Judge Alex Kozinski and his law clerk, Alexander Volokh recently published an opinion by a panel on U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in a law review article. The article is called The Appeal, 103 Mich. L. Rev. 1391 (2005). The judges on the panel were Judges Alex K., Bucephalus, and Godot. No reason is given for the […]
According to an NYT article: Law enforcement officials have made at least 200 formal and informal inquiries to libraries for information on reading material and other internal matters since October 2001, according to a new study that adds grist to the growing debate in Congress over the government’s counterterrorism powers. In some cases, agents used subpoenas […]
According to an article in the NY Times, documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center from the Social Security Administration (SSA) reveal that the SSA disclosed personal information in response to FBI requests after 9-11:
Remember CAPPS II, the program for screening airline passengers by using databases of personal information? This program was scrapped because the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was concerned that it posed an increasing threat to privacy and civil liberties. Replacing CAPPS II was the nicely-monikered “Secure Flight.” (EPIC’s website has a good […]
The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) of the DOJ has issued a highly suspect interpretation of the original HIPAA that seriously undermines the enforceability of HIPAA. Some background: In 1996, Congress Passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The Act, at 42 U.S.C. § 1320d-6, provided in part for the protection of medical privacy – […]
This interesting AP story demonstrates how illusory anonymity can be on the Internet:
I’m getting tired of posting about data security breaches, but this one is a whopper — actually, more like a double whopper. From the AP [link no longer available]:
A Washington Post article discusses the letter the FDIC recently mailed to about 6,000 of its employees that describes a data security breach where employee personal information was compromised:
The FTC just announced a settlement with BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. From the FTC press release:
An article discusses the courtship of Supreme Court clerks. Some firms are giving $150,000 signing bonuses.