I came across the most insightful review so far done on my book from Professor Keith Martin of the Royal Holloway University of London, the Information Security Group.
Month: April 2009
You need to ‘opt-out’ of Google Street View!
Street View UK is here to stay, says boss of Google MapsMike Harvey, Technology Correspondent, in San Francisco despite protests and formal complaints that accompanied its introduction in Britain last month. Google will continue to take pictures of the streets of Britain and put them online for its controversial Street View mapping service, the head of Google Maps has told The Times.
The company’s camera-equipped cars have been travelling around British streets since last year. The cars take images only on public roads and produce a seamless panoramic view of a particular street on a particular day.
Street View automatically blurs out images of people’s faces and car registrations, although the technology is not perfect. Anyone wishing to have images removed can contact Google which says most requests are processed within hours. Read more at the TimesOnLine.
The extinction of anonymity?
Laws in Canada and other countries are increasingly helping technology force people to identify themselves where they never had to before, threatening privacy that allows people to function effectively in society, a new study has found.
“What we’re starting to see is a move toward making people more and more identifiable,” University of Ottawa law professor Ian Kerr said Wednesday. Read more at CBC.news…
Unencrypted RFID in Michigan driving licenses
“Michigan entering into a federal agreement to put unencrypted, long-range RFID computer chips into our driver’s licenses presents a huge privacy risk with very little benefit”, says Republican State Rep. Paul Opsommer, in a statement. “I don’t think we need RFID in our licenses period, but even if we did, there is absolutely no reason it couldn’t be short range and encrypted. The federal government has made some bad technology choices that they now want to cram down the rest of our throats. Canada is totally rethinking this whole program from the ground up, and so should Michigan.” Read more at Network World.
Is your trash private?
What do you think? If you throw out your rubbish and it is sitting in a garbage can waiting for collection on your property. Should the police need a search warrant to search through your trash? Apparently not so in Canada.
Impotent Information Commissioner
The U.K. government has failed to meet its own deadlines to bring in new powers for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to fine companies who lose personal data. Read more..
I’m back, and oh boy what a lot has happened in the last month!
A European Union panel will this week release its legal opinion on anti-doping rules that require Olympic-level athletes to disclose their locations every day, reports Reuters. A legal challenge has been lodged in Belgium on behalf of 65 athletes, including cyclists and volleyball players, who argue the rule breaks EU privacy laws. FIFPro, the soccer players’ union, is also mounting a case.
The panel’s decision will form the basis of a broader and far-reaching binding legal opinion by the European Commission, the executive arm which oversees EU legislation within the 27-nation bloc due to be published before the northern summer.