HITSP — World Privacy Forum executive director Pam Dixon was elected to be the consumer representative on the HITSP board (Health Information Technology Standards Panel). HITSP is a national standards-setting body that is part of ANSI (The American National Standards Institute) and is working on specifications and standards for the National Health Information Network. The term will begin in January of 2009.

Telemarketing | Top Ten Opt Out List — Beginning today, pre-recorded telemarketing phone calls must come with an easy opt-out for consumers. If a pre-recorded telemarketing call is left on an answering machine, it must also include opt-out information. These rules will apply to telemarketers already subject to the Federal Trade Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule and Do Not Call List. There are some exemptions to the rule. For more details about the changes, see our Top Ten Opt Out List, which has been updated with the new information.

Employment kiosks – small, mobile ATM-like booths – are increasingly being used for screening job applicants. All too frequently, the kiosks do not come equipped with the most important thing of all: a privacy policy.

In order to have a meaningful privacy discussion about kiosk issues, it is important to first address some general questions.

Unicru, a Beaverton, Oregon company dominates the kiosk space. Unicru says it processes approximately one job application per second during the average U.S. workday. All totalled, Unicru processes about 6 million job applicants per year, and has processed a total of more than 19.5 million candidate applications. In 2002, Unicru achieved record revenues of $21.1 million and was recognized as one of the fastest- growing companies in the U.S. It says that it is the leading provider of hiring management systems.