Great thanks to one of this blog’s regular readers for taking pity on me being knocked offline and sending me all of these wonderful links to privacy news that I missed:
Lawyers Claim Montana Workers’ Compensation Investigators Violate Privacy
Two Billings attorneys are asking the Montana Supreme Court to stop workers’ compensation investigators from practices that they say violate the privacy rights of workers’ comp claimants.
The Billings Gazette reported that Gene Jarussi and Michael Eiselein, along with 10 other attorneys across the state, filed the petition on Aug. 2, contending that Montana State Fund fraud investigators routinely share surveillance videos and other confidential information with doctors of workers’ compensation claimants. The attorneys say the investigators commonly don’t get a court order allowing them to release the info, nor do they tell the claimants that they’re sharing the information. Read more on Insurance Journal
9/11 privacy board fails to meet
An independent oversight board recommended by the 9/11 Commission to ensure that national security policies do not infringe on Americans’ civil liberties has remained dormant for years, raising concerns among watchdogs that a crucial Constitution safeguard does not exist.
Well past the halfway point of his term, President Obama has appointed only two of the five members for the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which also languished under President Bush. Read more on Washington Times.
Ca: Is passenger-behaviour observation appropriate?
Canada’s Privacy Commissioner is raising concerns about a new plan to bolster airport security.Responding to the federal government’s intention to use passenger-behaviour observation to look for terrorists, Jennifer Stoddart expressed concern that the program is potentially unfair to passengers.“There is a huge possibility for arbitrary judgments to come into play,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press. Read more on CBC.
Woman’s tattooed torso goes viral
Crysta Hammond is proud of her new giant tattoo.
She endured 14 hours of pain to get the image of three fairies hugging each other etched permanently on the side of her torso, and came up with the design herself about 14 years ago.
But she never planned to reveal it — and the side of her naked body — to the online world. Read more on cnews.
EU data group says behavioural ad guidelines fall short
European data protection watchdogs have declared ad industry codes on online behavioural targeting to be insufficient to meet the requirement that web users give “informed consent” before being tracked. Read more on Research.
Pk: Virtual watchdog: Internet users banned from browsing privately for ‘security reasons’
In an effort to ramp up the monitoring of internet security, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all ISPs to prevent internet users from using technology that would allow them to privately browse the internet. This was stated in a PTA notice provided to The Express Tribune by a source at an Islamabad-based internet service provider (ISP).
The notice states, ‘In line with [Monitoring & Reconciliation of International Telephone Traffic] Regulations 2010 and national security, Authority prohibited usage of all such mechanisms including encrypted virtual private networks (EVPNs) which conceal communication to the extent that prohibits monitoring.’ The notice further stated, ‘It is observed that the aforementioned directive has not been followed in true letter and spirit as EVPNs are heavily being used on the Licensees Network.’ Read more on The Express Tribune.