The mythical private investigator needs a well placed phone booth to make a quick costume change. But I’ll settle for a cafe with Wi-Fi and an electrical outlet for my computer.
~ georgia regulates data brokers ~
Georgia lawmakers have given the Governor the okay to sign a bill requiring consumer notification by data brokers if consumer information is compromised. About 20 other states are considering similar but broader bills. Read the article [registration required] Read the bill
identity theft
legislation
state legislation
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~ Oregon takes our garbage rights away ~
The Oregon Court of Appeals threw in its vote on the application of the Fourth Amendment to the collection of curbside trash. Chipping away at long established Supreme Court opinions, which I wrote about in some detail first here and then here, the Judges delivered yet a new twist on search and seizure.
Prosecutors argued that once people put out their garbage for curbside collection, they have given up any legally protected “privacy or possessory interests'’ in it. The appeals court disagreed, saying the defendants put their garbage cans “in a particular place in order to facilitate a limited purpose … pickup and disposal by a designated collection company. ‘’The unanimous three-judge panel added: “Defendants did not implicitly authorize anyone else to paw through their garbage and view or take items of garbage.'’ Read the article
Didn’t implicitly authorize anyone? Then why is it called garbage? Clearly, these Judges aren’t the ones who put the garbage out at their houses. Anyway, the garbage service contracts with the municipality not the individual tenant. So, I guess the government agency could claim that the curbside trash is theirs, just as they do with items left for recycling. And maybe that gives the police even more right to the contents.
Garbage cans, like bicycles or cars, are commonly left on or near the street by individuals and, even if those individuals do not take the precaution of securing such items with locks, we would not infer from their unlocked state that the individuals who placed them there intended to abandon them.
You might be miffed if someone took your garbage can but we’re talking about the contents here. People, lock your plastic bags!
Read the opinion and tell us whether this also applies to civilians, who may not be obtaining trash for legal evidence.
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~ data aggregators in the California Senate ~
California State Senator Jackie Speier convened a panel of the concerned at a Banking, Finance And Insurance Committee informational hearing entitled, “After the Breach: How secure and accurate is consumer information held by ChoicePoint and other data aggregators?” Read the list of presenters
We can only hope as the data vendors change their approach to supplying customers’ information they won’t go overboard. At least not before the Congress or State of California passes an ill considered law.
The AP version:
ChoicePoint to allow people access to personal records
Scrambling to protect their hides, Choicepoint made this offer to California legislators yesterday. [LA Times, subscription site.]
Don McGuffey, the company’s vice president for data acquisition, told the state Senate’s Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee that ChoicePoint was developing a system to give individuals “a single point of access” to review a variety of reports generated from databases that are sold to law enforcement and government agencies, employers, landlords and insurers.
Let’s just hope the non subscribers don’t get to alter the content in the database. I would rather they append their personal information with any that is self reported or documented.
View the video of the California Senate Identity Theft Summit that was held March 1, 2005 and listen to some of your favorite privacy advocates.
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