Privacy and Security Law Blog : Privacy & Security Law Blog : Davis Wright Tremaine LLP : Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Portland and Anchorage Law Firm

Posted by Joe Addiego

On September 1, 2006, the California Senate approved Senate Bill No. 768, a/k/a the Identity Information Protection Action of 2006, which would regulate the use of radio frequency identification (“RFID”) cards issued by governmental bodies. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has until the end of the month to sign the bill into law.

RFID is a burgeoning technology that has numerous potential security, record keeping, and commercial applications. For example, it currently is used for passkeys to buildings and electronic payment on toll bridges and toll roads, but it also is being adopted for many other uses, including identification cards and drivers licenses, “touchless” payment transactions, and medical care and records tracking. The technology is attractive, because RFID cards communicate via a short range radio signal with a reader, allowing high speed and simultaneous data transfer without physical contact or human intervention.

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Posted by DWT

No End in Sight: Data Breach Tally Approaches 100 Million (9/25/06 - ETC News)

The total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches over the past two years now stands at 93,754,333, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The updated tally includes thousands of instances of data exposure in the past month alone.

"Not a Suicide Pact": A Stone-Posner Conversation (9/23/06 - The Huffington Post)

In commemoration of Judge Richard Posner's newest book, Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency, Judge Posner and I participated in the following four-part exchange on the American Constitution Society blog.

OMB issues data breach guidance (9/22/06 - GCN)

On the heels of the House Government Reform Committee issuing the results of their data breach survey, the White House and its Identity Theft Task Force outlined steps agencies should take in responding to an identity theft or ways to prevent one from happening. 

Congress Unlikely to Pass Wiretapping (9/27/06 -- Associated Press)

Congress is unlikely to approve a bill giving President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program legal status and new restrictions before the November midterm elections, dealing a significant blow to one of the White House's top wartime priorities.

White House wins more support for warrantless wiretapping law (9/26/06 - San Jose Mercury News)

The White House and its allies Monday chipped away at objections to proposed legislation for warrantless wiretapping, winning new support among reluctant Senate members and hoping for passage of the measure before this weekend's congressional recess.

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Posted by DWT

We are pleased to have recently been given permission to link to two articles by members of the DWT Privacy and Security group that were recently published in Privacy and Data Security Law Journal. 

Please click here to read Lawsuits Challenge the NSA's Warrantless Data Mining and Surveillance Program by Randy Gainer.

And click here to read Current Privacy Issues Facing Marketers  by Robert J Driscoll.

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Posted by DWT

We recently heard from Rich Gordon, a professor at the Medill School of Journalism and Director of that school’s Digital Technology in Education program, about a package of stories (text, video and interactive) his students have put together about privacy and homeland security.

The stories are available here, and are well worth a read. In particular, Professor Gordon drew our attention an interactive piece on data mining programs operated by federal agencies.

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Posted by Lance Koonce

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

As at least 15 millions regular viewers of this blog ABC’s hit series “Lost” are aware, one of the central plotlines for the show is based on the following premise. The main characters stumble upon a mysterious “hatch” on the mysterious island upon which they have mysteriously crashed. Upon opening the hatch, they find it leads to a mysterious underground research station that is manned by a mysterious individual who has been there for at least three years performing a single, routine task: every 108 minutes, he must punch in six numbers to reset a sort of doomsday timer that is counting down to . . . well, he doesn’t know what.

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Posted by Teena Lee

As more neighborhoods offer WiFi capabilities, and as more mobile devices primarily designed for children offer access to WiFi networks, there appears to be a potential slippery slope that will develop over liability under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).

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Posted by Randy Gainer

Senate Bill S. 2453, which the Judiciary Committee passed 10-8 on a party-line vote on September 14th, would allow the President to ignore the restrictions on domestic surveillance passed by Congress in 1978. As the lawyers at Steptoe and Johnson described in their E-Commerce Law Week report : "S. 2453 would significantly . . . dramatically increase the Executive Branch's authority to engage in surveillance without any court order at all. . . . [A]lthough the bill purports simply to acknowledge the President's constitutional authority to engage in warrantless surveillance, without affecting that authority, the bill would actually alter the legal terrain significantly and make it more likely that courts would uphold the constitutionality of the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. This means the government could demand that communications providers assist with wiretaps even where there is no court order and no statutory authorization at all."

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Posted by Ronald London

The intermediate-level appellate court in Virginia’s state system this week rejected constitutional and other challenges to what was the first U.S. felony conviction for spam violations, leaving defendant Jeremy Jaynes facing up to nine years in prison for sending what some estimate may have been as many as 10 million unsolicited emails a day at the height of his activities. Jaynes was convicted of violating a Crimes Against Property provision in Virginia’s Criminal Code prohibiting falsified or forged transmissions in connection with sending unsolicited bulk emails, or “UBEs.” According to prosecutors, at the time of his arrest Jaynes’ transmission of emails touting pornography and “sham” products and services, to the tune of up to $750,000 per month, made him one of the top 10 spammers worldwide.

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Posted by K.M. Das

Last week the Washington Post reported that the FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records. FBI officials identified the database, culled from 50 FBI and other government agency sources, as one of the most powerful data analysis tools available to law enforcement and counterterrorism agents. The database, known as the Investigative Data Warehouse, was launched in January 2004, but demonstrated by FBI officials as criticism that the FBI’s technology—in fact the technology used by the federal government as a whole—is outdated and failing as the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2001, approaches.

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Posted by Joe Addiego

As blogged a month ago, several Craigslist users have been the target of violent robberies after being “cased out” during online transactions for the sale of their personal goods. It turns out that in addition to posing risks to your physical health, the use of message boards or auction sites can affect your financial health, as well, even if the financial transaction occurs offline.

The San Francisco Chronicle just reported an unfortunate incident that happened to a San Francisco resident, who unknowingly cashed a phony check he received in exchange for the sale of two bicycles he had posted for sale on Craigslist. The check was for an amount in excess of what he negotiated, but despite some reservations, the seller cashed the check anyway. Apparently, the scam was intended to induce the seller to deposit the check at his own bank, so that the scammer can cancel the check and request that the bank return the money, which would come out of the unsuspecting seller’s account, before the check is spotted as a phony.

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