James Slack of The Daily Mail has an article on the extradition battle for Gary McKinnon, a case that has become somewhat of a cause celebre. The case raises a number of issues, including whether extraditing someone with Asperger’s Disorder to face a potentially lengthy prison sentence in the U.S. constitutes a serious threat to…
Prisoners on run cannot be named
Civil servants have refused to name inmates who have fled prison even though individual police forces will often identify them if they pose a risk to the public. They say releasing their names would breach obligations under the Data Protection Act. It echoes a row in 2007 when Derbyshire Police refused to release pictures of…
Privacy Act reform likely delayed till 2010
Chances that Congress would enact legislation to update the 35-year-old Privacy Act this year are slipping away. The legislation would have had to be introduced by Independence Day for it to have any chance of being enacted this year, says Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology, who has been working closely with…
Highlights of proposed Canadian spam law
The Canadian House of Commons in April introduced a bill to create the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA) (ECPA)—Canada’s version of the U.S. CAN-SPAM legislation, with some significant differences. The bill seeks not only to cut down on spam but also addresses phishing, spyware and unsolicited text messages. It also lays out penalties for spamming,…