My second day in Washington involved more meetings and discussion of hot-button issues in the tech and privacy sectors.

On Wednesday 1 May, the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) hosted their Data Protection Authorities Day (DPA) at the White House.

We’ve all seen the ads for genetic ancestry testing - as a way for people to trace their genealogy beyond traditional family trees and historical detail. And thanks to shows like CSI, the public might think of DNA as an investigative tool for the Police; a silver bullet that can solve any high-profile case in just minutes. But DNA can be used for much more than law enforcement activities or tracing ancestry.

OPC has teamed up with South Auckland community initiative UpSouth for this year’s Privacy Week (13-17 May).

Once upon a time, we didn’t collect data about people because we didn’t have the technical means to do so. Computers weren’t fast enough, sensors weren’t small enough, and storage wasn’t cheap enough. As technology has continually improved, it has enabled a superabundance of data – more data being collected means more data is being stored and transmitted, which means more data is being used.

We see it everywhere – people on buses working on their laptops, people sitting poolside reading personnel files – and we wonder if these conscientious people are aware that the information can be seen easily by those around them.

Cameron Slater, a well-known blogger, published a number of posts about business consultant Matthew Blomfield on the Whale Oil site. The posts were released between May–October 2012. There were additional publications containing personal information about Mr Blomfield on other blog sites.

The New Year is often a time for people to think about their health plans. And while “new year, new me” might not extend to “new health insurance”, your patients may be considering taking out or renewing their health or life insurance policy.