CNET NEWS.COM - Congress fears European privacy standards.
Members of Congress on Thursday sharply criticized European privacy laws, saying they will have global effects and will likely harm U.S. companies seeking to do business online.
Eleven of 15 European Union member states have implemented a Data Protection Directive, passed by the EU in 1995, that promises Europeans wide privacy protections, including requiring Web sites to only collect and use a Web surfer's personal information if that surfer explicitly gives the site permission. But at a House Commerce Trade Subcommittee hearing Thursday, many members and witnesses pointed out that the ramifications of such a directive go far beyond Europe.
CNET NEWS.COM - EarthLink promises "anonymous" Web surfing.
EarthLink is mining privacy paranoia in a bid to sign up new subscribers, a move that could add new heat to marketing battles in the bitterly competitive Internet access business.
"They are watching you," the Internet service provider asserts in a TV spot that began running last week. "Compiling your information. Invading your privacy. At EarthLink, we would never do that. We just provide the totally anonymous Internet."
[ ... ]
Still, some ISPs are forging extremely close relationships with marketers, which might make some consumers uncomfortable. The pliability of some Net access providers has encouraged several companies, such as Predictive Networks and Idealab-backed Compete.com, to collect and analyze consumer data via ISPs to market targeted promotions to Web visitors.
Predictive Networks, used in low-cost Net connections from AT&T WorldNet and PSINet, gathers data about consumers based on the sites they visit and then delivers targeted advertising to those visitors, all while maintaining the consumer's anonymity, according to the company. Using Predictive, AT&T WorldNet can subsidize its discount $4.95 a month service by selling promotional deals to marketers.
[ ... ]
"A word to the wise: No matter how much an ISP protects its consumer privacy, if the government allows the FBI to use the Carnivore system (at ISPs), your e-mail is an open book," said Emily Whitfield, a spokeswoman for the national American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) in Washington, D.C, who noted that the system is already in use.
LA Times - Libraries Need Not Screen Net, Judges Say.
Court: Panel says they are not required to block pornographic sites. A Bay Area woman had claimed access had harmed her son.
Telegraph Group (UK) - Euro-court outlaws criticism of EU.
THE European Court of Justice ruled yesterday that the European Union can lawfully suppress political criticism of its institutions and of leading figures, sweeping aside English Common Law and 50 years of European precedents on civil liberties.
The EU's top court found that the European Commission was entitled to sack Bernard Connolly, a British economist dismissed in 1995 for writing a critique of European monetary integration entitled The Rotten Heart of Europe.
The ruling stated that the commission could restrict dissent in order to "protect the rights of others" and punish individuals who "damaged the institution's image and reputation". The case has wider implications for free speech that could extend to EU citizens who do not work for the Brussels bureaucracy.
Thanks to TBTF (Tasty Bits from the Technology Front) for the pointer to the article. Some background articles:
STUFF(New Zealand): FBI takes teeth out of e-mail surveillance name .
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has renamed its Carnivore e-mail surveillance system DCS1000 to play down Big Brother fears.
[ ... ]
A big problem the IIT report found was a basic lack of accountability within the system. It does not keep track of who accessed it or when. Every operator uses the same user name "administrator" and there is no feature confirming that a court has ordered the wiretap.
Techweb > News > wireless privacy > Wireless: The Next Battle In Privacy.
"Anyone who thinks the privacy issue has peaked is greatly mistaken," said Forrester analyst Jay Stanley. "We are in the early stages of a sweeping change in attitudes that will fuel years of political battles and put once-routine business practices under the microscope."
It used to be taken for granted that consumers pretty much surrendered their privacy the moment they installed a phone line, put up a mailbox or walked out their front door.
ZDNet: Interactive Week: Carnivore, Cybercrime Featured At Privacy Conference.
Carnivore, cryptography and cybercrime are just a few of the topics on tap this week at a high-profile conference concerning recent developments in Internet policy and civil liberties.
The Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference 2001 kicks off in Cambridge, Mass., on Tuesday and will feature a forum for privacy watchdogs, free-speech activists and human-rights specialists to discuss how the Internet is changing society.
The conference will include speakers such as Privacy Foundation Chief Privacy Officer Richard Smith, cryptographer and Zero-Knowledge Systems Chief Scientist Ian Goldberg, and Peter Swire, the former chief counselor for privacy for the U.S. government.
In the past year, several technological blunders and advancements have forced people to evaluate how the Web is shaping our daily lives.
Newsbytes - Privacy Groups Beat Up Net Crime Treaty.
With a predictable absence of law enforcement representation today at the Computers Freedom and Privacy 2001 conference, privacy advocates today took turns aiming blows at the Council of Europe's cyber-crime treaty.
"This process has been a complete joke," said David Banisar of Privacy International. "...This is really law enforcement's wet dream of a law."
Law enforcement's non-appearance at the conference, noted London School of Economics Professor Gus Hosein, is indicative of the interest law authority interests have displayed in getting the pro-privacy point of view from academicians and other privacy advocates.
[ ... ]
Halpert, who represents the Commercial Internet eXchange (CIX) and the NetCoalition lobbying groups, told Newsbytes that the treaty would be a far better plan for trying to control cyber-crime across country borders if it were drafted on a far smaller scale.
"This treaty is not necessarily a bad thing, (but) it needs to be scaled down," he said.
One major problem with the treaty, he said, is the mutual assistance clause that would require one country to aide another in a criminal investigative proceeding even if the original action were not a crime in the country that was asked for help. One example, he noted, would be China's demand for extradition of a Chinese citizen in the US who created a Web site denouncing the Chinese government's crackdown and murders during the Tiananmen Square student protests.
The treaty, he said, is written too vaguely, creating a situation where it "can wind up with a much broader interpretation in one country, but the other country would still have to comply."
NewsFactor - Internet Privacy Issues Take Center Stage.
The annual Big Brother awards will be handed out this week to the high-tech corporations or organizations that have most egregiously violated First and Fourth Amendment-related privacy covenants.
CBS News | Protecting Medical Privacy.
- Bush Administration Says It's Committed To Privacy
- But New Rules Are On Hold To Hear Objections From Hospitals, HMOs
- Privacy Advocates Say It Guarantees Lobbying Mischief And Delay
CNN.com - Sci-Tech - Expert: Web gadgets threaten your privacy.
Smith, chief technology officer for the Privacy Foundation, a Denver-based, non-profit advocacy group, said a variety of gadgets have come to market this past year that pump consumer data directly back to corporate marketing systems.
Such everyday "spy" devices include fitness monitors that track heart rates and pump out exercise-related advertising, digital music players that track listening habits, low-cost wristwatch and wireless surveillance cameras, as well as location-tracking mobile phones and other monitoring devices.
"What concerns me is how much surveillance companies are building into everyday electronic devices," Smith said. "Most people don't understand how far this has already gone."
Press Release - AllNetResearch: ePrivacy & Security.
The ePrivacy & Security Report examines an important aspect that e-business professionals need to be concerned with, protecting their products and customers.
Online privacy and security are the most important issues for internet users -- now and for years to come. Consumer worries about how companies use their personal information inhibit sales and hinder website personalization initiatives. Identity theft, credit card fraud and virus attacks affect virtually all areas of internet use.
Just a tiny intro to a report that costs $795 in PDF form.
CyberAtlas - Advertising: Debate Over Internet Privacy Far From Over .
Only 6 percent of North Americans have a high level of trust in how Web sites handle their personally identifiable information, and seven in eight express interest in legislation protecting Internet privacy, Forrester found.
Forrester advises companies to take a whole-view approach to privacy. Firms must recognize privacy as a core business issue that, together with customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, dictates how customers are treated. Then firms must conduct a top-to-bottom reassessment of their policies, practices, and exposure on the privacy issue. Forrester also recommends companies name a high-level person to orchestrate the effort to tackle the issue -- a chief privacy officer (CPO) -- who would be accountable on privacy issues, have a broad view on how the company operates, and have the clout to stop dangerous activities.
CNET NEWS.COM - New decryption code underscores DVD securityweakness.
MIT student Keith Winstein and alum Marc Horowitz say they're out to prove a point: Publishing code that decrypts and plays DVD movies is not a crime.
In their case, they assert it's about teaching copyright issues and is thus protected under the First Amendment.
|
