Why am I not surprised to learn that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) jumped in to assist the two travel bloggers who received subpoenas after they posted a TSA security directive? Cindy Cohn of EFF writes: On December 31, 2009, the Transportation Security Administration backed off on an ill-considered administrative subpoena it issued to trasportation…
U.S. security rules would break privacy laws, Canadian airlines contend
Jim Bronskill of the Canadian Press reports: Canada’s major airlines say they will be forced either to break privacy laws or to ignore new American air security rules unless the federal government comes up with a response to U.S. demands for passenger information. The National Airlines Council of Canada, which represents the four largest Canadian…
‘Monster’ German employee database goes online
Under new legislation that came into effect on January 1, German employers must now submit their employees’ income data to a government-sponsored central mainframe. The database is believed to form part of Germany’s largest ever data acquisition program. Employers must now send information monthly to the so-called ELENA database regarding workers’ contributions to Germany’s social…
UK: Leicestershire police ‘strongly support’ DNA legislation
Leicestershire police has said it “strongly supports” clearer legislation on retaining innocent people’s DNA. Yet in the past year, the force refused 22 of 24 requests to remove records from its database. This is despite a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights which has said holding the DNA of innocent people indefinitely was…