Technology, Privacy in Increasingly Uneasy Balance: Press Reports
Apr 21st, 2008 • Posted in: NewsPersonal information remains at high risk; a new research technique could lead to remote-control lie detection; problems associated with the controversial practice of “monetizing” errant Web searches
VARIOUS DATELINES
Advancing technology continues to erode individual privacy, according to several reports last week. Among the pieces:
- Privacy is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Staff writer Alexandra Marks reports: “Despite all of the rules, regulations, and software innovations in place to ensure that information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, it does, and regularly. In just the past month, State Department employees were disciplined for snooping through presidential candidates’ passport files, and hospital workers have been charged with selling the personal information of tens of thousands of patients as well as rifling through the patient records of top stars. And in Hollywood a private detective to the stars is accused of bribing police and telephone company officials so he could scour their confidential databases. Then there’s the Internal Revenue Service. A week before tax day, its inspector general warned that the computer systems that contain the private tax returns of every taxpayer in America are vulnerable to disgruntled employees and hackers.” Marks notes that while no one has a complete answer to the problem, some experts interviewed for the article maintain that the only real protection is limitation on the amount of information the government is allowed to collect and the extent to which it can be collated.
- A new system that could monitor blood pressure, pulse rate, and perspiration remotely could be valuable in screening for health problems, but also could pose privacy concerns because it might be useful for surreptitious lie detector tests, according to a report from Discovery News. The theory is this: Human sweat glands in the skin change the frequency of an electromagnetic wave that can be harmlessly bounced off of a human and read when it returns to the antenna. Patterns of how a person sweats can indicate blood pressure and pulse rate — basically, the same measures monitored by a polygraph. Researchers working on the remote technology, which is still in experimental stages, tell Discovery that they fully understand the concerns over privacy — not only from the lie-detector angle but also relating to use of remote scanners for large-scale scanning to collect data for scientific and medical research.
- Some major Internet service providers may be exposing customers to a greater risk of online virus or phishing attacks because of a controversial technique they use to increase hits for online advertising, the Washington Post reports. Many ISPs routinely direct surfers to an advertising page when the user tries to view a Web address that does not exist. The technique, often referred to as “monetizing” wayward Web searches, could be used to trick surfers into believing they are on a safe page. Surfer then might offer up sensitive information, according to security researchers, who claim that one firm specializing in monetizing bad addresses only recently fixed vulnerabilities in its system.
Sources: Washington Post, Apr. 14 — Discovery News, Apr. 9 — Christian Science Monitor, Apr. 19.
For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 31 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 31 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 24 — Related Newsline story, Mar. 17.
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