Private Investigation News: Victims of ChoicePoint Data Breach to Receive Redress Checks

"An administrator working for the Federal Trade Commission is mailing checks to 14,023 consumers who were victims of ChoicePoint’s alleged failure to implement a comprehensive information security program to protect consumers’ personal information, as required by a previous court order. As a result, in the spring of 2008, an unauthorized person accessed its database and conducted unauthorized searches."

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Location Oakland, Ca | San Francisco, Ca | California - Private Investigator

California Bill Prevents Social Networking Sites from Displaying Home Address & Telephone # – How can this be…bad?

"There’s a bill moving in California (SB 1361) that restricts how social networking sites display the personal information of 13 to 17 yr olds. It’s billed as a privacy bill and at first glance seems relatively harmless — after all, kids don’t need to be broadcasting their contact information, right? Maybe. It all depends.

It depends on the situation, obviously. We teach our kids to recognize risky situations and to react appropriately.

But whether or not teens are at risk by publishing their telephone numbers is not the threshold question here. The law presumes such and I’m not aware of any specific findings offered in testimony about the bill.

Instead, the issue at hand is whether we need a law to restrict social networking websites from publishing certain information from teenagers. And with any law, there’s always the corresponding principle of unintended consequences."  
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Proposed privacy legislation could nix business access to Social security numbers and addresses

"Proposed legislation on privacy landed with a thud when it was unveiled Tuesday — drawing criticism from both Internet and advertising industries, which are leery of regulation, and consumer privacy advocates, who say the bill does far too little to protect consumers."

"The bill stipulates that as a general rule companies can collect information about consumers unless a person opts out of that data collection — a point of contention among privacy advocates.

The regulation also specifies standards for the collection and use of personally identifiable information. Companies must disclose to consumers if they are collecting personally identifiable information and how they are using that data. Consumers must give a company permission to share that personally identifiable information with outside companies.

Companies also would need permission from consumers to collect sensitive data, such as medical records, financial accounts, Social Security numbers and geographic location information."

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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator

Consumer Reports study reveals social network users post risky information

"Fifty-two percent of adult users of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace have posted risky personal information online, according to the 2010 Consumer Reports State of the Net survey. And many haven't used their service's privacy controls to protect themselves.

According to findings from the survey cited in the Consumer Reports investigation, Social Insecurity, 23 percent of the users of Facebook, the largest social network, either didn't know that site offered privacy controls or chose not to use them.

Other findings from the survey, which was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center:
* A projected 1.7 million online households had experienced online identity theft in the past year.
* An estimated 5.4 million online consumers submitted personal information to e-mail (phishing) scammers during the past two years.
* Among adult social network users, 38 percent had posted their full birth date, including year. Forty-five percent of those with children had posted their children’s photos. And 8% had posted their own street address.
* An estimated 5.1 million online households had experienced some type of abuse on a social network in the past year, including malware infections, scams, and harassment."  
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Location Oakland, Ca - Private Investigator