Amazon and Wikimedia will sidestep the storm brewing around Phorm and the British ISP’s. Last week, after the announcement by the European Commission that charges would be brought against the United Kingdom for failing to conform to the EU Data Protection Directive, both Amazon UK and Wikimedia announced they will not participate in the behavioral advertising vendor’s [...]
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The Europeans value privacy; it is a fundamental human right in their eyes. The European Commission began legal action against the United Kingdom Tuesday for failure to “ensure, among other things, the confidentiality of communications by prohibiting interception and surveillance without the user’s [...] Finland will collect all their citizens’ fingerprints, store them in a central database and include them in passport ID chips. Singapore’s been doing this for several years, and the parallels and privacy implications are deeper than [...] Last week, on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”, former NSA Analyst Robert Tice reported that the NSA spied on journalists as part of their Wiretapping program to root out terrorism. The media has a way of editing/hyping stories, so let’s play Devil’s Advocate, and examine what the interview actually charges for violations of privacy rights. First, Mr. Olbermann points out several inconsistencies within the Bush Administration’s handling of wiretapping. Originally, the wiretaps required court orders. Then interception of international communications are only for people with clear and known links to terrorist networks. Mr. Tice states from his observations that ordinary citizens were [...] Postini is Google’s 2006 acquisition for secure messaging, and a direct competitor to IronPort. All of their offerings surround Software As A Service (SAAS), matching directly with Google’s overall technology strategy. They provide several services, including web security, anti-spam/malware, mail filtering, and archival with indexing. The Data Leakage Prevention capabilities provide privacy protections through outbound communication filters. Additionally, there are management tools and continuity procedures appropriate for enterprise use. Postini’s background technology stems from threat assessment and message parsing capabilities, grown through several years as a primary mail provider. There are two major patents, with a variety of [...] The idea is great. If you haven’t used it, check out the Street View button when using Google Maps. It’s interesting to see places you haven’t been on a virtual tour, similar to what the Realtors use for their online home tours. It doesn’t cover everywhere, simply because it requires feet on the street. However, most of the big metropolitan areas have at least some footage. Unfortunately, users found a problem with Google Street View shortly after its introduction. The camera’s caught people in the act – of whatever. It was sensationalized by the New York [...] Have you ever visited archive.org or used their Way Back machine? It’s a catalog of the Internet, and in my opinion one of the most ambitious projects undertaken. The privacy and persistence of the Internet, as evidenced by the Way Back Machine will have long term effects on the way legislation and the judicial system treat [...] An interview with the Barbra Symonds, Associate Partner with IBM, and former IRS Director of Privacy & Information Protection, and before that project manager for the Veteran’s Administration’s Privacy policy will appear on the site within the next 7 – 10 days, pending approval. Barbra was part of the original group that defined the Certified Information Privacy Professional for Government (CIPP/G). It was a great interview, with some timely comments on the state of information security and information privacy. Electronic Discovery, or eDiscovery, is the digital analog to a court request for documents and files pertaining to a proceeding. As with anything digital, the courts expect discovery times in days and weeks, versus the months (years) given for paper files. Punishments for failure to produce could be regulatory, legislative, or may even include court based consequences such as contempt charges. In a recent survey by Information Security Magazine, only 28 percent of respondents knew how they would handle an eDiscovery request. Even knowing where to look seems a daunting task. I have trouble at [...] |
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