privacy – News Stories About privacy - Page 15

analysis

May 20, 2008 1:10 PM CDT

McCain Veers Right on Supreme Court

Toobin decodes references in recent 'sneak' speech

(Newser) - If you aren’t a conservative activist, John McCain didn’t have you in mind when he recently laid out his position on judicial appointments: The speech was “a dog whistle for the right,” Jeffrey Toobin writes in the New Yorker, in a piece that decodes references meant...

14 More Called Out for Medical Snooping

May 13, 2008 9:36 AM CDT

14 More Called Out for Medical Snooping

State says 68 people peeked at celebrities' files at UCLA center

(Newser) - Fourteen more staffers at the UCLA medical center have been accused of snooping in celebrities’ files, raising the number to 68, the Los Angeles Times reports. A new state report blames UCLA for its lack of privacy protection and for failing to report the snooping to authorities. It also provides...

UCLA Medical Center Snoop Indicted

Apr 29, 2008 11:45 PM CDT

UCLA Medical Center Snoop Indicted

Woman accused of selling stars' medical records to tabloids

(Newser) - A former UCLA Medical Center employee has been indicted for snooping in the medical records of the stars and selling the information to tabloids, the Los Angeles Times reports. Lawanda Jackson is accused of making thousands from the sale of information about celebrities including Farrah Fawcett and Maria Shriver. She...

Email Mining Software
No Slam-Dunk

Apr 21, 2008 7:31 PM CDT

Email Mining Software No Slam-Dunk

Some employees balk at sharing contacts with co-workers

(Newser) - Software that allows co-workers to share customer and client information without the initial contact's explicit permission is catching on, overcoming worries about privacy that initially kept the applications from gaining traction, the Wall Street Journal reports. One exec who saw "a very harsh reaction from people who viewed it...

LAX Readies 'Strip Search' Scans

Apr 18, 2008 9:59 AM CDT

LAX Readies 'Strip Search' Scans

'Total body imaging' devices look under clothes for weapons

(Newser) - New technology will allow screeners at Los Angeles International Airport to scan passengers with a device that effectively looks beneath their clothes, the LA Times reports. The “whole body imaging” machines are drawing mixed reviews—a TSA spokesman praised the "brand-new security tool," but an ACLU rep...

Nosy UCLA MDs Got Off Easier Than Other Staff

Apr 12, 2008 11:17 AM CDT

Nosy UCLA MDs Got Off Easier Than Other Staff

Some of the non-docs who peeked at Britney's files were fired

(Newser) - The MDs who wrongly looked at Britney Spears’ medical records while she was being treated on two occasions at UCLA hospitals have gotten off easier than other staff, the Los Angeles Times reports. Of the at least 53 snoopers, 18 non-doctors retired, resigned, or were dismissed, but none of the...

Congress Looks Into FBI's Telecom Spying

Apr 8, 2008 12:00 PM CDT

Congress Looks Into FBI's Telecom Spying

Pipeline for intercepted data raises red flags

(Newser) - Congressional Democrats are questioning the cozy relationship between the FBI and telecom companies, the Washington Post reports. Thanks to a 1994 law, all telecom firms have “Quantico circuits”—little-known electronic lines straight to the FBI technology office in Virginia. Telecom technicians can instantly send data over those lines,...

Should Cops Swipe
DNA Without a Warrant?

Apr 3, 2008 1:33 PM CDT

Should Cops Swipe DNA Without a Warrant?

Lawyers say it violates privacy rights; cops say they're catching crooks

(Newser) - Police didn’t need a search warrant to get a DNA sample from now-convicted murderer Altemio Sanchez—they just waited until he left a restaurant and confiscated his glass. That kind of sneaky DNA collection is going on across the country, and defense lawyers don’t like it, the New ...

UCLA Worker Snooped in Farrah's Files

Apr 3, 2008 3:00 AM CDT

UCLA Worker Snooped in Farrah's Files

News of star's recurring cancer was leaked to tabloid

(Newser) - A UCLA staffer sneaked peeks into actress Farrah Fawcett's confidential health records and apparently leaked information on her treatment for cancer to the media, the Los Angeles Times reports. Sensational headlines about Fawcett's illness subsequently turned up on the website of the National Enquirer before the star had a chance...

Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings

Mar 29, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings

Many rethink privacy concerns as they assess risky students

(Newser) - In the wake of shootings on college campuses, administrators around the nation are forming threat-assessment groups and rethinking policies about sharing information on troubled students, the AP reports. "If a student is a danger to himself or others, all the privacy concerns go out the window,” said an...

TSA Changes
Rules on
Nipple Rings

Mar 29, 2008 6:23 AM CDT

TSA Changes Rules on Nipple Rings

Airport security will settle for 'visual inspection,' not removal

(Newser) - Airport security guards who forced a woman to remove her nipple rings with pliers were following procedures, according to the TSA—but they agree it's time for some new procedures, CNN reports. Pierced passengers pulled over for inspection will in future be told they have the option of showing the...

Woman Forced to Remove Nipple Rings
at Airport

Mar 28, 2008 10:04 AM CDT

Woman Forced to Remove Nipple Rings at Airport

She demands apology, threatens lawsuit

(Newser) - A Texas woman is calling for an apology after airport security in Lubbock forced her to pull out her nipple piercings with a pair of pliers before boarding her plane, the AP reports. When her chest set off the security wand, Mandi Hamlin offered to show a female guard her...

'Kristen' Lawyer Scolds Media Over Racy Pics

Mar 15, 2008 4:20 PM CDT

'Kristen' Lawyer Scolds Media Over Racy Pics

Photo spreads of call girl may violate copyright law

(Newser) - The lawyer for Ashley Alexandra Dupre—the call girl known as "Kristen" to resigned New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer—blasted the media yesterday for unauthorized use of revealing photos of the 22-year-old. Attorney Don D. Buchwald said the media has thrust Dupre into the "public glare" without her...

Judge Upholds Ban on Internet Gambling

Mar 7, 2008 5:35 PM CST

Judge Upholds Ban on Internet Gambling

Online gambling association will appeal

(Newser) - A Congressional ban on Internet gambling doesn’t violate the Constitution, says a federal judge. An online gambling association that challenged the law failed to show sufficient cause to stop its enforcement, the judge ruled, but does have legal standing to appeal the case. The group plans to do so...

US Bases
Block Google
Camera Crews

Mar 7, 2008 4:07 AM CST

US Bases Block Google Camera Crews

General warns of security breach after base photos go online

(Newser) - Google camera teams have been banned from US military installations after panoramic views of the inside of a Texas base ended up on the internet, the AP reports. The street-level images show "where all the guards are, how the barriers go up and down, how to get in and...

Feds Forge National Crime Dragnet

Mar 6, 2008 11:23 AM CST

Feds Forge National Crime Dragnet

Link data of local police agencies for instantaneous search

(Newser) - Law enforcement agencies all over the country are building a new information "dragnet" that will dramatically boost data-sharing, the Washington Post reports. This month the Justice Department will begin hooking up local and county police forces to the new federal National Data Exchange, creating a "one-stop-shop" that...

States Cracking Down on 'Spychip' Privacy Lapses

Feb 27, 2008 9:02 PM CST

States Cracking Down on 'Spychip' Privacy Lapses

California and Washington take action to block some uses of RFID tags

(Newser) - Radio Frequency ID tags—data-loaded microchips that track everything from shipping containers to cars to humans—increasingly are raising concerns with privacy advocates who worry the “spychips” could reveal too much about our lives, reports Ars Technica. Tech-savvy states such as Washington and California are trying to legislate RFIDs,...

Porn-Thieving Geek Squad Needs Spanking

OPINION

Feb 21, 2008 12:06 PM CST

Porn-Thieving Geek Squad Needs Spanking

Privacy invasion, and Best Buy's response, appalling, scribe says

(Newser) - No matter where you stand on pornography, Violet Blue writes in the San Francisco Chronicle, the theft of it from computers brought in for repair by Best Buy's Geek Squad is an appalling privacy violation—and the company's response isn't much better. After king Geek Robert Stephens brushed off a...

Meat Cleaver Murder Hunt Hits Roadblocks

Feb 15, 2008 12:03 PM CST

Meat Cleaver Murder Hunt Hits Roadblocks

Cops can't check patient files; top suspect has alibi

(Newser) - Yesterday police thought they had found the man who viciously stabbed a Manhattan psychologist to death. But after 9 hours of questioning, the prime suspect in the murder of Kathryn Faughey was released after his alibi checked out. Frustrated investigators turned to Faughey’s patient records, only to learn that...

Travelers Rage Over Seized Laptops

Feb 7, 2008 12:18 PM CST

Travelers Rage Over Seized Laptops

Government equates computers with bags; civil-liberties groups disagree

(Newser) - US border agents tell travelers there’s no difference between a laptop and a suitcase; both are fair game for searches. People crossing into the US have found their electronics confiscated, and their data copied, the Washington Post reports, all without explanation. “The government is going well beyond its...