The federal, Alberta and British Columbia Privacy Commissioners have created an online tool that will help small and medium-sized businesses better safeguard the personal information of customers and employees. The Securing Personal Information: A Self-Assessment Tool for Organizations is a detailed online questionnaire and analysis tool that helps organizations gauge how well they are protecting [...]
It’s World Teacher Day – the day that we celebrate those who spend their days nurturing minds and hearts in the communities that we share. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada thanks you for your long days, your hard work, but most of all, your enthusiasm. To support your efforts, we’ve developed free [...]
There has been a lot of attention recently to the arrest of an alleged LulzSec hacker after his anonymity was compromised by the anonymity service he was using, HideMyAss.com. Some articles on the event are here, here and the provider’s explanation here. The reason this company was able to compromise the privacy of their user [...]
Thanks to a PrivacyBlog reader for pointing me to this article: Blackhat SEO – Esrun » Youtube privacy failure It looks like it is easy to find thumbnail images from YouTube videos that have been marked private. If you have any such videos, go back and check that you are comfortable with the information in the [...]
PCMag reports that California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has signed the Reader Privacy Act (SB 602: HTML, PDF), which “will extend privacy protections currently in place for library records to book purchases, including e-books.” The bill, known as the Reader Privacy Act of 2011, will require government agencies to obtain a court order before they [...]
Last year, the Wall Street Journal began an ongoing (as recently as August there was a new article) series of in-depth reports, “What They Know,” about the state of corporate surveillance of consumers in the United States and how these surveillance programs affect individual privacy. These reports have discussed Web sites that have installed consumer-tracking tools; companies [...]
BBC has a discussion about the “Internet of Things,” which is a computerized network of physical objects (it can use radio frequency identification technology — RFID). In IoT, sensors and data storage devices embedded in objects interact with Web services. Here’s one example: An IoT networked refrigerator could notify an owner when food spoils, when there [...]
PIPEDA and Your Practice — A Privacy Handbook for Lawyers was launched by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at the Canadian Bar Association Canadian Legal Conference and Expo 2011. This new handbook explains how the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) relates to the everyday practice of Canadian lawyers in [...]
CNN reports that a California bill (SB 914) concerning warrantless searches of mobile phones and other portable electronic devices will become law if Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signs the bill before Oct. 9: If you get arrested in California, the photos, e-mails and other personal data on your cell phone soon could be a bit [...]
The Boston Globe reports on data security breaches in Massachusetts: Personal information from nearly one out of three Massachusetts residents, from names and addresses to medical histories, has been compromised through data theft or loss since the beginning of 2010, according to statistics released yesterday by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley. A state [...]