Privacy in the digital age

This survey, by
EPIC and Privacy International, reviews the state
of privacy in over fifty countries around the world. The
survey examines a wide range of privacy issues including,
data protection, telephone tapping, genetic databases, ID
systems and freedom of information laws. The report finds
that there is a worldwide regocnition of privacy as a fundamental
human right. Many countries around the world are
enacting comprehenisve data protection law to
safeguard individual privacy increase. However at the
same time, privacy is increasingly being undermined by
technical advances and the demands of intelligence and
law enforcement agencies for increase surveillance powers.
There is a strong need for improved oversight and stricter
enforcement of current laws to ensure that legal
protections are not ignored as threats to personal
privacy increase.

The 31 organizations are voicing their concerns about Google’s plan to scan the text of all incoming messages for the purposes of ad placement, noting that the scanning of confidential email for inserting third party ad content violates the implicit trust of an email service provider. The scanning creates lower expectations of privacy in the email medium and may establish dangerous precedents.

In a world where information and communication technologies (ICT) are fast becoming ubiquitous and indispensable, the ICT industry has a crucial enabling role in social, economic and human development. Deploying ICT triggers changes in behaviour and governance.

Protecting Data Privacy in Health Services Research

Is Your Printer Spying On You?

Any advanced technology creates new threats as well as new potentials. The
Internet offers enormous opportunties, which are being exploited by
communities, and increasingly also by business enterprises. It also harbours
risks to the privacy of personal data and communications, as marketers seek to
profile their electronic customers, and governments seek to impose themselves
on people they see as miscreants. This paper describes the kinds of threats
that exist and are emerging. It also outlines measures, both fair and foul,
that are being adopted to counter those threats.

SURFER BEWARE:


PERSONAL PRIVACY AND THE INTERNET

Privacy Self
Regulation: A Decade of Disappointment

Laws: Cases and Codes : U.S. Code : Title
5 : Section 552a

Flood Control on the Information Ocean:
Living With Anonymity, Digital Cash, and Distributed Databases

The Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 generally prohibits the interception of electronic communications, including e-mail. However, three major exceptions to the ECPA may allow the interception of employee e-mail.