After all the (deserved) outcry against Google, Ben Grub at ZDNet.com, June 11, 2010, tells us why trusting the government to keep an eye on privacy offenders only makes things worse:
“Companies who provide customers with a connection to the internet may soon have to retain subscriber’s private web browsing history for law enforcement to examine when requested, a move which has been widely criticised by industry insiders. Continue reading
Relocation expert and Uruguay specialist, David Hammond has the scoop on recent changes to tax law in Uruguay, “Uruguay Tax Proposal Rocks the Boat?”:
Uruguay made headlines all over the world this last week, with news of a proposed tax bill that could result in a weakening of Uruguay’s banking privacy and tax the offshore assets of Uruguayan citizens and foreign residents. Continue reading
From The Wayne Madsen Report (a subscription-based service) comes this analysis (April, 2010) of the attack on the financial privacy of Swiss money manager, Julius Baer Group, exposed by whistle-blower Rudolf Elmer:
“WMR’s financial intelligence sources report that the unauthorized disclosure of a compact disk to Wikileaks that contained financial details of the clients of the secretive and usually highly-secure Zurich-based independent money management Julius Baer Group was designed to destroy the firm’s standing with its customers and make it ripe for a hostile takeover by interests associated with multi-billionaire vulture capitalist George Soros, including Goldman Sachs. Julius Baer was founded in the 19th century. Continue reading
The Telegraph (June 4, 2010) reports that Google, which had been caught earlier recording private wifi messages has just ‘fessed up to the seriousness of what it did:
“In an interview with the Financial Times, the search engine’s boss admitted the company could have gained access to the personal details of millions of unsuspecting internet users.
Google is currently at the centre of a global privacy storm after it admitted that its Street View cars had mistakenly collected information Continue reading
The British have had it with the national ID card, says this AFP report:
“The new coalition government is to scrap a national identity card scheme introduced by former prime minister Gordon Brown’s administration, it announced Thursday. Continue reading
“Conservatives Should Support Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants,”
The Humble Libertarian, May 5, 2010
Think of it this way: as classical liberals, we understand that a bureaucrat in Washington could not possibly have enough information to correctly regulate the price or quantity of a good or service. This applies to labor markets, and immigration is essentially a function thereof. There’s no way Washington or the state of Arizona can know how much immigration we really need. Continue reading
NHS Data Revelations Bode Badly For NPflT
Dylan Sharpe, bigbrotherwatch.org, April 29, 1010
“When Big Brother Watch released our report into the security of confidential medical data – Broken Records – one of our arguments against the number of non-medical personnel having access to patient records was the huge incidence of data loss within the NHS.
Today that fear has been confirmed as – for at the least the second year running – the NHS has topped the list of UK organisations subject to the highest number of data breaches. As reported by the Health Service Journal:
More serious data breaches have taken place within the NHS than any other UK organisation, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
A total of 2897 breaches were reported, accounting for more than 30% of the total number, deputy commissioner David Smith told the Infosec security conference.
The NHS, which is currently introducing digital patient records, said that 113 incidents occurred due to stolen data or hardware, with a further 82 cases of lost data or hardware.
How can we be expected to have faith in the government’s new online programme, when the NHS is incapable of keeping our private data safe now?
The Summary Care Record will provide over half-a-million people with access to our medical records and therefore massively increase the chances of that data falling into the wrong hands.
This latest scandal provides further proof that if you are contacted by the NHS asking for permission to upload your medical records onto the database, take the opportunity and opt out.”