Privacy

Google Deal With NSA Raises Privacy Questions

Google is reportedly teaming up with the national security administration to beef up its defenses against hacking attacks like it suffered in January.

Facebook's Lame Settlement Offer for Privacy Violations

Facebook's Lame Settlement Offer for Privacy Violations on Opposing Views. Issues, Experts, Answers.

Parents concerned about students' privacy

A concerned parent called 17 News, wanting to know why his son was asked for his Social Security Number and other personal information to enroll in a local art competition.

Software Company Backs Passage Of Privacy Laws

Faced with the use of its technology to track consumers without their permission, software company Adobe Systems says it backs new privacy laws. To ensure continuing consumer confidence in the Internet and in online commerce, Adobe supports the passage by Congress of comprehensive personal privacy legislation, the company said in comments to the Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook Privacy, Security Fears Grow with Social Network Risks

According to Sophos, 60 percent of businesses consider Facebook the riskiest social networking site, underscoring a new level of wariness for social networks at a time when a researcher from Kaspersky Lab says compromised accounts for Twitter and other sites can go for big bucks in the cyber-underworld. - Businesses are growing more concerned about the use of social networks, starting with Facebook. According to a survey of 502 IT professionals by Sophos, businesses are seeing more malware and spam, and 60 percent of respondents put Facebook ahead of MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn as the riskiest so. .

Smokers Fumed Over 2005 Weyco Smoking Ban Policy; Civil Liberties Groups Worried About Privacy

Okemos, MI Weyco Inc., a medical benefits administrator, instituted a policy in January 2005 that banned employees from using tobacco, even during non-work hours. In fact, the company required employees to submit to random mandatory smoking breath tests. As a result, four of the two-hundred employees at the company quit rather than submit to the testing. The controversial move outraged some civil liberties groups; nevertheless, Michigan is still one of twenty states that have no laws preventing employers from firing employees who smoke both on and off the job. In an interview, Weyco founder and chief executive, Howard Weyers, argued that it was difficult for him to enact the policy but that he was forced to do so because of his rising healthcare costs. Before the policy in 2005, Weyco Inc. also quit hiring tobacco users in early 2003 and forbade the staff from smoking on the premises. In 2004, the company also added a fine of 50 a month per worker who smoked and refused to attend cessation classes. Michigan happens to be an at-will state, or a state where it is legal for an employer to fire an employee at any time for any reason, except where anti-discrimination laws apply. However, collective bargaining agreements, express employment contracts, and implied employed contracts, also prevent employers from firing at-will . John Cakmakci, a union organizer, hoped that Weyco's policy change would anger enough employees at all Michigan companies to think about forming unions and developing contracts with their employers. As he stated in an interview, really shows the vast power companies have under at-will laws. Although quitting smoking is particularly important to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, and respiratory illness, civil liberties groups are especially concerned over how far company policies may go in threatening individual privacy. Originally posted at InjuryBoard by David Mittleman.