Biometrics at London Healthrow and SAS is doing this in Sweden too.
Month: March 2008
Movie-style ratings for video games
hej this is cool, look at this news on bringing in ratings for video games. Good news for all parents.
Protection of children’s personal data
Here is an interesting working paper from the UK on the protection of children’s personal data released just February this year. Interesting, I wonder how it will impact those schools at the moment taking children’s biometrics adhoc as -so called- needs arise đ
Additional privacy controls in Facebook
First SPAM your friend, and now Facebook said on Tuesday it is introducing new privacy controls that give users of the fast-growing social-network site the ability to preserve social distinctions between friends, family and co-workers online. But only 25 percent of existing users have bothered to take control of their privacy using Facebook’s existing personal information settings, the company said in a statement. Read more…
Facial recognition for driving licenses
After a driver sits for a photo at the Illinois Secretary of State office to renew a license, officials use facial-recognition technology to give the resulting image a close look.
First, state officials verify that the face matches the images portrayed on previous licenses issued under the driverâs name. The second, more extensive run-through determines if the same face appears on other Illinois driverâs licenses with different names.
Since starting the program in 1999, the state has uncovered more than 5,000 cases of multiple identity fraud, said Beth Langen, policy and program division administrator at the Illinois Secretary of State office. The state pays Digimarc Corp. about 25 cents per license for the service, she said. Read more…
Mark Zuckerberg admits execution blunders with beacon!
In a BusinessWeek keynote Q&A at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW), Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted to execution blunders in attempts to bring the site into financial prosperity. Read more….
Big Brother Awards
I came across this last week that I thought was quite fun. The International Big Brother Awards handed out by Privacy International to privacy invaders.
Most invasive company was Choicepoint, for their vast databases of personal data, sold to nearly anyone who wishes to pay.
Worst public official was Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the National Security Agency and now undersecretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, behind and at the forefront of most disastrous U.S. surveillance policies, most recently the EU-U.S. agreement on Passenger Name Records transfers.
Most heinous government was The United Kingdom, for being the greatest surveillance society amongst democratic nations, rivaling only Malaysia, China and Russia as it also leads other countries across the EU down its same path.
Most appalling project or technology was International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency, for implementing a variety of invasive policies behind closed doors, including the ‘biometric passport’ and passenger data transfer-deals.
Lifetime menace award went to âcommunitarianismâ and the proponents of the ‘Common Good’, because every bad policy around the world is justified based on the philosophy that is good for society and the individual must sacrifice his or her selfish rights in favour of the needs of the many.
You should read more to see who came second, third, etc…
HP Technology@Work 2008
Hi me again. Just thinking that I hadn’t shared with you that I have another speaking engagement lined up in mid-March at the HP Technology@Work 2008 in Barcelona. I will be speaking about Information Security Services Management (ISSM) Reference Model. I hope to see you there if you are lucky enough to be coming!
DNA recorded at 10 years old
Nearly 1.5 million 10 to 18-year-olds will have been entered on the national DNA database by this time next year, sparking claims that Britain’s youths are being criminalised and disproportionately ‘targeted’. Read more….