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Category Archives: E-Records

Proposed rulemaking by LC to include ebooks in mandatory depository program

FCW.com: “The world’s largest collection of literature is expanding into e-books. In a notice of proposed rulemaking to be published April 16, the Library of Congress will begin including published e-books under its mandatory deposit rule, but only on a by-request basis. Mandatory deposit requires publishers to submit two copies of the work’s “best edition”… Continue Reading

NIST – Cyber Resiliency Considerations for the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems

“This publication is intended to be used in conjunction with NIST Special Publication 800-160 Volume 1, Systems Security Engineering – Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems. It can be viewed as a handbook for achieving the identified cyber resiliency outcomes based on a systems engineering perspective on system life… Continue Reading

Facebook, This Is Not What “Complete User Control” Looks Like

EFF: “If you watched even a bit of Mark Zuckerberg’s ten hours of congressional testimony over the past two days, then you probably heard him proudly explain how users have “complete control” via “inline” privacy controls over everything they share on the platform. Zuckerberg’s language here misses the critical distinction between the information a person… Continue Reading

HHS Releases a New Resource to Help Individuals Access and Use Their Health Information

“The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today released the ONC Guide to Getting and Using your Health Records, a new online resource for individuals, patients, and caregivers.  This new resource supports both the 21st Century Cures Act goal of empowering patients and improving… Continue Reading

Variety – Facebook Under Fire: How Privacy Crisis Could Change Big Data Forever

Variety: “…The scandal in a nutshell: Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based political data analytics firm, illicitly procured the data of 50 million Facebook users — without their knowledge or consent — and then enlisted that to inform voter-targeting strategies for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It wasn’t a hack per se. But both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica… Continue Reading

District Court Judge rules Pacer fees misused by judiciary

Law.com: “The federal judiciary misused millions of dollars in fees derived from an electronic public web portal for court documents to fund certain programs that federal law did not allow, a Washington judge ruled on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said the United States is liable for certain improper expenses that violated the… Continue Reading

NARA Unauthorized Disposition of Federal Records

National Archives: “Under 44 USC 3106 and 36 CFR Part 1230, “Unlawful or Accidental Removal, Defacing, Alteration, or Destruction of Records,” Federal agencies are required to “notify the Archivist of any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, corruption, deletion, erasure, or other destruction of records in the custody of the agency.” NARA also receives notifications from other… Continue Reading

Without Context Or Cushion, Do Online Medical Results Make Sense?

Kaiser Health News: “…The push for [patient] portals has been fueled by several factors: the widespread embrace of technology, incentive payments to medical practices and hospitals that were part of 2009 federal legislation to encourage “meaningful use” of electronic records, and a 2014 federal rule giving patients direct access to their results. Policymakers have long… Continue Reading

DOJ Revives Push to Mandate a Way to Unlock Phones

The New York Times: “Federal law enforcement officials are renewing a push for a legal mandate that tech companies build tools into smartphones and other devices that would allow access to encrypted data in criminal investigations. F.B.I. and Justice Department officials have been quietly meeting with security researchers who have been working on approaches to… Continue Reading

Zuckerberg apologizes defers to audit outcome accepts possible misuse by Russians while whistleblower details data gathering

Follow up to previous postings this week – Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, the 2016 Election, and a colossal misappropriation of social media data – Implications of Cambridge Analytica scandal widen in scope as do responses – updated – and NYT, Guardian – How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions – tonight Axios highlights the… Continue Reading

Dire predictions for current and forthcoming tax seasons as IRS IT systems decline

NextGov – The IRS System Processing Your Taxes is Almost 60 Years Old: “One of the IRS’ most important tax-processing applications is old enough to be a grandparent, and officials warn a failure during tax season could have dire economic ramifications or delay tax refunds for 100 million Americans. The Individual Master File, a massive… Continue Reading

Secret Service and White House Win Rosemary Award for Worst in Open Government in 2017

National Security Archive: “The Secret Service and the White House have emerged as the dubious winners from the hard-fought competition for the National Security Archive’s infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance of 2017. The award, which the Archive began bestowing in 2005, is named after President Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who testified… Continue Reading