Did I just sign a permission slip that lets an in-school dental clinic extract my child’s teeth? Navigating student and school health privacy

A Baltimore mom was surprised and unhappy recently when her son came home from school missing three teeth. The source? A mobile dental clinic at a Baltimore city public school had extracted some of her son’s teeth that day. The mother didn’t realize it, but she had already consented to the dental work through signing a permission slip/release form.

WPF supports proposed changes to drop SSNs from some appellate forms

The World Privacy Forum commented in support of a proposed change to the federal rules of practice and procedure. The change would eliminate the requirement to include the last four digits of a litigant’s Social Security Number on Appellate Form 4, which is used by petitioners seeking to proceed in forma pauperis. “When we can reduce reliance on

Top tips for people affected by the recent Yahoo security breach

On December 14 Yahoo announced a serious security breach in which sophisticated data attackers grabbed users’ answers to security questions, among other information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates. This breach is particularly worrisome because it culled sensitive information from 1 billion Yahoo customers, which makes this the largest data breach known to date. The

The Fishbone model of biometric template security

At Biometrics 2016 in London, I gave a keynote presentation on the state of biometrics policy and privacy, with suggestions for further work. Several aspects of that presentation have garnered follow-up requests, including requests for more information about my discussion of the “Fishbone Model” of biometric template security, a model I like very much and have

New proposed Privacy Act guidance: Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication under the Privacy Act

The World Privacy Forum submitted comments today on an important proposal from the US Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget regarding a circular directing agencies how to write, post, review, and generally handle Privacy Act notices. The proposal, called Circular A-108 Federal Agency Responsibilities for Review, Reporting, and Publication under the