Sunday, January 28, 2007

FCW.com News - Maine rejects Real ID State lawmakers voted against Real ID because of concerns about money and whether the security of the cards is worth the expense. The implementation of new driver's licenses would cost $11 billion nationally, with Maine taxpayers paying $185 million in the first five years of the program. "The federal government may be willing to burden us with the high costs of a program that will do nothing to make us safer, but it is our job as state legislators to protect the people of Maine from just this sort of dangerous federal mandate," said Maine Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell. Maine legislators also cited privacy concerns as another factor for rejecting the mandate. The act requires state motor vehicle departments to electronically store private documents such as birth certificates to verify license applicants. "Maine lawmakers have delivered a clear signal to the Congress that the implications of Real ID are unacceptable," said Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap. They "understand that security is a critical priority, but so is privacy, and most importantly, a security system should actually provide security. It is not at all clear that after all the expense and tribulation for citizens that Real ID would present that we would really be no safer." 10:55:17 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Chicago Elections Board sued over data breach. Chicago Elections Board sued over data breach. The Chicago Board of Elections faces two separate lawsuits alleging that it failed to protect the privacy of 1.3 million voters in the city by releasing personal data about them on 100 computer disks. [Computerworld Privacy News] 10:49:59 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

wfrv.com - State IRS Secretary Apologizes For SSN Leak (AP) MADISON New Department of Revenue Secretary Roger Ervin apologized to lawmakers Thursday for a printing problem in which taxpayers' Social Security numbers were mailed on thousands of tax forms. Ervin told the Assembly Committee on Consumer Protection and Personal Privacy the agency will no longer give out data vendors don't need. The department also has launched a review to see how many contractors, if any, have such information, he said. All taxpayers will get a unique identification number by next year, the secretary added, and he plans to appoint a privacy specialist within the agency. "This particular incident is a very unfortunate mistake, and I know that I speak for everyone in the Department when I express my deepest apologies," Ervin said in written testimony to committee members. He took over the agency nine days ago. Ripon Community Printers mailed about 171,000 tax forms with Social Security numbers printed on them around the last week of December. The forms went to people who filed paper copies last year of their joint state income tax return for the 2005 tax year. News of the mailing raised fears that anyone who handled the forms could use the numbers to commit identity theft. 10:43:09 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

International Free Expression and Privacy Challenges to be Addressed. International Free Expression and Privacy Challenges to be Addressed. "Many governments have found ways to turn technology against their citizens -- monitoring legitimate online activities and censoring democratic material." [GT: Security and Privacy] 10:22:46 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Attorney General Sends a Message to Cell Phones Spammers: U R Violation the Law. Attorney General Sends a Message to Cell Phones Spammers: U R Violation the Law. "This conduct is particularly egregious because consumers have no way to avoid these costs that they never agreed to incur." [GT: Security and Privacy] 10:19:58 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Are Privacy Notices Worthless? Are Privacy Notices Worthless?  Jay Cline wonders whether it's time to reconsider the ubiquitous Web site privacy notice. [Computerworld Privacy News] 10:06:43 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Attorney General Urges Caution in Wake of ID Theft from Florida Stores. Attorney General Urges Caution in Wake of ID Theft from Florida Stores. "Identity theft steals not only money, but also a person's good name and reputation." [GT: Security and Privacy] 10:03:58 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Wired News: Tax Takers Send in the Spiders Websites around the world are getting a new computerized visitor among the Googlebots and Yahoo web spiders: The taxman. A five-nation tax enforcement cartel has been quietly cracking down on suspected internet tax cheats, using a sophisticated web crawling program to monitor transactions on auction sites, and track operators of online shops, poker and porn sites. The "Xenon" program -- a reference to the super-bright auto headlights that light up dark places -- was started in The Netherlands in 2004 by the Dutch equivalent of the IRS, Belastingdienst. It has since been expanded and enhanced by international group of tax authorities in Austria, Denmark, Britain and Canada, with the assistance of Amsterdam-based data mining firm Sentient Machine Research. Xenon is primarily a spider: a program that downloads a web page, then traverses its links and downloads those as well, ad infinitum. In this manner spiders can create huge datasets of web material, while preserving the relationships between pages at the moment they were spidered -- something that can reveal a lot about the people that made the pages. It's unclear how effective Xenon has been in generating investigative leads. Contacted by Wired News, the tax departments of Canada and the United Kingdom confirmed participation in the program, but declined further comment. 9:53:12 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

The Taxman's Web Spider Cometh. The Taxman's Web Spider Cometh. Juha-Matti Laurio writes "A five-nation tax enforcement cartel has been quietly cracking down on suspected Internet tax cheats, using a sophisticated Web-crawling program to monitor transactions on auction sites and to track operators of online shops, poker, and porn sites. Austria, Denmark, Great Britain, and Canada have joined The Netherlands in pursuing the 'Xenon' program with the assistance of an Amsterdam-based data mining company. Wired News reports that the Web crawler uses so-called 'slow search' to avoid creating excessive traffic on a site or drawing attention in the sites' server logs." The article notes that the US IRS will neither confirm nor deny using similar technology. [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 9:49:16 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Gov Seeks Spy Suit Dismissal - Says Now Gets Warrants ( WIRED Blogs: 27B Stroke 6 ) Following the government's surprise announcement last week that it would now get court supervision over its warrantless wiretapping program from the same court it long said was too cumbersome, the government is moving to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to abolish the program. The ACLU already convinced a Detroit judge to declare as unconstitutional the warrantless surveillance of international communications of Americans when the government believes that at least one party to the conversation has ties to a terrorist group. The government's appeal of that ruling will be heard on Wednesday, January 31 in front of the Sixth Circuit court of appeals. The public version of the government's filing argues that the case is now moot and that the original decision should be overturned argues that since the journalists and Muslim groups that are suing were simply asking the courts to stop the program because it didn't get warrants, their objective has already been met. 9:46:49 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program - New York Times The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies. Judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the Justice Department to compose their decisions. But now the procedures have started to meet resistance. At a private meeting with the lawyers in one of the cases this month, the judges who will hear the first appeal next week expressed uneasiness about the procedures, said a lawyer who attended, Ann Beeson of the American Civil Liberties Union. Lawyers suing the government and some legal scholars say the procedures threaten the separation of powers, the adversary system and the lawyer-client privilege. Justice Department officials say the circumstances of the cases, involving a highly classified program, require extraordinary measures. The officials say they have used similar procedures in other cases involving classified materials. 9:43:32 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Government Seeks Dismissal of Spy Suit. Government Seeks Dismissal of Spy Suit. The Wired blog 27B Stroke 6 is carrying the news that the US has filed a motion to drop the case the ACLU won in lower court against the government's warrantless wiretapping program. The government's appeal of that ruling will be heard on Wednesday, January 31 in front of the Sixth Circuit court of appeals. The feds argue that the case is now moot because they are now obtaining warrants from the FISA court, and furthermore President Bush did not renew the warrantless program. Turns out there's a Supreme Court precedent saying that if you were doing something illegal, get taken to court, and then stop the illegal activity, you're not off the hook. The feds argue in their petition that this precedent does not apply to them. Here is the government's filing (PDF). [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 9:36:41 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

DRM, Vista and your rights ( polishlinux.org ) In the US, France and a few other countries it is already forbidden to play legally purchased music or videos using GNU/Linux media players. Sounds like sci-fi? Unfortunately not. And it won't end up on multimedia only. Welcome to the the new era of DRM! In this article I would like to explain the problem of Digital Rights (or restrictions) Management, especially in the version promoted by Microsoft with the new Windows Vista release. Not everyone is familiar with the dangers of the new "standard" for the whole computer industry. Yes, the whole industry -- because it goes way beyond the software produced by the giant from Redmond and its affiliates. 9:33:14 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Fight DRM While There's Still Time. Fight DRM While There's Still Time. ageor writes "It seems (not only) to me that DRM is about far more than intellectual property. It's also about monopoly and freedom of choice. It's one of those cases where we, the consumers, must decide against accepting the new industry's rules, which care only about control and making money. The whole matter is very well put in DRM, Vista and your rights, where you can follow the subject as deeply as you like through the numerous relevant links." [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 9:29:34 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Wired News: Hillary: The Privacy Candidate? The issue of digital-era privacy did not make it to the top of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's legislative to-do list at the Saturday launch of her presidential campaign. But for those who look, the New York Democrat has clearly staked out her positions on the esoteric subject, and they're sending electronic civil libertarians' hearts a twitter. Clinton, the presidential front-runner among Democrats in way-early polling, addressed electronic privacy issues at a constitutional law conference in Washington, D.C. last June. There she unveiled a proposed "Privacy Bill of Rights" that would, among other things, give Americans the right to know what's being done with their personal information, and offer consumers an unprecedented level of control over how that data is used. "At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date," Clinton said. These ideas have long been championed by consumer groups and civil liberties advocates, but are largely strangers to presidential campaigns. Other Democrats who have announced presidential exploratory committees for the 2008 election -- including Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards -- have worked on privacy issues through their careers as government officials. But Clinton's approach is notable for its range and detail, say privacy advocates. "Sen. Clinton's plan is well-informed and the most sophisticated statement in recent years by a presidential candidate on privacy issues," said Chris Hoofnagle, a law professor at UC Berkeley's School of Law. "She grasps consumers' frustrations with the annoyance of direct marketing, but also the more important point that a lack of privacy can lead to lost opportunities and oppressive social control." Clinton's stance on consumer privacy hearkens back to the debates of the '90s when Congress and the public began agonizing over the question of who should wield the most control over consumers' transactional data. Her general policy position is that companies should cede more control to consumers, and that new legislation should be enacted to make it easier for consumers to recover monetary damages from companies that violate their privacy policies. For example, Clinton said that financial companies as a rule should not be allowed to share consumers' transactional information without first obtaining their permission. Under current law, financial institutions freely share certain kinds of customer information unless consumers specifically opt-out. 9:24:38 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

The Privacy Candidate. The Privacy Candidate. Alsee writes  "Wired News reports 'electronic civil libertarians' hearts are a-twitter' over US Presidential hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton's bold stance on the right to privacy. Wired quotes Clinton: 'At all levels, the privacy protections for ordinary citizens are broken, inadequate and out of date.' Clinton gave a speech last June to the American Constitution Society (text, WMF) in which she addressed electronic surveillance, consumer opt-in vs. opt-out, cyber-security, commercial and government handling of personal data, data offshoring, data leaks, and even genetic discrimination."  Would you consider a candidate's stand on privacy important enough to sway your vote? [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 9:20:39 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: The Controversy over Curtailing Habeas Corpus Rights Why It Is a Bad Day For The Constitution Whenever Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Testifies In the history of U.S. Attorney Generals, Alberto Gonzales is constantly reaching for new lows. So dubious is his testimony that he is not afforded the courtesy given most cabinet officers when appearing on Capitol Hill: Congress insists he testify under oath. Even under oath, Gonzales's purported understanding of the Constitution is historically and legally inaccurate, far beyond the bounds of partisan interpretation. No wonder that with each appearance he makes on Capitol Hill, Gonzales increases his standing as one of the least respected Attorney Generals ever, in the eyes of both Congressional cognoscenti and the legal community. His most recent appearance bordered on the pathetic. On January 18, Gonzales appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), now the committee's ranking minority member and former chairman, asked him a series of questions. With no wish to be snide, nor less than respectful of the post Gonzales holds, I must confess that watching his testimony makes me deeply uncomfortable. Gonzales does not seem to know when he is making a fool of himself, and I can't tell if he is suffering from empty-suit syndrome or an unhealthy case of hubris. Whatever the explanation, one thing is clear: Gonzales's latest testimony provided a micro-moment of how the Bush/Cheney Administration does business, and how it plays fast and loose with Americans' fundamental rights. 9:16:21 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []