News Archive: February 2009

The views represented in these articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the Privacy Act Program, or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

THE SCOOP for February 26, 2009

DNA May Reveal Origins of Medieval Manuscripts
Live Science - February 10, 2009
"Cutting a piece out of a page of a 15th-century prayer book may seem like sacrilege, but to one researcher, it's a small sacrifice in the name of solving medieval mysteries."
Does Cloud Computing Mean More Risks to Privacy?
New York Times - February 23, 2009
"As people and businesses take advantage of all sorts of Internet-based services, they may well find trade secrets in the hands of competitors, private medical records made public, and e-mail correspondence in the hands of government investigators without any prior notice."
Feds Propose Storing Internet User Data for 2 Years
Wired - February 20, 2009
"In the name of combating child pornography, federal lawmakers are proposing that internet users' online surfing habits be retained for two years."
Groups compile list of hard-to-access public records
NextGov - February 17, 2009
"Less than a month after President Obama gave administration officials 120 days to develop a governmentwide transparency directive, watchdogs are compiling a list of the 10 "most wanted" unclassified government documents currently unavailable in an easily accessible format."
Persepolis tablets sale sets bad example
Press TV (Tehran) - February 23, 2009
"The Persepolis Fortification Archive, which was loaned to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1973, bear cuneiform inscriptions recording administrative details of the Persian Empire from about 500 BC."
SSA takes lead on joining electronic health records program
NextGov - February 18, 2009
"The Social Security Administration will begin using the nationwide health information network on Feb. 28, making it the first agency to test the government's approach to interoperable electronic health records."
Stimulus Law Boosts Health Privacy Rules
Workforce Management - February 23, 2009
"Economic stimulus legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law last week makes sweeping changes to the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act that could be onerous for employers and their health care plan partners."
UNT's Cybercemetery to Preserve Internet Sites from Bush Administration
Academic Keys - February 17, 2009
"Construction hasn't yet begun on the George W. Bush Presidential Library, but within a few weeks after the shift in power in Washington, D.C., the University of North Texas will preserve access to some of the legacies of the Bush administration through its CyberCemetery."
US Treasury ordered to surrender bailout records
newser - February 20, 2009
"A federal judge has ordered the Treasury Department to give the Fox Business Network records about how the agency spent billions of dollars in bailout money."
Watchdog groups press Obama DOJ on Bush e-mails
Ars Technica - February 23, 2009
"The watchdog groups filed suit under the FRA after learning that problems with the White House e-mail journaling system had led to the loss of some 5 million messages between 2003 and 2005. The law makes the preservation of all such official communications mandatory."
Wikileaks publishes $1B worth of congressional reports
IT World - February 9, 2009
"The 6,780 reports date back to 1990 and comprise all of the digitized reports accessible by congressional offices, said Wikileaks, which estimated their value at US$1 billion."

THE SCOOP for February 19, 2009

Cybersecurity chief to assess U.S. policy, defenses
Federal Times - February 17, 2009
"The White House has engaged a hard-charging consultant for an unprecedented review of U.S. cybersecurity policy to determine whether the government needs to be more pro-active in slowing cybercrime attacks on individuals and businesses."
Despite Obama pledge, Justice defends Bush secrets
USA Today - February 17, 2009
"Despite President Obama's vow to open government more than ever, the Justice Department is defending Bush administration decisions to keep secret many documents about domestic wiretapping, data collection on travelers and U.S. citizens, and interrogation of suspected terrorists."
Do We Need a New Internet?
New York Times - February 14, 2009
"What a new Internet might look like is still widely debated, but one alternative would, in effect, create a 'gated community' where users would give up their anonymity and certain freedoms in return for safety."
Group Urges Obama To Consider Open Source
InformationWeek - February 10, 2009
"Prompting greater use of open source code in government could lead to new ways 'for states and agencies to collaborate together on solutions that ultimately are better than the sum of all the individual efforts. Open source software encourages this type of collaboration by making the results of previous efforts available to others,' the letter said."
Inadvertent Disclosures in E-Mail
LAW.COM - February 17, 2009
"It should come as no surprise that electronically stored information, such as e-mail and other materials -- including Microsoft Word documents, spreadsheets and accounting data -- stored on computers and shared servers has become a focal point of most complex commercial litigation."
The Legal Dept rescues Records Managers?
CMS Watch - February 17, 2009
"You really can't envy the task of records managers in the public or private sector. Many are still tasked with archiving hard copies of the meetings of the board of directors, purchase orders, and files from the legal department. Yet they look over their shoulder at the increasing volume of e-mail that is going unmanaged."
Obama DOJ Delays Responding to Request for Key OLC Memos Re Torture and Interrogation Policies
Washington Independent - February 14, 2009
"The Obama administration, under pressure to turn over key memos written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, has asked the federal judge in New York for another 90 days to consider its position on a Freedom of Information Act case brought by a coalition of civil liberties advocates."
Privacy Trumps Profit in Obama's $19 Billion Health Stimulus
Bloomberg - February 13, 2009
"Patients' advocates claimed victory in a battle over the privacy of health records as the U.S. Congress prepares to vote on the economic stimulus bill, which contains $19 billion for health-care information."
Records Management: A Critical Success for SOX Compliance
Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal - February 12, 2009
"The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) has been evolving within publicly-traded companies in the U.S. for over half a decade. During this time, the importance of records management and its impact on managing the document lifecycle (document creation through disposal) and compliance has emerged as a critical success factor."
What Gov't Docs Would You Like to See Published?
ProPublica - February 12, 2009
"The 1996, yes, 1996 revision of the Freedom of Information Act, known as EFOIA, called for federal agencies to post frequently requested documents on their Web sites. Guess what? Not every agency did it.

THE SCOOP for February 11, 2009

40% of hard drives bought on eBay hold personal, corporate data
ComputerWorld - February 10, 2009
"A New York computer forensics firm found that 40% of the hard disk drives it recently purchased in bulk orders from eBay contained personal, private and sensitive information -- everything from corporate financial data to the Web-surfing history and downloads of a man with a foot fetish."
ACLU Lawsuit Tests Obama Openness Policies
Washington Independent - February 10, 2009
"The case, American Civil Liberties Union v. Department of Justice, has been going on for five years now...over documents sought under the ...Freedom of Information Act that would reveal crucial information about the...treatment of detainees in the"war on terror" and could help determine whether Bush officials broke domestic and international law."
Bill aims to prevent over-classification
FederalComputerWeek - February 5, 2009
"To improve data sharing, the bill would require that each finished classified intelligence product done by DHS also have an unclassified version that could be easily shared with state and local authorities who do not have clearances if it would be useful to those groups."
Ephemeral Data Meets Hard Law
LAW.COM - February 10, 2009
"Not long ago, the case of Columbia Pictures Inc. v. Bunnell , 245 F.R.D. 443 (C.D. Cal 2007), caused a stir among watchers of electronic discovery by deeming a computer's random access memory discoverable."
FOIA: Room to improve?
Federal News Radio - February 3, 2009
"For more than 40 years, the Freedom of Information Act has governed how federal agencies are to make public most information pertaining to the operation of the government. But is there room to improve the FOIA law?"
Lobbying War Ensues Over Digital Health Data
Washington Post - February 10, 2009
"The Senate and House appear headed for a clash over competing visions of how to protect the privacy of patients' electronic medical records, with the House favoring strict protections advocated by consumer groups while the Senate is poised to endorse more limited safeguards urged by business interests."
Nationwide Campaign Under Way to Evaluate Government Records Online
Government Technology - January 29, 2009
"In preparation for Sunshine Week March 15-21, a national government transparency project is under way to evaluate public records available on federal, state and local government Web sites."
One way to solve the federal records puzzle
Government Computer News - February 4, 2009
"Agency records officers must regularly decide what qualifies as a federal record. Maybe it would be better if they didn't have to make that decision."
Scalia speaks on digital privacy at NYC conference
Newsday - January 28, 2009
"Discussions of privacy rights in the digital era should distinguish between such confidential data as medical records and information that might be personal but is easy to find out, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Wednesday."

THE SCOOP for February 4, 2009

Best Practices for Government Web Sites
NextGov - February 2, 2009
"Because the Obama administration wants to revolutionize how it uses the Internet in the governing process, Nextgov thought it would be worthwhile to investigate what qualities make a good federal Web site."
Court Enforces Agreement Regarding Search Terms
Electronic Discovery Law - January 26, 2009
"In this case, the district court held defendants had sole authority to dictates search terms, per stipulated order, and sanctioned a third-party for failure to timely produce documents, despite significant efforts to comply with the deadline."
Daschle received speaking fees from groups opposing patient privacy
NextGov - February 2, 2009
"Tom Daschle, President Obama's nominee for secretary of the Health and Human Services Department, received speaking fees last year from two organizations that are aligned with health industry groups that opposed strong patient privacy protections in the health care section of the stimulus bill..."
Federal Register Announces New "Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents"
National Coalition for History - January 15, 2009
"The Office of the Federal Register...has created a new publication, to be called the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. The Daily Compilation will appear on the Government Printing Office's...new Federal Digital System...website January 20, 2009, to coincide with the incoming President's term of office."
Guantanamo Case Files in Disarray
Washington Post - January 25, 2009
"President Obama's plans to expeditiously determine the fates of about 245 terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and quickly close the military prison there were set back last week when incoming legal and national security officials...discovered that there were no comprehensive case files on many of them."
Industry giants to weigh in on US privacy laws
MacWorld - February 2, 2009
"A group of U.S. companies, led by technology giants Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and eBay, is set to outline recommendations for new federal data-privacy legislation that could make life easier for consumers and lead to a standard federal breach-notification law."
Justice orchestrates TSP hoax to test employees on security
Government Executive - January 30, 2009
"According to the Associated Press, the phony e-mail initially was sent by Justice to its employees two weeks ago, giving them a Jan. 31 deadline to provide personal information that might help them recover money they lost as the value of TSP funds plummeted along with the stock markets."
Smithsonian formally adopts new FOIA-like policy
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press - January 27, 2009
"The Smithsonian Institution on Monday formally adopted a new policy for responding to records requests, bowing to pressure from the Senate and open government groups."
Task Force Interim Report Says Support for Digital Archiving Urgent
Library Journal - February 3, 2009
"The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, commissioned in 2008 to address the economics of digital preservation, has released its interim report, saying there is an urgent need for a strategy—and investment—to meet the challenges facing the preservation of and continued access to digital information."
Wall Street crisis brings lax e-discovery law enforcement to light
ComputerWorld - January 14, 2009
"The financial crisis on Wall Street has prompted numerous investigations into the lending practices of financial services firms, all with a similar focus: Who knew what, and when did they know it? Strong electronic records retention plans could help users quickly answer such questions."

News Archive: February 2009

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