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Privacy Ref
10 years ago

Mobile phones, airplanes, and business privacy

The thought of air travel with someone nearby holding a conversation on a mobile phone is not pleasant (to say the least). I began to think about those people I typically see today holding last minute conversations, the ones just before the airplane doors close, and wondered about the impact on b...
Privacy Ref
10 years ago

The Scope of the Privacy Office

Over the past several weeks I have worked with clients and students who have ask if the Privacy Office should have responsibility for an organization’s overall information protection program. This gets a resounding “Yes” as a response without asking about culture, organizational...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Assess risk prior to collecting personal information

My saga of finding new doctors continued over the last few weeks. With each visit I continue to gain insight into privacy risks unknowingly being taken by small businesses. My experience tells me larger business make similar mistakes. This time the doctor collected unneeded personal information f...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Human privacy error strikes again

I don’t watch the Today show, but there was a great example of a self-inflicted privacy breach on the air on Friday.
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Wearable technology is coming, but will anyone notice?

When I look through corporate handbooks I often find prohibitions on the use of cameras or recording devices while on a company’s premises. It’s not something that gets brought up in new hire orientation nor something that gets brought up very often at all. Let’s face it, there is a certain amoun...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Three thoughts for business from the NSA privacy incidents

Yesterday the Washington Post published an article  based on an audit dated May 2012 describing violations of privacy rules by the NSA. As I read the article three thoughts occurred to me that a business can take away for their own privacy program.
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

“There is no privacy, get over it”

I am sure you have heard this several times since Scott McNealy, Sun’s CEO, first said it back in 1999, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it”. After 14 years it seems Americans haven’t gotten over it. A Pew Research study shows more people are concerned about the gov...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

A visit to a new doctor raises privacy questions

Recently my wife and I have begun finding new doctors and dentists. While filling out the paperwork at each office we are being asked for our driver’s license numbers and I was not sure why.  Also, being a privacy person, I read the privacy policies at these offices and sometimes had questi...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

“It’s only an email address!”

Facebook, Ubisoft, and Morningstar are all recent examples of data breaches that involved the unauthorized release of email addresses. In one of several conversations I have had about these events some people could not understand why others were upset about the release; after all, they are only e...
Privacy Ref
11 years ago

Leave a hair, lose some privacy

We all have seen those police dramas where a forensics specialist finds a hair at a crime scene, the DNA is extracted, and a suspect confirmed. Heather Dewey-Hagborg has taken this a bit further with her project Stranger Visions providing an insight into how that simple hair may compromise privacy.