Tag - personal-information

 
 

PERSONAL INFORMATION

A new problem was reported over Fujitsu's system that allows My Number card holders to obtain copies of residence and other certificates at convenience stores.
JAPAN
Apr 17, 2024
Fujitsu given guidance over My Number system problem
The internal affairs ministry demanded that Fujitsu report by May 15 on its investigation into the incident and preventive measures.
People applying for My Number cards are likely to be able to present digital IDs as valid identification documents when receiving the card starting next month.
JAPAN
Apr 15, 2024
Government plans to allow digital IDs to receive My Number cards
The move is aimed at broadening the scope of acceptable ID methods to encourage students and workers to sign up for the cards.
James Manyika, who heads Google’s technology and society team, delivers the keynote address at Google I/O in Mountain View, California, in 2023. OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law as they sought online information to train their newest artificial intelligence systems.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 8, 2024
How tech giants cut corners to harvest data for AI
The companies’ actions illustrate how online information has increasingly become the lifeblood of the booming AI industry.
Participants take part in a matchmaking event organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government at Jindai Botanical Gardens on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Society
Mar 23, 2024
Tokyo, Tokyo, make me a match! Metropolis hopes AI app will spur marriages
The app will ask matrimonial hopefuls more than 100 questions as the capital seeks to curb declining numbers of marriages and births.
Police officers monitor traffic on the streets from surveillance cameras in Buenos Aires in April 2020.
WORLD / Society
Mar 20, 2024
Reboot of Buenos Aires facial recognition plan fuels privacy fears
The system of 300 cameras linked to a national crime database was suspended two years ago after a court ruled it unconstitutional.
TikTok creators gather before a news conference to voice their opposition to a pending crackdown legislation on TikTok in the House of Representatives, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Mar 15, 2024
TikTok bill sets up fight over free speech protections of U.S. Constitution
Opponents could argue it infringes free speech by preventing users from expressing themselves and businesses from using the app to promote their products.
Takeshi Idezawa, president of LY (right), receives administrative guidance from a communications ministry official at the ministry on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 5, 2024
Ministry urges Line app operator to boost data protection after breach
The communications ministry cited the app provider's reliance on a South Korean firm for operations and lack of countermeasures against cyberattacks.
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West President Masaaki Moribayashi (center) bows at a news conference in Osaka on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Feb 29, 2024
NTT West president to resign over customer information theft
NTT West has been slapped with administrative guidance by the communications ministry for insufficient supervising.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the White House in Washington on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 29, 2024
Biden cracks down on U.S. data flows to China and Russia
Seeking to protect American personal data, Biden unveiled an executive order barring genomic data transfers to China and other "countries of concern."
OpenAI has announced that it will add a memory feature to its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 15, 2024
The perils of giving ChatGPT more memory
ChatGPT developer OpenAI is rolling out a memory feature that, it says, will improve the bot. But not if it ends up replicating the biases of social media.
Digital minister Taro Kono (second from right) and health minister Keizo Takemi hand out leaflets to promote the use of My Number cards as health insurance certificates at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo last month.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 22, 2023
Japan to scrap health insurance cards from December next year
The government aims to streamline administration and improve health care services by integrating the function of the cards into My Number cards.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a meeting to discuss the results of comprehensive inspection of My Number information held at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2023
15,907 mistakes found over My Number info linkages
The government said it has completed personal identification checks for 82.06 million of the 82.08 million My Numbers subject to inspection.
A My Number card reader at a clinic in Tokyo
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 3, 2023
Half of hospitals see no merit in My Number health insurance cards
Over 70 million in Japan have already adopted the cards, but actual use remains around 4%.
As many as 440,000 items of personal data, including more than 300,000 linked to the Line messaging app, have been leaked.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 27, 2023
Line operator says some 440,000 items of personal data leaked
Leaked data related to Line services did not include information regarding bank accounts, credit cards or chat messages in the Line app.
The Diet building in Tokyo. Japan is not considering penalties for noncompliant businesses in its planned guidelines on the development and use of generative artificial intelligence.
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 24, 2023
Japan's generative AI guidelines to carry no penalties
The government aims to accelerate the development and use of generative AI under the guidelines that it expects to compile later this year.
Seiko Noda (right), head of a suprapartisan group of lawmakers discussing assisted reproductive technology, addresses the group's general meeting held in the Diet building on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Nov 8, 2023
Bill on sperm and egg donors seeks disclosure of some information
The draft seeks to allow information that is not personally identifiable, such as height, blood type and age, to be disclosed without donor's consent
A 23andMe DNA kit
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 31, 2023
Drugmakers are set to pay 23andMe millions to access consumer DNA
Under the new agreement, 23andMe will provide GSK with access to anonymized DNA data from customers who have agreed to share their information.
The European Union and Japan concluded an agreement Saturday on cross-border data flows, a deal that could benefit companies across a range of sectors, including financial services, transport, machinery and e-commerce, allowing them to handle data without cumbersome and costly administration.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2023
EU and Japan conclude agreement on data flows
The deal on cross-border data flows should drive business and may help shape global rules for data, the European Commission said.
About 9 million sets of customer information have been leaked from an NTT West subsidiary.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2023
NTT unit says around 9 million sets of customer information leaked
The former worker illegally downloaded customer information between around July 2013 and January this year.
Hackers have attacked the Philippines’ state health insurer, which didn’t have cyber protection software, leaving the data of millions of the country's citizens vulnerable.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 10, 2023
Hacked Philippine health insurer had no cyber protection software
The lapse, partly caused by a change in procurement processes, adds to a series of attacks on Philippine government agencies.

Longform

Later this month, author Shogo Imamura will open Honmaru, a bookstore that allows other businesses to rent its shelves. It's part of a wave of ideas Japanese booksellers are trying to compete with online spaces.
The story isn't over for Japan's bookstores