New Scientist has a story about in-flight video surveillance. The goal? Terrorism detection, of course:

The European Union’s Security of Aircraft in the Future European Environment (SAFEE) project uses a camera in every passenger’s seat, with six wide-angle cameras to survey the aisles. Software then analyses the footage to detect developing terrorist activity or ‘air-rage’ incidents, by tracking passengers’ facial expressions.

[…]

It looks for running in the cabin, standing near the cockpit for long periods of time, and other predetermined indicators that suggest a developing threat,” says James Ferryman of the University of Reading, UK, one of the system’s developers. Read more »

Credit-monitoring company Experian released a report (pdf) ranking the Top 25 towns and postal sectors in the UK that are at the highest risk for identity fraud. Unsurprisingly, Experian finds, “London remains the identity fraud capital of the UK. Its residents are – on average – almost twice as likely as to fall victim to identity fraud compared to people living in the rest of the UK.”

When reviewing postal sectors in London, Experian finds, “Residents living in the SW17 6 postal sector, which centres on College Gardens in Tooting, south London, need to be most wary of identity fraud. Residents living in this postal sector are almost fives times more likely than the UK average to become a victim of identity fraud.” Experian also notes, “More than 6,000 victims sought help from Experian’s victims of fraud Read more »

UPDATE: Click here to listen to the podcast of my interview.

On Monday, June 2, at 4 pm PDT / 7 pm EDT, I will be speaking live on the Peter B. Collins Show. My editor, Nicole Mauro, and I will discuss the recently published book “Intersection: Sidewalks & Public Space.” I wrote a chapter on camera surveillance called You Are Being Watched But Not Protected: The Myth of Security Under Camera Surveillance.

I previously blogged about Deutsche Telekom, which admitted Saturday that it secretly combed through its own millions of call records to review the calls made by some of its executives. The phone company said there had been severe and far-reaching misuse of private data in the investigation to determine which employees were leaking data to the media.

The company is trying to do damage control facing an angry public and outraged German and European government officials. Read more »

The San Francisco Chronicle has a story about SB1096, which would allow pharmacies to sell customers’ prescription data for marketing purposes. Currently, the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act prohibits such sales. The California Medical Association opposes the bill, saying this would affect doctor-patient relationships. The bill was previously defeated in the Senate, but is up for another vote today after it was amended to say, “that the patient shall receive an opportunity to opt out of the written communication.”

Opt-out clauses are not protective enough. Would the opt-out clause be posted in a prominent area? Would the language be clear? Would the patients understand what they were opting out of? Read more »

Canadian Press reports, “In a move unprecedented for the Olympics, tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are embedded with a microchip containing the bearer’s photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers.” Including such sensitive personal data on a chip that wirelessly transmits this data without strong security is a recipe for identity theft. Radio frequency identification (“RFID”) technology is wireless, so it is unseen. You know if someone steals your wallet because it’s not in your pocket or purse anymore, but how do you know if someone intercepts your RFID transmission and gathers your passport details off the ticket that you still carry? Read more »