Digital Privacy

Jan 11 2018

CES 2018

World Privacy Forum will be participating in the 2018 Consumer Electronics show in four main issue areas: blockchain and digital payments, biometrics, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and digital health. Watch our blog for video and blog recaps of what we learned, what’s new, and what is just around the corner. CES 2018: January 7-11, 2018 Las

Oct 18 2017

The Profound Implications of U.S. v. Microsoft

In the world of privacy and global digital communications, the case of the United States v. Microsoft is a big deal. In June 2016 Microsoft won a victory in the case in the U.S. 2nd Circuit. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court surprised many when it announced that it granted a petition to review Microsoft’s

Apr 24 2017

WPF participant in Designing our Digital Society Workshop, Pacific Northwest College of Art

Pam Dixon will be participating in a special Workshop at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, “Designing our Digital Society.” The Workshop is open to the public, and will be held from 4pm-7 pm Tuesday, April 25, 2017. The Workshop will be held at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, in the famed “511 Building,”

Mar 30 2017

WPF at RightsCon to Present on Digital Identity, Digital Rights

We are honored to be speaking on two panels at this year’s RightsCon, an event that takes place 29-31 March in Brussels, Belgium. Both of our panels will be on the 31 of March. Here is some additional reading and information for each of the panels: Panel 1: Managing Concerns Around Digital Identity, Fri, 9:00-10:15, Innovation, 1st Floor….

Feb 06 2017

When TVs watch you: What we learned from the FTC’s VIZIO case

Television maker VIZIO is paying $2.2 million in penalties to settle charges after the FTC and the New Jersey Attorney General’s office brought a complaint against the company for violating its customers’ privacy. The complaint against VIZIO stated that the company collected detailed information on millions of its customers TV viewing habits without their express consent, and that VIZIO facilitated something called “data appending,” which is when even more detailed information is added to existing customer profiles.

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.