Focus On: Privacy

While Big News Media frets that the NSA may be sifting through cell phone chatter to find terrorists, the VA lets crooks steal Social Security Numbers by the millions. As if that's not bad enough, local officials across the nation have become ID-thief enablers by posting individuals' Social Security Numbers on their websites. Email Battles tells you why locals do it, and what you need to do to protect your own identity from local officials' incompetence.

After a data analyst's home was burgled, the Veteran's Administration announced that the names and Social Security Numbers of over 26 million vets were among those items missing. The naughty employee has been placed on administrative leave while the VA tries to find a way to cover its rather massive behind. Not to worry, vets. The agency insists there is no possible way the perps could find out what's on that computer. But just in case, here's some advice that may help mitigate the coming damage.

Recently, folks who agreed to receive Miller beermail at their throwaway email addresses were surprised to see this Miller message delivered to their private inboxes: "Recently, however, we have not been able to deliver email messages to the address you originally supplied. We have performed an electronic change of address to update our records so that we can continue to send you special offers, promotions, and announcements via email." The intrusion is a sobering reminder of what data miners really know about us, as opposed to what we like to think they know.

At today's meeting of the House International Relations Subcommittee on Global Human Rights, Google took the opportunity to explain how "Don't be evil" squares with collaborating with censors, while Cisco, Yahoo, and Microsoft expressed their positions much more clearly than they had hoped. All in all, it was a very good day for the Cult of the Dead Cow and others hoping to bring sunshine to the dark alley where free-market collaborators make money helping unelected authoritarian regimes control their citizens.

If you track technology blogs, you're well aware that techdirt scion Michael Masnick doesn't have much respect for Plaxo, the operation that claimes it "keeps people connected by solving the common and frustrating problem of out-of-date contact information." Our concern, as we noted before: You are sharing my email address with someone I don't know. My privacy now depends on your judgement. Now techdirt's kicked it up a notch: "I now block all Plaxo requests, but for a while, the amount of Plaxo spam was ridiculous." Should you block Plaxo? Possibly. Mike's a really sharp guy. It's worth considering.See for yourself at techdirt.