PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Who, Exactly, Is a Journalist?

Definition of Journalist

Is Howard Bashman a journalist? Bashman is the author of How Appealing, a very popular legal blog that many readers here read — and that anybody who wants to keep informed about new cases and legal developments should be reading. Bashman frequently posts or links to court decisions when they are released online, and a […]

The Boy Who Cried “National Security”: The Need for Greater Skepticism About Government Secrecy

Government Secrecy

I just blogged about an incident where the 2nd Circuit sought to have Howard Bashman remove an unredacted judicial decision from his site and replace it with a redacted version. Apparently, the redacted version attempted to remove information about a rather dicey interrogation technique the FBI used. According to Tony Mauro of the Legal Times:

Judge Strikes Down Part of USA Patriot Act

Surveillance

In Mayfield v. United States, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken (District of Oregon) held that parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978, which were altered by the USA Patriot Act in 2001, are unconstitutional. The case was brought by Brandon Mayfield, a who was put under extensive surveillance and then detained for […]

The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others

I recently saw The Lives of Others and was thoroughly impressed with this film. After having seen the amazing Pan’s Labyrinth, I was stunned that another movie could win the Oscar for best foreign film of 2006 (one of the rare categories in the Oscars where worthy films actually win). But after finally seeing it, […]

The Do Not Call List’s Memory Lapse

Phone

So you signed up for the federal Do Not Call List and expect not to receive any more of those annoying telemarketing calls ever again. Think again. Signing up expires after 5 years, so if you signed up back when the list first came into existence, you’ll need to sign up all over again soon. […]

Can the TB Patient Sue the CDC?

Lungs

The WSJ blog points to this interesting update [link no longer available] about the TB patient who was quarantined for having a highly-resistant strain of TB. I blogged about the case here and here. According to the news story, times aren’t very good from Andrew Speaker, the TB patient:

CCTV as Entertainment

CCTV and Privacy

Britain has implemented an extensive video surveillance system called Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), with over 4 million cameras watching over public areas. The purpose of the cameras is for officials in monitoring centers to watch for suspicious behavior and dispatch the police if they see crime developing. CCTV footage has also been used to investigate […]

Noteworthy Privacy Law Scholarship: 2006

Privacy Scholarship

As there are tons of new scholarly works in the privacy law field each year, I thought it might be useful to point out a few books and articles that I found particularly interesting and useful from the past year. This post will cover only those books and articles published in 2006.