Category: Privacy

Another development in the protection of privacy

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| Privacy

OECD logo, via the OECD website.From a post on the always-excellent Ghosts in the Machine blog (Privacy Rights and Terror Investigations), a story on the BBC Technology site (Net growth prompts privacy update), and a pointer from Daithí (off-blog, via del.icio.us) in the direction of a story on OUT-LAW (International effort on privacy protection is launched), I learn that the “world’s leading industrialised nations have been forced to update privacy laws made obsolete by the huge volume of data moving around the net”. (BBC).

A committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), chaired by Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada, has recommended both minimum standards for the protection of privacy in its members states (which include Ireland), and mechanisms for sharing information about privacy violators between member states; and it suggests methods for improving communication among agencies (such as Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner) that enforce privacy laws. As Library Boy explains, with “the increasing flow of personal data across national borders, the unlawful use of private information becomes easier and privacy advocates see a need for better ways of providing mutual assistance to one another in the enforcement of privacy laws”.…

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Another Gray day for privacy

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| Privacy

freespeech-1a.jpgTwo updates following on from my posts (here and here) about a Dublin family who moved to Ballybunion but were forced out when the Gardaí leaked to the local press that they had taken in their nephew who had just been released from prison after serving a sentence for rape.

First, a report of the judgment in the case is now available online at Gray v Minister for Justice [2007] IEHC 52 (17 January 2007).

Second, Daniel J Solove on Concurring Opinions has a fascinating post about liability for invasion of privacy in similar circumstances in the US: The Steven Hatfill Case, Law Enforcement Leaks, and Journalist Privilege. …

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Google and Privacy redux

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| data retention, Media and Communications, Privacy

image via Battelle mediaFollowing on from my posts Who will google Google?, That was the week that was, and Watching your every move, come two articles from John Collins in today’s Irish Times (sub req’d), as well as some important developments by Google.

In Google classed as ‘hostile to privacy’, John writes:

How much information Google collects on its users and what it does with that information has once again become a burning topic for internet users.

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Watching Your Every Move

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| advertising, Digital Rights, Privacy

New York Times logo, via the NYT siteI don’t usually do this, but an Editorial in yesterday’s New York Times (13 June 2007; sub req’d) is so important, and so perfectly reflects my views, that it’s worth reproducing in full (in fact, I wish I’d written it). The headline is the title to this post: “Watching Your Every Move”, and the strapline on the electronic front page makes the point perfectly:

Privacy is too important to leave up to the companies that benefit financially from collecting and retaining data.

The Editorial itself ran as follows:

Watching Your Every Move

Internet users are abuzz over Google’s new Street View feature, which displays ground-level photos of urban blocks that in some cases even look through the windows of homes. If that feels like Big Brother, consider the reams of private information that Google collects on its users every day through the search terms they enter on its site.

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A true verdict, according to the evidence

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| Freedom of Expression, Privacy

Gavel, via Concurring OpinionsSo, according to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (pdf), the First Amendment to the US Constitution requires public disclosure of jurors’ names (Concurring Opinions | CrimProf Blog; see generally Raskopf 17 Pepp L Rev 357 (1990); Litt 25 Colum J L & Soc Probs 371 (1992); Zanzberg (2000); Rousseau 3(2) Rutgers Journal of Law & Urban Policy (2006)). To my ears, this sounds like the premise for a John Grisham novel. On the other hand, revealing the identity of a juror in Australia would be a criminal offence (Freedom to Differ) (a clause just crying out for a movie like The Castle). In Pennsylvania v Long (31 May 2007) the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held:

Taking in mind the tradition of accessibility, as well as the competing values of openness versus the promotion of jury service, the conclusion is inescapable. We believe the First Amendment provides a qualified right of access to jurors’ names, but not addresses. In this way, the public will be provided with enough information to confirm the identity of jurors when necessary. Disclosing jurors’ names furthers the objective of a fair trial to the defendant and gives assurances of fairness to society as a whole.

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International Privacy Library

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| data retention, Privacy

In a welcome example of enlightened self interest, US law firm Morrison & Foerster realised that they had “a vast resource of privacy materials” arising out of their world-wide practice in the area, and they have taken the unusual but highly commenable step of making the fruits of their own research available as a dedicated Privacy Library on their website (see the press release here; hat tip Concurring Opinions). Although not an entirely altrusitic endeavour, it is nonetheless a superb resource, with links not only to US Federal and State legislation, but also to many other countries and multilateral organisations. It seems to be a great place to find otherwise hard to locate primary privacy materials.

Here’s a screen-shot of the Ireland page:

mofo-ireland-page.jpg
















This is basically the information about data protection available on the Data Protection Commissioner’s website; it would be churlish to point out that it doesn’t yet have our data retention legislation (Part 7 of the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act, 2005), or a link to the Privacy Bill, 2006 (pdf). And it won’t replace EPIC or Privacy International. For all that, though, it is an extremely useful store of privacy materials; and Morrison & Foerster are to be commended for their initiative in making it available.…

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Who will google Google?

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| Digital Rights, Juvenal, Media and Communications, Privacy

magnifying-glass-76520_960_720The Roman poet Juvenal asked Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (who will watch the watchers?). In a similar vein, one of Elvis Costello‘s more acidic songs of loss is ‘Watching the Detectives’ (lyrics | lyrics with images | YouTube). If Google is the search engine which does (most of) our detecting for us, one of the animating questions of the moment is who is watching the Google detective on our behalf? One answer is provided by Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC (also here) of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data

This is the EU Data Protection Directive, and it is a major plank in the data protection strand of the EU’s information society policy. …

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