Local
Oops.
Thousands
receive a letter about a possible information breach at Colorado
State U. – Pueblo
August 21, 2012 by admin
Lacey Steele reports
that Colorado State U. – Pueblo has notified over 19,000 students
and applicants of what they believe is a low-threat breach:
A few students
accidentally gained access [Usually an indication
that the files were unprotected. Bob] to some files
containing personal information, but they told school authorities
immediately and the problem was fixed.
Read more on KOAA.
Interesting.
I assume driving into Mexico is viewed as at least as risky as
parking your car in Boston (Car theft capital of the US) Would the
government give/sell the information to other warranty issuers?
U.S.
Customs Tracks Millions Of License Plates, Shares Data With Insurance
Firms
August 21, 2012 by Dissent
Andy Greenberg reports:
It may come as
little surprise that every time you cross the border, cameras record
your license plate number and feed it into a database of driver
locations. More disturbing, perhaps, is the fact that the government
seems to share that automobile surveillance data with an unexpected
third party: insurance companies.
Documents obtained
through a Freedom of Information Act request and released Tuesday by
the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) catalogue just how
pervasive automatic license plate readers have become at the Mexican
and Canadian borders, with cameras placed in dozens of U.S. cities
each capturing images of millions or tens of millions of plates a
year. But the FOIA’d records (PDF here)
also include memos outlining the sharing of that license plate data
between the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border
Protection, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and most significantly, the
National Insurance Crime Bureau, an Illinois non-profit composed of
hundreds of insurance firms including branches of Allstate, GEICO,
Liberty, Nationwide, Progressive, and State Farm.
Read more on Forbes.
...and
the pendulum that had swung to “we needed to look for potential
Columbine shooters” swings back the other way. Maybe.
California
passes legislation to protect college students’ social media
privacy
August 21, 2012 by Dissent
Sam Laird reports:
California’s
Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved legislation to bar colleges
and universities from requiring students to provide administrators
with access to their social
media usernames and passwords. Governor Jerry Brown now must
sign or veto the bill by Sept. 30.
California is not
the first state to pass legislation protecting social media privacy
for students. In March, Maryland’s Senate passed
a bill to prevent public colleges and universities in the state
from requiring students including athletes to provide access to their
social accounts.
Read more on Mashable.
(Related) You know you have a problem
when the school board strategy matches the vendors sales pitch word
for word.
EPIC
Supports Moratorium on RFID Student Tracking
August 22, 2012 by Dissent
From EPIC.org:
EPIC, along with
Consumers Against
Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIAN) and other
leading privacy and civl liberties organizations, issued a Position
Paper on the Use of RFID in Schools. Radio Frequency
Identification is an identification tracking technology “designed
to monitor physical objects,” such as commercial products,
vehicles, and animals. Some school districts are proposing to use
RFID ID tags to monitor
students, teachers, and staff. The report warns of significant
privacy and security risks. If RFID techniques are adopted, the
groups urge that schools adopt robust privacy safeguards. In 2006
and 2007,
EPIC submitted comments to federal agencies recommending against the
use of RFID technology to track air travelers. The State Department
subsequently made changes to the “e-Passport,” to address privacy
and security concerns. For more information, seeEPIC:
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems and EPIC:
Student Privacy
Chipping students is a topic I’ve
blogged about a number of times, and the schools that are using it
are, for the most part, using it to (1) boost school revenues by
gaining better attendance records for state reimbursement or (2)
claiming that the tracking provides another layer of safety by
knowing where the student is. While some parents have objected to
the tracking, many others report that they like the idea.
Personally, I think it’s a terrible idea as it inoculates youth to
feeling that they are under constant surveillance.
...and thus are hairs split, re-split
and made absolutely frizzy.
Web
Sites Accused of Collecting Data on Children
August 22, 2012 by Dissent
Natasha Singer reports:
A coalition of
nearly 20 children’s advocacy, health and public interest groups
plans to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission on
Wednesday, asserting that some online marketing to children by
McDonald’s and four other well-known companies violates a federal
law protecting children’s privacy.
The law, the
Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, requires
Web site operators to obtain verifiable consent from
parents before collecting personal information about children under
age 13. But, in complaints to the F.T.C., the coalition says six
popular Web sites aimed at children have violated that law by
encouraging children who play brand-related games or engage in other
activities to provide friends’ e-mail addresses — without seeking
prior parental consent.
At least one
company, however, said the accusation mischaracterized its practices,
adding that the law allows an exception for one-time
use of a friend’s e-mail address.
Read more on New
York Times.
So it's like a Consumer Group but
without any pesky consumers?
Smart
Grid Advocacy Group Seeks to Refute Privacy and Data Security
Concerns
August 22, 2012 by Dissent
Shelton Abramson writes:
The Smart Grid
Consumer Collaborative (SGCC) recently published a fact
sheet and released a web
video to refute privacy and data security critiques of smart
meter technology. SGCC is a non-profit that seeks “to advance the
adoption of a reliable, efficient, and secure smart grid.” Its
membership
includes electric utility and technology companies, universities,
government agencies, and environmental advocacy groups.
Privacy and data security concerns have led some consumers to oppose
the installation of smart meters, and even inspired lawsuits in
states such as Maine
and Illinois.
SGCC’s recently published materials suggest that many of these
concerns are based on “myths” and “urban legend.”
Read more on Covington & Burling
InsidePrivacy.
Not sure I understand this logic
either...
The Fourth Circuit decided a very
interesting Fourth Amendment case last week on the constitutionality
of DNA testing, the scope of the plain view exception, and the scope
of the exclusionary rule. The case is United
States v. Davis, decided August 16. ... I’ll run though
the facts, then turn to the law, and then offer some thoughts.
(Related) Flying with the Fourth...
Does
the Fourth Amendment have a Posse (Comitatus)?
August 21, 2012 by Dissent
Ryan Calo writes:
Earlier this
month, U.S. News & World Report ran the following headline:
“Court Upholds Domestic Drone Use In Arrest Of American Citizen.”
The article goes on to explain that a man was arrested in North
Dakota with air support from a Predator B drone on loan from the
Department of Homeland Security. His attorney filed a motion to
dismiss on the basis that local police had not secured a warrant to
use a drone in his arrest. The court, understandably, denied the
motion. As I and others have observed, the Fourth Amendment does not
restrict the use of drones to assess whether a perpetrator is
dangerous. It would only be implicated if, for instance, one person
were followed around for a long time, or the entire population were
placed under constant aerial surveillance. And even then the outcome
of a challenge is uncertain.
Read more on Stanford
CIS.
Dilbert
perfectly illustrates my point about the perils of long software
development projects. (Like the government seems to prefer.)
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