Texas Drops the Ball - Exposes SSN's of 3.5 million teachers, others

"This was the second high-profile technological failure at the comptroller's office in the past year. Last April, thousands of consumers seeking rebates for energy-efficient appliances could not get access through phone banks or a website. That problem was blamed on the outside vendor."

Full Story

Tennis Star Moves to Monaco for Privacy

Court pro Novak Djokavic says that a lack of privacy in his native Serbia, where he enjoys a cult-like status, was the reason for his move to Monaco.

Monaco is where I call home now, says Novak Djokovic - The National

"It's [privacy] one of the reasons I am not spending too much time at home in Serbia because I just don't have my private life," he said to The National. "That's what I looked for and I found it in Monaco. I just feel great spending time there."

GOOGLE TO DEBUT CHROME "DO NOT TRACK" TOOL

January 24, 2011 / http://www.politico.com/morningtech/ //-- Watch for Google today to unveil a new Chrome browser extension called “Keep My Opt-Outs,” the search company's response to recent federal calls for browser-based “Do Not Track” technology to protect consumer privacy. The new tool builds off of work by the Network Advertising Initiative – a group of Web advertisers, including Google – that allows Web users to say no to ads targeted to their browsing behavior.

The difference between NAI's own opt-out tool and Google's work is what's under the hood: NAI allows you to opt out, and communicates that via cookie, but that can be deleted whenever you erase your saved history. By contrast, Google's tool keeps the no-lever pulled permanently: It means you can avoid seeing targeted ads from NAI members, including Google and Yahoo, even if you delete your full browsing history. We hear Google will offer the code as open source, and that the company is expected to roll out a similar tool for other browsers in the future. Keep your eyes peeled today, and find more on privacy after the jump.

RFID Pickpockets in Full Effect

I don't want to say I told you so...but yes I do.

The RFID industry trade groups continue to defend this rediculous technology for use in all of the wrong applications. The two worst? As I've been saying for the past few years - credit cards and passports.

Imagine the ramifacations of this with celebrities, political or public figures. What can be scanned from your daughter's purse or backpack?

It's not what you have to hide, it's what you've got to lose.

 

Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back | Threat Level | Wired.com

Routine oil change uncovers unwarranted tracking device.  FBI shows up to reclaim it.  Oops.

Read the full story at Wired.com

New state law bans employer credit checks in hiring

Character assassination by HR department employees favoring friends in applicant pool:  $5 million

Privacy violation by leaks of credit reports of applicants by HR department employees:  $6 million

Actually having to do an interview and decide on ability rather than circumstance:  Priceless!

Clout St: New state law bans employer credit checks in hiring

Bravo, Illinois!

TV Personality home address revealed by his cell phone photo. Yours is too.

Ever heard of "Geotags?"

Geotags are embedded in the photos taken by 'smart' mobile phones, and they give the exact longitude and latitude where the photo was taken. So disable the feature if your phone allows it, and be aware that when you post that photo on Twitter, Facebook or your blog, anyone can tell where it was taken.

Full Story:

Web Photo Geotags Can Reveal More Than You Wish - NYTimes.com

Think twice before referencing a photo to yourself, your home, or anyone else's. You may be jeopardizing the safety of your friends, your family, or yourself.

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets - WSJ.com

PC's gather personal data, sell it for one tenth of a penny:

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets - WSJ.com

BlackBerry bites back at governments | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Since President Obama's high-profile blackberry use, the platform has become one of the most secure. Intrustive governments, finding it the only phone they can't routinely monitor, are threatening to ban it's use.

Can Blackberry hold the fort?

Full story:
BlackBerry bites back at governments Technology guardian.co.uk

Used Copiers - Your Data For Sale

Your Doctors office, employer, bank, car dealer, mortgage company and others are selling hard drives containing perfect copies of your most private information.

In fact, nearly everything ever copied, scanned or faxed in the past decade is likely for sale in various warehouses full of second hand copiers.

Privacyauthority.org's previous posting regarding the risks of copy machines was met with disbelief. The following additional piece from CBS News may bring the proper level of attention to the matter.


Watch the CBS News Story

Craigs List Ad Leads to Home Invasion

A few simple guidelines:
1. Never sell anything from your home.
2. Never reveal your home address to anyone whom you do not want to come to your house, including anyone from a cashier to a police officer.
3. Remove your home address from your ID. Nobody needs to know where your kids sleep in order to do business with you, or issue you a drivers license.
Another case of home invasion due to a published address in a classified ad, ending in tragedy. Don't be next.
FULL STORY:

Craigslist diamond ad leads to deadly home invasion, police say - CNN.com

Legal Syping Via Mobile Phone - Who's listening to your voicemail?

Private parties legally gather all caller ID data in a given region, find your name, access your voicemail, texts, conversations ad in-person meetings, all through your phone.

The Chief Information Officer of the Consular Chamber or Commerce refuses to carry a mobile phone. Heres' why:

Legal spying via the cell phone system | InSecurity Complex - CNET News

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner...

Defcon Las Vegas Hacker Conference Chooses Private Homes over Hotel Rooms « Chez Paulina
Look who's coming to the neighborhood! Shut off your wireless, they hackers are back in town soon. Many Las Vegans have grown accustomed to the antics of the annual hacker convention when the cyphers invade and want to show the weakness in every computer system they can.

Residents complain about being hacked when accessing public internet connections, or having their phones hacked via open bluetooth connections. With that in mind, some are concerned about them staying in neighborhoods full of wireless routers.

Protection can be had, however, for a price. The Consular Chamber of Commerce Consultancy offers IAPP-certified expertise to keep things running smoothly. Yes, you may be hiring some of the participants in the conference itself, but if you can't beat 'em...

How much do you trust that bouncer?

Australian nightclubs feel they are leading the way in scanning and retaining ID's, and even biometric data, of patrons.

No, it isn't a joke.

The more sophisticated will of course throw their heads back and laugh before walking down the street to a club with a clue. Giving a nightclub operator carte blanche to steal the patron's ID, or to lose it to a thieving employee with virtually no consequence, is not smart.

Privacy concerns as clubs roll out ID scanning - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

"Nightclub operators, and private business in general, are not qualified to hold your ID. Show it to them, but never hand it to them. Refuse, deny, walk out. If you operate such an establishment, understand the liability of allowing your employees to demand this info. One cell phone photo of an ID, and it's over for you." - Jonathan Warren

UN Preparing International Privacy Treaty

A business seeking to outsource an operation in the United States may find it does not violate privacy law by contracting with a firm in a jurisdiction completely outside the laws of the US. A german firm may find that it is breaking the law by contracting with a service provider in the US or India, when transferring personally identifiable information is necessary.

These and other situations are leading the United Nations to act further on best practices regarding international privacy, which it published in November. A United Nations Privacy Treaty could be just around the corner.

UN treaty on privacy possible - technology | Stuff.co.nz

Privacy Settings: Don't blame your tools for your work results

Articles regarding privacy evaporation, and blaming the phenomenon on social networks, makes for lots of readers. But the reality is, the social networks are seldom to blame for the embarrassing and often dangerous positions people put themselves in regarding online information sharing.

A review of privacy settings can virtually eliminate the risk of unwanted sharing. Like anything else, users need to make sure they understand the powerful tool of a Twitter or Facebook account before they begin using it. Yes, you have to read.

Linkedin, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, Myspace and others actually provide some of the best methods for perserving personal privacy, when they are utilized properly. In fact, many use these services instead of standard email because they mask your IP address to the public, and are capable of offering just the information you want to be presented to the public at large. They also allow you to cut off or prevent communications from any user with a simple click.

Don't Blame Facebook for the Erosion of Online Privacy - Business - The Atlantic

To review your privacy settings and your overall presentation, have a trusted friend or a personal privacy consultant go through your social networking membership page, and provide feedback. A professional can tell you what information can be gleaned from your entries, which is critical in protecting yourself online.

High-tech copy machines a gold mine for data thieves - thestar.com

Beware: You now have to verify deletion of digital files kept from paper copies, in order to protect yourself. High-tech copy machines a gold mine for data thieves - thestar.com

Many Mobile Phones Now Equipped to Detect Personal Activity, Not Just Location

The newest incarnation of the cellular phones offered by most manufacturers contain "accelerometers". These sophisticated sensors are easily co opted to determine what exactly the carrier is doing. The phone can tell if you are walking, sitting, driving, even eating.

Manufacturers of the co opting software and additional add-ons are are quick to point out the potential uses for employers.

BBC News - Mobile that allows bosses to snoop on staff developed

The obvious ramifications for privacy are tremendous. Access of the data falling into the wrong hands could bring about an entirely new level of thievery and voyeurism, especially in light of the Obama Administration's recent statement that Americans have "no reasonable expectation of privacy" as to the location history of their mobile phones.

The likelihood of acceptance, however, as a so-called "self protection" measure, or "mothering" feature is likely to allow for mass use, according to some industry leaders.

DMV to Scan Your Hand for Employment: Senators Schumer (D) & Graham (R)

In what some are calling a case of monumental buffoonery, the Senate is about to consider a bill which would not only create a giant new bureaucracy and a new ID card which every employed person will have to buy, it also will have you going to the DMV to have your hand scanned. No kidding.

The new ID card is supposed to have something biometric "like fingerprints" to connect the holder to the card. The card is supposed to also verify that the holder is working legally. To make matters worse, employers are expected to buy $800 hand scanners from some lucky government contractor (probably in a state where a senator supports this nonsense) so that they can become the defacto immigration patrol.

Waiting in the wings are the thousands of scammers who will simply obtain the driver's licenses under fake pretenses to begin with, thereby using the ridiculous new ID card to buoy up the scam. The DMV simply is not qualified to verify immigration status.

If the motive for this legislation were anything other than pork barrel contractor gains, it would not exist. The passport already does more than the capabilities of the new ID card. In no country but the U.S. can you work, drive, open a bank account or climb on a domestic or international flight with any ID other than a passport.

The passport is verified by the State department of the issuing country, standardized as to content and structure by international treaty, internationally recognized, issued by all countries all over the world through consulates, and already held by millions. It is the toughest ID to fake, and the easiest faked ID to catch.

Contact Senator Schumer (http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/contact.cfm) and Senator Graham (http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGraham) and let them know that your passport is the only ID you will get for work, and all you will require of your workers.

Sign the petition to make the Passport the only US National ID, on Facebook at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes/424117/about

Read the full story:

Worker ID Card at Center of Immigration Plan - WSJ.com

WARNING: Copy Machines Save Everything You Copy

Before you copy that tax return, your ID, child's passport application, or legal documents, you'd better check the privacy policy of the copy machine owner.

Copy machines are not the Mimiagraph machines of old. They are computers attached to very sophisticated scanners. Whatever you copy is stored in that computer. For how long? Ask the machine's owner.

Where does your lawyer make copies? Who copied your loan application? what about that lease? Who copied your daughters's school amission forms? All of those images are easily extracted from the copier, usually with a laptop, and not always by the owner. Who has access to copiers containing your private information?

Chances are, you shouldn't risk copying anything with personal information on any copy machine which you do not own.

Copy Machines Can Store Your Private Info - wbztv.com