Privacy

By Norman Solomon

If your daily routine took you from one homegrown organic garden to another, bypassing vast fields choked with pesticides, you might feel pretty good about the current state of agriculture.

If your daily routine takes you from one noncommercial progressive website to another, you might feel pretty good about the current state of the Internet.

But while mass media have supplied endless raptures about a digital revolution, corporate power has seized the Internet - and the anti-democratic grip is tightening every day.

By John M. Simpson

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has given Google what Bloomberg News Service describes as an ultimatum to settle the agency's antitrust investigation in the next few days or face a lawsuit.

Citing unidentified sources, Bloomberg reporter Sara Forden on Monday wrote:

"Google has been in discussions with the agency for about two weeks and hasn’t put any remedy proposals on the table, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are private."

By John M. Simpson

One of the things you hear when companies try to minimize the impact of privacy violations is an attempt to claim there was no financial harm to consumers. However, in an interesting development the Federal Trade Commission is now publicly estimating that Google's hack around Apple's Safari browser privacy settings earned the Internet giant up to $4 million.

By John M. Simpson

California Governor Jerry Brown should veto a bill that allows Google's driverless cars on the highway, because it does not provide adequate privacy protections for users of the new technology. SB 1298, authored by Sen. Alex Padilla, was passed unanimously by the Senate. However, as explained in Consumer Watchdog's letter to the Governor, SB 1298 is completely insufficient. It gives the user no control over what data will be gathered and how the information will be used.

By Carl Finamore

Around 150 million Americans drag themselves out of bed each day and show up for work. You get your first cup of coffee, chit-chat a bit, punch in, and settle in for a long day on the job. But don't get too settled, because you might be asked to answer a few questions about your family medical history, your sexual orientation, and your use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol. You also might be asked to take a blood test, have your cholesterol and blood pressure recorded, and get your body mass index checked. Only a few years ago, such probing, pricking, and pinching would only occur in the privacy of a doctor's office, but now these procedures are becoming more commonly prescribed in over half of American workplaces. And such "wellness" programs are growing rapidly.

By Richard Holober
Consumer Federation of California

California lawmakers are poised to weaken a patient privacy law despite its overwhelming voter support.  

AB 439 (Skinner) is before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a vote on Tuesday July 3. The bill would create loopholes in the Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA), placing patients at risk of repeated unauthorized release of confidential health information on a massive scale.

Assembly member Skinner is carrying the bill for McKesson Corporation, a healthcare business that ranks 15th on the Fortune 500 list. McKesson, a distributor of pharmaceuticals and manager of healthcare information systems, reported revenues of $122 billion in its 2012 Annual Report. Drug store chains, hospitals and other health care corporations are also supporting AB 439.

By Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH

Identity theft, a growing problem, is regularly in the news. We are warned to keep our Social Security numbers safe, to not carry our SSN cards with us. But recently, I joined the ranks of Medicare recipients and, to my surprise, found that my Medicare number is my SSN number--and we are instructed to carry it with us at all times.

I’ve done everything possible to minimize my exposure. I purchased a cross-cutter, better than a shredder, and use it for all papers with personal information. I purchased a sturdy lock mailbox. I keep no passwords or personal details on my computer, keep my firewall and virus programs up-to-date, and obtained a second credit card with a low maximum for online purchases. I never give out information on the phone and I placed a security freeze on all three credit reporting agencies.

By Amber Yoo
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

There are hundreds of ways that a consumer's personal information may be lost, stolen or exposed.  An employee may lose a laptop, hackers may download credit card numbers or sensitive personal data may be accidentally exposed online.

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has been tracking breaches since 2005 and publishes a Chronology of Data Breaches. The Chronology counts the number of records leaked that contain information useful to identity thieves, such as Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, driver's license numbers – and in some states, medical information.

By Paul Stephens
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

The phrase "Cyber Monday" was coined several years ago to describe the phenomenon of millions of workers returning to their offices on the Monday after Thanksgiving and spending a good part of the day doing their holiday shopping online. By November 2010, Cyber Monday had become the biggest online shopping day in history and the first to surpass the billion-dollar threshold.

By Nancy Murray and Kade Crockford
TruthOut and ACLU Massachusets

Surveillance now is everyone's business, as the line between intelligence-gathering and crimefighting rapidly fades and the public is conditioned to play its part. The work of Deputy Police Chief Michael Downing of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) exemplifies the new surveillance paradigm. The head of the 750-strong counterterrorism force within the LAPD, he is on the hunt for "people who follow al-Qaeda's goals and objectives and mission and ideology." He says his officers collect intelligence and practice the "essence of community policing" by reaching out to Muslims and asking them to "weed out" the "hard-core radicals."