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Category Archives: E-Records

Gov’t Proceeds With Plans to Mine Personal Data on Students

A follow-up to my previous posting, Federal Gov’t Wants To Mine College and University Student Data, is this recently released report: Feasibility of a Student Unit Record System Within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (168 pages, PDF) “This report describes the feasibility of collecting individual enrollment and financial aid information for each student in… Continue Reading

CDC Study Indicates Country Lags on E-Health Records

Press release: New Study Shows Limited Use of Electronic Medical Records: “Less than a third of the nation’s hospital emergency and outpatient departments use electronic medical records, and even fewer doctors’ offices do, according to a report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)…The use of electronic records in health care… Continue Reading

Digitizing Health Records One Person At A Time

This Washington Post (reg. req’d) article reviews how individuals are using fee-based services that digitize their personal medical records as a way to manage uniform access to them in the event of medical emergencies and to facilitate the process of diagnostic evaluations. This may forecast a near term future of non-standard applications that fill the… Continue Reading

FTC Testimony on Data Security and Identity Theft

“The Federal Trade Commission testified…before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs about the reach of existing federal laws that require certain information providers to safeguard sensitive information and to ensure that the information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. The Senate Banking Committee is examining recent developments involving the security of… Continue Reading

Increase in Phishing Attacks Spurs Interest in Security Technology

From the Washington Post, New Industry Helping Banks Fight Back – Sleuths Hit Online Identity Thieves With ‘Takedowns,’ ‘Poisoning’. A patch-work of emerging technology applications are available targeted to financial services and e-commerce, seeking to address growing consumer concerns with e-mail and website fraud. This article reviews the challenges posed by phishing and the possibility… Continue Reading

How-To-Guide on Opting-Out Your Personal Data Listing from Websites and Subscription Services

From the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, this February 2005 update to their guide, Online Data Brokers: How Consumers Can Opt Out of Directory Assistance and Non-public Information, includes a chart detailing the specific procedure required by 17 free and fee-based websites and services which aggregate and provide access to a range of personal data. Take some… Continue Reading

Privacy and E-Health Records

Press release: “U.S. adults are divided right down the middle on whether the potential privacy risks associated with a patient electronic medical record system outweigh the expected benefits to patients and society, according to Dr. Alan F. Westin, Professor of Public Law & Government Emeritus, Columbia University and Director of a new Program on Information… Continue Reading

Credit Freezes Proposed Deterent to ID Theft

By Chris Jay Hoofnagle, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Putting Identity Theft on Ice: Freezing Credit Reports to Prevent Lending to Impostors. “This article argues that the third actor, credit granting institutions, are culpable for a large number of identity theft cases. Institutions enable identity theft by maintaining lax credit granting practices,… Continue Reading

ID Theft Scam Has Victims in 50 States and DC

From the Washington Post, ID Theft Scam Hits D.C. Area Residents From ChoicePoint: Update on Identity Fraud Notification, 02/21/2005. This announcement includes a chart with a state-by-state accounting of the current number of victims of this scam, addresses the company’s plan to participate in the investigation of the fraud, and its plans to “guard against… Continue Reading