Courthouse News reports a class action lawsuit [pdf] in Cuyahoga County Court alleges that the Bureau of Research and its owner, Stedson McIntyre, bought confidential claimant information from an employee of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation for nearly a decade and disclosed it to third parties – including a felon. The claimants also allege…
Category: U.S.
Fourth Amendment cases: forcible catheterization, DNA swabbing
A newly filed lawsuit and an appellate decision involve Fourth Amendment rights protecting against forcible and warrantless taking of biological samples…. Courthouse News summarizes the background of a lawsuit (pdf) filed by a man who says police had him forcibly catheterized when he couldn’t produce a urine sample. A man claims a Lawrenceburg police officer…
Report card tracks the ebb and flow of secrecy
Steven Aftergood of FAS writes: The vast apparatus of government secrecy persisted through the last year with only limited changes in the contours of its multi-billion dollar operations, according to the latest “secrecy report card” published by Openthegovernment.org, a coalition of organizations working for increased transparency. The new report card (pdf), prepared by Patrice McDermott…
Lawmakers consider clampdown on the way Internet marketers collect personal data to target ads
Joelle Tessler of Associated Press reports on how Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va) is drafting a bill to impose restrictions on how web sites collect and use information for advertising services. Although the industry had proposed its own self-regulatory principles in July, a coalition of privacy groups submitted other recommendations to Congress that impose additional restrictions….