Privacy Roundup #0011 • June 2007
June 2007 saw Google branded the web's worst privacy offender while data breaches, wiretap rulings and new surveillance laws sharpened the debate over how much our digital lives reveal.
1. Apple's iPhone available on June 29
Apple confirmed that its first iPhone would go on sale in the United States on 29 June, priced at 499 or 599 dollars depending on storage and tied exclusively to AT&T. The device folded a phone, a media player and a web browser into a touch-sensitive handset that would soon reshape how people carried their personal data.
2. MPs demand controls on Euro police databases
The Home Affairs Select Committee published a report warning that political appetite for cross-border law enforcement was outpacing the safeguards meant to protect citizens. It called for far stronger oversight of emerging European police database systems and of agreements to share passenger name records.
3. Bank of Scotland blames human error in data screw-up
An unencrypted disc holding the mortgage records of 62,000 Bank of Scotland customers vanished after being sent through the ordinary post instead of by secure courier. The bank admitted the disc should have been encrypted and blamed human error for the lapse that left customers exposed to identity theft.
4. Hackers blamed for Illinois agency server hack
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation revealed that intruders had breached a server holding the details of roughly 300,000 estate agents and mortgage brokers. The attack had taken place months earlier yet went undiscovered until May, exposing Social Security numbers and other sensitive records.
5. UK mulls admitting wiretap evidence in court
Home Secretary John Reid launched a consultation on whether intercept evidence should at last be admissible in British courtrooms, a practice long resisted by MI5. The review sat alongside proposals for extended pre-charge detention and wider police stop-and-question powers.
6. Privacy International accuses Google of smear campaign
Privacy International ranked Google bottom of twenty-three internet firms, handing it a unique black rating for comprehensive consumer surveillance and hostility to privacy. Google responded by briefing journalists that the group had a conflict of interest tied to Microsoft, prompting an open letter to chief executive Eric Schmidt demanding an apology.
7. UK importing Army spy-drones to replace losses
The Ministry of Defence rushed through a 110 million dollar purchase of Hermes 450 surveillance drones from Israel's Elbit Systems to replace aircraft lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Equipped with infrared scanners and radar, the unmanned platforms underlined how far aerial monitoring had spread across the battlefield.
8. Better privacy policies can make money, finds P3P study
Carnegie Mellon researchers equipped 72 shoppers with the Platform for Privacy Preferences tool and found that clearer privacy information changed how people spent. Consumers proved willing to pay a small premium to buy from sites that offered stronger protection for their personal data.
9. Video download site ordered to spy on users
A federal judge ordered TorrentSpy to begin logging the IP addresses and download activity of its users to provide evidence for the Motion Picture Association of America. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the ruling deeply troubling, warning that a firm's privacy policy could now be rewritten by its adversary's lawyers.
10. Spammer faces 11 years in prison
Adam Vitale of Brooklyn pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to breaching the CAN-SPAM Act after blasting unsolicited email at 1.2 million AOL subscribers. He had been caught with an accomplice in a federal sting that targeted operators behind large junk mail campaigns.
11. EFF lawyer is smokin' on Google Street View
An Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney found himself photographed and published on the freshly launched Street View service without warning, capturing him as he walked to work in San Francisco. When he asked for removal, Google demanded his legal name, email, a copy of his driving licence and a sworn statement, an irony he described as utterly insane.
12. Pfizer worker data leaked via P2P
The personal details of more than 17,000 current and former Pfizer staff escaped onto file-sharing networks after a worker's spouse installed peer-to-peer software on a company laptop. The exposed records included names and Social Security numbers, prompting the firm to offer affected employees a year of credit monitoring.
13. Eden laptop theft sparks ID theft fears
A laptop holding the bank details and National Insurance numbers of around 500 Eden Project staff was stolen from a payroll worker's car in Cornwall. The project's creator Tim Smit said he was appalled at the lapse, which highlighted the risks of handing sensitive data to third-party contractors.
14. Hundreds of records unlawfully intercepted by FBI
An internal FBI audit found that agents had improperly gathered communication records on at least a thousand occasions since 2002, far exceeding the 22 mistakes a Justice Department report had cited in March. Many of the breaches involved National Security Letters that swept up the wrong people or more information than the law allowed.
15. Mugabe gets email snooping green light
Zimbabwe's parliament passed the Interception of Communications Bill, granting a minister the power to authorise the monitoring of post, email, web browsing and telephone calls. Internet providers were compelled to install surveillance equipment at their own expense, with the hardware expected to come from China.
16. Feds told they need warrants for webmail
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the government must obtain a warrant before reading email held by third parties such as Gmail or Hotmail. The decision affirmed a reasonable expectation of privacy in remotely stored messages, overturning years of warrantless access under the Stored Communications Act.
17. No BlackBerries for Sarkozy cabinet, say French spooks
France's security agency banned ministers and their staff from using BlackBerry devices because the handsets routed messages through servers in Britain and the United States. Officials feared that foreign intelligence services, the American National Security Agency in particular, could intercept sensitive government communications.
18. Hacker breaks into Pentagon email system
Defence Secretary Robert Gates confirmed that an intruder had penetrated an unclassified email system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Pentagon took roughly 1,500 computers offline as a precaution, though it said no operational military information had been compromised.
19. Ohio data leak was 'accident waiting to happen'
A backup tape carrying the names and Social Security numbers of about 225,000 Ohio residents was stolen from an intern's unlocked car. State officials had been warned beforehand that Ohio possessed little policy guidance for protecting sensitive data, and the breach pushed 20,000 workers to enrol in identity-theft protection at public expense.
20. Orange and Littlewoods breach Data Protection Act, says ICO
The Information Commissioner's Office found that Orange had failed to secure customer information, allowing staff to share usernames and passwords, while Littlewoods had ignored a customer's request to stop marketing. Both companies were required to sign formal undertakings pledging to bring their handling of personal data back into line.
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