Friday, April 06, 2007

Interesting to compare to identity Theft cases. What is proprietary here? (not my name and address?)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070405141525685

Former Morgan Stanley Employee Arrested On Data Theft Charges

Thursday, April 05 2007 @ 02:15 PM CDT - Contributed by: PrivacyNews - Breaches

A former Morgan Stanley client service representative was arrested and charged with stealing proprietary information relating to the brokerage firm's hedge fund clients.

Peteka is alleged to have accessed information on Morgan Stanley's hedge fund clients and the rates they pay [Not published? Bob] while he worked for another company, and sending the information to his personal e-mail account several times between December 2005 and February 2006.

Source - Consumer Affairs



Lots of surveys, no new laws.

http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=104804

Most Americans Worry About Identity Theft, According to Poll

April 5, 2007 News Release

Identity theft is a topic that weighs heavily on the minds of many Americans -- the vast majority of respondents (91 percent) in a new Zogby Interactive survey said they are concerned that their identity might be stolen and used to make unauthorized purchases.

The online survey, which includes a respondent base that is comfortable with the Internet, also shows that of those, half (50 percent) said they were very concerned about identity theft. Older adults are the most concerned -- 94 percent of those age 65 and older said they worry about the possibility of their identity being compromised. Even though younger adults are slightly less concerned, 86 percent of those age 18 to 29 said they worry about identity theft. Overall, 92 percent said protecting their identity is important.

... In addition to identity theft, the survey also shows respondents worry about what companies might to do with personal information gathered about customers. The vast majority of respondents (91 percent) said they are concerned that retailers, credit card companies, banks and other firms could sell their personal information for marketing purposes. Nearly as many (83 percent) said they are concerned that information provided to retailers could end up in the hands of others, either through theft or sale.

Respondents' confidence in how aggressively their personal information is protected by such companies from theft also varies -- one in three (34 percent) said they are not confident that retailers, credit card companies, banks and other firms that have detailed records of a customer's personal information are taking the appropriate steps to safeguard that information. But more than one in four (28 percent) said they believe companies are doing a good job of keeping their information safe.

Not surprisingly, 85 percent of respondents said privacy of their personal information is important to them as consumers. But that is apparently not enough to drive people to the fine print -- 29 percent said they rarely read the privacy policies from retailers, credit card companies and banks about how they will use a customer's personal information -- and another 8 percent said they never do.

If a company says they will not share or sell customer information, nearly half (48 percent) believe the company will not do so, but 35 percent said they're skeptical that companies follow through with their promises to protect consumer privacy.



The police officer as second class citizen.

http://fourthamendment.com/blog/index.php?blog=1&title=a_police_officer_has_a_lesser_right_to_p&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

04/05/07 06:21:35 am, by fourth Email

A police officer has a lesser right to privacy as a result of his career choice

In a convoluted RICO conspiracy claim brought by an NYPD officer against the city and others, one claim dealt with invasion of privacy. The court held that the officer had a lower expectation of privacy as a result of his voluntarily becoming a police officer. The case involved detox. Buneo v. City of New York, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24766 (E.D. N.Y. March 30, 2007):



Is this data hijacking or a company that just doesn't care?

http://consumerist.com/consumer/apple/apple-no-you-cant-have-your-data-back-were-keeping-it-249967.php

04 05 2007

Apple: No, You Can't Have Your Data Back, We're Keeping It

If you have AppleCare and send your Mac in for a hard drive issue, you'll want to be aware of their policies. If Apple can't fix the hard drive and restore your data they'll replace the disk, but they'll also keep your old drive. Even if you ask for it back. Even if you try to buy it back. Reader Chris says this is standard industry policy, but he still objects to it:

... So, it turns out, Apple will hold your hard drive hostage at an Apple Store, not because of cost or stock management, but simply because they do. I did not mail my laptop to a service center, I took it to a store and am going to pick it up. There is, functionally, no difference for Apple if I get my warranty drive and take my old hard drive *full of my personal data* or not. In fact, I save them the trouble of disposing of it. They simply refuse to allow it. From what I hear this is standard industry practice.



It's always good to have a bad example...

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070404/224047.shtml

Note To Self: Don't Store Top Secret Military Data In Porn Folder

from the just-a-suggestion dept

While the US gov't may have trouble keeping track of important computers with sensitive information, there's just something extra special about the way top secret information leaks in Japan. There were, of course, the nuclear secrets leaked via a file sharing program, after an outside contractor was allowed to use his personal computer to store the documents. The latest seems almost as bizarre. Apparently top secret information on Aegis destroyers were passed among a few petty officers in Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force, after one such officer copied the porn directory from a colleague's computer. This raises all sorts of questions, but the biggest one has to be: what person thinks that they'll hide top secret military documents in a porn folder and assume that that's the least likely place that people will end up looking?



“Now all we need is a “vote this way” drug.” Every Politician on earth

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070405/074325.shtml

Does Your Cell Phone Plan Come With Unlimited Drug Delivery?

from the dialing-it-in dept

The concept of telemedicine, allowing doctors to offer their services from a distance, has been hyped up for some time, although it has yet to take off in a big way. Now a team of European and Israeli scientists are experimenting with a more direct way of using modern communications technology to deliver medicine: using a cell phone to control a drug-dispensing tooth that can be implanted in a patient's mouth. The invention is aimed at patients who either forget to take their medicine, [but never forget their cell phone... Bob] or just don't like to. Instead, the medicine will already be stored in their mouth, and will be emitted at a regular interval on command from their handsets. Presumably, it could also be used to deliver a drug like morphine, which the patient controls, but is limited in terms of how often it can be taken. Of course, once these start being implanted in patients, you can only imagine the type of conspiracy theories that will arise having to do with pernicious plots between the government, handset makers and dentists to dope us all with mind-altering elixirs.



Is there a “why” here?

http://news.com.com/2010-1025_3-6173903.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

Web 2.0--the folly of amateurs?

By Charles Cooper Story last modified Fri Apr 06 05:21:42 PDT 2007

Andrew Keen doesn't fit the profile of your garden-variety bomb thrower.

But make no mistake about this erudite British-born entrepreneur: He is out to rattle Silicon Valley and the geekerati by detonating many of the comfortable myths attending the Web 2.0 era.

In a deliciously subversive new book, The Cult of the Amateur, which debuts in June, Keen recounts the many ways in which technology is remaking our culture and society. Anyone familiar with Keen's previous work from his blog will recognize the terrain here. Keen is a gloomy elitist--in the best sense of that term--wistful about a politer, more thoughtful era, but one that's destined to get trampled underneath by the amoral onslaught of the Internet.

... The subtitle of his book states his thesis bluntly: "How the democratization of the digital world is assaulting our economy, our culture, and our values."



well, DUH!

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/05/186235&from=rss

Study Finds Cost Major Factor In Outsourcing Positions

Posted by Zonk on Thursday April 05, @03:19PM from the they-get-you-coming-and-going dept. The Almighty Buck Businesses IT

theodp writes "Debunking claims to the contrary, a new study from Duke University asserts that it is purely cost savings, and not the education of Indian and Chinese workers, or a shortage of American engineers that has caused offshore outsourcing. 'The key advantage of hiring Chinese entry-level engineers was cost savings, whereas a few respondents cited strong education or training and a willingness to work long hours. Similarly, cost savings were cited as a major advantage of hiring Indian entry-level engineers, whereas other advantages were technical knowledge, English language skills, strong education or training, ability to learn quickly, and a strong work ethic.' The article goes on to point out that despite this, outsourcing will continue to be a problem for US workers in coming decades; new elements of traditional corporations like R&D may in fact be next on the outsourcing chopping block."



Other uses?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/06/0048250&from=rss

Web Scanning Technology for Copyright Violations

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday April 06, @12:42AM from the finding-a-good-movie dept. Media The Courts The Internet

eldavojohn writes "I've heard a lot of talk about software being used to detect pirated media anywhere on the web, but haven't seen a lot of details. PhysOrg has a good article on one of the tools out there. Automatic Copyright Infringement Detection (ACID) boasts a patented technology coined 'meaning-based computing' that is reportedly capable of finding relationships between 1,000 different types of files. The important thing is that this is not tagging based searching. 'Autonomy's search technology uses automatic hyperlinking and link clustering that the company claims isn't built into keyword search engines. According to the company, this technology allows computers to perform searches with greater context, so it finds a wider range of related documents or research citations than is possible from keyword searches.' For more details on how this magic works, check out Autonomy's patent and the many patents by its subdivision, Virage."



Busy, busy, busy!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/014485.html

April 05, 2007

State of the Blogoshpere Report, April 2007

David Sifry's annual State of the Blogosphere report: "Technorati is now tracking over 70 million weblogs, and we're seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day." Archive of reports dating back to October 2004 are linked here.

[From the article: Technorati is now tracking over 70 million weblogs, and we're seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.



Is this progress?

http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-6173839.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news

New technology lets you read your voice mail

Several companies are betting on voice-recognition applications that transcribe those rambling messages into e-mail or text messages.

By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: April 6, 2007, 4:00 AM PDT

Why listen to your voice mail messages when you can read them? That's what a new crop of companies is asking--they're developing software that turns voice mail messages into transcribed e-mail or text messages.



20th century literature gets it, why can't the music people?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070403/100546.shtml

No RIAA For The Comic Book Industry

from the and-that's-a-good-thing dept

Lee writes "The digitization and subsequent illegal distribution of copyrighted media isn't just affecting movies and music. The creators of comic books seem to be going through the same business model shift as the recording and motion picture industries. As with all such changes, some people are more willing to accept it than others. Steven Grant at Comicbookresources.com has an interesting article about how the comic book world is dealing with life in the 21st century. He makes some good points and clearly understands that things are not going to change unless there's some innovation in the comic book business model." He basically points out that file sharing isn't going away, and the industry needs to learn to accept it, use it for promotions, but ask people to keep buying the comic books they want. Considering that, for many, comic books are for collecting, this doesn't seem too far fetched. Though, at the same time, the industry may want to look at other changes to their business model as well, such as bundling other things into the mix as well (e.g., if you buy the actual comic you get entered into a sweepstakes to have your name used as a character in a future comic). There are plenty of ways to make buying the actual comic books more valuable than just downloading them -- and then if you use the downloads just as promotions, you can encourage more people to buy by exposing more people to the comic itself.



Another blow to the RIAA?

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/apple-probe-shake-up-whole/story.aspx?guid=%7B13C61718-B575-4E03-A92B-37BEF80AF1B5%7D

Apple probe will shake up whole music industry

By Jessica Hodgson Last Update: 1:19 PM ET Apr 4, 2007

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- A European antitrust probe into the pricing of Apple Inc.'s iTunes music downloads service could force the music industry to unravel the complex web of intellectual property agreements which allow music to be sold across the world, experts say.

The investigation, which comes a day after Apple and EMI Group PLC said they have agreed to scrap digital rights management (or DRM) copy protection, opens up a new area of uncertainty for the industry, still fighting to contain piracy and to persuade consumers of the merits of buying music on the Internet.

But some argue that the move could ultimately prove to be the catalyst the beleaguered industry requires to force a shift towards a genuinely open global market for digital music.



Nibbling at the edges of Microsoft...

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/56732.html

The Steady Migration of Smartphones to Linux

By John P. Mello Jr. LinuxInsider Part of the ECT News Network 04/06/07 4:00 AM PT

With Palm attempting to migrate its OS to Linux and Symbian working to begin a degree of interoperability with Unix, Linux-based phones are gaining ground, and a recent ABI report suggests they will make up 14 percent of the market by 2012. They face an uphill battle, however against an array of difficult obstacles.



Just because Google is doing it?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/05/HNmsfundsmappingresearch_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/04/05/HNmsfundsmappingresearch_1.html

Microsoft funds new mapping research programs

The software company has dedicated $1.1 million to programs that develop new uses for the VIrtual Earth and SensorMap applications

By Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service April 05, 2007

Microsoft announced $1.1 million in funding for academic research programs that will develop new applications using its Virtual Earth and SensorMap technologies.

One of the recipients of the funding is a Harvard University project called CitySense, which is also funded by the National Science Foundation. CitySense is a network that consists of 100 nodes -- PCs equipped with long-range Wi-Fi radios and sensors -- that hang on streetlights in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The sensors monitor pollution, wind speed, humidity, temperature, rainfall, and car traffic.



We don't need a single database if multiple databases are connected...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RETAIL_CRIME_DATA_BASE?SITE=VALYD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Retail Trade, FBI Fight Organized Theft

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO AP Business Writer Apr 5, 12:42 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two leading retail industry associations have teamed up with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to create a national online database that will allow merchants to share information to fight organized retail theft.

The database, scheduled to debut Monday with 40 retailers, consolidates efforts made by the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. Both organizations had launched their own password-protected online national crime data bases last year.

... According to a recent poll conducted by NRF, 81 percent of retailers surveyed said they have been a victim of organized retail crime. Nearly half of those polled also had seen an increase in organized retail crime activity in their stores.



I suspect this will spread quickly...

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_040507WABcraigslistadLJ.34e92f1d.html

Family feud may have sparked cruel Craigslist hoax

05:34 PM PDT on Thursday, April 5, 2007 By: RAY LANE / KING 5 News

TACOMA, Wash. - A family feud may be behind a fake ad on Craigslist that invited people to take whatever they wanted for free from a Tacoma home, but it appears police aren't ready to haul anyone to jail for it.

... Raye says she recently evicted the tenant who was living there – her own sister – leading to speculation that Raye's own siblings may be behind the ad.

... The sibling rivalry is one of the reasons Tacoma Police are not looking at this as a criminal case. They say it's a civil matter.

... Officials at Craigslist say they need a subpoena or search warrant to release information about who posted the ad. Tacoma Police say they are not going to request those documents.

Police also say even if they knew who took items from the home, most would likely not face criminal charges.

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