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...

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...

Saturday April 1 was Census Day, the official deadline for returning one's US Census questionnaire. Given the fact that only about half of the forms have been returned, one may wish to reflect on the irony of the government choosing April Fool's Day as the Census deadline. As a matter of fact, surveys sponsored by the Census Bureau as well as informal assessments of talk-show call-ins, complaints...

This week's In the News focuses on the disputed Child Online Protection Act (COPA). The eight resources discussed provide news, commentary, analysis, and primary material. Last Wednesday in a US District Court in Philadelphia, proceedings began in a hearing that will determine the future of the controversial COPA. Passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton last October as part of...

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...

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...

When the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) was started in 1994, there were already substantial privacy issues surrounding the collection and use of electronic data at play. Since that time, such issues have grown exponentially in their scope, and EPIC continues to perform valuable research in the area. A good place to start exploring their site is right on the homepage, namely their...

The US Federal Trade Commission provides its Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. This 43 page monograph "provides an assessment of the effectiveness of self-regulation as a means of protecting consumer privacy on the World Wide Web,... based on a comprehensive online survey of the information practices of commercial Web sites, including sites directed to children, conducted in March 1998; an...

The US Federal Trade Commission provides this site, highlighted by the availability of its Privacy Online: A Report to Congress. In addition, the site offers tips on how to protect personal information, transcripts of relevant congressional testimony, useful information about protecting your privacy while you "travel" the Net, and FTC pamphlets on consumer protection and privacy information, among...

These two sites focus on the increasing numbers of surveillance cameras in New York City. The first provides a .pdf-formatted map of the more than 2,300 camera locations throughout New York as well as text listings broken down by community. The information was compiled by volunteers from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). In addition to information on camera locations, in the news section...