The Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order in the matter of Sears Holdings Management Corporation, following a public comment period, and authorized the staff to provide responses to the commenters of record. According to the FTC’s administrative complaint, Sears represented to consumers that software it was placing on their computers would track…
Category: U.S.
Ohio lawsuit against firm buying workers’ comp data
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…
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…