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Thursday, August 31, 2006
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Radio frequency identification technology will eventually be in the products you buy, the credit cards you buy them with, and the driver's license you carry while driving home from the store.
But the proliferation of RFID has raised concerns among privacy advocates who worry that consumers will be at greater risk of fraud and identity theft. State and federal lawmakers are starting to look at regulating the technology.
In July, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas co-founded the Senate RFID Caucus.
Wednesday, the senator was in Dallas to deliver the keynote speech at the Texas Competitiveness Summit at the University of Texas at Dallas.
He also sat down to discuss his interest in RFID technology, why he started the caucus, and his thoughts on the privacy concerns.
Here are excerpts from the interview.
7:36:55 PM 
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For the past five years an office in the Education Department has scanned through its databases of millions of students' federal financial aid and college enrollment records in search of terrorist names supplied by the FBI.
The effort, dubbed "Project Strike Back," was created by the Education Department's Office of Inspector General after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to expand the office's mission to include counterterrorism.
At the time, investigators believed some funding for the 9/11 attacks came from identity theft and fraud, criminal activity the Education Department had experience investigating, according to an internal memo obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
"This program was one of many around the country used by the FBI to identify people of potential interest," said FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan.
The department's central database stores information on all of the roughly 14 million students who apply for financial aid each year, even after they have repaid the loans.
To search for "potential terrorist activity," the FBI gave the department fewer than 1,000 names that the bureau considered suspicious to run through its databases, said bureau spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan. The bureau made requests as recently as February 2006.
In response to the requests, department agents would look for "anomalies" in the data and share the information with the FBI and Justice Department attorneys, according to a letter from an Education Department Office of Inspector General special agent to the assistant inspector general for investigations.
They found and shared personal information including at least names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers, according to an agency document that was recounted by a government official familiar with the data-mining program.
The joint venture abruptly ended this summer, 10 days after Medill School of Journalism reporters interviewed the special agent who oversaw the data mining program.
7:19:45 PM
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Children of celebrities will be given special safeguards in a new database that will store details of every child in England and Wales, it was disclosed yesterday.
Ministers said the contentious two-tier level of privacy will protect children of the rich and famous from intrusion.
Addresses and telephone numbers of celebrities will be removed from the database if, for example, their children are deemed at risk of kidnap.
But opponents of the £241 million Children's Index -- a supposedly confidential system intended as an early warning system for children at risk of abuse -- said the move underlined their concerns about its security.
In further embarrassment to the Government, an independent report commissioned by Parliament's Information Commissioner and due to be published next month, is understood to warn that the index is causing serious concern and is possibly unlawful.
There are fears that it does not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and may contravene the Data Protection Act.
7:02:49 PM
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British Celeb Kids Get Posh Database Treatment.
England is set to create a database of all children in the country that will allow schools, doctors and social workers to centrally file warning flags -- such as poor exam scores and parental depression -- in order to trigger faster investigations of families.
While the system designers promise the system will be secure, evidently its not secure enough for celebrities -- so details on their children will get special treatment in the database, according to this UK Telegraph story.
The database, to be introduced in 2008, follows the death of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie in 2000 as a result of abuse by her great aunt. Police, doctors and social workers had contact with Victoria as she suffered 128 injuries, but failed to discuss the case with one another.
Files are held by many bodies on the 11 million children in England and Wales, but the index will link this sensitive information in one database accessible to hundreds of thousands of officials.
Schools, doctors, the police and private-sector bodies will alert the system to such warning signals as low birth weight, poor exam results and a parent's depression or addiction. Two warning "flags" on a child's record may trigger an investigation.
Lord Adonis, the education minister, told the House of Lords: "Between 300,000 and 400,000 users will access the index. Children who have a reason for not being traced, for example where there is a threat of domestic violence or where the child has a celebrity status, will be able to have their details concealed."
Call it Big Mother, call it what you will, but you got to love the prospect of having Child Protective Services show up at your door because your kid could only label 20 out of 54 countries in Africa and you told your doctor that you were in the dumps recently because your company might be going out of business.
I, for one, am glad someone is thinking of the children, and even more glad they are thinking about David Beckham's children.
[27B Stroke 6]
6:58:28 PM
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The FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records -- including terrorist watch lists, intelligence cables and financial transactions -- culled from more than 50 FBI and other government agency sources. The system is one of the most powerful data analysis tools available to law enforcement and counterterrorism agents, FBI officials said yesterday.
The FBI demonstrated the database to reporters yesterday in part to address criticism that its technology was failing and outdated as the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks nears.
Privacy advocates said the Investigative Data Warehouse, launched in January 2004, raises concerns about how long the government stores such information and about the right of citizens to know what records are kept and correct information that is wrong.
The data warehouse is an effort to "connect the dots" that the FBI was accused of missing in the months before the 2001 attacks, bureau officials said. About a quarter of the information comes from the FBI's records and criminal case files. The rest -- including suspicious financial activity reports, no-fly lists, and lost and stolen passport data -- comes from the Treasury, State and Homeland Security departments and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
"That's where the real knowledge comes from . . . sharing information," said Gurvais Grigg, acting director of the FBI's Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force, who helped develop the system.
4:54:57 PM
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Feds Show Off Massive Database.
Feeling a little burnt from stories about its technological incompetence, the Justice Department wooed reporters Tuesday with its massive anti-terrorism database that contains some 659 million records comprising no-fly list data, airline records, driver's license numbers, social security numbers and suspicious financial activity
reports, according to this story from Ellen Nakashima in the Washington Post.
Privacy advocates said the Investigative Data Warehouse, launched in January 2004, raises concerns about how long the government stores such information and about the right of citizens to know what records are kept and correct information that is wrong.
The data warehouse is an effort to "connect the dots" that the FBI was accused of missing in the months before the 2001 attacks, bureau officials said. About a quarter of the information comes from the FBI's records and criminal case files. The rest -- including suspicious financial activity reports, no-fly lists, and lost and stolen passport data -- comes from the Treasury, State and Homeland Security departments and the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
One assumes that the database includes such things as the hundreds of thousands of records agents culled in 2003 from Las Vegas hotels and casinos, rental car agencies and airlines as part of their response to increased intelligence chatter.
This system is not totally unknown -- Washington Post journalist Robert O'Harrow, Jr. covered it in his book No Place to Hide.
Kenneth Ritchhart, the man who headed the project, made his aims clear to O'Harrow: John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness project.
"The technology that he's looking at," Ritchhart told O'Harrow, "is right up our alley."
Is it legal?
Depends on who you talk to.
It's not clear the agency has ever disclosed the database in the Federal Registry or published Privacy Impact Assessments as required by law.
You might also remember that the Justice Department exempted its criminal databases in 2003 from the requirement that they be accurate.
It's now not their problem, its yours.
Photo: Wbs 70  [27B Stroke 6]
2:52:59 PM
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California Lawmakers Pass Safeguards for Privacy-Leaking RFID Chips. The California State Senate passed tough new privacy safeguards yesterday for use of "tag and track" devices known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips embedded in state identification cards. The bill, SB 768, helps ensure that Californians can control the personal information contained on their drivers' licenses, library cards and other important ID documents.
EFF worked with a diverse range of concerned groups to get this bill passed, and now it just needs to clear one last hurdle -- the governor's signature -- before becoming law. If you live in California, follow this link and call the governor's office immediately to voice your support for S.B. 768.
Regardless, forward that link to friends and family who live in California and urge their support. [EFF: Deep Links]
2:48:25 PM
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How Not To Secure Your Search Privacy. Yesterday, the AP reported on a tool called TrackMeNot, which promises to protect "web-searchers against surveillance and data-profiling." While we certainly appreciate the intentions of TrackMeNot's developers, it is wholly ineffective at serving its stated purpose. EFF recommends you follow these tips to keep your search history private.
Computer security expert Bruce Schneier explains just some of the reasons why TrackMeNot doesn't work here. [EFF: Deep Links]
2:46:55 PM
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An anonymous reader writes: "In a move that has been termed 'positively Orwellian' by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Executive Director Jeff Ruch, George W. Bush is ending public access to research materials
at EPA regional libraries without Congressional consent. This all-out
effort to impede research and public access is a [loosely] covert
operation to close down 26 technical libraries under the guise of
budgetary constraint. Scientists are protesting, but at least 15 of the
libraries will be closed by Sept. 30, 2006."
2:44:23 PM
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duplo1 writes "According to an article on CNN, "Selling your old
phone once you upgrade to a fancier model can be like handing over your
diaries. All sorts of sensitive information pile[s] up inside our cell phones,
and deleting it may be more difficult than you think." It seems that
corporate security policies need to extend their disposal standards to
mobile devices; but what is there to educate consumers regarding such a
potential breach of privacy?"
2:37:11 PM
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With Browzar you can search and surf the web without leaving any visible trace on the computer you are using.
Browzar is free, it only takes seconds to download and you don't even need to install it, so you can download Browzar time and time again, whenever and wherever you need it to protect your privacy.
2:35:12 PM
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The latest entrant to the crowded Internet browser market is the appropriately named Browzar, a tool specifically designed to protect users' privacy by not retaining details of the Web sites they've searched. Most Web browsers like Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer automatically save users' searches in Internet caches and histories. Users do have the option of deleting the history folder and emptying the Internet cache, but many people either don't know how to do that or tend not to, leaving a trail of where they've been online behind them in the browser. Browzar is being officially launched Thursday but can already be run or downloaded from its Web site. Users don't have to register to use the free browser. Browzar automatically deletes Internet caches, histories, cookies and auto-complete forms. Auto-complete is the feature that anticipates the search term or Web address a user might enter by relying on information previously entered into the browser.
2:32:25 PM
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eastbayted writes "InfoWorld reports a new web browser designed to protect users privacy is available for download. Called Browzar,
it 'automatically deletes Internet caches, histories, cookies and
auto-complete forms.' It also boasts a search engine, which the company
will use to generate income. The 264KB application is the brainchild of
Ajaz Ahmen, known for creating the U.K.'s first ISP Freeserve. The
forthcoming version is for Windows only, but Mac and Linux versions
will be available eventually."
2:27:59 PM
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© Copyright 2006 Paul Hardwick.
Last update: 9/2/06; 4:15:24 AM.
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