SourceForge - Finger Print Verification System.

This is a project is a library that will allow programmers to add Fingerprint Technology in their application. It has primarily been designed with embedded systems in mind. This project was started as a result of the little to no resource available on fingerprint verification. Very little technical documentation is available and even less examples of code. The only software available is commercial, not open-source, hard to use, large, detailed, and only available on certain platforms.

CNET.com - Investor - California's top cop tackles Net privacy .

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Thursday called on the state's businesses to adopt simple privacy policies or face strict crackdowns.

Speaking before an audience at a privacy conference at the headquarters of software maker Oracle, Lockyer said businesses planning to collect personal information from consumers need to do a better job of informing people about the practice.

"It seems to me much of the debate...might have been avoided if there had been a really simple notice that someone with less than a post-graduate level of education could understand," he said.

Lockyer suggested something along the lines of a postage-paid postcard that provides a checkbox next to the words "don't use my stuff."

Privacy practices have been largely unregulated, except when it comes to health and financial information. But even federal laws regulating financial privacy have disappointed consumer-rights advocates by requiring people to wade through convoluted privacy brochures and send decisions to opt out via regular mail.

Lockyer said he's given up hope that the industry would regulate itself.

"I don't think it's going to happen," Lockyer said of attempts to self-regulate. "I don't think they can ever be adequate and sufficient in and of themselves."

IT-Analysis.com - Privacy Online Still Number 1 Problem.

Privacy remains a major concern for US web users according to the latest study from Harris Interactive. The firm's report claims that surfers still have great worries about the lack of privacy policies on web sites and many are now calling for them to be made a prerequisite.

The big issues that are worrying site visitors are classics. Pretty much the same ones we've been reading about for years. 75% of those polled by Harris wanted reassurance that their details would not be passed to a third party without their permission. 70% were concerned about the security of their online transactions. And 69% were worried that hackers may get hold of, and abuse their details.

Perhaps the bigger concern for the online community however is just how easily this situation is resolved. 62% of those polled think that independent verification of privacy policies would go a long way towards alleviating the problem. 84% of them got more vitriolic and stated that independent verification of privacy policies should be a requirement for companies today.

CNET.com - Investor - Cell phone tracking raises privacy issues.

The nation's cell phone service providers will soon know exactly where every one of their customers is, at all times, and privacy rights groups are asking what they plan to do with the information.

All U.S. carriers are under Federal Communications Commission orders to make it possible for police to locate cell phones calling 911, something police can't do now. Carriers plan to use the same systems to sell services like helping stranded motorists even if they don't know their location, or finding the closest restaurant.

Because people with cell phone generally always carry their phone with them, the FCC regulations give the thriving market for personal information something its never had a chance to get: the exact locations at all times of more than 140 million people.

"There are some things you don't mind other people knowing, but your location isn't one of them," said Gary Laden, a privacy program director for BBBOnline, a Better Business Bureau subsidiary.

Private details that become public knowledge every time people visit Web pages and leave information, every address that the U.S. government sells, or every ATM transaction that dutifully records the time are just some of the ways that technology has been tracking individuals. But knowing someone's location at all times adds a significant new twist to tracking information about people.

CNN.com - IT shops balance security, privacy.

(IDG) -- The threat of terrorist attacks against corporate America has forced IT departments to try to figure out how to protect employee privacy when implementing new security technologies.

Companies can be held liable if employees' personal information isn't adequately safeguarded, experts warn. So security technology and service providers are increasingly being called upon to educate their clients about privacy issues when those clients set out to enhance their employee authentication and monitoring procedures.

Business News from Wired News - Online Company-Flamers: Beware.

Dan Whatley set out to expose what he saw as Enron-style corporate malfeasance on an Internet message board. Now he has a judgment against him for $450,000. His story is not uncommon.

Political News from Wired News - Content Spat Split on Party Lines.

The Senate debate on copy protection for digital content is falling out predictably, with Democrats calling for regulations and Republicans hedging.

In the 2000 election cycle, the entertainment industry gave Democrats a whopping $24.2 million in contributions compared to $13.3 million to Republicans, according to figures compiled by opensecrets.org.

Political News from Wired News - Candidate: Spam in Every Pot.

A California gubernatorial candidate is sending out unsolicited e-mail to gain support, but the tactic seems to be backfiring.

[ ... ]

An examination of the e-mail sent out by the Jones campaign revealed forged headers. The e-mail, purportedly sent from an MSN.com address, was actually routed through the server of an elementary school in Chonnam, Korea.

[ ... ]

Assuming Jones was a victim, Atkins wanted to help. But after investigating further, Atkins realized that Jones had previously "spamvertised" his campaign during the weeks of Dec. 11, 2001 and Jan. 21, 2002, as reported by MSNBC and the Los Angeles Times.

MIT's Technology Review - The Death of Digital Rights Management?

What's going on? More than just a side effect of last year's dot-com implosion, the digital-rights slump is in part a result of technological shortcomings. Content protection software is simply too obtrusive and confining to meet users' needs, say observers. "The most important predictor of success [in digital rights management] is how transparent you can be to the end user, and the industry has fared poorly on that," says Daniel Schreiber, CEO of Alchemedia, a four-year-old content protection firm based in Dallas, TX.

CNET NEWS.COM - Spam and its IT discontents.

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says CIOs are using the wrong tactics in the corporate war against spam--with those on the receiving end paying a double price.

CNET NEWS.COM - Flaw weakens Linux security software.

Programmers have found a vulnerability in Linux that could allow protective firewall software to grant malicious computer users access to protected networks.

The flaw, which affects versions 2.4.14 through 2.4.18-pre9 of the Linux kernel, is in a component of the Netfilter firewall software. The component is involved when two computer users chat directly with each other using the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system.

CNET NEWS.COM - Oops! Britney worm wriggles on Net.

Britney Spears can add one more notch to her soaring global popularity: The perky pop star has become the inspiration for a potentially destructive e-mail worm wriggling through cyberspace, security experts said Friday.

The bug, labeled variously as "VBS/Britney-A" and "VBS-BRITNEYPIC.A," is considered low-risk because it infected a small number of computer users in Europe after it was initially detected Thursday morning, computer experts said.

But because the worm carries an attachment masquerading as a picture of the 20-year-old pop idol, security officials were still on alert Thursday.

interesting-people - a letter from Vadasz to Senator Hollings etc after his testimony .

interesting-people - more on intel backs consumers in copyright war .

I was in the hearing room, and I thought Vadasz's testimony made important points. But the senators were not terribly receptive to his arguments, and in fact came close to (effectively) ordering the IT industry simply to comply with Hollywood's demands (or else they'd be forced to by legislation). It was clear to me and to other technically knowledgeable people in the room that neither the senators nor most of the copyright-company witnesses grasped the scope of what Disney's Eisner and others were asking for.

Slashdot | SSSCA Hearing.

New York Times - free registration required Hearings on Digital Movies and Piracy.

Leslie L. Vadasz, an Intel vice president who was the sole representative from the technology side on the panel with the studio executives, said that if the government intervened in the design and development process it would only slow innovation. Mr. Vadasz said the group of technology companies working on the security technology for digital television broadcasts hoped to have a proposal by the end of March.

But Mr. Eisner said the only reason for movement on that front was the fact that senators were taking interest in the subject. He noted the timing of a letter sent to movie studios from the chief executives of several major technology companies the day before the hearing, expressing a willingness to work on finding solutions for protecting digital entertainment material.

In a particularly heated exchange, Mr. Eisner suggested that computer manufacturers did not want to find a technical solution because they profit from piracy.

"We're dealing with an industry where an unspoken strategy is that the killer app is piracy," Mr. Eisner said. "Their quarter-to-quarter growth is definitely pushed forward by people wanting to get anything for free on their television or computer or hand-held device."

Mr. Vadasz took offense: "You cannot build an industry the size that we are and that we hope to be by illicit means," he said, adding that the entertainment industry may have to face the fact that technology cannot solve all of the piracy problems.

"That's why you need the rule of law," he said.