Evan Schuman’s StorefrontBacktalk has an article about attempts to pursue legal action in the US against retailers who print credit/debit card numbers on receipts. Evan says the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) that makes it illegal for a retailer to print more than the last five digits or a credit/debit card number and it also forbids printing the card’s expiration data on that receipt.

I have not written about this for a while – but this is an issue that continues to bother me. It violates privacy laws in Canada to print full numbers on either the customer or retailer copies – but it happens all the time. And some print too much of it, or print the first several digits, or print them on the retailer copy but not the customer copy. When various retailers print various parts of the numbers it makes it too easy to combine them back together.

The other thing that concerns me is what part of those numbers and other info the retailer keeps on their systems. There is no reason to print or keep those numbers.

There have been many incidents where paper containing credit card numbers have shown up in the wrong place (dumpsters, alleys) or in the wrong hands (fraudsters), or where electronic records have been similarly compromised.

So I fail to understand why any retailer would risk that happenning to them. After all, the best way to protect against personal information being misused or lost is to not have it in the first place.

Take a look at the posts linked to “credit cards” in my tag cloud to see earlier posts on the subject, including a letter from the Ontario Privacy Commissioner for a year ago sent in response to an article I wrote on the subject.

We need to put pressure on retailers to get this right.

Read Evan’s article about the US lawsuits

ZDNet has a good article entitled A Rational Debate on Net Neutrality that is worth a read by anyone wanting to understand the underlying issues of the debate. The article talks about how the Internet works, its business model, how this issue started in the first place, and some of the attempts at legislation.

In essence, net neutrality (which I agree with) is the idea that an ISP should not selectively degrade service to give one service provider better service to the user than another, whether that service provider is the ISP itself or someone else.

For previous posts of mine on the subject, click on “Network Neutrality” in my tag cloud.

Read the ZDNet article

For the London Free Press – June 5, 2007

Read this on Canoe

The CBC’s Dianne Buckner was the keynote speaker at London’s TechAlliance annual general meeting May 30, 2007. Buckner shared her top 10 list for business success she has learned from hosting and producing programs such as Venture and Dragon’s Den.

Over the years, Buckner has interviewed and been involved with shows profiling corporate leaders, successful entrepreneurs, failed entrepreneurs, and those trying to make a business from their idea.

To paraphrase from the event program, her perspective on the world of business is unique. She has interviewed leaders ranging from Warren Buffet to Paul Martin. Buckner has also interviewed people from the entire spectrum of the North American business community including those who are synonymous with success, and those who are best remembered for their failures.

Buckner’s Top 10 for business success:

- Successful entrepreneurs are risk managers, not risk takers. That is counter to the usual thought that most entrepreneurs are risk takers. The best ones understand, assess and manage the risks.

- Media exposure is good. Do what you can to attract attention to your business.

- Good advice is worth paying for. No one can be an expert at everything. Get the advice you need.

- Passion for your business is essential but isn’t everything. Passion without a plan or the right expertise will get you nowhere.

- Whenever possible, be brief.

- Fine-tune your message. Be clear and to the point. Others need to understand what you do. Far too often, especially in the tech world, it is difficult to understand what a new business or its product really does. (Anyone wanting help with that should check out the TechAlliance’s 60-second pitch contest.)

- Speak to the needs of others to get them to do what you want them to do. Don’t tell people why you need them to buy your product or hire you. Tell them why they need to do it, and what’s in it for them.

- Men are better self promoters than women.

- Work/life balance is crucial to understand human resources issues and get it right.

- A business can be located anywhere and be successful. Location/location/location may be true for real estate but not for business.

Kudos to rTraction for preparing the great video that kicked off the event.

Harrison Pensa LLP is a founding member of TechAlliance, premier sponsor for this event, and a member of its IT advisory counsel.

This month’s Wired magazine has an article entitled The Visible Man: An FBI Target Puts His Whole Life Online. Its about an artist who found himself wrongly on the terrorist watch list. So to prove his innocence he started to put every moment of his life online, down to every purchase he makes and his location at all times.

As Wired puts it: Elahi’s site is the perfect alibi. Or an audacious art project. Or both.

He says I’ve discovered that the best way to protect your privacy is to give it away. I submit that he is not protecting his privacy, he’s really giving up his privacy to protect himself against being wrongfully accused. Its interesting food for thought though, and worth a read.

Read the Wired article

The Ontario and Federal privacy commissioners have just released their annual reports. For more info, take a look at David Fraser’s blog – the best source for Canadian privacy issues.

Also check out his entries on Facebook, blogs and privacy. Its interesting to see the amount and type of personal info people make public about themselves. Contrast that with a study that shows that 25% of HR people have decided not to hire someone after doing a Google search.

Read David’s comment on the Ontario report

Read David’s comment on the Federal report

That’s the title of an article in the latest newsletter of out-law.com, a publication of the UK law firm, Pinsent Masons. It says that: “Of those [employees] who keep a blog, 39% admitted that they had posted details which could be potentially sensitive or damaging about their place of work, employer or a colleague.” Those types of remarks can lead to discipline, or even termination.

The informality of blogs, as is often the case with new communications media, lulls people into a false sense of security. People often forget the rules, and do or say things that they would never put in a letter, for example.

The article has links to other material on corporate blogging from a UK legal perspective.

Read the article