Monday, March 12, 2007

Canada.com and Email Privacy Canada.com and Email Privacy [Michael Geist Privacy Law RSS News Feed] 10:44:46 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Justice Department Report Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act. Justice Department Report Reveals FBI Misused Patriot Act. A Justice Department audit released Friday said that the FBI used the Patriot Act improperly and unlawfully to gain information about people in the United States. Two members of the House Judiciary Committee debate the audit's conclusions. By NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. [NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Podcast | PBS] 10:41:50 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Google Aids Indian Goverment Censorship. Google Aids Indian Goverment Censorship.  An anonymous reader writes  "Google's Orkut has made a deal to provide IP addresses of posters of content deemed objectionable by Bombay police. They object, among others, to posts against certain Indian personalities, young women admiring Indian mobsters, and, amazingly, "anti-Indian words" (!)."  [Slashdot] 10:36:33 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Spying Too Secret for the Courts. Spying Too Secret for the Courts. AT&T and the government tell an appeals court that the case against the telecom for allegedly helping the government spy on Americans is too secret for any court, despite the Administration's admission it did spy on Americans without warrants. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:33:23 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Making Sense of Census Data With Google Earth. Making Sense of Census Data With Google Earth.   mikemuch writes  "Imran Haque has developed a mashup of Google Earth with data from the U.S. Census Bureau, called gCensus. The app uses the XML format known as KML (Keyhole Markup Language), which can create shapes and colors on the maps displayed by GE. Haque had to build custom code libraries (which he's made available as open source) that could generate KML for the project. He also had to extract the relevant data from the highly counter-intuitive Census Bureau files and store them in a database that could handle geographic data. gCensus lets you do stuff like create colorful overlays on maps showing population ages, race, and family size distributions."  [Slashdot] 10:20:05 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

No Reprieve for Jailed Blogger. No Reprieve for Jailed Blogger. An appeals court upholds an Egyptian man's four-year prison sentence for insulting Islam and the country's president. By the Associated Press. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:16:01 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Government Sites Fail FOIA Rules. Government Sites Fail FOIA Rules. A study shows 79 percent of federal agencies are violating a Freedom of Information Act amendment requiring they post records online and help citizens request info over the internet. In 27B Stroke 6. Plus: States' secrecy penalties. [Wired News: Top Stories] 10:14:21 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

courant.com | Our I.D., Their Trash - Sensitive Records Turn Up In Ohio Papers with sensitive information about Connecticut residents - Social Security numbers, medical records, names, phone numbers, addresses and bank records began blowing from an Ohio landfill onto nearby homeowner Harry Evans' yard months ago. At first he just picked up the litter - dozens of papers in all - and threw it away. But about a week ago, Evans says, he talked with his wife about the personal nature of some of the windblown papers and decided he'd had enough. He called the local media. Soon, newspaper and TV reporters descended on his home in Negley. 4:41:49 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

TorontoSun.com - Canada - Privacy swipe? New system would check IDs in stores Convenience stores that check ID by swiping driver's licences could be violating privacy law, Government Services Minister Gerry Phillips said Wednesday. The system called "We Expect ID," would see store clerks swipe licences through a lottery terminal to verify a customer's age when purchasing alcohol, cigarettes, adult magazines, lottery tickets or fireworks. The terminal will read age information from the magnetic stripe on the licence and display the person's age on the terminal. 4:38:21 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Popular P2P apps could expose sensitive files, report says. Popular P2P apps could expose sensitive files, report says. Five popular peer-to-peer file-sharing applications include features that could allow users to inadverdently share sensitive files on their computers with others, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. [Computerworld Privacy News] 4:33:43 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

'Do the Right Thing'. Editorial 'Do the Right Thing'. Editorial: There is no greater hallmark of an IT leader than the courage it takes to do what[base ']s right, says Don Tennant. [Computerworld Privacy News] 4:32:08 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Congress Targets Pretexting. Congress Targets Pretexting. Legislation would add protections against the practice of posing as another to gain personal data. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:22:56 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Protect E-Voting ó Support H.R. 811. Protect E-Voting [~] Support H.R. 811. After a long fight, we have reached the point where a major e-voting reform bill has a chance to become U.S. law. I[base ']m referring to HR 811, sponsored by my Congressman, Rush Holt, and co-sponsored by many others. After reading the bill carefully, and discussing with students and colleagues the arguments of its supporters and critics, I am convinced that it is a very good bill that deserves our support. The main provisions of the bill would require e-voting technologies to have a paper ballot that is (a) voter-verified, (b) privacy-preserving, and (c) durable. Paper ballots would be hand-recounted, and compared to the electronic count, at randomly-selected precincts after every election. The most important decision in writing such a bill is which technologies should be categorically banned. The bill would allow (properly designed) optical scan systems, touch-screen systems with a suitable paper trail, and all-paper systems. Paperless touchscreens and lever machines would be banned. Some activists have argued that the bill doesn[base ']t go far enough. A few say that all use of computers in voting should be banned. I think that[base ']s a mistake, because it sacrifices the security benefits computers can provide, if they[base ']re used well. Others argue that touch-screen voting machines should be banned even if they have good paper trails. I think that goes too far. Touchscreens can be a useful part of a good voting system, if they[base ']re used in the right context and with a good paper trail. We shouldn[base ']t let the worst of today[base ']s insecure paperless touchscreens [~] machines that should never have been certified in the first place, and anyway would be banned by the Holt Bill for lacking a suitable paper ballot [~] sour us on the better uses of touchscreens that are possible. One of the best parts of the bill is its random audit requirement, which selects 3% of precincts (or more in close races) at which the paper ballots will be hand counted and compared to the electronic records. This serves two useful purposes: detecting error or fraud that might have affected the election result, and providing a routine quality-control check on the vote-counting process. This part of the bill reflects a balance between the states[base '] freedom to run their own elections and the national interest in sound election management. On the whole this is a good, strong bill. I support it, and I urge you to support it too. Share This [Freedom to Tinker] 4:20:32 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Seagate Ships Super-Secure Hard Disk Drive. Seagate Ships Super-Secure Hard Disk Drive. ASI Computer Technologies will use the automatically encrypted Momentus in a laptop. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:18:52 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Human Error Causes Most Data Loss, Study Says. Human Error Causes Most Data Loss, Study Says. Three-quarters of incidents involving loss of sensitive data are caused by human error, according to researchers. [PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:08:30 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Does Free Domain Registration Promote Malware? Does Free Domain Registration Promote Malware?  Easy, anonymous registration boosts sites used for spamming or hosting malicious apps, McAfee says. PC World: Latest Technology News] 4:06:37 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Open Government Gets Its Week in the Sunshine. Open Government Gets Its Week in the Sunshine. This week is Sunshine Week - a gentle name for celebrating the serious business of uncovering secretive government practices. Taking its cue from the famous line by Justice Brandeis that "sunlight is ... the best of disinfectants", this year's Sunshine Week reflects on a year of continuing efforts to increase government visibility, and a renewed interest by the press, activists, and netizens in investigating its secrets. Projects like our own Freedom of Information Act Lltigation for Accountable Government (FLAG) project have been working hard to use statutory tools like FOIA and the Privacy Act to uncover the misuse of technology by the state. Josh Richman's overview of FLAG's work in several of Sunday's papers highlights the work our Washington office does, from uncovering the edges of the warrantless wiretapping program, to probing the connections between the NSA and Windows Vista's development. EFF's work monitoring Washington developments in the world of technology are helped by many other dedicated sites, like OpenCRS, which distributes the fascinating, but previously restricted, Congressional Research Service reports, and OpenSecrets, which can illustrate Washington connections that are otherwise obscure (want to know why Bill Frist was so keen on the Audio Flag? Inquire within.) Researchers at EPIC, coalition groups like Open The Government and the politicians behind H.R.1309, which seeks to update the FOIA laws to react faster to inquiries, help keep the tools of exposing government sharp and relevant. Meanwhile, across the Net, hackers and activists have been working to extract, sift and re-present what information federal and state governments do provide in a way that ordinary citizens can use. There's now a wealth of sources to choose from, from the amazing work by the volunteer-run GovTrack.us, to the new OpenCongress that builds on GovTrack's database and more, to the many new APIs that can stitch all of this data together. Each of this tools, like each of our organizations, builds on the others. This week, the Sunlight Foundation is sponsoring a $2000 prize for the best Web mash-up of Congressional information, as judged by EFF friends Esther Dyson, Jimmy Wales, and Craig Newmark. We look forward to seeing how far the sunlight breaks this year. [EFF: Deep Links] 4:04:59 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

QuickTime Security Update Taxes Some Mac Users. QuickTime Security Update Taxes Some Mac Users. Some computer users running Apple Mac OS X are having a bit of a taxing time with the TurboTax software after installing a recent security update for Apple's QuickTime media player. The QuickTime update, released last week, effectively prevents a number of programs from launching. The problem appears to be limited to users of Mac OS X 10.3.9 and earlier versions, but the interference caused by the QuickTime update is not limited to TurboTax. The update is reportedly causing problems with games such as World of Warcraft, Age of Empires III, Full Tilt Poker and Snake, according to numerous threads at the online user forums of both Apple and TurboTax. It looks like TurboTax parent Intuit plans to release an update on Monday to try and work around Apple's patch. The company even posted a link where users can leave their contact information to be alerted when a fix is available. For many users, that response stood in contrast to Apple's, which -- now a week after this "QuickTax" problem was first highlighted -- so far has been non-existent. Michael Molton, a software engineer from Virginia Beach, Va., was less than impressed: "COME ON APPLE," he wrote in a post last Wednesday on Apple's user forum. "You introduced this bug about 48 hours ago, there is zero excuse for not having a fix or at the VERY least some announcement that a fix is coming." A user going by the name MacPatty writes: "Is anyone at Apple actually working on this problem or we all just talking to each other here. Does Apple know that they created a big problem for us?" Apple's silence on security-related problems facing its rapidly expanding user base has been lagging a bit lately. More than four months ago, a computer worm that leveraged a design flaw in QuickTime spread rapidly to users of the social networking site MySpace.com, stealing passwords from more than 100,000 users. The company responded by quietly issuing a patch designed just for MySpace users, which MySpace admins rolled out in a rather clumsy and insecure way. But Apple largely refused to talk to reporters about the whole incident, and it has yet to issue an advisory to let QuickTime users know whether they should be at all concerned about it, and if so what they can do to minimize their chances of being the next victim. OK, so maybe the largest share of QuickTime users are running Microsoft Windows, and the MySpace worm didn't appear to do much more than steal MySpace logins. Still, this is an attack that could be replicated on other sites, with more serious consequences affecting both Mac and Apple users. A question for Apple: Could you create a simple blog that offers suggestions or workarounds for high-profile problems affecting your customers, or at least assure users that you have heard their concerns and are investigating the problem? [Security Fix] 4:03:34 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []