Being fingerprinted upon arrest is so commonplace, few people think twice about it. But what if the arresting agency wanted to take DNA? And run it against an index of unsolved crimes? And then store it in a database for eternity? Over the past several years, DNA collection has become more common, and it’s regularly…
Swiss privacy commissioner says “nein” to Google Street View
Hanspeter Thür, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC), has accused Google of not having taken the necessary steps to safeguard the privacy of Swiss citizens. Thür has demanded that “Google Inc. immediately withdraw its online service Google Street View concerning Switzerland,” according to a statement. In the months leading up to its…
Bored bureaucrat pleads guilty to passport snooping
A fifth person who has worked for the U.S. Department of State has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing passport application files stored in a computer database, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Kevin M. Young, 42, of Temple Mills, Md., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to one count…
ID-scanning to comply with privacy laws
Controversial technology that collects bar patrons’ personal information will remain in use after B.C.’s privacy commissioner worked out a compromise with the technology’s owner. Privacy commissioner David Loukidelis ruled in July that a system made by TreoScope to collect and store customers’ names, photos, birthdates, genders and driver’s licence numbers as part of the BarWatch…