If the computer had been encrypted, there would be no need for this article.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080607162231682

ETSU says stolen computer could lead to identity theft

Saturday, June 07 2008 @ 04:22 PM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

East Tennessee State University has sent a letter to 6,200 people whose identities could be compromised by the theft of a desktop computer.

The letter, dated Monday and provided to the Johnson City Press by the father of a graduate who received one, says the computer is password protected and files cannot be easily accessed. But it says there is a small possibility that the information could be compromised.

Source - knoxnews.com

I suspect someone has written a “How to commit Identity Theft” guidebook, and it seems to be on every crook's Best Seller list.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080607081855758

Ca: Major ID theft ring busted, say police

Saturday, June 07 2008 @ 08:18 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A major identity theft ring that could have victimized hundreds of people in Greater Victoria has been broken up, police say.

... "They go into apartment buildings and they open the super boxes. And they go in there and take whatever they can and then they come back and sort through it and take the credit cards out," said Bown, adding several income tax return cheques and bank cards were also found.

Source - vicnews.com

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080607083308705

Split Panel Affirms Warrantless Use of GPS Device

Saturday, June 07 2008 @ 08:33 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

The warrantless use of a global positioning device on a vehicle by police does not violate a driver's right to privacy under either the U.S. Constitution or the New York state Constitution, an upstate appeals panel decided last week.

In becoming what it said was the first state appeals court in New York to address the issue, the Appellate Division, 3rd Department, panel determined that the privacy expectations of individuals under both the federal and state constitutions are lower when they are in their automobiles than when they are in their homes. [Your home is like your castle. Your car is like your horse. Once you cross your moat (your driveway?) you enter Sherwood Forrest and Robin's Merry Men are waiting... Bob]

Source - Law.com

Look at this. No way such things could happen in the US (see next article)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080607083847337

AU: Data matching and privacy concerns

Saturday, June 07 2008 @ 08:38 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

In March, reports surfaced of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority providing Medicare with a list of athletes’ names and asking Medicare to search through its files in order to identify possible users of steroids and human growth hormones. A worthy objective maybe, but there was a flurry of concern at the time about whether there had been proper consideration given to the privacy issues concerning health information held by Medicare.

The issue surfaced last week in Senate Estimates (Finance and Public Administration 28 May 114-115 ) when the Privacy Commissioner confirmed that no one had raised the matter with her office before the media reports. Three days later on 17 March, she commenced an investigation. It's an interesting (half) case study about data matching within government, but not a great confidence builder for those concerned about the handling of heath information by Federal government agencies.

Source - Open and Shut blog

Well, maybe it could happen here...

http://www.naturalnews.com/023388.html

U.S. Government Sought Customer Book Purchasing Records from Amazon.com

Saturday, June 07, 2008 by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) Recently unsealed court records shed more light on the federal government's attempts to secure the online book purchase records of 24,000 Amazon.com customers.

In 2006, federal prosecutors investigating Robert D'Angelo, a Madison, WI official accused of fraud and tax evasion, subpoenaed online book retailer Amazon.com for transaction records on anyone who had purchased books from him through Amazon Marketplace since 1999. Prosecutors said they were hoping to find witnesses to testify against D'Angelo.

Amazon agreed to tell prosecutors what books D'Angelo had sold, but refused to turn over information on the buyers, citing its customers' First Amendment rights to privacy. The government came back with a request for only 120 customers, but Amazon still refused. The case went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker, who ruled in June to strike down the subpoena on First Amendment grounds.

Toward ubiquitous surveillance. Now anyone can have an Unmanned Drone

http://digg.com/gadgets/Spy_Helicopter_for_40

Spy Helicopter for $40

videojug.com — Learn how to build your own spy helicopter for as low as 40$ how cool is that ?

Cameras get smarter crooks stay dumb.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080606/od_nm/pluggedin_dc;_ylt=AkbFMYQHQwr4tnMwA3C597Ss0NUE

Lost cameras "phone home" to catch thieves

By Franklin PaulFri Jun 6, 11:24 AM ET

Alison DeLauzon thought the snapshots and home videos of her infant son were gone for good when she lost her digital camera while on vacation in Florida.

Then a funny thing happened: her camera "phoned home."

Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant.

... While passive systems have helped reunite missing gadgets with their owners, more aggressive measures can be employed to protect everything from laptops to iPods and BlackBerrys.

GadgetTrak, of Beaverton, Oregon, sells software that can be loaded onto any of those devices. If a BlackBerry, for example, falls into the wrong hands, the software grabs information from the new user's SIM data card and e-mails it to the rightful owner. [Stalkers will no doubt give them to their targets... Bob]

Related? A faster & easier way: “Okay Mr. Dillinger, return the laptop and we won't tell your mother.”

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/07/2243204&from=rss

Face Recognition Goes Mainstream For Notebooks

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 08, @02:01AM from the don't-get-too-mangled-at-the-bullfights dept. Portables Security Windows

MojoKid writes

"Consumer and business-class computer security has clearly become more sophisticated over the years. Recent advances in recognition technology have brought forth new capabilities, like what can be found in Toshiba A305 series notebooks. Toshiba's Face Recognition software allows you to log in to the system simply by having your face properly recognized by the integrated webcam during Windows startup. Of course, the system's TrueSuite Access Manager also allows you to do the same, only using your fingers and the integrated fingerprint reader. However, TrueSuite goes a step further with the fingerprint reader, also allowing you to log in to Web sites, applications, and networks as well by using just your fingerprints."

[Note: This technology (like passwords) will not keep your laptop from being stolen, nor will it protect your data. It could be used as part of the “enter decryption key” process... Bob]

Too soon to tell if this is a killer app, but the idea of simplifying tools for the iPhone is a direction I was expecting.

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/07/196242&from=rss

HyperCard Comes Back From the Dead to the Web

Posted by timothy on Saturday June 07, @05:24PM from the in-many-ways-it-never-really-went-away dept. Programming Technology (Apple)

TedCHoward writes

"On the heels of the recent mention of HyperCard comes the launch of a brand new site called TileStack. Cnet's Webware blog writes, 'The idea behind it is to bring old HyperCard stacks back to life by putting them on the Web, meaning you can take some of those long lost creations from the late '80s and early '90s and make them working Web apps. Y ou simply upload them to TileStack's servers and they'll be converted and hosted for just you or the entire world to use once again... Since the service runs without Flash... TileStack is perfect for the iPhone and other devices that run on the Web.' They also have a video showing the upload process."