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What's New

 

New Consumer Resource: HIE map of California.

Our HIE map will allow you to find out if your health care provider is participating in an HIE, and will let you take the first steps to contacting the HIE and identifying what other information and health care providers may be receiving your information. Published June 2012.

Consumer Resource: A Patient's Guide to HIPAA

A Patient's Guide to HIPAA is a comprehensive look at how to use HIPAA in practical, strategic ways to protect privacy. The guide is user-friendly, direct, and easy to navigate.

 

Major reports:

The One-Way Mirror Society

WPF published the first major privacy report on digital signage networks and mobile tracking in retail locations. This report documents and describes modern practices that would surprise most shoppers. WPF also created consumer guidelines for digital signage and retail consumer tracking with a coalition of national privacy and consumer groups.

 

Privacy in the Clouds

The World Privacy Forum's newest report examines the privacy and confidentiality issues of cloud computing that have been largely overlooked to date. It is a thorough analysis with policy findings. Privacy in the Clouds: Risks to Privacy and Confidentiality from Cloud Computing was written by Robert Gellman for the World Privacy Forum. Cloud computing tips for consumers are also available. Published February 23, 2009.

 

Medical ID Theft

The World Privacy Forum researched and published the first major report about medical identity theft and brought this crime to the attention of the public for the first time. Our May 2006 report documents and discusses medical identity theft and what makes it unique. While the financial forms of identity theft are well-known at this point, the medical forms of ID theft are not. The medical forms if ID theft have unique harms associated with them, and under HIPAA victims have gaps in recourse for help recovering from the crime. The World Privacy Forum has also published substantial resources for victims in the form of a groundbreaking FAQ for victims, again, the first to be published on this issue.

Our medical identity theft page contains the report, FAQ for victims, consumer tips, and best practices for healthcare providers. See also: Red Flag Rules report, which is available on the medical identity theft page.

 

Personal Health Records

The World Privacy Forum has published a substantive legal analysis that looks at what happens when health care files and medical records are kept at businesses not subject to the Federal medical privacy rule, HIPAA. This analysis is the first the WPF is aware of on this particular issue. The report was published February 2008 and is available on our Personal Health Record page: http://www.worldprivacyforum.org/personal_health_records.html and here.

 

Online Behavioral Advertising

The World Privacy Forum issued a new report on the Network Advertising Initiative November 2, 2007. The report documents and analyzes the history and operations of the 7-year old NAI self-regulatory initiative, which was designed to allow consumers to opt-out of tracking by behavioral advertisers. The report is available here, and at the FTC web site.

 

Other news or new content:
 
India Video Series

Pam Dixon, executive director of the WPF, and Blake Hamilton, media fellow at the WPF, were in India for privacy research and study. WPF is publishing a series of videos taken on site during our work in India. These videos provide a groundbreaking peek into privacy in this important country and culture, it is a view from the trenches very rarely seen outside of India. We have created a Video Channel on Vimeo to facilitate viewing from multiple devices. Our channel is located here: https://vimeo.com/channels/worldprivacyforumindia .

 
NTIA voluntary code

WPF co-created a proposed voluntary code of mobile application transparency with industry, civil liberties, and consumer groups. This is the first time a privacy voluntary code has been meaningfully co-crafted between public interest groups and industry, and it marks an important first step for consumers. WPF is proud to have been part of this effort.

 
Don't diminish Californian's health privacy

WPF filed comments with California's Dept. of HHS regarding the state's "privacy harmonization" plan that weakens state level privacy laws. The comments, filed jointly with EFF, ACLU, and other groups, are summarized and available via our press release on the issue.

 
WPF Essay: Put the Consumer First

In preparation for the Commerce Multistakeholder process, WPF's executive director Pam Dixon has written a comment essay urging privacy stakeholders to put the consumer first and focus on what is important. The essay is available directly on the home page, the press release is located here. (July 11, 2012).

 
New HIE Map for Californians

Our new HIE map will assist you in finding if your California health care provider is participating in a health information exchange and will assist you in asking the right questions and finding answers about where your health data may be exchanged, and what controls you have over that data.

WPF speaks with App developers in Southern California

WPF participated in a series of privacy summits in early June that brought App developers and privacy experts together to discuss what is needed to enhance privacy in the mobile app environment.

 

WPF testifies at FTC regarding Mobile Privacy

We testified at the recent FTC mobile hearing, our panel was focused on privacy. You can find the transcript here.

 

FTC Report cites WPF's work and comments

The new FTC privacy report cites WPF's work eight times, and picks up three central recommendations we made in our comments. Key was our recommendation to create a centralized data broker opt-out page for consumers. We are extremely pleased the FTC has picked up this recommendation.

 

Facial Recognition

WPF filed a lengthy set of comments to the FTC regarding facial recognition technology. WPF testified at the FTC Face Facts workshop in December 2011, and these new comments followed up on that testimony. Also included in the comments were the Consumer Privacy pPrinciples for Digital sSignage -- principles that WPF drafted. And finally, the comments included our One Way Mirror Society report on facial recognition and detection technologies. The comments are available here.

 

New Comments to a new bureau

WPF filed comments -- our first ever -- to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The comments are available here.

 

New Search Engine tips

We have updated our search engine privacy tips page with an important note about segregating data streams. The message: don't put all of your digital eggs in one basket. See the updated tips for more ....

 

WPF launches Facebook page

The World Privacy Forum has begun posting materials to its new Facebook page. "Millions of users are looking for information on Facebook. Our goal is to reach consumers with high-quality privacy materials and information, so it makes sense for us to reach out to people through this medium" said executive director Pam Dixon. The World Privacy Forum Facebook page is located here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/World-Privacy-Forum/166886663345222?ref=sgm.

 

Upcoming Events:

 

WPF will be speaking/attending at the following events:

 

  • April 2012: Medical ID theft victim's assistance training, Denver, Colorado.
  • May 2012: FTC mobile privacy workshop, Washington, DC.
  • June 2012: Privacy Scholar's Conference, Washington DC.
  • June 2012: TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue, Washington DC
  • July 2012: World Privacy Forum Dialogue, Mysore, India
  • TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue, June 2011, Brussels.
  • Berkeley Law Do Not Track Roundtable, Feb. 9, 2011.
  • CalPSAB Dec. 10, board co-chair.
  • Copenhagen, "Security in the Cloud," http://www.dit.dk/events/2010/11/11-sikkerhed-i-skyen.aspx, November 11 2010
  • CFP, San Jose, June 15-18, 2010.
  • CalPSAB, Sacramento, June 9, 2010.
  • Digital Signage Expo, Las Vegas Convention Center, February 25, 2010. Panel on digital signage and privacy.
  • Federal Trade Commission Privacy Roundtable, January 28, 2010, Berkeley, California.
  • CalPSAB, January 13, 2010, San Francisco.
  • Federal Trade Commission Privacy Roundtable, December 7, 2009, Washington DC.
  • Congressional Testimony, November 19, 2009, Executive Director Pam Dixon.
  • Annual ID Theft Passport Advisory Council Meeting, (I-PAC), Presentation/briefing on medical identity theft, Sacramento, Nov. 5, 2009.
  • Center for Ethics in Science and Technology, Identity theft trends and news, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego, Nov. 4, 2009, panel.
  • New York University Law School, October 2, 2009. Panel on safe harbors and online privacy.
  • CalPSAB, September 16, 2009, Sacramento.
  • California Bar Annual Meeting, September 12, 2009, San Diego. Panel on global privacy issues.
  • NNEDV Training of Teachers, August 2009, San Francisco. Workshops.
  • CalPSAB, June 29, 2009.
  • Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialog, June 7-10 2009, Brussels, Belgium. Presentation on Cloud Computing.
  • California Western School of Law, April 2, 2009, San Diego, class lecture on health information technology and privacy.
  • Health Privacy Summit, April 2009, Los Angeles.
  • NNEDV, March 2009, San Antonio Texas.
  • CalPSAB, March 2009, Oakland, California.
  • World Congress, February 23 2009, La Costa, California.
  • Congressional Internet Caucus, Jan. 14, 2009, Washington DC.
  • More WPF events ....

 

Miscellaneous new items of note:

 

  • HIPAA Updates: Courtesy of the Health Information Privacy/Security Alert, HIPAA enforcement updates are available free of charge at the web site <http://www.melamedia.com/>.