Privacy guru leaves to focus on security

NEWS US privacy campaigner Richard Smith has abandoned his focus on privacy rights to concentrate on security issues. The move is a telling sign of an industry-wide shift in priorities following the events of 11 September. Since the terror attacks, security issues have been given much more prominence than privacy. Smith, formerly a high-profile privacy campaigner, left his post as chief technology officer at the Denver-based Privacy Foundation to become an independent consultant researching Internet security and Biometric technology, US wires report.