May 1st 2008
Its been a cold winter for privacy advocates in the US. Some of the more remarkable privacy concerns to emerge include: The gutting of the nation’s privacy oversight board Comcast experimenting with home spying Companies swapping personal customer data The Protect America Act’s encouragement of domestic spying Spring Brings Increased Legal Support of Privacy for Citizens […]
April 28th 2008
As a result of a mandate by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), beginning September 2007, all cars and trucks sold in the US must have a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). Here’s how it works: there’s a sensor, usually in the valve stem, that monitors information like pressure, temperature, and whether the tire is […]
April 21st 2008
Has Google finally stepped over the “Do No Evil” line? Over the past few months, Google has invested in two DNA-mapping companies: 23andMe (a company created by Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s wife) and Navigenics, which maps genetic data and screens for anomalies. In theory, information of a predisposition towards a certain disease could be made […]
April 18th 2008
Currently, federal authorities can only collect DNA from convicted criminals. That may soon change, so that anyone arrested for a crime, or merely detained, can be forced to provide a DNA sample. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is fronting the legislation, which was passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee recently. The argument is that the new […]
April 17th 2008
Are you curious about how lawmakers spend money on their own offices? The website LegiStorm publishes publicly available financial details, including salaries and expenditures on Congressional staffers, in an attempt to keep our complex government transparent to citizens. However, even public scrutiny shold have its limits. You might want to take a look at the […]
April 14th 2008
This week, Alaska and Idaho passed laws that prohibit the state from taking measures to comply with the REAL ID act of 2005. That now makes nine states who refuse to participate in the new federal identity system, which is due to start operation in about a month. My friend and former state government colleague, Dazza […]
April 8th 2008
Credit card numbers were selling for as little as 40 cents each and access to bank accounts was going for $10 in the second half of 2007, according to the latest twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec, which you may download here. As highlighted in our earlier article, Big Business Big Brother, data breaches […]
April 6th 2008
On rare occasions, the media both gets something right and comprehends its importance. One such example is the CNBC special called “Big Brother, Big Business” hosted by David Faber. I cannot recommend this two-hour program highly enough (the link above takes you to the video available online). I follow this stuff, and I was amazed […]
March 26th 2008
The cable company Comcast is experimenting with a new cable set-top box that uses a camera and recognition techniques to see who is in the room, bring up their “viewer profile,” and tailor ads to them. Although Winston Smith would shudder, the Department of Homeland Security is probably giddy with excitement. Gerard Kunkel, Senior VP […]
March 7th 2008
The President sank the committee charged with keeping the War on Terrorism on the right side of civil rights. Now he desperately wants to prevent the courts from keeping phone companies on the right side of Executive Power and privacy. Steven Colbert pokes fun at the Protect America Act – which, as the name suggests, allows […]
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