Medical Privacy | Infrastructure & Databases — The World Privacy Forum and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have submitted official comments in response to the U.S. government’s “Request for Information” about its plan to digitize all patient medical records and create an electronic “National Health Information Network” or NHIN. The comments urge caution in designing the NHIN and call for the government to build privacy, security, and open source technologies into the system from the beginning of the project.

The World Privacy Forum and the Electronic Frontier Foundation submitted comments in response to the U.S. government’s “Request for Information” about its plan to digitize all patient medical records and create an electronic “National Health Information Network” or NHIN. The comments urge caution in designing the NHIN and call for the government to build privacy, security, and open source technologies into the system from the beginning of the project.

Workplace Surveillance and Privacy — The World Privacy Forum testified on January 19 regarding the need to build reasonable privacy and security protections into the proposed “smart” Federal ID cards. The testimony included recommendations on making the mandated employee background checks equitable, careful implementation of the Privacy Act, and conducting a Privacy Impact Assessment. Other key issues included setting limits on card use and protecting the mandated source documents, such as birth certificates, that will be required to obtain a card.

Workplace privacy | ID cards | Biometrics — WPF, EFF, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and PrivacyActivism call for greater attention to privacy provisions of the proposed new Federal ID card, which will be “contactless.”

WPF, EFF, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and PrivacyActivism call for greater attention to privacy provisions of the proposed new Federal ID card, which will be “contactless.”