, requesting copies of all of his information. What he got back was a 2-foot high pile of records…
Category: Misc
Parents keep 2-year-old’s gender secret
A couple of Swedish parents have stirred up debate in the country by refusing to reveal whether their two-and-a-half-year-old child is a boy or a girl. Pop’s parents, both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few – those who have changed the…
Who’s watching the watchers?
A silicon chip in your Viagra pack reports back to Pfizer on how much you took, and when. You fetch the last Coke from your chip-tagged fridge and your TV airs a Pepsi ad. Your phone company combs your trash for the chips you’ve cast off, selling the data it finds to marketers. And when…
IBM crypto snoops data without looking
An IBM researcher has solved a tricky mathematical problem that makes it possible to analyse encrypted data without compromising privacy. Craig Gentry used a mathematical object called an ideal lattice to develop a system called fully homomorphic encryption (apparently you might also know it as ‘privacy homomorphism’). […] With the breakthrough, companies storing confidential, electronic…