Friday, November 10, 2006

Government turns down request for FOI data. Government turns down request for FOI data. Access denied The Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has refused a request to make public the data behind a controversial recent report. The DCA is in charge of policy for the Freedom of Information Act (FoI). [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 7:31:15 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Privacy chief: we're all in UK.gov's pockets. Privacy chief: we're all in UK.gov's pockets. How many points for Business Class democracy? The surveillance state is sorting society into pockets of desirable and undesirable people and treating them accordingly, a major survey by the UK's privacy guardian, the Information Commissioner said today. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 7:27:32 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Halt to school fingerprinting. Halt to school fingerprinting. China strikes blow for privacy The Hong Kong privacy commissioner has ordered a school to stop fingerprinting children before it becomes a runaway trend that is too late to stop. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 7:23:59 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Wired News: Election Spawns New Hope for Tech On the face of it, the Democrats regaining control of the House of Representatives -- and appearing likely to hold a one-seat majority in the Senate -- would seem to be a positive in areas such as stem-cell research and the safeguarding of personal privacy, where technology plays a crucial role. But since nothing is a given in American politics, the best we can do is take an educated guess at what Tuesday's results might portend for the industry. Wired News assesses the results from races deemed important because of their probable impact in several major areas, including stem-cell research, climate change, privacy and security, intellectual property and the gaming industry. 7:19:09 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

SEM on Search & Consumer Privacy. SEM on Search & Consumer Privacy. Gord Hotchkiss, the president of a search engine marketing firm, writes what at first appears to be a thoughtful and reflective essay on how the rise of behavioral targeting within the search engine advertising market (his bread and butter): The mechanisms are already in place for search engines to track your online behavior. Tool bars, mini apps, personal search history. All of these can and do track where you've been. Everybody is being tracked to some degree. But as Seana pointed out in her column, most of us are blissfully unaware of it. That's because it's been relatively benign to this point. In return for a handy tool bar that offers increased convenience, the ability to index your desktop and other added functionality, we just click the accept button without really reading what we're accepting. Up to now, there hasn't seemed to be any consequences. But in the background, the engines are quietly collecting terabytes of click-stream data. Unfortunately, he casts this concern aside much too quickly: More and more consumer groups will launch protests. Politicians will sense opportunity and jump on their soapboxes. There will be a very vocal minority that will rail against this "Big Brotherism." There will also be a group of advertisers that will continue to step way beyond the acceptable, using targeting to subvert the user experience, rather than enhance it, hijacking the user and taking them to places they never intended. This will add fuel to the fire. And because they're the most visible target, the search engines will bear the brunt of the attack. In the end, we'll realize there's much more pro than con here. Effective targeting will generally add to our experience, not take away from it. We'll toy with trying to use a third-party privacy filter, but in the end, most of us won't be willing to give up the additional functionality in return for maintaining an illusion of anonymity online. Much of the usefulness of Web 2.0 (I know, I hate the term too, but at least it's commonly understood) will be dependent on capturing personal and click-stream data. We'll give in, and the storm will gradually fade away on the horizon. Our goal must be to make consumers aware of the trade-offs between providing enormous amounts of personal information in exchange for a "convenient" toolbar or a contextually-relevant ad. We must not allow people to give in so easily. [via Pogo Was Right] [michaelzimmer.org] 7:15:55 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Intel Drafts Privacy License for Mobile Device Software. Intel Drafts Privacy License for Mobile Device Software. On the heels of Microsoft's recent release of privacy guidelines for software developers, here's an excellent example of another company working with privacy scholars to try to protect end-user privacy when using location-based mobile devices. From ComptuerWorld: Intel Drafts Privacy License for Mobile Device Software Intel Corp. has attached a privacy license to its new location-aware software product, intended to protect cell phone users' personal information as mobile devices increasingly rely on tracking technology to provide targeted services. Installed on a smart phone or ultramobile PC, location-aware software can use GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to produce tailored information like driving directions, nearby restaurants and movie schedules. The downside of that feature is that handsets can double as tracking devices if location data is not kept private. The abuse of such access could range from civil liberties violations to physical threats in the cases of vulnerable people like battered spouses, Intel fears. So, Intel has added a privacy addendum to the Eclipse Public License it uses for the software application called Privacy Observant Location System (POLS), according to a posting on Intel's Web site by John Miller, the privacy and security policy manager of Intel's corporate technology group. The addendum says that vendors must inform the end-user what information is recorded and how long it is stored, and it requires developers to include opt-out capability so users can change those settings, Miller said. [...] Intel built this value-conscious design/policy feature by working with the Value Sensitive Design Research Lab at the University of Washington, the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, and other academics and lawyers. The challenge, of course, will be enforcement of the policy. As the folks at Intel acknowledge: Intel faces a continuing challenge as it must convince developers to abide by its privacy initiative. The new addendum is useless if software developers don't obey it, so the company has begun a campaign to build support in the open-source community. Intel has asked members of the Open Source Initiative to refine and adopt the policy as an acceptable amendment to the OSI's standard open-source license, and made available to the open-source community at large. "We believe that a bottoms-up effort to encourage the development of privacy-sensitive social norms is necessary, and in fact critical, for both privacy and public adoption of the technology," Miller said. "We post this information here with the hope that others will see value in this approach." [via Pogo Was Right] [michaelzimmer.org] 6:52:30 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Why one virus engine is not enough. Why one virus engine is not enough. This white paper, written by Matthew Simiana, examines why having multiple anti-virus scanners at mail server level substantially reduces the chance of virus infection and explores ways in which this can be achieved. By Matthew Simiana. [Infosec Writers Latest Security Papers] 6:48:44 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

BPI lobbies Gowers for a 'private right to copy'. BPI lobbies Gowers for a 'private right to copy'. Rip your own CDs legally The UK's main recording industry body wants to authorise UK music buyers to copy CDs for personal use. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has recommended to a government investigation that a private right to copy be created. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 6:47:20 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Covert coppers reach for surveillance lead. Covert coppers reach for surveillance lead. ICO looks on One of the UK's top covert coppers has defended his record of spying on citizens as privacy officials wonder whether surveillance technology is giving him too much power. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 6:45:31 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

What DVD Jon's iPod crack means for you. What DVD Jon's iPod crack means for you. Everybody's happy nowadays Analysis As we reported three weeks ago, reverse-engineering specialist "DVD" Jon Johansen has decoded the encryption that locks down iTunes-purchased music - and he's formed a company to license this to all-comers. Now Johansen has reverse-engineered rival DRM formats, permitting encrypted songs purchased from Apple rivals to play on iPods. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 6:43:49 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Biometric ID cards an insecure menace, says EU ID outfit. Biometric ID cards an insecure menace, says EU ID outfit. Don't do it, and fix the passports ASAP, apparently... The EU-funded FIDIS (Future of Identity in the Information Society) project has warned that implementation of the current generation of biometric travel ID will dramatically decrease security and privacy, and increase the risk of identity theft. In the Budapest Declaration, which derives from FIDIS' September meeting in Budapest, FIDIS calls for short-term damage control measures to be taken (because biometric ID is already being rolled out), and for "a new convincing and integrated security concept" to be developed within the next three years. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 6:41:47 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Privacy and Security Law Blog: Confidential Information Should Be Encrypted or Not Stored on Laptops 81% of U.S. businesses surveyed this year reported that, in the previous 12 months, at least one of their laptops or other portable electronic devices had been lost or stolen. U.S. Survey: Confidential Data at Risk, 5 Privacy & Security Law Report 1162 (2006). When a laptop is lost or stolen, unencrypted data on the computer can easily be accessed. Even if a user name and password are needed to sign on to the laptop, the hard drive can be removed in a few seconds and all data on the hard drive can be copied to another computer or to a storage device in minutes. Despite the high risk sensitive data may be obtained from lost or stolen laptops, many businesses continue to allow employees to store such information on laptops and to take the laptops home, on business trips, and on vacations. Business managers should consider whether their current laptop security practices are sufficient. If a business' trade secrets, attorney-client privileged information, customer lists, or financial information are obtained from a lost or stolen laptop, affected shareholders, employees, or business partners may argue that the business failed to take adequate steps to safeguard the data. Avivah Litan, vice president and analyst at the Gartner Group, said in a recent interview: "Frankly, there is no excuse anymore not to encrypt data on laptops and mobile devices. . . . The cost for laptop encryption is $40 or less per laptop. . . . [T]here is no excuse today. It is really bordering on negligence." An Interview with Experts on the Cost of Ensuring Data Security, 6 Privacy Advisor 20, 23 (2006). Every company with sensitive data on mobile devices should consider whether the data should be encrypted. 6:31:52 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Florida 'Missing' 18,000 E-Votes in Close Race. Florida 'Missing' 18,000 E-Votes in Close Race. Irregularities in Sarasota County House of Representatives race spur Florida recount and calls for revote. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 6:28:15 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Bipartisanship on Hold - New York Times Without missing a beat, Mr. Bush made it clear that, for now, his idea of how to "put the elections behind us" is to use the Republicans' last two months in control of Congress to try to push through one of the worst ideas his administration and its Republican allies on Capitol Hill have come up with: a bill that would legalize his illegal wiretapping program and gut the law that limits a president's ability to abuse his power in this way. [...] That was a bad idea from the start. But the wiretapping bill is simply outrageous, and it has no business being discussed in this lame duck session. The bill Mr. Bush wants was drafted by Vice President Dick Cheney's lawyers and by Senator Arlen Specter, the outgoing Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Specter presented it as a compromise that would regulate the president's ability to spy on Americans' phone calls and e-mail without a court order. It really was a cave-in to Mr. Bush's effort to expand his power beyond limits that have existed for nearly 30 years. Mr. Bush has acknowledged that he authorized the National Security Agency to conduct certain kinds of domestic wiretapping without obtaining the warrant required by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He has claimed that the law hindered the hunt for terrorists, but has not offered a scrap of evidence for that claim. He has also never described the program's overall scope, and almost none of the lawmakers who will vote on this bill if Mr. Bush has his way have any idea what it entails. 12:01:12 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []