FC: FTC and European Union privacy czars expose personal data

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[Obviously the FTC has little choice in this matter. But it seems to
that America's chief privacy enforcers could be a wee bit more
sensitive to the dangers of collecting personal information -- after
all, they insist that private firms are. For instance, the FTC could
put a notice at the top of a sign-in sheet saying: "Warning: This
information may be made public." Or it could have a policy of
collecting only the minimal information that it needs. And so
on. --Declan]

---

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50947,00.html

   [...]
   
   FTC snoops: The agency responsible for protecting privacy is being
   forced to do exactly the opposite.
   
   On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission sent e-mail to everyone who
   attended its "Get Noticed" privacy workshop last December, telling
   them their personal information was about to become public.
   
   [...]

   
   EU glitch: Across the Atlantic, the European Union's "Working Group on
   Data Protection" has a far more innovative way to reveal personal
   information.
   
   On Friday, the EU's Eva Salger-Kuhn accidentally sent e-mail to
   everyone in the working group's database -- on one long "To:" line.
   This is, remember, the European bureaucracy charged with creating and
   enforcing safe data-use practices.
   
   [...]


---

From: Glb Workshop [mailto:GLBWORKSHOP () ftc gov] 
Sent: Fri 3/8/2002 10:40 AM 
Subject: Notice to GLB "Get Noticed" Workshop Registrants
        
        This is to let you know that the Commission must respond to a
request made under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for
information about those who registered to attend the GLB "Get Noticed"
Workshop held on December 4, 2001. The Commission is required to
disclose to the requester the names and contact information of those
who registered to attend in their professional capacity. This includes
information you provided when registering for the workshop, such as
your name, company, phone number, e-mail address, and if you provided
it, your fax number. We anticipate that the information will be
released to the requester during the week of March 11, 2002. While we
do not know how the requester will use the information, we believe it
is important to notify you that we are obligated to provide your
professional information under the FOIA.




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