Mark Nestmann blogs: How many felonies have you committed today? If you’re like most Americans, you probably violate federal or state law several times each day, without even knowing it. Just ask Sally Harpold. A resident of Clinton, Indiana, Sally purchased some cold medicine for her husband back in March. A few days later, she…
Author: Dissent
AMA meeting: Better data protection needed from Blues
Damon Adams reports: The BlueCross BlueShield Assn. should expand credit protection and increase identity theft insurance to physicians affected when a laptop computer containing doctors’ personal information was stolen from an employee’s car, according to policy adopted by the American Medical Association House of Delegates. The new policy calls for the Blues association to offer…
Ca: Hacker put farmers’ records at risk
Bill Curry reports: An amateur hacker attacked two government servers at Agriculture Canada, putting at risk about 60,000 personal-data records of Canadian farmers, according to the Privacy Commissioner’s annual report. The report lists various privacy breaches that came to the Commissioner’s attention over the past year, but Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart said she was at a…
OH: Employer's DNA test rule raises legal concerns
Judy Greenwald reports: The University of Akron is expected to soon rescind a controversial rule that lets the university demand DNA samples from job applicants as part of a criminal background check. Observers say the requirement—believed to be the first genetic testing rule imposed by an employer—violates the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the Americans…
Follow-up: B.C. privacy czar to probe files breach
Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines report: B.C.’s privacy commissioner has launched his own investigation into how sensitive information from 1,400 income-assistance clients ended up at the home of a government employee. Information and Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis said he has tough questions for the provincial government, including how the employee, a government case worker, was…
Follow-up: FBI looking at UMC records leak
Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun reports: The FBI said Friday it may investigate a breach of patient privacy laws at University Medical Center, where hospital officials are reeling with the realization that at least one of their employees has leaked confidential names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. UMC officials spent Friday determining…