Friday, January 29, 2010

US Loses Ground in Swiss Diplomatic Banking Standoff

UBS CUSTOMER WINS SWISS APPEAL, DENIES CAUSE IN TAX EVASION CLAIMS

4,450 OTHER CASES IN JEOPARDY BY PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE

FULL STORY - NY TIMES

The case follows a deal in August in which Switzerland agreed to give data to authorities in the United States on as many as 4,450 UBS accounts to settle a lawsuit in which the United States had sought information on as many as 52,000 accounts. This ruling throws doubt on whether Switzerland will be able to turn over all 4,450 accounts.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

2 in 5 Employers Admit Eliminating Candidates Due To Facebook Profile

Creditors have already admitted to screening you on Facebook, now its employers. Half of employers now admit to screening your facebook profile as part of the hiring process.

COMPLETE STORY from CareerBuilder.co.uk

What if they have the wrong person? Search for friends by your own name, and see how many pop up. Could you be confused with them? What if one of those other people with your name decides to pretend to be your facebook profile, to improve their chances of getting a job, or even credit?


A new Facebook application can make sure your profile checks out as yours, and that nobody else's can pretend to be you. Identify.nu, a service of the Consular Chamber of Commerce has created a global platform whereby members provide passport copies to consular officers anywhere in the world, who then verify and legalize a copy of the passport for upload to identify.nu secure servers in Denmark. The member always owns and can delete the data.

COMPLETE STORY - FACEBOOK APPLICATION

Members can trade passport identification with other members, and can authorize social networking interfaces like Facebook and even Gmail to display certain criteria, such as the name, age and confirmation that a full passport copy including passport photo is on file and can be provided to other members when authorized by the identified person.

Credit Issuers Turn to Social Networks to Profile You


It's not just your score anymore. Now it's your friend list too.

CNBC: "They're able to scour the social media universe. They are constantly listening and reporting back."

-Jesse Torres, CEO of Pan American Bank in Los Angeles, regarding the new Social Network Information Aggrigators

COMPLETE STORY

Monday, January 11, 2010

New Hampshire Bars RFID


Leading the nation in what is sure to be a wildfire of similar legislation, NH House votes to bar the unauthorized implants of tracking chips in people and clothing, criminalizes the use of RFID for tracking consumers.

FULL STORY: ASSOCIATED PRESS

In a further sign of things to come, the State is updating its anti-skimming laws to prohibit the closing of data broadcast by RFID-enabled credit and debit cards. The affect may render RFID without value to retailers otherwise supporting its use.

Local Governments Not Qualified to Handle Personal Data

Yet another example of local government offices unqualified to handle personally identifiable information.

THINK TWICE before you turn over any personal document or information to local government, or even worse, any government contractor.

FULL STORY:

Confidential information abandoned in forgotten Houseing Authority building