Consumer Tips

Jun 24 2020

Stolen Unemployment Benefits: How to detect and resolve this form of identity theft

Download the PDF: Stolen Unemployment Benefits: How to detect and resolve this form of identity theft Download the PDF of state resources: State Unemployment Insurance Fraud Resources and Links Fraudsters are taking advantage of the COVID-19 crisis to file false unemployment claims using stolen identity information. It is a particularly cruel fraud that, when successful,

Nov 30 2018

Marriott data breach: key tips

The Marriott data breach announced on Nov. 30, 2018 is a significant breach, reaching across multiple countries and affecting an estimated 500 million people. The breach includes an array of data that does create the potential for meaningful identity theft risk. Who does the breach affect? The breach affected guests who booked through Marriott’s Starwood

Apr 19 2018

Be alert for serious IRS impersonation scams

At WPF, we get a range of calls and emails from consumers. Usually, it’s me who is assisting a consumer, helping them work through a privacy issue or in some cases, a scam that has rattled them. But today, it is me who has gotten a phone call from a scammer, and it made me

Feb 12 2018

Testing out PriBot, the new AI privacy policy analysis chat bot

Today we took the new PriBot privacy policy analyzer and chat bot tool out for a test run. The PriBot chat bot uses AI to analyze privacy policies — many of which are verbally and legally complex — and returns bite-size nuggets of information to those interested. The overall impact of using the chat tool

Oct 27 2017

Updated: Three steps to take today if you have been impacted by the Equifax data breach

We have updated our tips for immediate steps victims (or potential victims) of the Equifax data breach can take. In this updated version of our tips, we have added information for individuals in the UK who want to check and see if they have been affected by the breach, and additional information for US consumers.

National IDs Around the World — Interactive map

About this Data Visualization: This interactive map displays the presence...
Report: From the Filing Cabinet to the Cloud: Updating the Privacy Act of 1974

This comprehensive report and proposed bill text is focused on the Privacy Act of 1974, an important and early Federal privacy law that applies to the government sector and some contractors. The Privacy Act was written for the 1970s information era -- an era that was characterized by the use of mainframe computers and filing cabinets. Today's digital information era looks much different than the '70s: smart phones are smarter than the old mainframes, and documents are now routinely digitized and stored and perhaps even analyzed in the cloud, among many other changes. The report focuses on why the Privacy Act needs an update that will bring it into this century, and how that could look and work. This work was written by Robert Gellman, and informed by a two-year multi-stakeholder process.
COVID-19 and HIPAA: HHS’s Troubled Approach to Waiving Privacy and Security Rules for the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic strained the U.S. health ecosystem in numerous ways, including putting pressure on the HIPAA privacy and security rules. The Department of Health and Human Services adjusted the privacy and security rules for the pandemic through the use of statutory and administrative HIPAA waivers. While some of the adjustments are appropriate for the emergency circumstances, there are also some meaningful and potentially unwelcome privacy and security consequences. At an appropriate time, the use of HIPAA waivers as a response to health care emergencies needs a thorough review. This report sets out the facts, identifies the issues, and proposes a roadmap for change.