"The US and the EU are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of t

Interesting PCC ruling that could have future implications for newspapers’ geotagging efforts. Also interesting because the existence of a Wikipedia article is part of the justification for allowing newspapers to report information.

"It is understood [mayor Boris] Johnson is trying to get round the setback [to his crime mapping plan] by tailoring the scheme to satisfy the [infomration commissoner]".

"By monitoring the signals from 100,000 mobile-phone users … a team from Northeastern University … has worked out some apparently universal laws of human motion." Commenters are not impressed.

Nature today publishes a study of human movements based on tracking their mobile phones’ locations. AP’s story says the paper raises the emerging ethical issue of "locational privacy".

"Social networking sites are the biggest threat to people’s privacy on the internet, say the billionaire founders of Google."

"Coding activists have developed an application designed to confound Phorm’s controversial behaviour-tracking software by simulating random web-browsing."

Adrian Holovaty encourages "roll your own maps" at Where 2.0 Web designers resist having to use templates from software providers (e.g. blogging templates from Wordpress), why should maps be treated differently?

"The Rose & Crown [pub], in [York] installed cameras inside the cubicles in the ladies’ toilets about a month ago following problems with women - and men - using surfaces in the stalls to prepare lines of cocaine to snort."

"The Foundation of Information Policy Research (FIPR) says it’s deeply concerned over the Information Commissioner’s Office willingness to allow BT to press ahead with its Phorm trial."

"The court-appointed attorney for Ashley Dupré, the prostitute linked with Gov. Eliot Spitzer, defended his client’s privacy in this letter sent to the media.He says that Dupré was ‘thrust into the public glare at age 22 without her consent’"

It seemed [Ashley Alexandra Dupre] was trying to stay one step ahead of journalists, attempting to limit what information they could access [on her MySpace page].

"Facebook is to be quizzed about its data protection policies by the Information Commissioner’s Office."

"Most users of social networking websites such as Facebook have no idea how their personal data can be used. It’s time to educate them on the risks, says Kevin Calder"