Alice Lipowicz reports: The Transportation Security Administration should deploy automated tools to test and monitor the effectiveness of privacy safeguards in its programs, according to a new report from Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. In a report issued Sept. 18, Skinner recommended that TSA’s Office of the Chief Information Officer implement such tools, and…
Category: U.S.
Reality Check: The Presidential Records Act of 1978 meets web-based social media of 2009
Macon Phillips posted this on the The White House blog: Recently, we have seen a few stories questioning how the Presidential Records Act (PRA) intersects with Americans’ use of modern social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to communicate with the White House. Before I address some specific issues raised in these stories, let me give…
Cybersecurity Plan Doesn’t Breach Employee Privacy, Administration Says
Ellen Nakashima reports: The Obama administration has agreed with its predecessor that a special surveillance program to monitor federal Internet traffic for malicious intrusions does not violate the privacy rights of government employees or others they communicate with. By notifying government employees logging on to their computers that they have “no reasonable expectation of privacy”…
Newspaper faces backlash for outing Web critic
The Associated Press reports another story involving online anonymity and outing critics. In this case, a Wisconsin newspaper turned over the identity of a critic without any subpoena or court order…. and subsequently regretted it. The incident generated discussion, yet again, about whether anonymous critics are entitled to protection of their anonymity. Getting named the…