Britons are concerned about a new Department of Health database, to be implemented later this year, that allows staff to access medical records wherever someone is treated. The BBC learned that, contrary to public assurances, a department official had stated patients would not have any right to determine what information is recorded about them by doctors, or to veto how it is recorded.
The parents of Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman at the center of a right-to-life controversy, have authorized a conservative direct-mailing firm to sell a list of their financial supporters. The firm, Response Unlimited, is asking $150 a month for 6,000 names and $500 a month for 4,000 e-mail addresses of people who responded last month to an e-mail plea from Ms. Schiavo's father.
A thief has stolen a laptop containing sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers of almost 100,000 University of California at Berkeley alumni, graduate students and past applicants. University officials announced the theft under a state law requiring that consumers be notified whenever sensitive information has been breached. This is the same law that ensured data broker ChoicePoint notified victims of its sale of information to identity thieves.
A binational working group on cross-border mass-marketing fraud reported to the U.S. Attorney General that identity theft accounted for about $53 billion in losses to individuals and businesses in the U.S. in 2002. The Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Preparedness learned Canada lost $2.5 billion that year. Survey results indicate public confidence is being shaken because of data security breaches and privacy intrusions.
Privacy advocates are wary of the new E-ZPass system for paying tolls in New Hampshire, warning that it will make it easier to track people's movements. Though state officials say strict policies are in place to prevent that, one lawmaker says he is sure law enforcement and parties to lawsuits will go after the data.
Westlaw, one of the nation's leading data brokers, with information on millions of Americans, said it will restrict its sale of Social Security numbers amid growing concerns about privacy. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the restrictions three weeks after he publicly chided the company.
A divided Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that the disclosure required by a workers' compensation claim filed by an HIV-positive employee trumps that employee's privacy considerations. While state law protects patient privacy, the workers' compensation laws require disclosure to an employer who has financial responsibility for an employee injury, the court said.
New Mexico's House Judiciary Committee rejected a bill that would have required stores in the state to remove or disable RFID tags on purchased items. Businesses would also have been required to provide consumers with any personal information gathered about them through RFID tags, if the consumers requested.
European retailers are embracing RFID technology, but consumers there are wary of the risks to privacy. Of help to the consumers is the fact that the European Union has stringent privacy and data protection laws. One legal requirement is that any company using RFID must notify the consumer that the product is tagged, and provide details on how to discard the tag and access the information held on it.
ChoicePoint, which recently admitted it had sold personal information on 145,000 Americans to identity thieves, also sold such information on at least 7,000 people to identity thieves in 2002. ChoicePoint's CEO had previously told interviewers that the October 2004 sale was the only such incident in the company's history.
