Yesterday, a data breach complaint was filed with several data protection authorities in the European Union by Dr Johnny Ryan of Brave (the private web browser); Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group; and Michael Veale of University College London. A post on the Brave website explains the basis of the action as follows: "Every time a person visits a website and is shown a “behavioural” ad on a website, intimate personal data that describes each visitor, and what they are watching online, is broadcast to tens or hundreds of companies. "Advertising technology companies broadcast these data widely in order to solicit potential advertisers’ bids for the attention of the specif

I read the news reports yesterday where Defense Secretary Lorenzana admitted to giving Solicitor General Calida the amnesty files of Senator Trillanes and the hundreds of other soldiers who availed of the amnesty in 2011. In the same news reports, Secretary Lorenzana said that SolGen Calida merely asked for the files but did not tell him of the purpose for the request. Lorenzana gave the files to Calida anyway. I’ve been thinking about this since yesterday and I remain bothered by the readiness of Secretary Lorenzana to disclose personal data of hundreds of people without an ostensible lawful basis for the disclosure. This question of whether government agencies can share personal data of in