December 2014

The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Department of Transportation is developing a smart phone app that will act as an officially issued driver’s license.  Department Director Paul Trombino says that the app will be provided to drivers at no additional cost and will be available sometime in 2015.  Drivers will still be able to carry an old-fashioned plastic license if they so choose.

I’m conflicted about this news.  From the perspective of a technophile, this is monumental.  With the rise of digital payment systems, maybe we’ve gotten to a point in society where wallets go the way of the pay phone…whatever a pay phone is.  From a data privacy professional’s standpoint, this story gets filed under the sarcastically named “what could possible go wrong?” category.
Continue Reading Iowa Plans for Digital Driver’s License

During the holidays, consumers are pulling out debit and credit cards again, again and again. It is with a degree of blind faith those same consumers trust their personal data is going where intended and not into the hands of some nefarious character. But with recent well-publicized data breaches at major retailer stores, consumers have

The FTC’s recent settlement with a medical online payments company and its former CEO highlights the importance of using clear and non-deceptive notices when asking consumers to share or provide sensitive personal health information.

The FTC alleged that Atlanta-based PaymentsMD, LLC used deceptive methods to obtain permission from consumers to collect highly sensitive personal health