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Concept Searching’s new Smart Content Framework : KMWorld

February 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Concept Searching has announced the Smart Content Framework for information governance. The company says the toolset provides an enterprise framework to mitigate risk, automate processes, manage information, protect privacy and address compliance issues.

Concept Searching describes the Smart Content Framework as a multi-disciplinary solution—delivered through its technologies—that encompasses the entire portfolio of information assets. Underlying the Framework are functionalities to transparently tag content, classify it to organizational taxonomies, preserve and protect information through the automatic identification of records and privacy data, and act as a migration tool, Concept Searching says.

via Concept Searching’s new Smart Content Framework : KMWorld.

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NIST issues security, privacy guidance for public cloud – FierceGovernmentIT (Molly Bernhart Walker)

February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Many of the features that make public cloud-computing services attractive run up against government’s traditional security models and controls, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s recently-released Special Publication 800-144 (.pdf), which tallies the threats, risks and access concerns agencies should consider before entering into such contracts.

The publication stops short of recommending service arrangements, service agreements, service providers or deployment models, however. Departments and agencies should use NIST’s guide to analyze their specific requirements against public cloud services, write report authors.

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The publication emphasizes that in the end, the organization is responsible for security and privacy in the cloud, not the service provider. As such, SP 800-144 stresses a risk-based approach in analyzing how and what functions to move to the public cloud–organizations should extend to the cloud the same governance practices employed when deciding to outsource any other IT service.

via NIST issues security, privacy guidance for public cloud – FierceGovernmentIT.

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Video: Google Privacy Policy Update

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

 

A brief overview of recent changes to the Google Privacy Policy

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CIF: Data security tops cloud concerns | IT PRO (James Stirling)

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This was the finding of the latest survey from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), which showed 62 per cent of its respondents citing the issue. Data privacy also reared its head, being quoted by 55 per cent of respondents as a significant concern.

As more legacy companies move to offer cloud computing as part of their portfolio, they have played down the concerns around security. However, even with industry heavyweights singing its security praises, customers are far from trusting the cloud model.

It is time to focus on giving customers solid answers to their security fears and removing the ‘fear, uncertainty and doubt’ from their minds, according to CIF member Simplexo.

The firm’s chief technology officer (CTO), Simon Bain, said: “I am obviously a believer in using the ‘cloud’ as a way forward for both personal and corporate life.”

“However, there are certain guidelines that I think need to be adhered to before we all start throwing our hard disks away and placing everything in to the hands of others.”

via CIF: Data security tops cloud concerns | IT PRO.

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In civil litigation, ‘private’ social media data isn’t private – Computerworld (Aaron Crews)

January 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

From time to time, new communications technologies force courts and legislatures to adapt existing standards and even develop entirely new ones. The telephone raised issues related to wiretapping, among other things. Email became a factor in litigation-related discovery actions. Social media is likely to do the same, if only because use of such sites has become so widespread.

Over the last several years, user participation in social media websites has exploded. For example, Facebook claims to have more than 800 million users on its network, Twitter users post something approaching 150 million tweets a day, and YouTube claims that more video is uploaded to its site every month than the three major U.S. networks created in the last 60 years. Such statistics tend to confirm that social media websites are here to stay, and their emergence as commonplace communication platforms suggests that the law will have to take notice.

For example, websites’ privacy guidelines might not carry much weight when it comes to litigation. When a lawsuit is filed, attorneys inevitably scour the Internet for evidence relevant to the claims and parties, which frequently leads to one or more social media websites, such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Social media users (and lawyers representing them in litigation) should realize that data posted on social media websites is likely subject to review and disclosure when relevant to the issues in a lawsuit, without regard to the particular website’s privacy guidelines or the user’s privacy settings.

via In civil litigation, ‘private’ social media data isn’t private – Computerworld.

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Microsoft Boosts Office 365 Security To Meet European Data Protection Requirements | crn.com

December 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) has improved the security and privacy capabilities of its Office 365 cloud applications, the company said Wednesday, in a move that will help customers comply with stringent European Union data protection regulations and the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Microsoft, like rivals Google, Amazon and others, is racing to bring its cloud software into compliance with government security regulations. Earlier this year Microsoft and Google became embroiled in a dispute over whose cloud software complied with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements.

Meeting such requirements can be critical for winning government contracts, such as the $60 million deal to provide the U.S. Department of the Interior with e-mail and collaboration cloud software that Google (NSDQ:GOOG) and Microsoft spent much of the year fighting over in court.

Microsoft also said it has overhauled its Office 365 Trust Center, a Web site that provides detailed information about Office 365 privacy and security practices, to make it easier to use.

Microsoft said it would sign the European Union’s contractual clauses, which the vendor said would help customers comply with the EU’s stringent Data Protection Directive regulations. The contractual or “model clauses” legitimize the transfer of personal data through international networks to locations outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

via Microsoft Boosts Office 365 Security To Meet European Data Protection Requirements.

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EU’s Data-Protection Reform Should Inspire U.S., Reding Says – Businessweek

December 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

European Union reforms of 16-year-old data-protection rules should inspire the U.S. to strengthen its privacy regime, the EU’s justice chief said.

The EU data privacy reforms, which the European Commission plans to present by the end of next month, should be “an inspiration for changes in the U.S. and elsewhere,” EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said today. Referring to cloud companies that lure clients by promising to protect their data from the U.S. government, she urged for the free flow of information.

“I do encourage cloud computing centers in Europe. We need more innovation, more research and more investment in the ICT industry,” Reding said in prepared remarks for a speech in Brussels. “But this cannot be the only solution. We need free flow of data between our continents. It doesn’t make much sense for us to retreat from each other.”

Deutsche Telekom AG’s T-Systems information technology unit is pushing regulators to introduce a certificate for German or European cloud operators to help companies shield data from U.S. government access through the Patriot Act. Some of the surveillance powers of the act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, have been opposed by lawmakers and outside groups, including civil liberties activists.

via EU’s Data-Protection Reform Should Inspire U.S., Reding Says – Businessweek.

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A Proposal for E.U.-Wide Data Protection Regulation – NYTimes.com

December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A top lawmaker on Tuesday proposed harmonizing European Union privacy rules so that an Internet company could operate across the 27-country bloc as long as its data protection policies had been approved by a single member state.

Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, said unnecessary hurdles created by privacy rules that date to 1995, when the Internet was in its infancy, were costing companies €2.3 billion, or $3.1 billion, a year as regulators in 27 different nations applied their own rules.

Ms. Reding acknowledged the apparent incongruity of discussing the harmonization of E.U. rules at a time of extreme discord within the bloc over economic policy, with debt woes straining the ties that bind together the euro zone. But she said an overhaul of the privacy regulations was crucial to increasing the competitiveness of the European economy to help it surmount the crisis.

“I think I am persuaded that while bringing member states out of their debt crises, we have to do everything we can to help our companies grow,” Ms. Reding said during a speech to privacy lawyers and other data protection professionals in Paris.

Ms. Reding said she planned to detail her plans in January in what is expected to be a sweeping overhaul of the 16-year-old Data Protection Directive. Internet companies, which would be most immediately affected by the new rules, have been urging E.U. lawmakers to simplify the existing practice, and mostly welcomed her proposals Tuesday.

via A Proposal for E.U.-Wide Data Protection Regulation – NYTimes.com.

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Zuckerberg: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Collect Data ‘Behind Your Back’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg appeared on the Charlie Rose show Monday evening with chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and the duo touched on everything from privacy and the future of sharing to Steve Jobs and hitting one billion users.

In a clip released earlier today, Zuckerberg downplayed the notion that Facebook is “at war” with competitors like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. But he took shots at those rivals tonight when it comes to privacy, arguing that his social network is a lot more transparent than some Internet companies out there.

Here are a few highlights from the 60-minute interview.

GOOGLE AND YAHOO AND MICROSOFT, OH MY!: Zuckerberg asserted that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo collect far more information about their users than Facebook does. “It’s just that they’re collecting that about you behind your back,” Zuckerberg said. “You’re going around the Web and they’re collecting this huge amount of information about you and you never know that.” He alluded to services like Google Dashboard, which show you the data collected about you, but “very few people” actually look at that, Zuckerberg said.

FACEBOOK PROVIDES THE MOST CONTROL: “I think it’s really about control,” Zuckerberg said of Facebook’s policies. “The real question for me is do people have the tools that they need in order to make those decisions well?” In the beginning, Facebook was focused on tech-savvy kids in college but has expanded to include 800 million people, some of whom only use their computers for Facebook and maybe the occasional email, he said. So Facebook needs to make privacy controls “easier and easier.”

via Zuckerberg: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Collect Data ‘Behind Your Back’ | News & Opinion | PCMag.com.

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Facebook may track users who leave service, data agency says | The Detroit News

November 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facebook Inc. may be tracking users’ Internet activity even after they cancel their accounts with the social-networking site, a German privacy watchdog said.

An in-depth probe of the way cookies are installed after a user opens and then closes their Facebook account has made the Hamburg Data Protection agency “suspicious” the company is unlawfully tracking users, the watchdog said on its website today. While rejecting Facebook’s justifications for the use of cookies, the agency welcomed the company’s offer to explain the technical processes.

“Arguments that all users have to remain recognizable after they leave Facebook to guarantee the service’s security can’t stand up,” Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg data protection representative, said on his agency’s website. “The probe raises the suspicion that Facebook is creating user tracking profiles,” which would be unlawful if users aren’t alerted.

The German regulator’s action adds to probes of Facebook by the Irish data-protection agency and Norway’s privacy watchdog. A group of EU regulators has said they will look for possible privacy violations in Facebook’s facial-recognition feature.

The social network “does not track users across the Web,” and instead uses cookies to personalize content or for safety and security reasons, Palo Alto, California-based Facebook said in an e-mailed statement. The company said it deletes account-specific cookies when a user leaves Facebook and doesn’t receive personally identifiable data when logged-out users browse the Web.

Remaining cookies are used in “identifying spammers and phishers, detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account, helping you get back into your account if you get hacked,” and blocking underage users from re-registering with a different birth date, Facebook said.

The German privacy regulator said that, while Facebook gave detailed explanations of how it uses cookies — small data files that track browsing habits — the company’s arguments don’t justify its practices.

via Technology | Facebook may track users who leave service, data agency says | The Detroit News.

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