Begun in 1992, the PRIVACY Forum is a moderated digest of "the discussion and analysis of issues relating to the general topic of privacy (both personal and collective) in the 'information age'." It is sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), internetMCI and Cisco Systems, but they do not influence its content. The digest mailing itself is a once- or twice-weekly publication,...

Yesterday Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson and the White House announced that the administration would enact a new federal rule that protects the privacy of medical information. Proposed in the waning days of the Clinton administration, the rule grants patients full access to their own medical records and requires health care providers to obtain permission before disclosing...

CYBER-RIGHTS - Campaign for Cyber Rights Cyberspace is the "coordination headquarters" for the global Cyber Rights campaign being conducted by CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.) CPSR is a highly respected public service organization that has an effective track record in influencing legislation and regulation. CPSR contributed to the exposure of the fallacies behind the...

Electronic Frontier Canada (EFC), founded to ensure that the principles embodied in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are protected as new computing, communications, and information technologies emerge.

This new free plug-in for IE 4.0 and 5.0 (Netscape and other versions are under development) helps users reclaim some of their privacy with easy-to-use icons in their browser that let them know when they are being "watched" by tracking networks and enable them to block the cookies these networks use. Importantly, IDcide distinguishes between local cookies that users may wish to allow, and network...

Privacy International is a ten-year-old, London and Washington DC-based organization which serves as a watchdog on privacy issues ranging from " wiretapping and national security activities, to ID cards, video surveillance, data matching, police information systems, and medical privacy." Highlighted on the site is privacy-related news from around the world, with links to documents and Websites...

There is a huge debate brewing between some lawyers and college professors over whether or not plagiarism-detection services infringe upon students' copyrights and privacy. The one particular service creating this uproar is Turnitin.com, a plagiarism-detection service that has approximately 400 colleges in the United States on its client list. The company checks submitted papers against a database...

The Privacy Foundation conducts "research into communications technologies and services that may pose a threat to personal privacy." Its Web site has a large amount of information to raise awareness of privacy related issues and help the public understand them. For people wanting to learn some basic terminology in digital privacy, a glossary describes things like firewalls and cookies. There are...

Since September 11, 2001 the U.S. government has been actively searching for ways to improve surveillance at airports and U.S. borders. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is concerned that biometric technologies are being promoted as the silver bullet when very little independent, objective scientific testing of biometrics has been done. This evolving website discusses what is known and raises...

The Fourth Amendment, which grew directly out of the experiences of the American colonists during the 18th century, guarantees the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizure…” A number of prominent cases involving transgressions of this amendment have arisen over the past few years, including those dealing with the...