[ ... ]

According to charges filed by the United States attorney, Mr. Byrd stole their identities and their homes, arranging fraudulent sales or loans and pocketing proceeds.

In what privacy experts call one of the most heartless kinds of identity theft, the complaint alleges that they and others "locate houses in the metropolitan Detroit area that are owned free and clear by elderly people, assume the identity of the true owner and strip the equity out of the houses without the true owner's knowledge or consent."

Neither Mrs. King nor Mr. Foxx now lives in their solid, middle-class houses, and relatives declined to arrange for them to answer telephone calls. But Paula J. Wendell, assistant special agent in charge of the F.B.I.'s Detroit office, said that when the victims were interviewed, "they all said they felt violated."

New York Times - free registration required Microsoft Faces European Commission Inquiry on Privacy Concerns. The European Commission has begun an inquiry into Microsoft because of concerns that its .NET Passport system may violate privacy rules.

Administrivia: I have implemented some of the site updates mentioned earlier, but there is still more to come. I just didn't want to keep the discussion group waiting while I finished up the rest of the work. Sorry about the ads but I have to pay my hosting bill somehow. Coming soon ... inline polls and replacing some of the new ads with less obtrusive text ads. The text ads will be open (rates to be decided) to responsible companies or users who want to promote their own sites. The obvious bad guys are of course excluded. No porn, MLM, SPAMers, hate, warez or other sites that will make me spend money I haven't got, on legal bills.

New York Times - free registration required A Libel Suit May Establish E-Jurisdiction.

But Mr. Young did not file his case in the defendant's jurisdiction. Instead, he sued in Virginia, even though the newspapers had almost no print circulation there.

That decision on where to sue is the nub of a legal dispute that could reverberate nationally and internationally, lawyers say. Last year, a federal district judge in Big Stone Gap ruled that Mr. Young's lawsuit could proceed in his home state because the newspapers' Web sites were accessible there and that was where injury to his reputation would have taken place.

The defendants disagreed, and the question of jurisdiction is now pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., where oral arguments are scheduled for June 3.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - A Libel Suit May Establish E-Jurisdiction.

Slashdot | Face-Scanning Loses by a Nose in Palm Beach.

Rio writes: "A story from myCFnow.com reports that Palm Beach International Airport officials said face-scanning technology will not become part of their airport's security system." --- Looks like the ACLU was right. Checking a database of 15 employees, the technology gave false-negatives -- failed to recognize the test subjects -- over 50% of the time. A spokesperson said, "There's room for improvement." The Pentagon said the same thing in February. The false-positive rate is more important -- it isn't mentioned, but even if it were just 0.1%, Bruce Schneier argues, it'd be useless.

The Industry Standard (Australia) - Privacy commissioner issues stern warning on 'consents' practice .

The Federal Privacy Commissioner Malcolm Crompton has criticised the use of "bundled consents" which some of Australia's largest companies including telcos, banks and airlines typically use.

Claiming bundled consents are not good privacy or business practice and "totally contrary to the spirit of the Privacy Act", Crompton warned the issue will be tackled as part of a two-year review of the legislation in 2003.

Privacy Consultant at Aulich and Co, Terry Aulich, said IT companies, insurance firms and telcos are the worst offenders when it comes to bundled consent.

For example, he said information provided to Telstra is disclosed to a range of outside sources such as telemarketing groups and debt recovery companies, but they are purposely listed together to obtain bundled consent from customers.

Aulich said airlines and banks are "arrogant" when it comes to privacy with loyalty programs like frequent flyer points combining credit card information for a "range of purposes".

He said the information provided to banks for personal loans is owned by the bank regardless of whether the loan is approved.

U.S. Newswire - Study: Privacy 'Protections' Could Increase Cost to Consumers .

Privacy Leadership Initiative is the author of the study. And the PLI is a partnership of CEOs from major corporations and leading business associations who would probably like to sell as much of your information as they can convince you to allow.

The New England Journal of Medicine - Medical Privacy and Medical Research This link is an indirect one via Moreover.com - Paid subscription required and I don't have a subscription so I can't provide any interesting pull quotes from the article. Free full access to all Original Articles and Special Articles beginning six months after publication

ISPreview - UK Internet Service Provider Info - EU Internet Bill Erodes Privacy.

Civil liberties groups have rightly attacked the planned European Union (EU) laws to regulate electronic mail, which they believe could give police forces too much power over personal information.

The bill is the final element of a package to modernise EU telecommunications law and aims to protect the confidentiality of electronic communication such as e-mails and Internet transactions and to protect consumers.

But privacy advocates say provisions regulating police access to electronic data are too vague and could lead to large-scale storage of data for long periods of time.