Introduces RSA, one of the most popular public-key cryptosystems that is used to protect the privacy of computer users. Describes the mathematical foundation of public key cryptography. (KHR)

Describes why a new law requiring California colleges to warn people of security breaches involving their computerized personal data has administrators worried about both cost and liability. (EV)

Although no school leader likes media coverage of sensitive issues, handling them forthrightly and candidly benefits everyone. The three major facets of an effective media campaign include realistic expectations of the media, personalizing media relations, and controlling both access and message. (MLH)

States that the right of the public to know and the right of the individual to privacy are inherently in conflict. Examines the relationship between privacy law and the press. Observes that conditions with the birth of new electronic media are similar to those of a century ago, when two lawyers sued for relief from aggressive journalists. (PA)

Examines the relationship between the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Topics discussed include the reduction or elimination of tariffs on NII products; protection of copyrighted works; unresolved trade issues, including the European telecommunications market; standards; and privacy and…

Discussion of individual rights and privacy in Japan focuses on the Privacy Protection Act, which acknowledges the threat posed by government databases to the individual's right of privacy. Characteristics of the Japanese legal system are described, origins of privacy in Japanese law are examined, and privacy and government databases are…

In the April 1999 issue of this journal, Michael Ferraraccio argues that the justifications advanced for using metal detectors in schools are not sufficiently compelling to outweigh students' Fourth Amendment privacy rights. In the accompanying Counterpoint, Robert Johnson cites lower court cases to support the constitutionality of their used on a…

In a federal case involving a vice-principal's pat-down search of middle-school students in a cafeteria (for a missing pizza knife), the court upheld the search, saying it was relatively unintrusive and met "TLO's" reasonable-suspicion standards. Principals need reasonable justification for searching a group. (Contains 18 references.)…

Explains the concept of global information justice and describes it as an ethical ideal, as an organizing principle for a model for analysis, and as a direction for policy making. Discusses the use of new technologies; access to technology; ownership; privacy; security; community; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (Author/LRW)

Develops a model for privacy regulation in workplaces that identifies three elements: environmental mechanisms (physical elements of workspaces), behavioral mechanisms (overt and cognitive behaviors expressing territoriality or adaptation), and social mechanisms (organizational policy and social supports for individual and group privacy. (Contains…

Increasing numbers of school employees are stumbling and/or crashing and burning on the Internet superhighway. Employees should understand that their e-mail and Internet accounts are not really theirs or private, since their employer pays for access for work purposes. Storing, sending, or forwarding inappropriate messages is verboten. (MLH)

Peeping software takes several forms and can be used on a network or to monitor a certain computer. E-Mail Plus, for example, hides inside a computer and sends exact copies of incoming or outgoing e-mail anywhere. School staff with monitored computers should demand e-mail privacy. (MLH)

Citing new provisions of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, discusses legal limitations and exceptions to posting personally identifiable student information on a school district's Web site. (PKP)

There are at present two inconsistencies with respect to the sharing of personal health information (PHI) among health care professionals caring for a patient whom the information concerns. First, there is an inconsistency between what is in theory the ethics and law governing the confidentiality and privacy of this information--it may only be…

This article describes the results of the 19th annual Computers in Libraries Conference in Washington, DC on March 10-12, 2004. The conference peered into the future, drew lessons from the past, and ran like clockwork. Program chair Jane Dysart and her organizing committee are by now old hands, bringing together three keynote addresses, 100…