How
could it be otherwise?
Daniel
Mayer writes:
A class action was recently allowed to proceed in Ontario against a
major bank after one of its employees admitted to accessing and
disclosing to third parties confidential information of the bank’s
customers. While this case is not a final decision as to whether the
bank was actually liable for its employee’s breaches of privacy, it
serves as a reminder for employers that the law regarding breach of
privacy is evolving quickly and employer policies, practices and
safeguards must keep pace with it.
Facts
Mr Wilson was a mortgage administration officer for the bank. In
this role he had access to highly confidential customer information.
Over the course of almost one year, Wilson accessed the files of 643
customers. More than 100 of them subsequently informed the bank that
they had been the victims of identity theft or fraud. Wilson
admitted that he had accessed and disclosed customers’ information
to a third party. The bank compensated the customers for the
resulting financial losses and offered each of them a complimentary
subscription to a credit monitoring and identify-theft protection
service.
Despite
the bank’s efforts, two customers started a class action against
it.
Read
more on International
Law Office.
Drone
and “smart bomb” targeting systems would like to know which floor
you are on.
How
the new iPhones could help scientists predict the weather
The
new iPhones have an added capability that's of particular interest to
scientists: A barometer.
The
barometer capability wasn't added to help scientists, though. It
sounds strange but a barometer can help
improve GPS results to better pinpoint a user's location.
Android has supported barometric readers for a while, but not all
Android phone makers have opted to include barometers in their
phones.
Improved
location readings are useful in new kinds of apps that Apple wants to
support, particularly around health
trackers.
But
there's another reason that the barometers are interesting. It's
because scientists hope to use them to crowdsource data so that they
can do a better job at predicting
the weather.
Perhaps
not the best contract language... Would blocking access to my
medical records when I show up in the Emergency Ward be against the
law anywhere?
Christopher
Rowland reports that Full
Circle Health Care in Maine found itself locked out
of its own patients’ records after a fee dispute with CompuGroup,
a German corporation with U.S. headquarters in Boston.
Read
about this situation on Boston
Globe, and then take another look at your vendor/business
associate contracts. Could this happen to you?
Not
asked (or maybe asked and not reported) in Rowland’s coverage is
the question of whether Full Circle had backups of their databases,
and if not, why not.
Cable
is doomed?
5
Packages That Will Replace Pay TV as We Know It
If
you need proof that cable providers are feeling the heat from cord
cutters, look no further than AT&T’s new
U-Verse package. Marketed as an online exclusive, the plan
includes broadband, a small lineup of channels, HBO (including HBO
GO), and a full subscription to Amazon Prime (with both streaming
video and free shipping included)—all for $39 a month. The message
is clear: “Keep paying for TV, and we’ll throw in some of the web
services you were thinking of leaving us for.”
…
Re/Code’s Peter Kafka succinctly
summarizes the logic behind AT&T’s newest product, writing
that cable providers “[would] rather have subscribers paying a
small fee than none at all, but they’re also telling themselves
that those subscribers will ‘trade up’ ” to a more expensive
plan.
…
Having hundreds of channels sounds nice, but which channels does the
average watcher actually need? The networks? Local sports?
Maybe HBO? If that’s your answer, a growing number of cable
companies are offering packages that offer exactly that, and nothing
more, at a discount price. Comcast is selling internet, local
channels, and HBO for $49.99 a month. (Comcast might be feeling
ambivalent about this plan, since, as Re/Code notes,
the company apparently stopped promoting it, but interested parties
can still find the deal here.)
(Related)
Microsoft
unveils $60 TV streaming device for Windows 8 and Android
Microsoft
today opened
pre-orders for a $59.95 wireless display adapter that connects
any Miracast-enabled
device with at least Windows 8.1 or Android 4.2.1 to a HDTV,
monitor, or projector.
The
device connects to the HDMI and USB ports on a TV — those without a
USB port can use a USB power brick — and lets users mirror what’s
on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop within a 23-foot range.
Internet access is not
required.
Why
Data Analysis is becoming “the next big thing!”
Kenneth
Cukier: Big data is better data
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