January 28, 2009 is International Privacy Day. On this day in 1981, the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data was signed. The Privacy Coalition, a nonpartisan coalition of consumer, civil liberties, educational, family, library, labor, and technology organizations sponsored a resolution to mark the occasion. The Electronic Privacy Information Center celebrated the day by selecting Stefano Rodota for the organization's Champion of Freedom Award. Previous awards have gone to Senator Patrick Leahy, and Professor Pamela Samuelson.
VA Pays $20 Million to Settle Law Suit Over Loss of Data
The Veterans Administration settled a class action lawsuit brought by retired and active duty military personnel over a VA data breach of their personal information when a laptop was stolen. The data breach involved the names, dates of birth, and Social Security Numbers of about 26.5 million persons. The information was removed from the agency by a department analysis with the knowledge of supervisors. The information was stolen from the analysis during a robbery. After an intensive search following the disclosure of the theft the laptop was located and it was determined that the data "had not been improperly used."
The Public Voice is marking the January 28 anniversary of the Council of Europe Convention on Data Protection (No. 108), the most important international law for privacy. More than 40 countries have ratified the Convention. Many more countries around the world should support the Convention (including the United States). A Privacy advocacy call to Action.
Supreme Court Says Law Enforcement Database Errors Okay
The Supreme Court decision allows police to use false information contained in a police database as the evidence for an arrest. Chief Justice Roberts held that, "when police mistakes are the result of negligence such as that described here, rather than systemic error or reckless disregard of constitutional requirements, any marginal deterrence does not 'pay its way.'" Justice Ginsburg, writing for four of the Justices in dissent, said that "negligent record-keeping errors by law enforcement threaten individual liberty, are susceptible to deterrence by the exclusionary rule, and cannot be remedied effectively through other means." The dissent in the case sited a friend of the court brief that outlined privacy and civil liberty consequences of errors in databases.
A new report from the Identity Theft Resource Center found a 47 percent increase in data breaches in the United States over 2007. Noting 656 reported breaches at the end of 2008, the report identified the company, the category of breach and the number of records exposed. The Center concluded that most breached data was unprotected by either encryption or even passwords. According to the FTC, data breaches are the leading cause of identity theft.
