Privacy technology developer Zero-Knowledge Systems said Thursday it has laid off about a quarter of its staff despite recently raising $22 million in funding.

Montreal-based Zero-Knowledge has developed software, dubbed Freedom, which lets people conceal their identities online. Freedom allows consumers and businesses to shop, chat, send e-mail and surf the Web while covering their tracks so that Web sites, Internet service providers and law enforcement officials cannot monitor or review their activities.

Zero-Knowledge said that it laid off between 60 and 70 employees out of a staff of more than 250 people as part of its efforts to restructure the company. Zero-Knowledge said it still plans to add some new positions, including hiring some key executives.

CNET NEWS.COM - ICQ logs spark corporate nightmare - Tech Ne....

Thousands of confidential messages between the CEO of an Internet company and top executives have been posted on the Web, stirring up a hornet's nest of corporate intrigue and providing a rare glimpse into a dot-com as it struggled to cope with a brutal shakeout.

Last week, hundreds of pages of the ICQ instant messaging logs were posted on the Web and copied onto various sites, creating the kind of information security breach that has become one of the worst corporate nightmares of the digital age. The logs, which were apparently snatched from a PC used by Sam Jain, CEO of eFront, have nearly paralyzed his company and created a personal nightmare for Jain.

The Register (UK) - UK to test mobile digital signatures. The Government is to conduct the UK's first secure mobile electronic signature trial in a scheme that will go some way to proving whether mobile mcommerce is a viable business proposition, or just the latest fad.

USA TODAY - GAO testers got into e-filed tax data. In a test last year of e-filing systems at the IRS, congressional investigators were able to tap into taxpayers' electronically filed tax returns, according to a government report issued Thursday.

The report by investigators at the General Accounting Office says the breach uncovered "serious weaknesses" in the Internal Revenue Service's electronic filing systems that placed taxpayers' personal data at risk.

Political News from Wired News - Red-Hot Kiwi Cyber Law Debate. A proposed amendment to New Zealand's Crimes Act would allow the interception of electronic communications, and that isn't exactly going over well with those it would affect -- which is just about everybody.

New Zealand might be in breach of its bill of rights if it decides to pass into law legislation that allows security services to intercept electronic communication, a representative for the New Zealand Council of Civil Liberties said today.

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Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane supports the proposed tightening of laws to prevent cyber crime but is nonetheless concerned at the prospect of security services gaining access to computers remotely and too easily.

"It seems to me that law enforcement officials secretly snooping on peoples' computers, in circumstances where it will be a crime for others to do so, paints a highly distasteful picture," Slane told the parliamentary committee. "Any covert policy hacking should only be allowed in the most extraordinary circumstances and certainly not as a routine matter authorized by a simple search warrant."

"I think we are taking a very big step into secret policing rather than open policing," he said.

Knowledge@Wharton (registration required)- How to protect privacy on the Internet

News from Wired News Radio - How to Put a Freeze on Snooping. Privacy advocates are shifting their attention from government to corporate snoopers. Also: The Bush Administration's thoughts on Carnivore.... and when not to shake hands with the suits, as Declan McCullagh discusses this week's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference. This MP3 file is 7:37 min

News from Wired News Radio - How to Put a Freeze on Snooping. Privacy advocates are shifting their attention from government to corporate snoopers. Also: The Bush Administration's thoughts on Carnivore.... and when not to shake hands with the suits, as Declan McCullagh discusses this week's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference. This MP3 file is 7:37 min

News from Wired News Radio - Cops Seek More Face Time. It might not be as much fun as xeroxing your face, but face scanning technology is becoming popular as a surveillance technique. Today's MP3 file is 2:39 min.

Political News from Wired News - Pharmacists Seek Privacy Relief. Particularly, the groups want the administration to reconsider rules requiring patient consent for using or disclosing oral or written communications as well as electronic records. They say the new rules go beyond the intent of the original law, drawn up in the budding computer age.

FEED | Politics & Society - You Own Your Own Metadata. The only way corporations are going to overcome online privacy issues is to share more, not less, of their customer data. Guess who with? Their customers. Will Kreth explains.

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The potential financial gain for interoperability of customer metadata between all these kinds of companies is staggering (dwarfing the current instant-message compatibility fracas between AOL Time Warner and Yahoo/Microsoft/etcetera by an order of magnitude), but it will only happen in an effective and lasting way if the customer has a role in the process as the owner of their own metadata. The "Customer Passport" of the future has to reside with the customer, on their hard drive, smart card, or portable device.

Technology Review - Your Genetic Destiny for Sale. Companies are poring through the medical heritage of large populations searching for the genes behind common diseases. The effort could revolutionize medicine--and is already triggering controversy.

Slashdot | Book Reviews: Crypto . Steven Levy's Crypto is a brief history of the men involved in developing modern cryptography. If you've read Applied Cryptography or another work with a mathematical emphasis on crypto, you've heard their names -- Diffie, Hellman, Chaum, Rivest, Shamir, Adleman, Zimmermann, and so forth. But the other books on cryptography typically neglect the human side in favor of the math. Crypto aims to fill that hole.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian (UK) | Is 'big brother' a myth? . Diane Sinclair looks at the delicate balance between employers snooping unfairly on their staff and ensuring workers behave themselves

IDG (ITworld.com) - Privacy coverage. A listing of recent articles concerning privacy.

IDG (ITworld.com) - Vendor & advocacy groups dig trenches in online privacy war.

Computerworld - Update: FTC workshop looks at key data privacy issues.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today examined how companies exchange personal data and create profiles of consumers -- two issues at the heart of the ongoing debate over increased data privacy regulations.

The one-day workshop focused on a practice that's integral to many businesses but largely invisible to their customers: the aggregation of personal information into large databases that are used to assemble a detailed picture of consumers. The data, gleaned from public records and transactions with retailers, includes things such as income, size of family, lifestyle interests and motor vehicle ownership.

Computerworld - Update: WebMD ordered to send data to pharmaceutical developer. Health care information provider WebMD was ordered by a federal judge to resume deliveries of pharmacy and medical claims data to a North Carolina pharmaceutical development company, pending a court hearing scheduled for Friday

IDG (Computerworld ) - FTC workshop looks at key data privacy issues. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today began examining how companies exchange personal data and create profiles of consumers.

PC World.com | Privacy coverage. A listing of recent articles concerning privacy.

IDG (PC World) - Database marketers tell how you get on the lists. FTC Hearing examines 'trust deficit' between marketers and consumers.

IDG (PC World) - Congress starts scrutinizing online privacy.

The debate over online privacy tends to be simplified as a tug of war: Consumers demanding privacy protection are pitted against businesses that fear government restrictions will hamper electronic commerce. But legislators, who are rolling up their sleeves on privacy legislation this session, are learning the issue is not so black and white.

Lawyers and analysts framed the debate in a larger historical and legal context in recent testimony before the U.S. House Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection.