PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

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Update on the Seigenthaler Wikipedia Defamation Case

Wikipedia and Anonymity

Paul Secunda over at Workplace Prof Blog brings news about an update to the Seigenthaler Wikipedia defamation case I blogged about recently. In the case, an anonymous individual wrote in Seigenthaler’s Wikipedia entry that Seigenthaler was involved in President Kennedy’s assassination. Seigenthaler complained that he was unable to track down the identity of the alleged defamer.

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Should Divorce Records Be Public or Private?

Privacy of Divorce Records

USA Today story raises the issue about whether divorce records should be public or private. The article has a good discussion of the law of divorce record confidentiality, and it has examples of several cases where reporters obtained divorce records of celebrities and politicians in order to glean juicy bits of gossip. One of the most interesting cases involves Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jack Ryan, who ran in Illinois in 2004:

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Jennifer Aniston’s Cease and Desist Letter

Paparazzi

Eric Goldman has a very interesting post about the cease and desist (C&D) letter that Jennifer Aniston’s attorneys sent to the paparazzi who took her photograph. The letter is posted on The Smoking Gun website. The letter states several times that it is to remain confidential, and it has this language:

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30,000 Innocent Travelers Flagged on Airline Screening Lists

Airline Screening TSA

From ZDNET:

About 30,000 airline passengers have discovered since last November that their names were mistakenly matched with those appearing on federal watch lists, a transportation security official said Tuesday.

Jim Kennedy, director of the Transportation Security Administration’s redress office, revealed the errors at a quarterly meeting convened here by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

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Jennifer Aniston Photos and the Anti-Paparazzi Act

Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston is suing a paparazzi who took photos of her. In a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Aniston claims that Peter Brandt took topless photographs of her from a significant distance from her home. He used a high-powered telephoto lens to photograph her at her home. Aniston’s lawyers claim the photos were taken from over a mile away, but Brandt claims that this would be “impossible . . . unless you have something from NASA.”

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Media Spin: The Power of Headlines

News Media Spin

Here’s a selection of headlines for stories about the Texas court’s recent decision throwing out the conspiracy charge against Tom DeLay but retaining the money laundering charges. But by these headlines, it appears that there were two very different results in the case:

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Rational Security vs. Symbolic Security

Symbolic Security

So much for concurring opinions . . . I’ve been attacked by not only one co-blogger, but two. Earlier on, I posted a critique of the court’s decision upholding the NYC subway searching policy against a Fourth Amendment challenge.

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Subways, Searches, and Slippery Slopes

Subway Searches

The gloves are off. Dave Hoffman has lodged another challenge to my position, and I want to take a quick moment to defend myself.

I believe that Dave mischaracterizes my arguments in several places and exaggerates some of my claims. So I’ll attempt to clear up any confusion as to my positions and try to defend my turf.

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