Tag: Government

(Apr 8, 2020) ZDNet reports Zoom established a CISO Council and Advisory Board, in addition to hiring former Facebook and Yahoo Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos as an outside consultant. The personnel moves are aimed at better addressing privacy and security flaws plaguing the platform. Meanwhile, a Zoom shareholder brought a class-action privacy suit against the video conferencing app. Also, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security believes Zoom has been responsive to cybersecurity concerns, while Germany ... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) In the early 2000s, internet accessibility made risks of exposing individuals from population demographic data more likely than ever. So, the U.S. Census Bureau turned to an emerging privacy approach: synthetic data. In this piece for Privacy Tech, RedTail AI Ethics Journalist Kate Kaye writes about the Census Bureau's use of synthetic data, as well as how it is used by clinical researchers, autonomous vehicle system developers and banks.Full Story... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) In the early 2000s, internet accessibility made risks of exposing individuals from population demographic data more likely than ever. So, the U.S. Census Bureau turned to an emerging privacy approach: synthetic data. Some argue the algorithmic techniques used to develop privacy-secure synthetic datasets go beyond traditional deidentification methods. Today, along with the Census Bureau, clinical researchers, autonomous vehicle system developers and banks use these fake datasets that mimic stati... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) The European Commission announced a public consultation for its road map regarding the scope of its EU General Data Protection Regulation evaluation. The road map seeks to define the scope of the commission's evaluation, which is set to include "the issue of international transfer of personal data to third countries and the cooperation and consistency mechanism between national data protection authorities." The deadline for public comments is April 29. The commission recently delayed the release... Read More

(Apr 2, 2020) As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, here are the latest stories on how the outbreak has affected privacy: The Dutch data protection authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, released a statement regarding its position on using location data to track COVID-19, saying emergency legislation must be adopted to do so lawfully. (Original post is in Dutch.) The French data protection authority, the CNIL, issued guidance on telework security measures. (Original post is in French.) Poland's data prote... Read More

(Mar 31, 2020) The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Breach Reporting Tool shows 105 breaches affecting more than 2.5 million people have been reported in 2020, GovInfoSecurity reports. This increased from 38 incidents impacting 1.1 million individuals reported as of February. Consulting firm tw-Security President Tom Walsh predicts breaches will continue to rise as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Meanwhile, security researchers say tens of milli... Read More

(Mar 27, 2020) Politico reports the European Commission announced its two-year review of the EU General Data Protection Regulation will be released sometime in June. The review was originally scheduled to be presented April 22 before being put off for undisclosed reasons. The commission's report is expected to include the EU's position on national data protection enforcement alignment.Full Story... Read More

(Mar 26, 2020) The Australian government walked back on a claim that the MyGov website crashed due to a cyberattack, News.com.au reports. Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert said the site was down due to a distributed-denial-of-service attack; however, MyGov had crashed due to an increase in traffic. The website has seen a surge in activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Full Story... Read More

(Mar 26, 2020) As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, here are the latest stories on how the outbreak has affected privacy: The World Health Organization is advising those offering technological aid to combat COVID-19 to be mindful of privacy and human rights, Reuters reports. Euractiv reports the European Commission hopes to use COVID-19 to demonstrate the EU's open data policy and data use for the "common good." The U.S Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights issued guidance on how... Read More

(Mar 24, 2020) As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, here are the latest stories on how the outbreak has affected privacy: A coalition of civil society groups joined on a letter to U.S. Congress asking that any form of government-passed COVID-19 relief package maintain patient privacy protections, HealthITSecurity reports. A survey shows 57% of Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of location data tracking for COVID-19, Morning Consult reports. Politico reports European Commissioner for Internal Market... Read More