The Washington Post reports on possible privacy questions surrounding new technology featured at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

The thousands of devices debuting Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show here demonstrate how tech companies are poised to gather unprecedented insights into consumers’ lives — how much they eat, whether they exercise, when they are home and who they count as friends. [...]

Coming soon are Internet connected refrigerators, washing machines and other appliances that may be able to deliver information to third parties, such as utilities.

All that has some tech experts and lawmakers concerned that consumers, in their rush to snap up the latest gadgets, may be sacrificing privacy. Read more »

Last year, there were a number of bills introduced in Congress concerning privacy and civil liberties, but most have stalled. Some bills introduced last year: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced the “Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act of 2011″ (archive pdf; THOMAS status link for H.R. 2168); Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced the Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 (pdf) (Do Not Track proposals would allow consumers to restrict the data gathered by Web sites and marketers on the consumers’ online browsing or purchases); Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011 (archive pdf) (Leahy first introduced this legislation in 2005 and had sponsored the legislation three times since); Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), chairman of the subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) introduced the Location Privacy Protection Act of 2011 (pdf); and, there has been much discussion of revising the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (“ECPA,” also known as Title 18 § 2511 of the United States Code) and several bills have been introduced, which are discussed in this CRS report.

Now, the National Journal reports that privacy will remain a hot topic, even though legislation on the issue has stalled in Congress.

While few expect Congress to pass broad privacy legislation, privacy will still get a lot of attention in 2012, starting with the release in the coming weeks of two highly anticipated federal reports providing guidance on protecting consumer privacy online.

Both the Commerce Department and the Federal Trade Commission are set to release separate final reports with recommendations on how to improve online privacy.

Commerce, which could release its final report the last week of January, will outline the Obama administration’s policy on the issue. Since issuing its draft report in December 2010, the administration has called on Congress to pass legislation that would provide consumers with privacy protections based on the Fair Information Practice Principles embraced by many countries. These include providing consumers with notice about the information being collected about them, choice, access to the information, and security to ensure the data is protected. Read more »

I’ve noted before how social-networking data — from sites such as MySpace and Facebook — have been used to gather evidence in trials against jurors and defendants, in divorce cases, against employees (which can lead to lawsuits), applicants to colleges and graduate schools, politicians and high school students. We’ve seen it affect applicants to jobs in the United States and abroad. Recently, the Wall Street Journal noted that some employees are fighting back when their employers attempt to punish them for comments made on social-networking sites.

Now, NPR reports on problems that teachers have had with Facebook and other social networking-site postings:

The new and ever-changing world of social networking has blurred the lines between private and public, work and personal, friend and stranger. It’s becoming a particular challenge for teachers who can quickly rile students and parents by posting comments or photos online.

In some cases, teachers have been fired for statements they’ve made on Facebook, which is raising free speech issues. [...]

John Palfrey of Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society says there have always been teachers who say dumb things, but now social media amplifiy those comments. Read more »

The August Chronicle reports that the Better Business Bureau is urging parents to examine the data-gathering practices and privacy policies at “Dear Santa” Web sites:

More than 60 domain names have been registered in the name of Santa Claus, offering children a wide range of opportunities to e-mail St. Nick.

Sadly, some of the Web sites aren’t always so trustworthy and can potentially be a dangerous way to share personal information. The Better Business Bureau is advising parents to do their homework before letting their child write to Santa this holiday season. [...]

According to the Children’s Advertising Review Unit, all Web sites directed to children – or Web sites designed with a special children’s section – should have a privacy policy that explains the site’s information collection practices.

The privacy policy should include the name of the company and the company’s complete contact information. Read more »

TwinCities.com reports on a case concerning the storage of newborn babies’ blood in Minnesota. I’ve written before about the unauthorized or unknowing retention and use of babies’ blood samples for purposes other than disease screening. The Washington Post has written about the ethics and privacy issues when children’s medical data is collected and retained without parents’ knowledge or consent. In mid-2010, Texas announced that, as part of a lawsuit settlement agreement, it would destroy five million blood samples taken from babies and used for research without their parents’ consent. The blood was originally gathered to screen for birth defects. Privacy issues connected to newborns’ blood samples have been raised internationally, as well. In New Zealand, the Privacy Commissioner warned against expanding the use of such genetic data beyond disease testing, noting DNA is the “ultimate marker of identity.” A Tel Aviv University researcher’s article in Science said we don’t know the future privacy or civil liberty implications of distributing children’s genetic data.

TwinCities.com reports:

Adding to a national debate that pits privacy concerns against medical researchers, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a lower court must reconsider a challenge to the state Health Department’s practice of storing blood samples from newborns indefinitely.

Attorneys for plaintiffs in the case said the ruling means the Health Department might be forced to destroy nearly 1 million blood samples that researchers have drawn on for limited medical research purposes since 1997. [...] Read more »

The New York Times reports on the issue of online identification via data mining of disparate Web sites to create files on individuals and how this profiling can draw include children:

Consider the case of Maggie Leifer McGary, mother, blogger and social media fan. Ms. McGary is on virtually every existing social network: Foursquare, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. She is also on Klout, a popular site that assigns you a score based on its analysis of how influential you are on the social Web.

In the days just before Halloween, Ms. McGary got the fright of her life when she checked her Klout profile. Hovering above her score were the faces and names of those over whom she had influence, as calculated by Klout. They included her 13-year-old son, Matthew.

The boy had never set up a Klout page for himself; he was only her Facebook “friend,” so she could monitor his interactions there. Klout had automatically created a page for him and assigned him a score. [...]

“It’s wrong. They shouldn’t be marketing to children,” [Ms. McGary said.] Read more »