Executive Director Pam Dixon to present a featured lecture at National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine at its Colloquium: The Future of Data Science Pam Dixon’s lecture will be Wednesday October 28 from 12:00-12:45 am Eastern. Looking Ten Years Ahead: Key Converging Technologies in Computing, Data, and Analysis and ...
Identity is a data-rich key that acts to unlock all levels of the emerging digital ecosystem. All forms of ID carry some risk, but digital forms of ID, or “dematerialized ID,” cuts across all sectors and generates particularly copious data about people, their behaviors, financial status, associates, and potentially even political and religious views. Over time, distinct patterns emerge from the data and have in the past created new kinds of risks for individuals and groups.....
The National Academies of Science have released Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy . The consensus report richly documents how, during the 2016 presidential election, actors sponsored by the Russian government attacked the US voting and election infrastructure. The report assesses the web of technology infrastructures related to voting, and ...
This week a judge ordered that the approximately 10 million records of California students held by the California Department of Education will not be turned entirely over to a group of community nonprofits in the Morgan Hill case. Instead, the judge ordered that several smaller databases may be turned over ...
Update for March 3, 2016: This week a judge has ordered that the approximately 10 million records of California students held by the California Department of Education will not be turned entirely over to a group of community nonprofits in the Morgan Hill case. Instead, the judge ordered that several ...
Today The Guardian published an op-ed I wrote about employer-sponsored wellness programs. You can find that op-ed here . I have researched and written about HIPAA, health plans, wellness, predictive analytics, and big data for years now. A lot of my work coalesced together when Robert Gellman and I researched ...
I spoke on a panel recently on the topic of all things privacy and biometrics . The Biometrics Institute hosted the discussion at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC. The panel discussion was subject to Chatham House rules, and, in order to foster open dialogue, the audience did not include ...
Many people have told us that they think opting out is confusing. We agree. Opting out can range from the not-too-difficult (the FTC’s Do Not Call list is a fairly simple opt out) to the challenging (the National Advertising Initiative opt out can be tricky). Our hope is that this list will clarify which opt out does what, and how to go about opting out.
On Christmas Eve, the US National Security Agency (NSA) declassified and released 12 years of reports outlining compliance violations that were submitted to the NSA Intelligence Oversight Committee. The reports, which are required by law, had previously been classified and were the subject of a legal battle between the ACLU and the government. Although heavily redacted, the reports the NSA released of are vital interest to the public because they reveal a pattern of significant privacy violations and in some cases serious abuses in granular detail.
Today, health insurers Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross announced the creation of a statewide database of patient medical records in California called Cal INDEX. When it launches later this year, it will be the country's largest health information exchange, or HIE. The exchange is set to disseminate ...
The World Privacy Forum's recent public comments to the White House regarding Big Data focus on using a foundation of Fair Information Principles to address issues connected to bias, error, and privacy regarding big data as applied to vulnerable populations. The comments also discuss large medical research data sets, and ...
Chairman Rockefeller and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today about data brokers, an industry that is often hidden from public view, and the impact of data brokers on consumers’ lives.
WPF executive director Pam Dixon testified at a joint subcommittee hearing focused on privacy and the collection and use of online and offline consumer information. Dixon's testimony focused on the new "modern permanent record" and how it is used and created. Dixon said "The merging of offline and online data is creating highly personalized, granular profiles of consumers that affect consumers’ opportunities in the marketplace and in their lives. Consumers are largely unaware of these profiles and their consequences, and they have insufficient legal rights to change things even if they did know." The testimony explored concrete examples of problematic consumer profiling activities.
Health privacy -- The World Privacy Forum filed comments today about how medical records and other health information is intersecting with online advertising and online activities. The WPF comments were filed with the Department of Health and Human Services in response to its request for comments on personal health records, privacy, and social media.
Online privacy -- The FTC sent a letter to Google today expressing concern about the company's privacy practices, but at the same time, the FTC informed Google that it was dropping its investigation of the Street View WiFi case. The FTC wrote: "FTC staff has concerns about the internal policies and procedures that gave rise to this data collection. ... the company did not discover that it had been collecting payload data until it responded to a request for information from a data protection authority." The FTC told Google it should develop and implement procedures to properly collect, dispose of, and maintain information.
Health privacy and HIPAA -- The World Privacy Forum filed two sets of detailed regulatory comments on recently proposed changes to HIPAA. The first comments focused on proposed changes to HIPAA in the area of marketing patient information. The proposed changes would be harmful to patient privacy, and are contrary to the law. WPF was joined in the marketing comments by the Center for Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Activism, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and Privacy Times. The second set of comments WPF filed included the comments on marketing as well as on additional provisions that would be problematic if enacted.
The World Privacy Forum filed comments today criticizing the SEC proposed regulations that would release an unprecedented amount of financial details about individual borrowers through the EDGAR database. The WPF was joined by other privacy, consumer, and human rights organizations in its comments, which focused on the privacy issues with the proposed regulations. Pam Dixon, executive director of the WPF, stated in the comments that the SEC's new regulations would "Place on the public record and online the largest amount of personal financial information about borrowers ever disclosed, including information never before made public." The comments also note that the SEC's plan greatly increases the risk of identity theft for individual borrowers whose information will be released publicly.
Online privacy -- A press release issued by Connecticut's AG Richard Blumenthal revelaed that 38 states have joined a mulitstate investigation of Google's Street View wi fi sniffing program. Blumenthal stated in the release: “We are asking Google to identify specific individuals responsible for the snooping code and how Google was unaware that this code allowed the Street View cars to collect data broadcast over WiFi networks. Information we are awaiting includes how the spy software was included in Google’s Street View network and specific locations where unauthorized data collection occurred. We will take all appropriate steps -- including potential legal action if warranted -- to obtain complete, comprehensive answers.”
Data brokers -- WPF will be speaking at the CFP conference on two panels. On June 15, Pam Dixon will participate in a plenary session on data brokers. On June 16, Dixon will moderate a health care privacy panel. This panel will focus on electronic health care in the state of California and the current privacy issues in electronic health exchange.
Health privacy and HIPAA -- The World Privacy Forum filed comments with the US Department of Health and Human Services today in response to its Request for Information about possible changes to the HIPAA health privacy rule. WPF strongly supported patients' current right to request a history of disclosures of their medical files, and requested an expansion of this right. WPF noted in its comments to HHS that "An individual cannot fully protect his/her privacy interest in a health record (and most other records) unless he/she has a right of access to the record, the right to propose a correction, and the right to see who has used the record and to whom it has been disclosed. Each of these elements is essential."
Digital Signage Privacy Principles -- The nation's leading consumer and privacy groups released a set of baseline consumer privacy principles to be included in digital signage networks. The principles were released at the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, where World Privacy Forum executive director Pam Dixon spoke about the principles to a large group of digital signage industry professionals.
FTC Privacy Roundtable -- Thursday, January 28, WPF Executive Director Pam Dixon will be speaking at the FTC's Privacy Roundtable about the privacy implications of digital signage networks and will be specifically discussing the new report: The One-Way Mirror Society: Privacy Implications of the New Digital Signage Networks. Few consumers, legislators, regulators, or policy makers are aware of the capabilities of digital signs or of the extent of their use. The technology presents new problems and highlights old conflicts about privacy, public spaces, and the need for a meaningful debate.
Genetic privacy -- The World Privacy Forum filed comments today with the Department of Labor requesting that the DOL expand its protections of how genetic information may be used by health insurance companies or group health plans. The World Privacy Forum urged the DOL to include genetic information posted on social networking sites in its consideration of the GINA regulations.
FTC Privacy Roundtable -- WPF executive director Pam Dixon will testify at the FTC Privacy Roundtable about information brokers and commercial data practices and they impact consumers. Dixon will be discussing the business models of data brokers, issues with smart grids, and opt-out problems, among other issues.
Congressional testimony -- WPF executive director Pam Dixon testified at a joint subcommittee hearing focused on privacy and the collection and use of online and offline consumer information. Dixon's testimony focused on the new "modern permanent record" and how it is used and created. Dixon said "The merging of offline and online data is creating highly personalized, granular profiles of consumers that affect consumers’ opportunities in the marketplace and in their lives. Consumers are largely unaware of these profiles and their consequences, and they have insufficient legal rights to change things even if they did know." The testimony explored concrete examples of problematic consumer profiling activities.
