Tag: Personal Privacy

(Nov 7, 2019) FocusTaiwan reports the Taiwan Railways Administration has announced its surveillance system trial will not include facial recognition. The system has facial-recognition cameras, but they will be disabled after public privacy concerns were raised. The artificial intelligence–based surveillance will still be capable of monitoring passenger behavior, including trespassing, loitering in restricted areas and prohibited acts.Full Story... Read More

(Nov 5, 2019) The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary will hear arguments Wednesday regarding the reauthorization of the USA Freedom Act. Renewing the law would include reauthorizing the provisions of Section 215, which allow the National Security Agency access to Americans' phone records as part of terrorism investigations. The Senate hearing will feature two panels of national security officials and professionals, including Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Chairman Adam Klein.Full Story... Read More

(Oct 31, 2019) The South China Morning Post reports Hong Kong's High Court has placed a temporary ban on the publication of personal details of police officers in an effort to curtail "doxing" efforts. The interim injunction will remain in effect until 8 Nov., at which point a second hearing will take place to consider extending the ban. Court papers filed by Hong Kong's Department of Justice, the justice secretary and the commissioner of police asked for 13 categories of information that they sought to be ban... Read More

(Oct 30, 2019) The New York Times reports WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging NSO Group, an Israeli-based cybersurveillance firm, deployed spy technology on the app. WhatsApp claims the technology was used to track more than 1,400 people in 20 countries, including multiple targets in Mexico, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. NSO put out a statement defending its work, saying it "will vigorously fight" the claims, adding it "has helped to ... Read More

(Oct 28, 2019) NBC News reports U.S. law enforcement has seen its ability to solve cold cases become even more difficult after genealogy website GEDmatch revised its privacy policy. The website went from allowing law enforcement access to its database without user permission to giving users the chance to opt out of such searches and use. The number of genetic profiles available to law enforcement went from "more than 1 million to zero" after the policy change, according to the report. "There are cases that won... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) The American Civil Liberties Union announced it joined a coalition of more than 40 advocacy groups on a letter urging the U.S. House Judiciary and Intelligence committees to consider amending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before reauthorizing the law. Written in response to FISA documents that "reveal significant privacy violations," the letter asked for lawmakers to strongly and carefully consider ensuring Section 702 prohibits "warrantless 'backdoor' searches" and "'... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has announced the "Data Ownership: Exploring Implications for Data Privacy Rights and Data Valuation" hearing will be held Oct. 24. The hearing will include testimony from American Bar Association Committee on Cyberspace Law Founding Chair Jeffrey Ritter, American Civil Liberties Union Senior Advocacy and Policy Counsel Chad Marlow, American Action Forum Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart, and DrumWave CEO M... Read More

(Oct 18, 2019) The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner has been inundated with reported health care privacy breaches in Alberta since mandatory reporting requirements were put in place in August 2018, CBC News reports. In the first year since the change, the OIPC has received more than 1,000 reports, while it had previously received approximately 130 voluntary breach reports a year. Currently, the office is investigating 20 reports and has flagged 70 more as potential offenses. While most cases ... Read More

(Oct 17, 2019) A new guide to health privacy released by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner aims to help keep patients’ personal information safe, PS News reports. The guide features an eight-step plan for better privacy practice, including implementing privacy management plans, creating a privacy policy and developing a data breach response plan. Over the past three years, health service providers have been among the top-three sources of privacy complaints to the OAIC and the leading source... Read More

(Oct 16, 2019) MediaPost reports Apple has defended its sharing of private search browser data, which was reported last week by Reclaim the Net. The prior report claimed Apple was sharing browser data with Google and Chinese tech company Tencent. The embedded sharing function, which is built into the Safari browser on Macs, iPhones and iPads, is mentioned in Safari's privacy policy. Login passwords for banks, email addresses and social media accounts are among the information that can allegedly be accessed and... Read More