The Washington Times reports on an issue of children’s privacy as described in a new report (pdf) from the :

Schools are putting children at risk of identity fraud by obtaining their Social Security numbers when it is not required by law and often unnecessary, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General has concluded.

Some school systems in at least 26 states collect the nine-digit identifiers when students from kindergarten through high school register for classes, even though the respective state does not require it as a matter of law, according to a report released last week. [...] Read more »

WordStream Internet Marketing has put together an infographic about the various ways that a person’s personal data can be gathered or their privacy invaded. Below is only the top piece of the infographic; click on the image to go to WordStream’s full graphic.

Infographic by WordStream Internet Marketing

The New York Times reports on the issue of genetic privacy as it relates to so-called “familial searching” of DNA databases. This type of search is controversial because the “near-match” person is not suspected — but that person’s relatives are. (Last year, George Washington law professor Jeffrey Rosen had an excellent article about increasing pressure for the expansion of familial searches of DNA databases.)

Although Britain has been using the technique for years, familial searching in the United States is the Botox of criminal investigation. Early-adopter states like California and Colorado have tried it, like it and plan, where appropriate, to use it again. The wait-and-see states are holding out while they consider the potential side effects and longer-term social ramifications. [...]

But the immediate concern is that kinship searches could produce a long list of convicted felons who are only partial matches to an unidentified suspect. The risk is that the police, while looking for a suspect’s family members, might intrude on people who have not committed a crime. Some lawyers call it guilt by genetic association. Read more »

USA Today reports on the use (or avoidance) by doctors of social-networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. Some cite medical privacy concerns as reasons to avoid social-networking sites.

Jeff Livingston, who spearheaded [one Irving, Texas, OB-GYN practice's] venture into social media, also manages the @ macobgynTwitter account, which has about 1,600 followers. He sees Facebook as an educational and, perhaps just as important, marketing tool. “People are looking for information online,” Livingston says. “I wanted them to look at our page.”

But few doctors have embraced social media as enthusiastically as he has. Concerns about time and patient privacy have deterred many.

“No matter how you parse it, doctors don’t avoid the Internet and social media because they’re simply Luddites,” Westby Fisher, an Evanston, Ill., cardiac electrophysiologist, wrote last month on his blog, Dr. Wes. “They avoid the Internet because they enjoy the benefits of anonymity, privacy, efficiency and legal protection that come with dropping off the grid.” [...] Read more »

The Telegraph reports on schools in the United Kingdom and their security programs, which include surveillance of students. The story focuses on a study released in the journal “Surveillance and Society.”

Researchers found the widespread use of CCTV, ID cards, electronic registration systems, fob-controlled gates and fingerprint technology as schools attempt to crackdown on troublemakers.

Staff at one comprehensive patrolled corridors and playgrounds with radios to make sure children behaved at lunchtimes, while teachers at a private school used technology to spy on children’s computer and internet use.

Researchers suggested that the sheer scale of surveillance was fuelling paranoia among many pupils. [...] Read more »

The Bethel Citizen reports on opposition to a plan in Maine to use Social Security numbers to track the educational data of public school students.

The law (LD1356), passed in 2009, is intended to help track the performance of students before and after graduation, by linking student information between the DOE and the Department of Labor. The project, known as the Maine Statewide Longitudinal Data System, identifies the occupations of former students whose social security numbers are in employment records. The purpose is to evaluate and improve education programs. Read more »