The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "privacy" ...
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Justice in the Shadows
Although immigration is one of America’s most divisive, visceral, and hotly debated issues, the public rarely gets a close look at the vast law enforcement network that every year detains more than 400,000 suspected illegal immigrants. Courts often operate inside prisons, far from view. Immigration officials play by rules that would not be permitted for the police or the FBI. Here is a system heavily shielded from public scrutiny. Reporting even routine activities is a challenge. Boston Globe reporters Maria Sacchetti and Milton J. Valencia, however, penetrated the wall of secrecy. Their three-part series, “Justice in the Shadows,” revealed a dysfunctional and largely unaccountable system that locks up people who pose little threat while releasing dangerous criminals back to US streets because their home countries won’t take them back. The results, Sacchetti and Valencia showed, at times can be deadly for Americans and foreigners alike. The reporting was anything but quick or easy. Sacchetti and Valencia filed more than 20 Freedom of Information Act requests to federal agencies that comprise the immigration system. Nearly all of them were partially or wholly denied, purportedly to protect the privacy of the immigrants. With the federal government blocking the way, Sacchetti and Valencia found other avenues to document what was happening inside this Byzantine system, investing a year to do so. The effort to shed light on the immigration system continues: The Globe has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security to force the agency to reveal the names of more than 8,000 criminal foreigners released in the US because they couldn’t be deported.
Tags: security; Department of Homeland Security; illegal immigrants; FBI
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Personal Space
The "What They Know" series investigates the ways in which technology is making it easier for companies and governments to gather personal information about us.
Tags: technology; privacy; government; companies; wall street journal
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"Electronic Health Records: Will They Be Safer and Save Money?"
In this yearlong, multimedia project, reporters Schulte and Schwartz investigated the shift of paper medical records to electronic records. The report drew attention to the "challenges officials are facing in computerizing" the records. Some of the challenges include concerns of privacy and patient well-being.
Tags: records; MAUDE; FDA; Center for Devices and Radiological Health; database
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Secrecy 101
"Universities hide information about their athletics departments behind a student-privacy law designed to keep grades private." Further, it hides athletes, who have done a number of unethical and some illegal activities. Also, coaches are using the law to hide their own bad behavior. All this information stunned the senator who created the law and he believes the "institutions are putting their own meaning into the law."
Tags: education; college; Senator James L. Buckley; NCAA; Ohio State; FOIA; Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); federal; sports; public records; censor; academics
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"Who Is Testing Your DNA?"; "Could Your DNA Betray You?"; "How My Genome Was Hacked"
In this series, reporters take a look at how the DNA left behind by humans can be gathered and studied by regular, everyday people. The reporters also explain how the industry of underground DNA testing can pose a serious threat to one's privacy and health.
Tags: DNA; genetic testing; DNA chips; genome; paternity testing; infidelity
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The Shadow Factory
"Following the [9/11] attacks, the NSA began its illegal program for warrantless eavesdropping. In my book, for the first time, I lay out in detail how that program began, how it was run, and how Americans were targeted."
Tags: NSA; privacy; 9/11; eavesdropping; government; big brother; security; wiretap;
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Patient Privacy
Our investigation found more than 30,000 complaints nationally had been filed under HIPAA -- the health privacy law -- yet not a single hospital or doctor has been fined. The station obtained documents on hundreds of HIPAA investications in Western Pennsylvania and found all the caes were resolved through "voluntary compliance" - no fine or penalty. Moreover, the government office that oversees HIPAA actually violated patient privacy by inadvertently releasing names of some of the people who filed HIPAA complaints.
Tags: Health Information Portability and Accountability Act; HIPAA; patient rights; privacy; hospitals; health care
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Nobody's Fault
"The intersection of our mental health and criminal justice systems as seen through the death of one mentally ill man in the county jail."
Tags: treatment; Humboldt State; privacy protection; superior court; suicide;
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Privacy Offenders
"The U.S. Census Bureau's local facility left piles of confidential records unguarded, sitting in a large, unfinished and unlocked room- for months."
Tags: privacy; federal government; personal files; social security numbers; identity theft; hidden camera
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Target Practice
A grand jury subpoena requested that all of the Phoenix New Times' notes, tapes, stories and other material regarding Sheriff Joe Arpaio since January 1, 2004 be seized. The prosecutor even demanded names of any person who visited the newspaper's website since 2004 as well. This series tells the story of the New Times' struggle against over-reaching public officials, as well as a larger story about diminishing rights to privacy and freedom of expression.
Tags: Andrew Thomas; Dennis Wilenchik; freedom of speech; courts; city government; state government; law enforcement; internet; First Amendment