Sunday, April 19, 2009

Which is most logical? Most just?

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=3136

Data Breach Notification Law Across the World from California to Australia

April 18, 2009 by admin Filed under: Breach Laws, Commentaries and Analyses, Non-U.S., U.S.

Alana Maurushat of University of New South Wales has published a review and comparison that is available online at bepress.com in pdf format. The abstract:

Data breach notification and disclosure laws are emerging around the globe. The following article and table examine the specifics of data breach notification frameworks in multiple jurisdictions. Over the year of 2008, Alana Maurushat of the Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre, with research assistance from David Vaile and student interns Renee Watts, Nathalie Pala, Michael Whitbread, Eugenie Kyung-Eun Hwang and David Chau, compiled the data. The table represents a detailed survey of data breach disclosure requirements in 25 countries, conducted by surveying those current or proposed statutory or similar instruments setting out the nature and conditions of such requirements to give notice. The Centre hopes that the table will be useful to compare and contrast elements of data breach notification schemes. The researchers at the CLPC will research the effectiveness of such schemes in future projects.



So, it will be illegal for me to find out what's on the RFID tag attached to my purchase? Or the one on that yard sale item that claims to have a year left on the warranty? Shouldn't all of this be open?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090418073057137

Washington State Adopts Second RFID Privacy Law

Saturday, April 18 2009 @ 07:30 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire has signed into law a bill prohibiting the scanning of an RFID tag by anyone except the business or agency that issued that tag, with certain exceptions.

The legislation, known as House Bill (HB) 1011, lists a dozen such exceptions, including situations in which the scanning is part of a sales transaction initiated by the tag holder, or data from an individual's identification device is remotely read or stored in the course of an act of good-faith security research, experimentation or scientific inquiry. The law is set to go into effect on July 26, 2009.

Source - RFID Journal



Oh look, an open can of worms!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/19/007219&from=rss

Internet Archive Seeks Same Online Book Rights As Google

Posted by timothy on Sunday April 19, @01:26AM from the from-a-to-z-and-back-again dept. Books The Internet

Miracle Jones writes

"Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive has jumped on Google's 'Authors Guild' settlement and asked to be included as a party defendant, claiming that they ought to get the same rights and protections from liability that Google will receive when the settlement is approved by federal court. From the Internet Archive's letter to Judge Denny Chin: 'The Archive's text archive would greatly benefit from the same limitation of potential copyright liability that the proposed settlement provides Google. Without such a limitation, the Archive would be unable to provide some of these same services due to the uncertain legal issues surrounding orphan books.'"



Hell no! I determine which truth is THE truth, and it's whatever I answered on my test – not what that defamatory textbook says!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090418105746245

The Dynamic Balance Between Free Speech and Privacy Interests (commentary)

Saturday, April 18 2009 @ 10:57 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

There have been a host of apocalyptic warnings in the blogosphere about the First Circuit’s recent decision holding that truth is not an absolute defense to a defamation claim. One blogger dubbed it “the most dangerous libel decision in decades,” and nearly everyone predicts it could have serious implications for journalists. But instead of joining the chorus of First Amendment advocates decrying the decision, I propose we take a step back to calmly examine the simple but extremely controversial idea that the truth could be defamatory.

Source - Sarah Hinchliff, on CIS


Related Another “Should it be that public” question?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10222755-71.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

The city where every arrest gets Twittered

by Chris Matyszczyk April 18, 2009 11:12 AM PDT

… A Twitter page, headlined "Denton Police," fed details of every arrest the department had performed, coupled with TwitPic mugshots.

This remarkable, real-time communication between the police and outside world surely was a futuristic forerunner to Texas' progression towards secession.

Until it was revealed to be the work of University of North Texas senior, Brian Baugh.



“You are still innocent until proven guilty, but we need the DNA because eventually you're gonna commit a crime.” There are no ethical concerns until someone says, “HEY!”

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021145.html

April 18, 2009

NYT: F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases

F.B.I. and States Vastly Expand DNA Databases, by Solomon Moore: "Law enforcement officials are vastly expanding their collection of DNA to include millions more people who have been arrested or detained but not yet convicted. The move, intended to help solve more crimes, is raising concerns about the privacy of petty offenders and people who are presumed innocent. Until now, the federal government genetically tracked only convicts. But starting this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation will join 15 states that collect DNA samples from those awaiting trial and will also collect DNA from detained immigrants — the vanguard of a growing class of genetic registrants. the F.B.I., with a DNA database of 6.7 million profiles, expects to accelerate its rate of growth from 80,000 new entries a year to 1.2 million by 2012 — a 17-fold increase. F.B.I. officials say they expect DNA processing backlogs — which now stand at more than 500,000 cases — to increase."



It's my proposal as well. Interesting comments.

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/1739236&from=rss

Why Is Connectivity So Cheap In Stockholm?

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 18, @03:30PM from the umlauts-defy-gravity dept. Networking The Almighty Buck IT

lpress writes

"Symmetric, 100 Mbps service in Stockholm, costs $11/month. Conditions in every city are different, but part of the explanation for the low cost is that the city owns a municipal fiber network reaching every block. They lease network access to anyone who would like to offer service. The ISPs, including incumbent telephone and cable companies, compete on an equal footing."



Conflict between old and young tech users. Specific look at legal profession.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021142.html

April 18, 2009

New Study Examines Technology Generation Gap in the Workplace

News release: "A national survey of American white collar workers found that while technology is widely embraced among working professionals, significant gaps exist among generations regarding its use and application in the workplace. The newly released Technology Gap Survey found generational differences in the effect of technology on workplace etiquette, the blurring boundaries between personal and professional tasks, and the impact of technology overload. The survey – commissioned by LexisNexis, a leading provider of content-enabled workflow solutions – examined the impact of technology in the workplace. It compared technology and software usage among generations of working professionals, including Boomer (ages 44-60), Generation X (ages 29-43) and Generation Y (ages 28 and younger)."

  • The Technology Gap Survey was commissioned by LexisNexis. WorldOne Research, an international market research agency specializing in the collection and analysis of data for leading organizations, conducted this survey of 450 professionals.

[Correct link to the survey: http://www.lexisnexis.com/media/pdfs/LexisNexis-Technology-Gap-Survey-4-09.pdf



For the White Hat Hacker Club?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/1630223&from=rss

DHS Seeks "Ethical Hackers" To Protect Federal Net Infrastructure

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday April 18, @01:21PM from the loaded-phrases dept. Security Government

Death Metal sends this excerpt from an AP report:

"General Dynamics Information Technology put out an ad last month on behalf of the Homeland Security Department seeking someone who could 'think like the bad guy.' Applicants, it said, must understand hackers' tools and tactics and be able to analyze Internet traffic and identify vulnerabilities in the federal systems. In the Pentagon's budget request submitted last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon will increase the number of cyberexperts it can train each year from 80 to 250 by 2011. With warnings that the US is ill-prepared for a cyberattack, the White House conducted a 60-day study of how the government can better manage and use technology (PDF) to protect everything from the electrical grid and stock markets to tax data, airline flight systems, and nuclear launch codes. ... Nadia Short, vice president at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, said the job posting for ethical hackers fills a critical need for the government."



Find free software that does what commercial software does.

http://www.osalt.com/

osalt.com

Find open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software



You should know how to get the most out of these services.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-youtube-url-tricks-you-should-know-about/

10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About

Apr. 18th, 2009 By Varun Kashyap



Would you like the President to comment on your website?

http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/workshop_UI/door=237&cl=86&AID=0



Global Warming! Global Warming! Another Al Gore “fact”

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/18/2059204&from=rss

Antarctic Ice Is Growing, Not Melting Away, At Davis Station

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 18, @05:13PM from the weather-is-what-you-get dept. Earth Science

schwit1 writes

"A report from The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research says that Antarctic ice is growing, not melting away. Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia's Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m. A paper to be published soon by the British Antarctic Survey in the journal Geophysical Research Letters is expected to confirm that over the past 30 years, the area of sea ice around the continent has expanded."

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