Secret printer ID codes may breach EU privacy laws
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Commissioner has a mull A little-noticed system that allows printed documents to be tracked by government agents has gotten the attention of the EU Commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, who says the technology may violate EU human rights guarantees.â¦
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HP introduces a security technology that ensures printed documents get to the right people and protects against malware.
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Privacy advocates say new passports that carry information in a computer chip will be vulnerable to electronic snooping.
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Possible Patriot Act entanglement raises hackles A union is warning that the privacy of sensitive information could be put at risk by a statistics agency IT deal.â¦
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Software on the Seine, anyone? Backup in Budapest? VTL from Vienna? And why not. Europeans have far more experience when it comes to dealing with data regulatory issues than we do.
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IP addresses, a string of numbers that identifies a computer, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday.
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The United States plans to issue passports with personal data stored on radio frequency identification chips. The documents would be harder to forge, but might leave holders vulnerable to identity theft. By Ryan Singel.
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British TV presenter learns Web lesson: Never give out ID freely. Also: MBR Rootkit takes aim at Windows users.
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Digital photocopiers use hard drives to store data. If not properly secured, they can be vulnerable to data thieves. By the Associated Press.
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European data protection officials have written to Google warning that the search giant may be in breach of E.U. privacy because of the way it retains data on individual searches.
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As passports equipped with RFID chips are adopted more widely around the world, successful attempts to crack them are on the rise as well. Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. have already reported compromised data, but countries such as New Zealand remain unconcerned about such threats. But what if the goal wasn't data theft but detonation?
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BRUSSELS -- IP addresses, strings of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, should generally be regarded as personal information, the head of the European Union's group of data privacy regulators said Monday.
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If you own a Dell, Lexmark, or IBM laser printer there is a recall you need to know about. The printers could short-circuit and cause an electric shock.
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Mischief in black and white The increased use of barcodes in a wider variety of applications has made them a suitable, if unlikely, target for hacking attacks.â¦
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Europe&#39;s top data protection officials are working to clarify a grey area of Internet law: the legal status of an IP address.The question of whether an IP address should be considered private data occupied much time at a hearing earlier this week at the European Parliament regarding Google&#39;s planned acquisition of DoubleClick. If a person can be identified by an IP address, then the address is private, said Peter Schaar, the German data protection commissioner and chairman of the Europe-wide privacy group, the Article 29 Committee.This has been the rule in most countries in the European Union for more than 10 years. However, it is hard to set a clear-cut rule because some ISPs&#160;give out fresh IP addresses to subscribers each time they go online, and people also buy time online at Internet cafes.The Article 29 Committee has been examining the question of IP addresses as part of its analysis of how search engines respect European data protection rules. It is expected to reach some conclusions by mid-June, according to an official working for the committee who asked not to be named.The committee cannot fine transgressors of E.U. data protection rules, nor can it propose legislation, but it can prompt the European Commission to do so.Internet search companies, including Google, argue that an IP address merely locates a computer rather than identifying who is sitting at that computer. Treating IP addresses as personal information would have implications for how search engines record and use people&#39;s data.If the committee persuaded lawmakers to toughen IP address protection in Europe &quot;that would definitely change things [for search engines],&quot; said John Steinback, a spokesman on policy matters for Google.From Google&#39;s perspective, whether an IP address is personal depends on the context, Steinback said. An ISP can link an IP address to a subscriber, but a Web site visited by the person using a specific IP address cannot link the address to a person, he explained.The European Parliament hearing was convened by the assembly&#39;s civil liberties committee to assess whether citizens&#39; privacy would be harmed by Google&#39;s planned acquisition of Internet advertising company DoubleClick. The deal, which has already been given the green light by U.S. regulators, is under investigation by European Commission competition officials. However, like its U.S. equivalents, the Commission won&#39;t consider the privacy question.Nevertheless, if data being collected for one purpose by one of the companies is then handed over to the other company for use in a different way, European data protection officials would be obliged to intervene, said the official close to the Article 29 Committee.&quot;Google will have to respect all the obligations of DoubleClick, including its data protection obligations,&quot; the official said. If the two databases are to be used for the same purposes, then they would be deemed compatible and could merge. &quot;But if there was an incompatibility between the two databases, then they couldn&#39;t be merged,&quot; he said.The European Parliament&#39;s civil liberties committee said it would be holding more seminars to examine the issues surrounding data protection in the months and years to come.
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Here&#39;s a tip: If you steal a printer used to print driver&#39;s licenses, don&#39;t call the manufacturer asking for driver software.It&#39;s a lesson that Timothy Scott Short learned all too well this month, when he got arrested after placing a couple of calls to Digimarc&#39;s tech support line.Short, 33, is facing felony charges for possession of &quot;document-making implements&quot; in connection with the theft of a Digimarc printer used by the state of Missouri to manufacture driver&#39;s licenses.The printer, along with a PC, were stolen on the evening of Oct. 5 from the St. Charles contract office of the Missouri Department of Revenue, said Trish Vincent, director of the department. These offices are run by individuals who are subcontracted by the department to issue driver&#39;s licenses, Vincent said. The pilfered printer could be used to produce a license, Vincent said.The PC, however, was locked with a key, and because the key was stored in a secure location, the PC was unusable to the thief, said Vincent.So what do you do when you have a stolen driver&#39;s license printer, but can&#39;t use the PC that goes with it? Enter Digimarc&#39;s tech support line.According to a sworn statement by Secret Service Special Agent John Bush, someone who identified himself as &quot;Scott&quot; called Digimarc two days later and asked if he could buy printer drivers for the model of printer that had been swiped from the St. Charles office.The Secret Service agent later listened to a recording of this call and recognized Short&#39;s voice from a prior investigation, Bush said. The caller also gave Digimarc the same phone number Short had used in an unrelated identity theft case, Bush said.Short was charged on Oct. 11, and is facing 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to court filings.&quot;The stolen equipment contains the identifying information and photographs of between 200 to 500 Missouri residents,&quot; Bush said in the statement. &quot;The only use of the equipment is the manufacture of state identification documents.&quot;The state has sent notification letters to those affected by the theft, Vincent said. The computer contained name, address, and date of birth data, but not Social Security numbers, she added.Digimarc declined to explain how the Secret Service ended up listening to its customer support calls. &quot;Because of a confidentiality agreement with our customer and because this is a criminal matter, we are not able to comment on the incident,&quot; said Digimarc spokeswoman Leslie Constans.
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Thousands of credit card numbers and other personal data may have been compromised.