Privacy

U.S. to fingerprint E.U. visitors: Visitors from European nations traveling with visas or visa-free to the United States will soon have to give 10 digital fingerprints when entering the country, a senior U.S. Homeland Security official said Monday. Let’s see, the last time I had my fingerprints taken by a digital scanner owned by the U.S. government, it took 30 minutes and continual rewetting of my fingertips because the system was having trouble matching the individual prints to a ten-print scan. Since that was in April, and the machine was fairly new and expensive, I doubt the technology used in the various points of entry has any reason to work much more consistently. I wonder how they plan on handling the extra delays? ...

You know that Ohio state government data storage device, containing the personal information of hundreds of thousands of people, that was stolen from an intern’s car? You ever wonder why that kind of information would be in an intern’s car? Well, the Associated Press explains: Under protocol in place since 2002, a first backup storage device is kept at a temporary work site for a state office along with the computer system that holds all the employee information, and a second backup device is given to employees on a rotating basis to take home for safekeeping, officials said. ...

A man in Pennsylvania has been charged with a felony for wiretapping, after using a video camera to record a police officer during a traffic stop. As it turns out, state law “bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone’s oral conversation without their consent.” What I find interesting about the article is that everyone seems to agree charging him with a felony isn’t the proper response in this case, but no one mentioned the fact the law itself seems fundamentally flawed. Not being able to record public officials in their duties is a problem, not to mention the number of violations that could be happening every day from tourists. (“Hey, look, Amish! Let me get the camera!”) How do they define intention? A recording of a party is intentional, as is the recording of guests’ voices, but it sounds almost like you would need to get permission from each person if it’s possible to construe that as eavesdropping. ...

Not really news, usually, but this time the package contained financial information and Social Security numbers on 3.9 million Citibank customers. Apparently Citibank was sending unencrypted backup tapes by UPS, and a set disappeared a few weeks ago. After what must have been a agonized few weeks of searching, Citibank is now planning on notifying affected customers. It’s nice that identity thieves have that waiting period before they can use information that fell off the truck, thereby giving Citibank plenty of time to wait, right? ;) ...

Apparently the Justice Department has decided not to enforce the criminal penalties behind HIPAA, which protects the privacy of medical records. Basically, they ruled that criminal prosecution can be brought against medical practices, hospitals, insurance companies, and the like, but not against the employees of those entities. That’s kind of interesting, since the employees who did the stealing would have been the targets of any criminal prosecution anyway. I’m not sure what Justice was thinking on this one, although I don’t entirely buy the theory that it’s a backhanded way of getting rid of HIPAA. To the extent that I do buy it, I think it is likely a result of a larger ongoing Justice Department attempt to downsize its influence over corporate practices. If it was a real attempt to overthrow HIPAA, I would expect it to be even more ham-handed. (Although the person I linked to would have a better idea than I, I would think, having worked to put HIPAA together.) ...

Personally I agree with at least one part of Marybeth Peters’ testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee: It is disturbing that there may be ties between terrorist organizations and copyright violators. I mean, after all, what if the terrorists get their hands on copies of Britney and Kevin: Chaotic and release it to the rest of the world? That will just make people hate America more. ;) Link courtesy of Corante, via Boing Boing ...

I figured this would be happening sooner or later, but I always thought it would just be more blatant. We’re soon to have uniform standards on driver’s licenses thanks to the REAL ID Act, creating a national ID card out of identification that once was more fractious. The legislation was just passed by the House of Representatives, thanks to it being attached to a “must-pass” Iraq appropriations bill. Anyone remember Reagan being opposed to a national ID card? That was in part due to a libertarian strain in conservative politics, and in part due to evangelicals who believed a national ID card was the first step toward world government. Sure, maybe 9/11 changed “everything,” but I would think fundamental political and religious beliefs would be the last things to change, so expect some fireworks over this one by tomorrow, when it goes to the Senate. ...

Okay, perhaps local officials everywhere can’t be trusted to learn the basics before making public statements. Subdermal GPS chips don’t exist yet! You’re thinking of those microchips they scan at the vet’s office! And, once again, I can only hope the Sheriff was joking when he was talking about electrically shocking parolees who were doing things in violation of their probation. I can sort of see it working as an Invisible Fence for keeping people in a certain area — if you had the GPS tracking chips — but the last time I saw a chip that shocked someone because of their behavior, it was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. ...

I really wanted not to comment on the Terri Schiavo case. I really wanted not to comment on it because I don’t think our comments matter. In the end, this is a personal, family matter that has been blown out of all proportion. (Yes, there are larger issues here, but what is happening to Terri Schiavo is happening across the United States right now with other patients and we haven’t been paying attention to them.) So, why am I commenting now? No good reason, other than to get it out of my head. ...

USA Today runs an article that basically sounds like the rewriting of a press release from the Ponemon Institute. (I really wish he had run something from the Pokémon Institute instead.) The article itself is basically a scare piece about the idea that MP3 players could record your personal information, music files, and digital photos, and share them over Bluetooth with nearby eavesdroppers. (Engadget has a few reasons why that logic is flawed. ‘Ware of shiny MP3 players. ;) ) ...