On July 1, 2004, an important California consumer law comes into effect, called the Online Privacy Protection Act. It requires commercial web sites that gather personally identifiable information about Calfornians to post a privacy policy on their home page. It's expected that the majority of commercial web sites will need to comply with California's new law, if they do not already.
Testimony to the Federal Trade Commission's RFID Workshop
June 21, 2004
By Beth Givens, Director
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
3100 - 5th Ave., Suite B, San Diego, CA 92103
bethg(at)privacyrights.org
www.privacyrights.org
Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this workshop.
Submitted June 15, 2004, to:
Federal Trade Commission
Office of the Secretary, Room H-159 (Annex H)
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580
Filed electronically: www.regulations.gov
By six California consumer advocacy organizations:
Consumer Action
Consumer Federation of California
Identity Theft Resource Center
PrivacyActivism
Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
World Privacy Forum
April 1, 2004 -- On April Fools Day, Google, the Internet search engine heavyweight, soft-launched its new, free email service called Gmail. Beta testers of the new service benefit from 1 gigabyte of storage space and its developers tout better-search functions than other free email accounts such as Yahoo, MSN, and Hotmail. However, Gmail has raised privacy concerns because users cannot opt out of having incoming emails scanned for keywords that Google then uses for content-targeted advertising.
Submitted to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for FACTA
Fair Credit Reporting Proposed Rulemaking
Submitted May 24, 2004
by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
3100 - 5th Ave., Suite B, San Diego, CA 92103
www.privacyrights.org
By Beth Givens, Director
Presentation at Conference of the National Association for Information Destruction
San Diego, CA
Good morning. It is a pleasure to speak to you today. I commend you on being active members of NAID, and for the positive contributions you are making to privacy protection.
I have been listening to consumers' complaints for 12 years now. In what I call our "Dear Abby" role, we invite individuals to phone and email us with their questions and complaints about privacy matters.
The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC) advocates that the wireless 411 directory that is slated to be launched in early 2005 provide a strict opt-in mechanism that requires express consent before cell phone numbers are listed in the directory. The PRC also believes that federal legislation should be strengthened to ensure this standard is met.
April 16, 2004
Federal Trade Commission
FACTA Free Reports
Post Office Box 1031
Merrified, VA 22116-1031
Electronic Filing: www.regulations.gov
RE: FACTA Free File Disclosures Proposed Rule, Matter No. R411005
To the Commission:
John had been regularly denied employment due to poor credit stemming from a stroke. During a recent job interview, he spoke very candidly about his financial position—making them aware that he suffered a stroke and lost his job as a result. He had also explained the situation in depth on his initial application. He was notified that his employment was denied due to information contained in a TransUnion credit report.
John's name has been changed to protect his privacy.
San Diego, CA, April 6, 2004 (Updated April 19) -- The World Privacy Forum and 30 other privacy and civil liberties organizations have written a letter [inserted below] calling upon Google to suspend its Gmail service until the privacy issues are adequately addressed. The letter also calls upon Google to clarify its written information policies regarding data retention and data sharing among its business units.