A shocking survey from Indicii Salus has found that people have a greater respect for the privacy of a posted (snail mail) message than they do for the electronic (e-mail) kind:

83% of those questioned said they believe that emails are "free to be read", but would not consider opening a sealed envelope without invitation. However, once opened, over a quarter see a letter as fair game for public viewing.

United Press International: Groups to challenge medical privacy rule .

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A new federal rule that allows medical records to be disclosed without patient consent went into effect last week with little fanfare but patient rights groups are trying to muster legislation and perhaps a legal challenge to block it.

The so-called privacy rule, which was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services and took effect Oct. 15, allows doctors and health insurance companies to disclose medical records for treatment, payment and healthcare operations without obtaining patient consent.

"(HHS) continues to mislead the public ... continues to tell citizens and Congress ... this improves medical privacy ... when in fact it does just the opposite," Sue Blevins, president of the Washington think tank Institute for Health Freedom, said at a news briefing Monday.

The privacy rule largely will be invisible to the consumer. Doctors and health insurance companies will have to notify patients of their privacy policy and detail with whom they will share medical records, but after that health information can be distributed without the patient's knowledge or involvement.

The rule is intended to prevent the inappropriate release of this information but patient rights groups are concerned it is so vaguely written confidential information could be disclosed to individuals or institutions that have no legitimate reason to access it.

"There are activities under way to challenge this," Blevins said, referring to a bill recently introduced in Congress and a forthcoming legal challenge.

[ ... ]

"Most people don't realize that these rules are already in effect," he said, pointing out the urgency of the situation. Health insurance companies have until next April to be in compliance with the regulations but they can already release medical information in accordance with the new rule, he said.

[ ... ]

Health insurance companies also deny medical information will be inappropriately released.

"We don't see that threat," Larry Akey, spokesman for the Health Insurance Association of America, a lobbying group for health insurance companies, told UPI. But he added insurers may choose to release medical records to third parties that distribute wellness or disease management information, and he was uncertain whether this might contain information that would make people identifiable.

Pyles noted the rule also is retroactive and that any previous and future medical information in a patient's file can be disclosed. In addition, there is no tracking requirement so there is no way to trace to whom a person's medical information has been released, he said.

[ ... ]

Twila Brase, president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care, told UPI she is concerned about a provision of the rule that allows medical information to be disclosed for something called National Priority reasons, which includes law enforcement, public health, organ transplant and national security purposes.

"It should be called the medical record disclosure rule and not the privacy rule," she said at the briefing. "Patients will have to choose between privacy and health care. They can't have both."

ZDNet: How to get a little privacy on the Internet.

When I'm surfing the Web, I like to have a little privacy. I don't mean that I need to be in a locked room with the curtains drawn, but I'd like to think that my whereabouts on the Web are no one's business but my own.

Of course, some folks would rather make my whereabouts their  business, whether they use that info to advertise more effectively or merely to find out what I'm chatting about on my instant messenger.

So I use software that helps cover my tracks. These programs are particularly useful for those of you who share a computer with others, work with confidential information, or simply don't want to leave a trail of cookies, IM histories, and temp files wherever you go. Here are three of my favorites.

CNET NEWS.COM - Perspective: Privacy lessons from Europe.

Pushed by supporters as a model for the U.S., Europe's tough Internet privacy regulations have come under fire--from surprising sources.

The recent European Union-sponsored Data Protection Conference on privacy heard reports from businesses, media outlets, trade unions and four EU nations that demonstrated why the United States should not follow Europe's pro-regulation path in protecting Internet privacy.

Ever since the EU's data protection directive took effect in 1998, pro-regulation privacy advocates have been trying to convince the United States and the rest of the world to adopt the European model. Under the directive, e-mail addresses and other personal data can be disclosed or transferred to third parties only with the individual's explicit consent. Now that the model has been operational for a few years, the excessive costs of strong privacy regulations are apparent, but privacy worries remain high. This has led to criticism from some unexpected places.

Political News from Wired News - ID Chip's Controversial Approval.

Despite an FDA investigator's public disapproval, the agency OKs an implantable chip for humans -- as long as it's for security and safety reasons.

[ ... ]

But the FDA has not determined whether the controversial chip can be used for medical purposes, including linking to medical databases, the company added. In the United States, ADS has principally marketed VeriChip as a life-saving tool, saying, for example, that unconscious patients brought to emergency rooms could be scanned to determine their medical histories.

Repeated phone calls to the FDA's press office were not returned Tuesday, and ADS refused to provide the media with a copy of the agency's letter.

Business News from Wired News - Victory for the VeriChip.

Applied Digital Solutions plans to resume marketing its implantable VeriChip product for security, financial and personal identification and safety applications in the U.S. now that the Food and Drug Administration completed its investigation of the device.

Business News from Wired News - Spam So Bad the Spammers Balk.

Even the Direct Marketing Association says it's time for legislation to limit spam. "We need to give the consumer the means to try and stop it," a DMA official says. But an anti-spam group thinks the DMA proposal could increase unwanted e-mail.

[ ... ]

Cerasale said the DMA supports unsolicited e-mail marketing as long as it targets a certain demographic or interest group -- say, 25- to 35-year-olds or homeowners -- and isn't merely sent to every e-mail address one can gather.

Political News from Wired News - Servers Bounce Back From E-Attack.

An unusually powerful electronic attack briefly crippled nine of the 13 computer servers that manage global Internet traffic this week, officials disclosed Tuesday. But most Internet users didn't notice because the attack only lasted one hour.

The FBI and White House were investigating. One official described the attack Monday as the most sophisticated and large-scale assault against these crucial computers in the history of the Internet. The origin of the attack was not known.

Digital Speech Project. The Digital Speech Project works to reclaim your rights trampled by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and related technology control schemes.

A project of the Free Software Foundation.

Public Knowledge.

Public Knowledge is a public-interest advocacy organization dedicated to fortifying and defending a vibrant "information commons" - the shared information resources and cultural assets that we own as a people. This Washington, D.C. based group speaks in a single voice for a wide spectrum of stakeholders - libraries, educators, scientists, artists, musicians, journalists, consumers, software programmers, civic groups and enlightened businesses. Despite varying concerns in their respective fields, the constituency leaders who comprise Public Knowledge are united in a core conviction, that some fundamental democratic principles and cultural values - openness, public access, and the capacity to create and compete - must be given new embodiment in the digital age.

Slashdot | Your Rights Online - RMS Urges Opposition to "Trusted Computing".

Andy Tai writes "In this Newsforge article, Richard Stallman analyzes the "Trusted Computing" initiative and Microsoft's Palladium, points out that such initiatives are really means to ensure your computer can be trusted by Microsoft and Hollywood (you can't do things they don't want), and urges computer users to organize, to support the Public Knowledge and the Digital Speech projects and to use their consumer power to block "Trusted Computing" in its tracks."

TechNews.com part of the Washington Post - Attack On Internet Called Largest Ever .

The heart of the Internet sustained its largest and most sophisticated attack ever, starting late Monday, according to officials at key online backbone organizations.

Around 5:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, a "distributed denial of service" (DDOS) attack struck the 13 "root servers" that provide the primary roadmap for almost all Internet communications. Despite the scale of the attack, which lasted about an hour, Internet users worldwide were largely unaffected, experts said.