Wired News reports: "Following criticism from computer security professionals and civil libertarians about the privacy risks posed by new RFID passports the government plans to begin issuing, a State Department official said his office is reconsidering a privacy solution it…
Category: Issues
Yahoo Turns Over E-Mail Account Of Marine Killed In Iraq
Yahoo has reached a settlement with the family of a deceased Marine over access to the data in his Yahoo! accounts. I originally blogged this story here, and a related post on the ethical issues that confront companies like Yahoo…
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Google’s My Search History
Google has released a beta version My Search History to enable you to “find information you thought you lost.” After you login using your Google Account (e.g., your Gmail login), a search history link will be added to the upper…
Barr: Law vs. Technology
Bob Barr, formerly a member of the House of Representatives and the Judiciary Committee, recently published an editorial on FindLaw asking the questions "Can We Protect Our Privacy Through Legal Solutions? Or Is Technology Now Beyond Our Control?" He points…
Ubiquitous Cameras & Privacy in Public
My earlier discussion of privacy as Contextual Integrity builds on the problem of "privacy in public and how public surveillance has become a part of a modern citizen’s everyday life. This AP article drives home just how ubiquitous surveillance cameras…
IBM to Help UAE Track Drivers on the Road
InformationWeek reports that IBM has made a $125 million deal to build an automobile-monitoring system and install a device in cars to track drivers in the United Arab Emirates. The technical details:CERT Telematics has committed to buy at least 100,000…
Blurring of Search Results and Ads
One of the things Google brags about with its Adsense and Adwords programs is the high relevancy of the ads placed alongside its search results. Their logic is that the more relevant the ads are to the search, the less…
RFID Passports & the Need for Values in Design
Prof. Ed Felten has an excellent post on the RFID-enabled passports debate, criticising the decision to use RFID (contactless) technology rather than a more secure contact technology, such as smart card standards.His closing statements struck me:It seems that the decision…
Black box data ownership in North Dakota
One of the concerns regarding new information technologies used in cars is the ownership of the data. This is a particular concern in the case of black boxes, systems that record pre-accident vehicle data, mostly for the benefit of insurance…
How to Make Traffic Cameras Respect Privacy
LawMeme links to a paper suggesting a cryptographic scheme to make traffic cameras that respect driver privacy:The basic idea is to replace cameras that snap pictures of license plates with EZ-Pass style transponders. On detecting a violation, the traffic enforcement…
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