Category

Privacy Issues

• Privacy Issues

  Swiss bank UBS problems show why privacy fails

  Posted by Derek Rowley on 02.23.09 | Permalink | Comment?

  Last week, the IRS asked U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold to enforce “John Doe summonses” on 52,000 Swiss bank accounts holding almost $15 billion in assets.  This action demonstrates the folly behind using privacy and secrecy as the basis for asset protection or tax planning.  History has shown than any strategy that is based on privacy [...]

• Privacy Issues

  Privacy dangers of search engines

  Posted by Cort Christie on 08.14.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  AOL, which is struggling to re-define it’s business model under the weight of a 30% drop in paid subscribers and the expectation of laying off more than 3,000 employees, has found itself in the middle of a privacy broughhaha.  What AOL did to cause such a stir was release a database of 20 million online [...]

• Privacy Issues

  Does your state or local government post your private information?

  Posted by Derek Rowley on 04.14.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  A news report recently revealed that sensitive personal information about current and former residents of Broward County, Florida have been posted on the county’s website.  Broward County is just the tip of the iceberg.  Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, bank account details, and digital copies of personal signatures are increasingly becoming available online by [...]

• Privacy Issues

  Web Privacy and Google

  Posted by Derek Rowley on 01.26.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Bob Ambrogi reports that the Justice Department is asking a federal court to compel Google to turn over records of millions of its users’ search queries is shocking and disturbing. Worse yet, America Online, Yahoo and MSN have already complied with the subpoena.

  For anyone who would rather not leave behind a trail of their search [...]

• Privacy Issues

  Too Much Information

  Posted by Derek Rowley on 01.24.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  My kids have adopted the use of the slang term “TMI” whenever a topic comes up that they don’t want to hear about.  TMI is short for “Too Much Information”.  Sometimes, they apparently believe, what they don’t know can’t hurt them.
  The corollary to that is that “what you DO know CAN hurt.  At what point [...]