privacy – Page 2 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

Court rules public business on prosecutor’s private phone is still public

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Call records and text messages from Pierce County (WA) Prosecutor Mark Lindquist’s personal mobile phone aren’t private if they’re related to public business.

The idea drives a unanimous ruling issued Tuesday by the Washington State Court of Appeals. “That such government-business-related text messages were contained on a personal cellular phone is irrelevant,” states the ruling, authored by Judge J. Robin Hunt.

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AFBF pushing for EPA to stop privacy abuse

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The Environmental Protection Agency’s public release of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information violates basic tenets of federal law, the American Farm Bureau Federation told a Minnesota federal court late Friday.

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Knight News Challenge Winner Talk Private To Me launches Free, Worldwide, Encrypted Voice Calls for iPhone

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Rejoice, O lovers of privacy! For Open WhisperSystems has released Signal for iPhone, which gives any and every iPhone wielder the power to fully encrypt their calls against prying ears — and is completely compatible with OWS’s time-tested and well-liked RedPhone for Android.

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Snowden emails withheld due to US govt concerns about ‘invasion of personal privacy’

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The United States' Department of State Freedom of Information Act has said that the public disclosure of emails by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden, during his time with the agency, "could cause an unwarranted invasion of persdonal private", according to a report on The Desk website.

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Open government is not without privacy challenges, finds paper

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In an effort to be more transparent and participatory, governments are making more data publicly available in machine-readable formats and under open licenses, but such noble aims are not immune to privacy issues, says a paper published June 18 in Future Internet, a Switzerland-based scholarly journal.

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FL Congressman offers amendment to stop government from tracking private vehicles

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Congressman Ted Yoho (R-FL-03) offered an amendment to a bill that was accepted by voice, which would prohibit any money to be used to mandate any type of government GPS location device on personal vehicles.

The amendment was to H.R. 4745 – Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (THUD), in which Yoho voted in favor of.  

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Google’s big privacy dilemma in Europe

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Google and other internet companies find themselves in a quandary over how to strike a balance between privacy and freedom of information as the top world search engine took a first step towards upholding an EU privacy ruling.

Google moved overnight to put up an online form that will allow European citizens to request that links to obsolete information be taken down — its first response to the ruling by Europe's top court on "the right to be forgotten".

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FOIA request shows Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s Drug Testing Have Cost Taxpayers Nearly $400,000

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) has spent nearly $400,000 in taxpayer dollars defending his various drug testing schemes, the American Civil Liberties Union said this week.

The Florida government started making welfare applicants and state workers pee in cups to prove they weren't on drugs in 2011, only to have both programs quickly halted by federal courts on constitutional grounds. In response to a records request from the Florida ACLU, the Scott administration disclosed it has spent $381,654 appealing the unfavorable rulings.

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Exclusive: Transgender travelers singled out in TSA screenings, docs show

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Department of Homeland Security documents obtained last month reveal details of incidents in which transgender travelers were subjected to heightened scrutiny when passing through airport security checkpoints.

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Porn threatens network security of public institutions

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One inquisitive General Services Administration employee has threatened the US agency's security by his/her rather enthusiastic pornography consumption in the workplace. According to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, said employee would access pornographic content and dating sites for two hours a day, resulting in a phishing attack on GSA email accounts.

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