Travel, Trade, and privacy groups are heavily criticizing a Department of Homeland Security program that, for the past several years, has been used to mine, store, and assess the personal data of all travelers, including U.S. citizens, entering or leaving the United States. The Automated Targeting System began as a cargo-screening program. Automated Targeting System, DHS, U.S. Privacy Act, BTC, American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project
Rampant identity theft and credit card fraud have raised awareness that personal information must be protected. But if you think these issues are only your IT department's concern, think again. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has created a duty of care for anyone with access to data to take measures to keep it confidential, says Joshua Grimes of Grimes Law Offices LLC, a Philadelphia law firm serving the meetings
A frank and tip-filled session on contingency planning in these uncertain times sparked a lot of conversation at Financial & Insurance Conference Planners Northeast Chapter meeting, August 20 to 22 at the Hotel Viking, Newport, R.I. The four panelists, who included an attorney, a security expert, a national hotel sales representative, and a senior-level meeting planner, shared their advice on topics
I remember scoffing at a colleague a year ago when he suggested covering avian flu in the magazine. An outbreak in human beings would be so catastrophic, I replied, that it's hard to even imagine let alone write about the potential implications for the meeting industry. Anyway, it probably won't ever happen, I said. A year later, we're bombarded almost daily with evidence that it's critical to be
When Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co. was in the early stages of planning its 2007 incentive trip, China was high on the list of possible destinations. But, with increasing publicity about the possibility of an avian flu outbreak, the planners eventually ruled it out. The cost, distance, and desirability of the destination were all factors, says spokesman Jim Nolan. And so was the flu. As Mutual of Omaha's
