Print This PageEmail This Page

Privacy Foundation

The Privacy Foundation

Financial Privacy

UH breach affects 53,000, 07/07/2020, www.staradvertiser.com
University of Hawaii officials said yesterday that a hacker breached the security of a parking office computer server that contained personal information of 53,000 people.

Dave & Buster’s Settles FTC Charges it Failed to Protect Consumers’ Information, 3/23/10, www.databreaches.com
Entertainment operation Dave & Buster’s, Inc. has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the company left consumers’ credit and debit card information vulnerable to hackers, resulting in several hundred thousand dollars in fraudulent charges.

Identity Theft

The PII Problem: Privacy and a New Concept of Personally Identifiable Information, 12/06/2011_www.pogowasright.org_
Personally identifiable information (PII) is one of the most central concepts in information privacy regulation. The scope of privacy laws typically turns on whether PII is involved.

Reporters’ Roundtable: Who owns your online identity?, www.cnet.com
Today, we’re talking about identity. You own your identity, right? That’s why we talk about identity theft. Identity is clearly personal, and it can be stolen from us

12 reasons why we’re losing the identity theft battle, 09/14/2010, www.echanneline.com
1. Zero Liability has made consumers feel they have nothing to lose….

Heartland breach expenses pegged at $140M — so far, 5/10/2010, www.databreaches.net
The costs to Heartland Payment Systems Inc. from the massive data breach that it disclosed in January 2009 appear to be steadily adding up.

International Privacy

FTC Welcomes a New Privacy System for the Movement of Consumer Data Between the United States and Other Economies in the Asia-Pacific Region, 11/16/2011, www.pogowasright.org
The Federal Trade Commission welcomed the approval by the forum on Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) of a new initiative to harmonize cross-border data privacy protection among members of APEC.

Where in the world are there data protection laws?, www.pogowasright.org, 10/30/2011
I stand in awe of how much some folks accomplish. Dave Banisar alerts me that he has updated the global map showing which countries have comprehensive data protection laws. The number is now up to 70.

Privacy commissioner of British Columbia issues guidelines on using social media for background checks, 10/14/2011, www.pogowasright.org
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia has issued guidelines to assist organizations and public bodies using social media sites to conduct background checks of prospective employees, volunteers and candidates.

UK Spring: Has Twitter Ended the Reign of the Super Injunction? , 08/17/2011, www.news.bna.com
Who would have imagined that the same online social media that some people use to announce their cat’s birthday could bring down repressive regimes?

Germany Probes Facebook Facial Recognition, 08/04/2011, www.pcmag.org
German data protection officials have requested that Facebook disable its facial recognition software and delete any previously stored data.

Database of All UK Children Launched, 05/18/09, www.slashdot.org
“‘A controversial database which holds the details of every child in England has now become available for childcare professionals to access.

Medical Patient Security

Data Breach Investigation | Due Process of Law, 11/30/2010, www.databreaches.net
The following is cross-posted from PHIprivacy.net:
In September, I posted an excerpt from a thought-provoking commentary by attorney Benjamin Wright. In discussing a fine levied against Lucile Salter Packard Hospital for late notification under California’s breach notification law, he had written, in part…

New Ponemon study: patient data inadequately protected, many hospitals do not notify patients of breaches, 11/09/2010, www.phiprivacy.net
The Ponemon Institute has released a new study sponsored by ID Experts, “Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security.” The study examined hospitals’ patient privacy practices, breaches involving patient information, and compliance policies and activities.

Did the punishment fit the “crime?”, 09/29/2010, www.phiprivacy.net
Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at StanfordUniversity was fined $250,000 earlier this year by the California Department of Public Health (“CDPH”) for an alleged delay in reporting a breach under California’s health information privacy law.

Judge won’t accept pleas in Jackson Memorial Hospital ID theft case, www.databreaches.net
A husband-and-wife duo charged with running a racket to pilfer patient records from Jackson Memorial Hospital to sell to lawyers for injury claims tried to plead guilty Tuesday in Miami federal court.

Other Privacy Concerns

PII 2.0: Privacy and New Approach to Personal Information, 02/08/2012, news.bna.com
There is no uniform definition of “personally identifiable information,” or PII, in the United States, according to Paul M. Schwartz, professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and Daniel J. Solove, the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School.

Department of Justice Misdirection on Cloud Computing and Privacy, 01/25/2012, www.pogowasright.org
Does using cloud computing services based in the United States create a risk of US law enforcement access to people’s data?

EPIC: Supreme Court Upholds Fourth Amendment in GPS Tracking Case, 01/23/2012, www.bespacific-com
“Today the Supreme Court unanimously held in U.S. v. Jones that the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device by the police violated the Fourth Amendment.

Governmental Tracking of Cell Phones and Vehicles: The Confluence of Privacy, Technology, and Law, 12/16/2011, www.docuticker.com
This report will briefly survey Fourth Amendment law as it pertains to the government’s tracking programs. It will then summarize federal electronic surveillance statutes and the case law surrounding cell phone location tracking.

FTC-Facebook Settlement Reflects Broader Privacy Shift, Attorneys Say, 12/09/2011 news.bna.com
The Federal Trade Commission’s recent agreement with Facebook Inc. reflects a larger shift toward new privacy standards for U.S. firms, attorneys told BNA.

January is Data Privacy Month: Free Webinars and Easy Ways to Increase Awareness, 12/07/2011, www.educause.edu
You know the importance of protecting personal identities and the effects social media can have on privacy, but does everyone on your campus? During the month of January, EDUCAUSE is expanding on Data Privacy Day to provide an entire month’s worth of activities and resources to help raise data privacy awareness.

LinkedIn Beats Referrer URL Privacy Class Action on Article III Standing Grounds–Low v. LinkedIn, 11/14/2011, www.pogowasright.org
Low brought a putative class action against LinkedIn, complaining about the fact that LinkedIn “allows transmission of users’ personally identifiable browsing history and other personal information to third parties, including advertisers, marketing companies, data brokers, and web tracking companies . . . ”

The Drone Threat to Privacy, 11/14/2011, www.pogowasright.org
Technology, as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in a 2001 Supreme Court opinion, has the power “to shrink the realm of guaranteed privacy.”

Privacy Homeland Security

New directives on border searches of electronic media, 09/27/09, www.pogowasright.org
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today announced new directives to enhance and clarify oversight for searches of computers and other electronic media at U.S. ports of entry.

In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ’s New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush’s, 4/09/09, www.pogowasright.org
Friday evening, in a motion to dismiss Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s litigation against the National Security Agency for the warrantless wiretapping of countless Americans, the Obama Administration’s made two deeply troubling arguments.

A First Principles Approach to Communications’ Privacy, 5/17/08, www.pogowasright.org
Under current doctrine, parties to a communication enjoy robust constitutional protection against government surveillance…

Student Privacy

Stepping Into the Breach, 10/25/2011, www.campustechnology.com
If you think your institution is immune to a security breach, perhaps you should have a chat with Brian Rust at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Student loan company: Data on 3.3M people stolen, 3/27/10, www.databreaches.net
A company that guarantees federal student loans said Friday that personal data on about 3.3 million people nationwide has been stolen from its headquarters in Minnesota.

Workplace Privacy

If you have information that would be of interest to the Privacy Foundation, please contact us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Legal Ethics and Privacy in Cloud Computing