secrecy

See the following -

'Sandbox For Geeks' Powers Open Medical Research

Alex Woodie | Datanami | July 10, 2013

The people behind Sage Bionetworks hope that a new community-driven approach to research that features a big pool of scientific data that is open to all--or a "sandbox for geeks" as its founder put it--will result in progress being made in the battles against diseases such as arthritis, Alzheimer's, and breast cancer. Read More »

A Secret Court Making Secret Laws? That's No Democracy

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | July 8, 2013

Last December, well before the Ed Snowden leaks revealed some information about the FISA court (FISC) and its rulings, we had already noted that the court itself was almost certainly unconstitutional. Read More »

Advancing Antimalarial Drug Research Through Open Source Initiatives

Jeremy Burrows | The Guardian | July 24, 2013

Open research can lead to new drugs tackling diseases that afflict the world's poor. But first, more scientists need to buy into contributing to something bigger than their careers Read More »

Appeals Court Skeptical Of Obama Secrecy Around Drone Killings

David Ingram | Chicago Tribune News | September 20, 2012

A U.S. appeals court responded skeptically on Thursday to Obama administration assertions the government can withhold documents about a program that uses aerial drones for targeted killings overseas. Read More »

DOJ Says Public Has No Right To Know About The Secret Laws The Feds Use To Spy On Us

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | July 8, 2013

So, we were just discussing the insanity of the FISA court (FISC) basically acting as a shadow Supreme Court, making broad rulings in total secrecy that have created a secret body of law that the public is not allowed to know about. Read More »

EU Agency Lifts Lid on Drug Data Secrets

Ben Hirschler | Reuters | July 15, 2012

Europe's medicines regulator, criticised in the past for excessive secrecy, is opening its data vaults to systematic scrutiny in a move that will let independent researchers trawl through millions of pages of clinical trial information. Read More »

Health Records Of Every NHS Patient To Be Shared In Vast Database

Sarah Knapton | The Telegraph | January 10, 2014

The health records of everyone in the NHS will be pooled in a vast database which can be accessed by researchers and pharmaceutical companies. But campaigners warn it could breach privacy. Read More »

How CMS Makes Quality Data Public While Still Keeping It Secret

Cheryl Clark | HealthLeaders Media | September 26, 2013

The federal government seems to want to keep safety data on eight hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) secret at the same time that it boasts how transparent it's being. Read More »

How Secrecy in Medical Research Harms our Health

David Hammerstein | David Hammerstein's Blog | June 29, 2012

Medical research data remain shrouded in secrecy.  As a result the data is distorted and misrepresented by pharmaceutical companies launching new medicines to exaggerate their efficacy, minimize their harmful side effects, and conceal the fact that these products are often no more effective than those already on the market.  Clinical trials are unnecessarily repeated and overall, health-care and patients suffer. Read More »

ICE Releases Documents Detailing Electronic Surveillance Problems . . . And Then Demands Them Back A Year Later

Jennifer Lynch | Electronic Frontier Foundation | November 5, 2012

This is a first for us in all of EFF's history of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation—Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has demanded we return records it gave us more than a year ago. [...] [It] seems that ICE simply wants to stymie further FOIA requests from EFF as we try to get answers about the government's electronic surveillance procedures. Read More »

Is Obamacare’s ‘Tech Surge’ Real?

Ezra Klein | Washington Post | October 23, 2013

On Sunday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a major "tech surge" to save the health-care exchanges. "Our team is bringing in some of the best and brightest from both inside and outside government to scrub in with the team and help improve HealthCare.gov," they promised. Read More »

Sorry, Open Source Isn't The Panacea For HealthCare.gov

Matt Asay | ReadWrite | November 4, 2013

Open-source advocates think open source is the answer to all HealthCare.gov woes. But it's not that simple. Read More »

The NSA's New Spy Facilities Are 7 Times Bigger Than The Pentagon

Aliya Sternstein | Defense One | July 25, 2013

He works at one of the three-letter intelligence agencies and oversees construction of a $1.2 billion surveillance data center in Utah that is 15 times the size of MetLife Stadium, home to the New York Giants and Jets. Long Island native Harvey Davis, a top National Security Agency official, needs that commanding presence. Read More »

The NSA-Reform Paradox: Stop Domestic Spying, Get More Security

Bruce Schneier | The Atlantic | September 11, 2013

The nation can survive the occasional terrorist attack, but our freedoms can't survive an invulnerable leader like Keith Alexander operating within inadequate constraints. Read More »

University Of California's Latest Plan: Privatize Knowledge, Take Out Lots Of Patents -- Profit!

Glyn Moody | Techdirt | July 1, 2013

At the end of last year, we wrote about an extraordinary attempt by the University of California (UC) to resuscitate the infamous "Eolas" patents that were thrown out earlier by a jury in East Texas. Clearly, the University of California likes patents, and the way that they can be used to extract money from people with very little effort... Read More »