The Wall Street Journal’s career adviser has an interesting discussion on how to safeguard your privacy while searching for a new job.

You are correct to be concerned that a job search might no longer be a private affair, especially when executed on the Internet. In the early days of digital job hunting, many job seekers’ biggest concern was whether their current employers would get wind of what they were doing. But that has changed in recent years, according to Pam Dixon, executive director of the California-based World Privacy Forum. “Unfortunately, identity theft and fraud are alive and well,” she says.

Ms. Dixon and her staff are constantly receiving calls from individuals whose identities have been compromised in some way because they gave away too much information during an Internet-based job search. Because of this, Ms. Dixon’s first piece of advice to job seekers is to avoid openly posting their resumes online. “If it’s open on the Web, then it’s kind of like big game hunting,” she says. “It’s hunting season, and you are the game.” [...] Read more »

From the press release:

On Wednesday, December 3rd, the Majority Staff of the House Committee on Homeland Security will host a series of roundtable discussions on the future of privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties at the Department of Homeland Security.  The event, entitled “A Path Forward: Constitutional Protections in Homeland Security”, is sponsored by Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security.  Experts from the public sector will give their views on the focus the Department should take in dealing with privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties during the new Administration.  There will be a total of six panels, all listed below.

Chairman Thompson released the following statement regarding the event:

“As the Department of Homeland Security enters its first transition, it is essential that its new leadership and Congress work together to ensure that the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of American citizens are made a priority in the continuation of the Department’s current programs and implementation of new policies.  The Department must understand that it can both preserve the Constitutional rights of the American people and maintain its mission to keep our nation secure.” Read more »

The Mail has the latest in a string of stories out of the UK about misuse of anti-terrorism laws to investigate residents for clearly non-terrorism related offenses.

More than half of town halls admit using anti-terror laws to spy on families suspected of putting their rubbish out on the wrong day.

Their tactics include putting secret cameras in tin cans, on lamp posts and even in the homes of ‘friendly’ residents. [...]

The shocking way in which the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act – an anti-terror law – is being used was revealed through freedom of information requests made by the Daily Mail. [...]

The Mail requested information from all of the 474 councils in England. Of the 151 which replied, some 77 – more than half – said they had used the legislation in the last three years for suspected ‘domestic waste, littering or fly-tipping offences’. Read more »

From the Federal Register Notice:

SUMMARY: The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee will meet on December 3, 2008, in Arlington, VA. This meeting will be open to the public.

DATES: The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Please note that the meeting may close early if the committee has completed its business.

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held in Galleries I and II of the Hilton Arlington Hotel, 950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, Virginia 22203.

Send written materials, comments, and requests to make oral presentations to Ken Hunt, Executive Director, Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC 20528. Written materials, comments, and requests to make oral presentations at the meeting should reach the contact person listed by November 26, 2008. Requests to have a copy of your material distributed to each member of the committee prior to the meeting should reach the persons listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, below, by November 26, 2008. Persons wishing to make comments or who are unable to attend or speak at the meeting may submit comments at any time. All submissions received must include the docket number: DHS-2008-0185 and may be submitted by any one of the following methods: Read more »

The New York Times has an interesting story on privacy hurdles that Google is facing as it attempts to expand its business.

But almost five years into its expansion into Europe — where it has a headquarters in Dublin, large offices in Zurich and London, and smaller centers in countries like Denmark, Russia and Poland — Google is getting caught in a web of privacy laws that threaten its growth and the positive image it has cultivated as a company dedicated to doing good.

In Switzerland, data protection officials are quietly pressing Google to scrap its plans to introduce Street View, a mapping service that provides a vivid, 360-degree, ground-level photographic panorama from any address, which would violate strict Swiss privacy laws that prohibit the unauthorized use of personal images or property. Read more »

There have been a number of privacy and data security breaches connected with this year’s presidential election. The latest is news that Verizon has admitted President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone records were wrongly accessed by the telecom company’s employees. Verizon said:

This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone account. The account has been inactive for several months. The device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services.

All Verizon employees who have accessed the account “have been put on immediate leave, with pay” while the company investigates whether the access was legitimate. Verizon did not disclose what type of data was viewed, such as numbers dialed or call duration. An Obama spokesperson said the president-elect’s voicemails and e-mails were not accessed.

This is not the first time President-Elect Obama’s personal data has been improperly accessed. In March, the State Department announced that three contract employees improperly accessed the confidential passport files of Senators Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama. A similar breach occurred in 1992, with then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton’s records. Read more »