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Information Leak: President Obama says he wants to improve cybersecurity and privacy. If he actually cared about them, he'd shut down healthcare.gov, which lets dozens of companies collect data on unwitting users. In a speech meant to preview part of his State of the Union address, Obama said: "As Americans, we shouldn't have to forfeit our basic privacy when we go online to do our business." Nice sentiment. But it's not being upheld by his own ObamaCare website. As the AP reported on Tuesday, Healthcare.gov has at least 50 third-party companies that have "embedded connections" to the site, which means...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's health insurance website is quietly sending consumers' personal data to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing, The Associated Press has learned. The scope of what is disclosed or how it might be used was not immediately clear, but it can include age, income, ZIP code, whether a person smokes, and if a person is pregnant. It can include a computer's Internet address, which can identify a person's name or address when combined with other information collected by sophisticated online marketing or advertising firms. The Obama administration says...

WaPo’s offering this as evidence that the public’s trending back towards security and away from privacy after Snowden’s heyday in 2013. It’s true, there is more support now for the former than there was 14 months ago; if Rand Paul was thinking of making opposition to the NSA a key piece of his campaign, this might give him pause. I think it’s more interesting, though, to see how strongly pro-security the public remained even after the surveillance bombshells first started bursting. Today, 63 percent say investigating terror is more important versus 32 percent who say it’s more important to...

HIPAA is why there's a new plan to share your data. A 28-page federal document proposes to share your medical records with 37 federal agencies. (See graphic of the week below). The deadline for public comments on this sweeping intrusion is Friday, February 6, 2015. Go here to tell them what you think. Without privacy, you have no control. He who holds the data makes the rules. The Obama administration is gathering your data to seize control of your doctor. The 2009 mandate for every doctor to have electronic health records (EHRs) was considered foundational to imposing Obamacare. Even though...

For over a decade, people all over the world have used Tor (formerly known as the Onion Router) to protect their privacy. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory developed the system using open source technology, to protect U.S. government communications. It is used by people living under restrictive regimes who want to access forbidden information or data on the Internet, whistle-blowers and dissidents who want to communicate with journalists, and anyone who wants to use the Internet without being tracked or to publish information on the Net without compromising their privacy.How Tor Works Tor works by sending traffic from its source...

Oprah Winfrey says she wishes people wouldn't rush to judge private conversations between Sony executives that were revealed in a recent hack. I would hope that we would not stand in judgement--in such harsh judgement--of a moment in time where somebody was hacked and their private conversations were put before the world. Because if we were to look at your computer and everybody else's computer...I try to write everything as though it's going to show up in the New York Times. But there are things that you say in your private conversations with your friends and your colleagues that you...

The U.S. National Security Agency should have an unlimited ability to collect digital information in the name of protecting the country against terrorism and other threats, an influential federal judge said during a debate on privacy. "I think privacy is actually overvalued," Judge Richard Posner, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said during a conference about privacy and cybercrime in Washington, D.C., Thursday. "Much of what passes for the name of privacy is really just trying to conceal the disreputable parts of your conduct," Posner added. "Privacy is mainly about trying to improve your social and...

You may recall, back in June, that there was a key House vote that took NSA supporters by surprise. An amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill pushed by a bi-partisan team of Thomas Massie, Jim Sensenbrenner and Zoe Lofgren passed overwhelmingly, with a plan to slam the door shut on questionable NSA "backdoor searches" (as described in detail earlier). The House voted 293 to 123, making it a pretty clear and overwhelming statement that Congress did not, in fact, support such practices by the NSA. But, of course, the NSA gets the last laugh. As part of the big lameduck...

The tracking mechanism - Relevant Advertising - put in place by AT&T essentially added an undetectable identification number to all Internet traffic on the cellphones of the users. Since the identification number helped mark all the sites visited by AT&T customers, advertisers could build up profiles on users by following the website trail he or she would visit. ... Revealing that the use of the controversial technology has been stopped by AT&T, company spokeswoman Emily Edmonds said that AT&T subscribers who do not want to be included in the carrier's new smartphone tracking system have the choice of opting out...

Facebook is again taking a dig at your privacy. With the ever changing privacy policies, the manager of privacy and public policies at Facebook, Mr. Matt Scutari literally mocks the privacy of users to a certain extent. In fact, the manager of privacy and public policies at Facebook even condemn the privacy lovers by stating that Facebook does not even consider the option of privacy of its users for themselves. Facebook considers that there is absolutely no sense in allowing the users to hide stuff from Facebook. ... According to a statement by Mr. Matt Scutari, the manager of privacy...

AT&T Mobility, the second-largest U.S. cellular provider, said Friday it is no longer attaching hidden Internet tracking codes to data transmitted from its users' smartphones. The practice made it nearly impossible to shield its subscribers' identities online. The change by AT&T essentially removes a hidden string of letters and numbers that are passed along to websites that a consumer visits. It can be used to track subscribers across the Internet, a lucrative data-mining opportunity for advertisers that could still reveal users' identities based on their browsing habits. Verizon Wireless, the country's largest mobile firm, said Friday it still uses this...

HHS Issues Special HIPAA Bulletin on EbolaPrivacyLaw360, New York (November 10, 2014, 6:24 PM ET) -- The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday issued a bulletin reminding health care centers and others about what information can and cannot be disclosed about Ebola patients...

People typically view their cell phones as personal property that police would need a search warrant to access, just like their home. But, a circuit court judge has ruled that police can force an individual to divulge the contents of their phone if the phone utilizes a certain growing technology. While many are excited about the fingerprint technology system to unlock your phone that is available on such phones as the iPhone 5s, 6, and 6 Plus, as well as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and others, using that particular feature on the phone could lead you to lose what you...

A Circuit Court judge has ruled that a criminal defendant can be compelled to give up his fingerprint, but not his pass code, to allow police to open and search his cellphone. The question of whether a phone's pass code is constitutionally protected surfaced in the case of David Baust, an Emergency Medical Services captain charged in February with trying to strangle his girlfriend. Prosecutors had said video equipment in Baust's bedroom may have recorded the couple's fight and, if so, the video could be on his cellphone. They wanted a judge to force Baust to unlock his phone, but...

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), or drones as they are often called, have had a good press recently: from humanitarian rescues to the promotion of free trade, these remote-controlled, pilotless robots are the heroes of the moment. Still, their biggest use continues to be for military purposes. And although the deployment of drones in military operations is nowhere near as morally objectionable as some critics allege, the inevitable proliferation of UAVs does raise some serious security questions. The real challenge is not to prevent nations or corporations from acquiring them but, rather, to adopt international safeguards on how independent such drones...

WASHINGTON — In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations. The number of requests, contained in a 2014 audit of the surveillance program by the Postal Service’s inspector general, shows that the surveillance program is more extensive than previously disclosed and that oversight protecting Americans from potential abuses is lax. The audit, along with interviews and documents obtained by...

Students at a Mapleton Junior High School in Utah County were asked to take inventory of the things inside their family medicine cabinet and then turn that list into their health teacher. A parent, Onika Nugent, was not pleased with the assignment, so she posted the assignment on Facebook and sent a note to the teacher and the principal. She shared a portion of the letter she sent school officials: “I said, ‘Although it may be a good idea for parents to do an inventory of their medicine cabinet, I believe it is inappropriate for students to counsel their parents,...

Tech companies like Apple and Google want to make the data customers carry on their smartphones and computers more secure, safe from the prying eyes of spies and identity thieves alike. But law-enforcement officials--from the FBI to local police--see those same devices as treasure troves of evidence.... "I'd be surprised if more than a handful of members would support the idea of backdooring Americans' personal property," Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and vocal privacy advocate, said.... And a House Democratic aide said that staffers have been in touch with the FBI on the issue but that Congress is unlikely...

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution is crystal clear in meaning. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. FBI Director, James Comey, an Obama appointment, does not give a damn what the Constitution says. In a recent speech, Comey warns If Apple and Google Won't Decrypt Phones, We'll Force Them To Everyone...

FBI Director James Comey gave a strong speech today (Oct. 16) explaining why law enforcement should have access to data on encrypted smartphones. But he failed to cite any examples in which such law-enforcement access could have made the difference between life and death.... The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994 mandates that telecommunications companies must give police the ability to listen in on telephone conversations. CALEA covers landlines and cellular carriers, and was expanded in 2004 to cover Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and broadband Internet service providers. For the past few years, the FBI...