Tag: Personal Privacy

(Jun 23, 2017) The Ontario Medical Association and two groups of doctors are seeking to have a decision made by the province’s information and privacy commissioner overturned, regarding Ontario Health Insurance Plan payments, the Toronto Star reports. The commissioner ordered the public disclosure of top-billing physicians’ names and the amount they receive in payments from the OHIP. When the decision was made in 2016, the privacy commissioner said OHIP payments are part of a physicians’ gross revenue, which i... Read More

(Jun 22, 2017) Several companies and humanitarian organizations are calling for digital IDs for every person on the planet, CNET reports. At the UN headquarters Monday, General Electric Digital Chief Innovation Officer Maja Vujinovic, who was once a refugee, spoke about the need. Microsoft, Accenture, the World Food Programme and the UN Refugee Agency want to create a digital identification tied to a person's fingerprints, birth date, medical records, education, travel, bank accounts and more, the report state... Read More

(Jun 21, 2017) Gizmodo reports on a service that allegedly grabs user data from contact forms in real time even if a user does not click the "Submit" button. NaviStone, the company whose code is on at least 100 retailer websites, purports to unmask anonymous web users. It also says it can send a postcard to the home address of an anonymous visitor within a day or two and match "60–70% of your anonymous site traffic to postal names and addresses." Law Professor Ryan Calo suggested the practice could violate Sec... Read More

(Jun 20, 2017) A vastly detailed database containing information on nearly every U.S. voter was exposed on the internet for nearly two weeks, The Washington Post reports. The database was apparently left exposed by a political consultancy working for the Republican National Committee and other GOP clients. Cybersecurity Researcher Chris Vickery discovered the 198 million unprotected files, which included, in some cases, ethnicity, religion and political views, during a routine scan last week. The files also in... Read More

(Jun 19, 2017) Glassdoor is fighting back against the U.S. Justice Department’s attempts to get the site to turn over information related to anonymous individuals who posted reviews about a health care company under federal investigation, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Justice Department is investigating TriWest Healthcare Alliance on possible wire fraud and misuse of government funds and wants Glassdoor to turn over the IP addresses of users who wrote reviews about the health care company, stating they ... Read More

(Jun 19, 2017) The Higher Regional Court of Munich issued an injunction against Google regarding its right-to-be-forgotten processes, The Next Web reports. When Google complies with a request, the company forwards it to the Lumen database, replacing the original content with text stating the search result had been removed. The court’s issue stems from the takedown notice that links to the entry in the Lumen database, where the original page appears. The court wants Google to stop its current process. While Goo... Read More

(Jun 19, 2017) Girl Scouts of the USA will partner with Palo Alto Networks to launch a series of cybersecurity badges, Fortune reports. Scouts will have the opportunity to earn 18 new badges in total starting in 2018. The badges can be obtained by scouts in grades K–12 who demonstrate proper cybersecurity knowledge. "Young girls wanted to know how to make sure they don't get bullied online...older girls want to know how can you prevent cyberattacks," Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo said. "The older girls really... Read More

(Jun 16, 2017) After discovering Uber executives viewed her medical records without her consent, a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in India is suing the ride-hailing company, USA Today reports. The suit accuses Uber of intrusion into private affairs, public disclosure of private facts and defamation of character. The suit also alleges Uber believed the victim was working with rival ride-hailing company Ola to orchestrate the attack to tarnish Uber's reputation in India. "It is shocking that [Uber CEO] Tr... Read More

(Jun 16, 2017) A Twitter account used to post images of unsuspecting women has been suspended, CBC News reports. The “CanadaCreep” account had 17,000 followers and was active for almost a year before numerous complaints led to its ban. The account posted videos and photos of women without their consent, including some posts where the user looked up women’s skirts. Some posts may qualify as a criminal act, where victims have the “reasonable expectation of privacy” under the voyeurism section of the Criminal Cod... Read More

(Jun 12, 2017) The New York Times reports on moves by the Egyptian government to gain more access to ride-sharing data from companies like Uber and Careem. The legislation is expected to go before the nation's parliament and would require ride-sharing companies to place servers inside the country and "link their data to 'relevant bodies' in government — a recipe, some worry, for intrusive and sweeping surveillance," the report states. The government's security forces already can track Egyptians via cellphones.... Read More