PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Green Eggs and Ham: How Not to Market and Invade Privacy

By Daniel J. Solove Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham is a timeless classic that is read to millions of children. At first the simple rhymes and cute drawings are alluring. But parents will soon discover the book’s terrifying equation: The tiresome repetition of the book multiplied by the number of times a child will […]

Health Data Security in Crisis, Phase 2 Audits, and Other HIPAA Privacy + Security Updates

By Daniel J. Solove Co-authored with Professor Paul Schwartz This post is part of a post series where we round up some of the interesting news and resources we’re finding. We have split the health/HIPAA material from our updates on other topics. To see our updates for other topics, click here. For a PDF version […]

Troublesome Password Practices and the Need for Data Security Training

By Daniel J. Solove A recent study by TeleSign revealed that many people engage in some troublesome password practices. Some of the most alarming findings from the report include: — 73% of accounts use duplicate passwords. — Nearly half of consumers have a password they haven’t changed in 5+ years — “Consumers have an average […]

Big Data, Big Data Breaches, Big Fines and Other Privacy + Security Updates

By Daniel J. Solove Co-authored by Professor Paul Schwartz This post is part of a post series where we round up some of the interesting news and resources we’re finding. This post includes developments from the first part of 2015. For a PDF version of this post, and for archived issues of previous posts, click […]

If the Empire in Star Wars Had Big Data

Star Wars Privacy and Security Awareness Darth Vader

. . . the Empire would have won. A search of records would have revealed where Luke Skywalker was living on Tatooine.  A more efficient collection and aggregation of Jawa records would have located the droids immediately.  Simple data analysis would have revealed that Ben Kenobi was really Obi Wan Kenobi. A search of birth […]

Law Firm Cyber Security and Privacy Risks

law firm data security

By Daniel J. Solove Law firms are facing grave privacy and security risks. Although a number of firms are taking steps to address these risks, the industry as a whole needs to grasp the severity of the risk. For firms, privacy and security risks can be significantly higher than for other organizations. Incidents can be […]

The Health Data Breach and ID Theft Epidemic

By Daniel J. Solove When you go to the hospital, you might worry about catching a staph infection or pneumonia, but you should also worry about contracting a nasty case of medical identity theft. Most people suffer significant harm from medical ID theft, and few are completely cured. This ailment is spreading dramatically as data […]

Burn Before You Learn or Learn Rather than Burn

By Daniel J. Solove It seems as though every week brings news of another batch of data breaches . . . and they’re getting bigger. Target. Home Depot. Sony. Anthem. The list goes on and on. The costs of many of these breaches are devastatingly large. And yet most data breaches are readily preventable. After […]

Why the Anthem Data Breach Is Needlessly Harmful

By Daniel J. Solove Recently, Anthem, one of the largest health insurance providers, suffered a massive data breach involving personal data on up to 80 million people. According to Anthem, the data breached includes “names, dates of birth, member ID/ social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and employment information.”