The New York Times has lost its bid to obtain wiretap information related to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a prostitution ring. The federal law that permits disclosure of wiretap information on a showing of good cause does not allow disclosure based solely on the news media’s interest in publishing the information,…
Swiss artist fights biometric passport
From his self-chosen exile in Berlin, a Swiss-born artist has been battling Switzerland’s decision to introduce a biometric passport. Adam Tellmeister places the scalpel on his brand new Swiss passport and cuts right through its blood-red outer fabric. It’s the first cut of an operation — broadcast live on the Internet — that is aimed…
Ninth Circuit rejects private anti-spam suit
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday rejected [opinion, PDF] an appeal from an Internet domain owner seeking to recover $10 million in damages from an online marketer under the federal CAN-SPAN (sic) Act. James Gordon had recruited his friends and relatives to collect thousands of unsolicited emails as evidence that…
OPC: Accusearch violates Canadian privacy law
When the 10th Circuit upheld a ruling against U.S.-based Accusearch over the sale of telephone records on its Abika.com web site (discussed here), that was not its only problem. On July 31, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ruled that Accusearch also violates key provisions of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents…