FTC to Look Into Copy Machine Privacy Breakdown

The Federal Trade Commission has responded to an April 29 letter from Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., expressing concerns about sensitive data stored on digital copiers' hard drives. Markey's letter followed CBS News' April 19 airing of a report on its investigation into the matter.

The FTC said it was aware of the privacy issues and planned to take steps to inform manufacturers, resellers and office supply stores about the risks associated with digital copying and see that they were taking steps to provide options for secure copying.

"We will work with these entities to help ensure that they provide appropriate educational materials on this subject to their clients," wrote FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. He also directed Markey to educational materials the FTC previously distributed on disposing of computer hard drives.

"We are also reaching out to government contracting officials to advise them of the risks associated with the use of digital copiers and ensure that the government is taking measures to protect the information we collect from the public," Leibowitz continued. The FTC routinely erases and destroys hard drives when it returns copiers, the chairman said.

European Racket Over Street View Privacy Spawns Probes

European privacy advocates are scaling up their scrutiny on Google regarding its Street View cars' collection of data from unencrypted WiFi networks.

German prosecutors and the Czech data protection agency have launched separate investigations into the issue; Italy's privacy regulator is looking into whether Google treated the data correctly; and the European Union's Justice Commissioner has waded into the fray.

Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt reportedly said the company plays hardball with governments on privacy issues.
Old-World Angst

Prosecutors in Hamburg, where Google has its German headquarters, are reportedly following up on a complaint against unnamed Google workers over the unauthorized interception of data.

Their examination, which will determine if the allegations warrant a full-blown investigation, could take up to two weeks.

Meanwhile, Czech Republic's data protection agency, known as "UOOU," has also reportedly launched an administrative investigation into Google's WiFi data collection.

Over in Italy, the country's privacy regulator has said it would verify whether or not Google treated the data acquired by Street View correctly.

Privacy authorities in the United Kingdom have ordered Google to destroy WiFi data its Street View cars captured in the country. A similar request by privacy authorities in the Irish Republic had Google destroy data captured from citizens of that nation.

The European Union has also stepped into the fracas -- EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding reportedly criticized Google for not following the EU's rules.

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War and Revolution

Earlier this month, Oracle effectively declared war on HP and went out of its way to disparage HP's products. I couldn't help but think back to Scott McNealy and his attacks on Microsoft nearly a decade ago. At that time, I scratched my head because Sun was basically a high-end hardware company and Microsoft a software pure-play, and it would have made more sense for the two to partner than to go to war.

After a decade of pounding Microsoft and doing a considerable amount of damage, Sun failed -- largely because HP, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) chewed Sun up. Sun had to restructure to be more effective against Microsoft and ended up commoditizing its own hardware products in the process, resulting in failure in the market.

Now look at Oracle and HP. Oracle is at the core a software company, and HP is a hardware company; however, HP is more complex in structure than Microsoft and is designed very similarly to IBM, with a few exceptions. HP lacks software, and it has printing, networking and PCs, which IBM lacks. So right now, HP really isn't in Oracle's space, and Oracle has no interest in much of the business that HP is in.

Oracle's more natural competitors are Microsoft and IBM in their class. Like Sun and Microsoft, it would seem more natural that Oracle should HP partner -- and historically they did, with an estimated 100,000 shared customers.