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JAPAN / Politics
Nov 4, 2013

New secrecy law seen best serving bureaucrats

The secrecy bill is dangerous because Japan already has a lot of nondisclosable information and several laws to protect it, the head of an NPO warns.
JAPAN / STAGING A COMEBACK
Jan 4, 2001

Information disclosure could give power to citizens if they get involved

Satoru Ienishi felt overwhelming anger as he watched a newscast at his Tokyo office on June 13, 1998.
EDITORIALS
Aug 7, 2000

Information law loaded with perils

A government panel is now fleshing out a blueprint for basic legislation designed to protect personal information held by public and private organizations -- information that makes it possible to identify the individuals involved, such as depositors lists held by banks. It is, in principle, necessary...
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 4, 2013

U.S. model not seen serving Japan's bid to keep its secrets

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government pushes for a controversial new state secrets law, critics warn that the public's right to know will be greatly stifled because the bill, recently approved by the Cabinet, targets leakers of information the state deems critical to defense, diplomacy, terrorism...
EDITORIALS
Aug 1, 2007

Revise the personal information law

The Personal Information Protection Law, which went into effect in April 2005, in principle bars organizations that possess or handle personal information from providing it to third parties without the consent of the people concerned. Good intentions are behind the law.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 16, 2020

China's information warfare is failing again

Beijing may have failed in its international effort to pin the COVID-19 outbreak on the U.S., but don't underestimate its ability to control information domestically.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 10, 2020

Japan must provide multilingual information on COVID-19

The government should create basic guidelines on how to disseminate information and give consultation services in foreign languages on COVID-19.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 18, 2015

Turn deluge of climate change information into usable stream, experts say

For a city planner looking to make a new building flood-proof, or a farmer interested in trying out new drought-resistant seed, there is no shortage of climate change information available.
EDITORIALS
Dec 2, 2013

The politics of secrets

Flip-flops in government explanations of the contentious bill for protecting state secrets — now under deliberation in the Upper House — suggest that the government itself does not have a clear idea of how it plans to prevent the arbitrary designation of information as a special secret.
Kagoshima District Court has given a former Kagoshima Prefectural Police officer a suspended sentence for leaking investigative information.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 6, 2024

Former Kagoshima police officer found guilty of leaking investigation details

The judge said that the magnitude of the privacy violation was large as the officer shared information on personal criminal records and details of more than 100 cases.
A building that houses a museum of penises and an H&M in Reykjavik, Iceland, has become the virtual home to some of the world’s worst perpetrators of identity theft, ransomware, disinformation, and other wrongdoing.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 14, 2024

Some of the web’s sketchiest sites share an address in Iceland

The street address of the Icelandic Phallological Museum is also the registered address for a company that allows people to shield their identities online.
Leaders at Sweden's Psychological Defense Agency, a state agency, in Stockholm
WORLD / Society
Aug 14, 2023

Sweden is not staying neutral in Russia’s information war

Officials say the Kremlin has targeted Sweden with a concerted psychological campaign to discredit the country and undermine its bid to join NATO.
Twitter's new X logo at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California, on July 29
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 31, 2023

Elon Musk's X to collect biometric data, work and school history

It’s unclear how X will collect the data or how it may be used.
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.
My Number cardholders will soon be able to save their identity verification information on smartphones.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 31, 2024

Japan enacts revised My Number law enabling info on smartphones

The move is expected to boost My Number cardholders' convenience.
According to a third party investigation, phishing attacks are thought to have enabled the theft of employee account information, which gave hackers access to Kadokawa's internal network.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 6, 2024

Kadokawa confirms data leak of 254,000 people due to cyberattack

According to a third party investigation, phishing attacks are thought to have enabled the hack and subsequent date leak.
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.
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."
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.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit seeking to break up the social networking giant Meta.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 5, 2024

Meta withheld information on Instagram and WhatsApp deals, FTC says

The company formerly known as Facebook bought photo-sharing app Instagram in 2012 and the messaging app WhatsApp in 2014.
A bank and two securities companies under Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group could face punitive action for allegedly sharing customer information without consent, sources said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 7, 2024

MUFG units could be penalized for sharing client information

MUFG Bank and the securities firms exchanged information related to clients’ mergers and acquisitions without their consent, sources say.
Security cameras in front of a portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on March 11
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Aug 2, 2024

China’s proposed digital ID system stokes fears of overreach

China's new centralized digital ID system may give authorities a more direct and complete view of people’s online lives.
U.S. Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 20, 2024

U.S. accuses social media giants of 'vast surveillance'

Tech companies "harvest an enormous amount of Americans' personal data," says FTC chief Lina Khan.
The IFC One Saigon building in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Nov. 30, 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 4, 2024

U.S. tech firms issue warning over Vietnam's planned data law

The country is aiming to exponentially increase its data center industry with foreign investment in coming years.
The bill calls for mandatory prior approval by an independent organization to break into the server of an attack source and render it harmless.
JAPAN
Jan 17, 2025

Japan to penalize the illicit use of cyber defense information

The penalties are part of a broader government plan to introduce active cyber defense, or preemptive action to prevent cyberattacks.
Demonstrators protest against actions taken by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, outside the Treasury Department in Washington, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 9, 2025

U.S. federal judge temporarily blocks Musk's DOGE from accessing payment systems

A federal judge temporarily blocks Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing U.S. Treasury systems, citing risks of sensitive data leaks and cybersecurity threats.
An illustration shows avatars that will be created at the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion of the Osaka Expo.
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2025

Errors found in Osaka Expo pavilion's privacy policy

The operator of the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion and a sponsor company are considering whether to correct a discrepancy relating to the handling of visitors' personal information.
Vehicles wait in line to cross into the United States at the Canada-U.S. border in St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, Canada.
WORLD / Politics
Apr 15, 2025

Avoid U.S. travel or take burner devices, Canadian organizations tell staff

Employees have also been given advice on how to minimize information that can be accessed by border agents.

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.