Category «Freedom of Information»

Toward a durable, dictator-proof Washington Post

David H. Rothman’s timely, outside the box commentary addresses the growing wave of news outlets abruptly closing down their websites, laying off staff, and in some cases, eliminating access to their respective archives. Rothman proposes an alternative to “how do I charge them enough” to stem the tide of closures, an avenue he prompts billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, to consider. A good-sized trust or corporate equivalent would enable the Washington Post to be run as a sustainable enterprise in the public interest, rather than as a mere profit generator.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, KM, Leadership, Management, Social Media, Technology Trends

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, February 11, 2023

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: How to safely use payment apps; NY attorney general forces spyware vendor to alert victims; Welcome to the Era of Internet; and Does Big Brother Microsoft see you on Windows 11?

Subjects: AI, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Privacy

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, November 19, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: Google Settles 40 States’ Location Data Suit for $392 Million; FBI Alert: Watch Out for Subscription Renewal Scams; GAO Science & Tech Spotlight: Zero Trust Architecture; and Employee tracking: From your keystrokes to your emails, here’s what your employer can see.

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Communications, Computer Security, Cybercrime, Cyberlaw, Cybersecurity, Email, Freedom of Information, Legal Research, Search Engines, Social Media, Spyware

Pete Recommends Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 29, 2022

Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: How ID.me’s Face Recognition for IRS, Unemployment Works; A Former Hacker’s Guide to Boosting Your Online Security; White House clamps down on federal cybersecurity after big hacks; How to Download Everything Amazon Knows About You (It’s a Lot); and Teamwork, trust and threat sharing key to cybersecurity.

Subjects: AI, Communications, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Data Mining, E-Commerce, Ethics, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines, Social Media, Telecommuting

Trump wants the National Archives to keep his papers away from investigators – post-Watergate laws and executive orders may not let him

Professor Shannon Bow O’Brien is a presidency scholar who focuses upon rhetoric. She discusses how the National Archives usually goes on with its work with little attention, but that is now at the center of a political fight about the public’s access to the papers of former President Donald Trump.

Subjects: Archives, Criminal Law, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Information Management, KM, Legal Research

RSS Feeds, PACER, and the Fight for Access to Federal Docket Information

What is RSS and how do federal courts use it? Rebecca Fordon informs us that courts vary in the types of documents they provide via RSS feeds – only about 70% of bankruptcy courts and 50% of district courts provide full feeds. The effort urging courts to fully enable RSS feeds has many advocates and would have a significant positive impact for legal researchers in all sectors.

Subjects: Court Resources, Courts & Technology, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Technology, Public Records, RSS Newsfeeds, United States Law

US takes tentative steps toward opening up government data

At the beginning of this year, President Trump signed into law the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act, requiring that nonsensitive government data be made available in machine-readable, open formats by default. As researchers who study data governance and cyber law [Anjanette Raymond, Beth Cate and Scott Shackelford] we are excited by the possibilities of the new act. But much effort is needed to fill in missing details – especially since these data can be used in unpredictable or unintended ways. The federal government would benefit from considering lessons learned from open government activities in other countries and at state and local levels.

Subjects: Big Data, Civil Liberties, Congress, Cyberlaw, Digital Archives, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, Legal Research, Legislative, Privacy, Public Records

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues December 9 2018

Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness.Note – four significant highlights of this week’s column: The web really isn’t worldwide – every country has different access; Measuring the “Filter Bubble”: How Google is influencing what you click; Grandparents Increasingly Targeted By Impostors Who Know ‘Everything’ About Them; Who lives with you? Facebook seeks to patent software to figure out profiles of households.

Subjects: Big Data, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Freedom of Information, Internet Filtering, KM, Legal Research, Privacy, Search Engines

The Case of the Torn Presidential Record and the Future of Its Library

Brandon Wright Adler addresses the destruction of Presidential documents and records brought to our attention this past week in a rather startling article published by Politico – “The president’s unofficial ‘filing system’ involves tearing up documents into pieces, even when they’re supposed to be preserved.” As law librarians, we clearly understand the duty and responsibility to uphold the Presidential Records Act and to advocate that all such documents remain available to the public and researchers.

Subjects: Digital Archives, Freedom of Information, Government Resources, KM, Legal Research

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