Nate Anderson writes: The Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission had a bright idea back in the mid-1990s—it decided to release “anonymized” data on state employees that showed every single hospital visit. The goal was to help researchers, and the state spent time removing all obvious identifiers such as name, address, and Social Security number. But a…
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….
Church of Scientology proposes net censorship in Australia
The Church of Scientology has submitted recommendations to the Australian Human Rights Commission is response to their “Freedom of Religion and Belief in the 21st century project.” The Church states that it: supports the adoption by Federal and/or State Governments of Article 20(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’) which states…
EU speaks out on US bank data access
Shaun Nichols reports: Members of the European Union’s Civil Liberties Committee have questioned European banking officials after access to bank data was granted to US authorities. The committee issued a statement on Monday expressing concerns over possible privacy and data protection violations within Europe’s Swift financial transition network. Advertisement US officials have been requesting bank…