Gregory Katz reports: As many as three quarters of all black men in Britain aged 18-35 have had their genetic information placed on the country’s massive DNA database, a group charged with reviewing officials’ use of genetic technology said Tuesday. The Human Genetics Commission – an independent government advisory board made up of scientists, lawyers…
Judge dismisses Andrew Speaker suit against CDC
Shelia M. Poole reports: A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention filed by an Atlanta lawyer who claimed the agency invaded his privacy. The lawsuit stemmed from a high-profile case involving Andrew Speaker, who alleged the federal agency divulged private medical information during a tuberculosis…
IE bug leaks private details from 50 million PDF files
Dan Goodin reports: A bug in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser is causing more than 50 million files stored online to leak potentially sensitive information that could compromise user privacy, a security researcher said. The documents stored in Adobe’s PDF format display the internal disk location where the file is stored, an oversight that can inadvertently…
Balancing open records with reducing ID theft
Michael Van Cassell of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports a mixed reaction to a rule change by the Wyoming Supreme Court that will require clerks to redact some personal information in court records before releasing the records to the public. According to the report, financial and Social Security numbers, birth dates, home addresses and the…