Monday, March 01, 2010

Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds. And the wedge to riches for Class Action lawyers.

http://www.databreaches.net/?p=10296

Lost or stolen?

February 28, 2010 by admin

In the big scheme of things, it may be small breach report. But the difference between what Ameriprise Financial told the state attorney general and what they told the client caught my eye.

In a notification letter to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, Ameriprise Financial Services informed the state that they had had a data breach incident involving “the theft of information ….”

Yet in the letter to the individual(s) affected, they write, “Your REIT application was lost by an express mailing vendor en route to the REIT transfer agent.”

So which was it? Lost or stolen? Hopefully, the letter to the individual(s) was the more accurate description, as I might react differently to hearing my data had been stolen as opposed to lost.

Ameriprise Financial is certainly not the only firm to have seeming discrepancies between what they report in their cover correspondence to a state attorney general’s office and what they report to those affected. It does make it difficult to code reports for data analyses, however.



What a tempting target... Do you think something like this will become mandatory to “help reduce Health Care costs?”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10461360-247.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Microsoft software to let patients see medical records

by Lance Whitney

Microsoft is unveiling new health care software that will give you a glimpse of your own medical records online.

The company on Monday announced its new HealthVault Community Connect software, which is geared toward hospitals interested in helping patients access their own health care history.

Following a hospital stay, you and your personal doctors can view electronic copies of your hospital records online. Using the software, you can also preregister for future hospital appointments using your existing medical information.

You log onto the hospital's patient Web site, said Microsoft, where you can call up physican notes, discharge instructions, prescriptions, and lab and radiology results. You can send copies of your hospital records to your personal HealthVault account, if you have one. HealthVault is a free service from Microsoft that lets you store and organize all your health care records online.



Interesting. What records would users have that didn't originate from Verizon?

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/02/26/verizon.said.charging.2.dollars.for.unused.data/

Verizon sued in class-action over phantom data fees

updated 02:15 pm EST, Fri February 26, 2010

Verizon said charging 2 dollars for unused data

Cleveland-based law firm Goldman Scarlato & Karon on Friday sued Verizon in a class-action case that accuses it of illegally charging phantom data fees. Filed in a New Jersey federal court, the complaint echoes known allegations that Verizon has been randomly charging customers with regular cellphones $2 on their bills for data they never used. The suit would compensate any Verizon customer that can prove they saw the fees on their bills.

The exact demands of the lawsuit and other claims made haven't yet been made available online.

Verizon has publicly denied charging customers the extra fees and has implied that customers weren't being truthful as it insists that it doesn't charge customers for accidentally launching into its portal website. The contradiction between subscriber experiences and claims has led to the phantom fees being a part of an FCC inquiry into the necessity of many cell carrier charges.


(Related) Evidence? What evidence? iPhone or iPod

http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/201009/5313/TigerText-application-deletes-private-text-messages

TigerText application deletes private text messages

by Stevie Smith - Mar 1 2010, 07:32

… According to TigerText, the sender can pre-programme an outgoing message to instantly self-destruct after it has been opened and read by the recipient, or they can choose to have it auto-delete between one minute and 30 days after delivery.



I've been seeing indications that we're noticing the loss of privacy. Nice to see a study that confirms it.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/023627.html

February 28, 2010

Study Ranks Top 20 Companies for Privacy in 2010, Facebook Drops Off List

EPIC: "Ponemon Institute released its annual study identifying the top twenty companies that are most trusted for privacy. American Express was ranked first, earning the Most Trusted for Privacy distinction for the fifth year in a row. Facebook suffered several privacy missteps over the last year, including a recent change in privacy settings at the end of 2009, and as a result, failed to make the 2010 list. Google, however, returned to the Top 20, ranked at 13. The survey also produced significant findings regarding consumer attitudes towards privacy, including the finding that consumers feel they are losing control over their personal information. Further, the responses revealed that consumers’ fear of identity theft is the main factor for brand trust diminishment, while a company’s implementation of privacy features contribute to brand trust. Other significant positive factors were limits on the collection of personal information and online anonymity."



Tools for private surveillance.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20000103-248.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Dropcam puts home surveillance in the cloud

by Josh Lowensohn

… Instead of offering just a live feed, as people are able to get with most IP Webcams, Dropcam's video can be sent to the cloud (actually a concrete bunker in Texas) for safe keeping. Compared to storing recordings on a computer that's located inside of the place you're surveilling, this makes for a much more secure solution. And unlike some DIY solutions that use FTP to send video or photo stills to the cloud, Dropcam handles all those settings, so that you essentially just plug the thing into a wall socket.

Video can be viewed online, on any computer with Adobe's Flash player installed. The company also recently released an iPhone app that can pull up the live stream of your camera, and a handful of sample cameras.

http://www.dropcam.com/



Of course it's a big change in Washington. That's a new signature or the Patriot Act!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/023626.html

February 28, 2010

President Obama Signs Extension of Patriot Act

Related postings on Patriot Act and this recent CRS report: Government Collection of Private Information: Background and Issues Related to the USA PATRIOT Act Reauthorization to accompany the following news and documents:


(Related)

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=8056

Kerr: Fourth Amendment Seizures of Computer Data

March 1, 2010 by Dissent

Orin Kerr’s article, “Fourth Amendment Seizures of Computer Data,” is in the Yale Law Journal, 119:700 2010, and is available online. Here is the abstract:

What does it mean to “seize” computer data for Fourth Amendment purposes? Does copying data amount to a seizure, and if so, when? This Article argues that copying data “seizes” it under the Fourth Amendment when copying occurs without human observation and interrupts the stream of possession or transmission. It offers this position by reaching back to the general purposes of regulating seizures in Fourth Amendment law and then applying those functions to the new environment of computers. The test prevents the government from copying data without regulation and yet also meets and answers the objections that have puzzled scholars and made it difficult to apply the old definition of seizures in the new computer environment.

This article reflects a change in Orin’s thinking, as he forthrightly notes:

Finally, this Article acknowledges a change in my own thinking. A few years ago, I argued that mere copying should not be considered a Fourth Amendment seizure.8 I acknowledged that copying ordinarily will be regulated by the Fourth Amendment. To my mind, however, copying was at most regulated by the restrictions on searches rather than seizures, and those restrictions were limited to copying that interfered with the operation of the machine from which the copy was made. I have now concluded that my prior approach was wrong. My earlier approach did not recognize the importance of access to data in the regulation of government evidence collection. Further, my earlier approach did not appreciate that a middle ground was possible to avoid some of the overbroad results that seem to follow from labeling copying a seizure. This Article identifies the new middle ground and explains why I now reject my earlier view.

Hat-tip, FourthAmendment.com

Note: Readers may also wish to read the discussion going on on The Volokh Conspiracy about the article.



Is this the “Next Big Thing?”

http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=142252

Did Chatroulette Just Launch the Interactive Video Conferencing Boom?

Ustream's Broadcasts Lack Punch of NSFW Site

Posted by Matthew Szymczyk on 02.24.10 @ 08:04 PM

… Here, in no particular order, are a few stats on the webcam and video-conferencing ecosystem:

… So these are "official stats," but what of Chatroulette? Since the service has only been out a few months, there's not much in the way of official stats, but here's what I've been able to dig up or have seen after using the service:

  • Traffic has almost doubled in a week, from 20,000 concurrent users on February 13 to almost 40,000 on February 20.

  • Approximately 75% of users seem to fall into the 18-24 age group.

  • Though there is still quite a bit of obscene content, it seems to have diminished proportionally with the larger traffic numbers. Maybe more "normal" people are starting to use the service.

  • An ecosystem around Chatroulette is already developing. The first out of the gate -- software that allows you to modify your live video stream. Manycam is one such system which allows for augmented reality-like features such as applying animations to your face through facial tracking.

  • The most important observation: Clones of the service are already appearing in record time, such as Redditroulette, Tinychat and others.

http://www.chatroulette.com/



One should never reinvent algorithms when a “Best Practice” choice is available.

http://developers.slashdot.org/story/10/02/28/1837223/Schooling-Microsoft-On-Random-Browser-Selection?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Schooling Microsoft On Random Browser Selection

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 28, @02:33PM

Rob Weir got wind that a Slovakian tech site had been discussing the non-randomness of Microsoft's intended-to-be-random browser choice screen, which went into effect on European Windows 7 systems last week. He did some testing and found that indeed the order in which the five browser choices appear on the selection screen is far from random — though probably not intentionally slanted. He then proceeds to give Microsoft a lesson in random-shuffle algorithms.

"This computational problem has been known since the earliest days of computing. There are 5 well-known approaches: 3 good solutions, 1 acceptable solution that is slower than necessary and 1 bad approach that doesn’t really work. Microsoft appears to have picked the bad approach. But I do not believe there is some nefarious intent to this bug. It is more in the nature of a 'naive algorithm,' like the bubble sort, that inexperienced programmers inevitably will fall upon when solving a given problem. I bet if we gave this same problem to 100 freshmen computer science majors, at least 1 of them would make the same mistake. But with education and experience, one learns about these things. And one of the things one learns early on is to reach for Knuth. ... The lesson here is that getting randomness on a computer cannot be left to chance. You cannot just throw Math.random() at a problem and stir the pot and expect good results."



Interesting in many ways. Apparently we have integrated Twitter (et al) into the military information stream... and are prepared to defend our right to tweet!

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/023625.html

February 28, 2010

DOD Policy on Social Networking Services

Directive-Type Memorandum (DTM) 09-026 - Responsible and Effective Use of Internet-based Capabilities, February 25, 2010

  • "This memorandum establishes DoD policy and assigns responsibilities for responsible and effective use of Internet-based capabilities, including social networking services (SNS) [Internet-based capabilities. All publicly accessible information capabilities and applications available across the Internet in locations not owned, operated, or controlled by the Department of Defense or the Federal Government. Internet-based capabilities include collaborative tools such as SNS, social media, user-generated content, social software, e-mail, instant messaging, and discussion forums (e.g., YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Google Apps)]. This policy recognizes that Internet-based capabilities are integral to operations across the Department of Defense.

  • The Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNET) shall be configured to provide access to Internet-based capabilities across all DoD Components. Commanders at all levels and Heads of DoD Components shall continue to defend against malicious activity affecting DoD networks (e.g., distributed denial of service attacks, intrusions) and take immediate and commensurate actions, as required, to safeguard missions (e.g., temporarily limiting access to the Internet to preserve operations security or to address bandwidth constraints)."



Will this be limited to traditional banks? I think not.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/023632.html

February 28, 2010

Cisco Retail Banking Survey Finds Generation Y Consumers' Needs Will Transform Retail Banking

News release: "Cisco announced the findings of a retail banking study that suggests banks have an opportunity to increase revenues up to 10 percent by embracing Generation Y consumers. Conducted by the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Cisco's global consultancy, the study surveyed 1,055 U.S. consumers to better understand their financial priorities, service expectations from banks, video adoption, and interaction preferences. The study's results are wide-reaching, revealing that Gen Y consumers trust their banks and, despite recent financial setbacks, are seeking their help in making important financial decisions."



Another indication that I'll never understand Copyright law. He sold the statues to the government but retains copyright ownership? (Similar to leasing music from the RIAA?) The Court included a picture of the statues in their ruling, but that is fair use because they didn't charge for the ruling? (The Postal Service charged for mail delivery, not the picture.)

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/28/2031229/Court-Rules-Photo-of-Memorial-Violates-Copyright?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Court Rules Photo of Memorial Violates Copyright

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 28, @06:03PM

WhatDoIKnow sends in a story about an appeals court ruling in a singular case that might have the effect of narrowing "fair use" rights for transformative uses of artworks.

"The sculptor who designed the Korean War memorial [in Washington DC] brought suit against the Postal Service after a photograph of his work was used on a postage stamp. Though first ruled protected by 'fair use,' on appeal the court ruled in favor (PDF) of the sculptor, Frank Gaylord, now 85."


(Related) Ignorance of the copyright is no excuse? Is “free to go to such stores” likely to be extended to “Must make a substantial effort to locate a copyright?”

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/28/1532230/Appeals-Court-Knocks-Out-Innocent-Infringement?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Appeals Court Knocks Out "Innocent Infringement"

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 28, @11:23AM

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes

"A 3-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has ruled that a Texas teenager was not entitled to invoke the innocent infringement defense in an RIAA file-sharing case where she had admittedly made unauthorized downloads of all of the 16 song files in question, and had not disputed that she had 'access' to the CD versions of the songs which bore copyright notices. The 11-page decision (PDF) handed down in Maverick Recording v. Harper seems to equate 'access' with the mere fact that CDs on sale in stores had copyright notices, and that she was free to go to such stores. In my opinion, however, that is not the type of access contemplated in the statute, as the reference to 'access' in the statute was intended to obviate the 'innocence' defense where the copy reproduced bore a copyright notice. The court also held that the 'making available' issue was irrelevant to the appeal, and that the constitutional argument as to excessiveness of damages had not been preserved for appeal."



Welcome to Y2K! Even here the world economy didn't collapse.

http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/03/01/0536236/Calendar-Bug-Disables-Older-PlayStation-3-Models?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Calendar Bug Disables Older PlayStation 3 Models

Posted by Soulskill on Monday March 01, @04:08AM

JohnWilliams writes

"The Sony PlayStation Network appears to be inaccessible to older ('phat') PS3 units. Players cannot play games that require a connection, even in single-player, offline mode, e.g. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Also, the system date resets to January 1, 2000. Sony is 'looking into it.' Speculation abounds that it is a bug related to 2010 being incorrectly flagged as a leap year. The newer PS3 Slim models seem to be working properly."



The “great unwashed” is a source of useful ideas, you just have to look carefully.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/28/1650241/Open-Gov-Tracker-Reveals-Best-US-Open-Government-Ideas?from=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Slashdot%2Fslashdot+%28Slashdot%29

Open Gov Tracker Reveals Best US Open Government Ideas

Posted by Soulskill on Sunday February 28, @12:28PM

jonverve writes

"In May of 2009, the White House launched an Ideascale site to gather ideas from citizens to identify ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.' The digital letdown was when many of the top ideas generated by the process were to legalize marijuana, solve tax issues and to reinvestigate Obama's birth origins. Fast forward to February 6 and the same process has been repeated with individual federal agencies as the subject. This time the idea generation has been much more productive, with ideas such as establishing clear benchmarks on humanitarian progress in Sudan to the State Department, funding for open source text books and materials to the Department of Education, making it easier to access previously FOIAed documents to the Department of Justice, and creating a Wiki for NASA to share its data and to engage the public. Hackers from NASA's Nebula cloud computing platform have created a site that aggregates 23 of these idea sites to give a quick peek into the best rated contributions in each category. Programmed in Python and using the MongoDB and Tornado web server, the Open Gov Tracker was highlighted by the open government blog Govfresh this past week as well. Jessy Cowan-Sharp, one of the creators, explained their motivation: 'We thought that a single access point would give a sense of the participation on all the different sites, a window into the discussions happening, build some excitement, and inspire people to participate.' The process closes on March 19th, so go and visit the site to contribute your ideas and vote!"



Partly for the Math geek in me, but also a tool for my Data Mining/Data Analysis class. Very interesting example on page two of the article! (Also, this might be a way to reduce the volume of data required to transmit an image...)

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_algorithm

Fill in the Blanks: Using Math to Turn Lo-Res Datasets Into Hi-Res Samples

By Jordan Ellenberg February 22, 2010 12:00 pm Wired March 2010

Compressed sensing was discovered by chance. In February 2004, Emmanuel Candès was messing around on his computer, looking at an image called the Shepp-Logan Phantom. The image — a standard picture used by computer scientists and engineers to test imaging algorithms — resembles a Close Encounters alien doing a quizzical eyebrow lift. Candès, then a professor at Caltech, now at Stanford, was experimenting with a badly corrupted version of the phantom meant to simulate the noisy, fuzzy images you get when an MRI isn’t given enough time to complete a scan. Candès thought a mathematical technique called l1 minimization might help clean up the streaks a bit. He pressed a key and the algorithm went to work.

Candès expected the phantom on his screen to get slightly cleaner. But then suddenly he saw it sharply defined and perfect in every detail — rendered, as though by magic, from the incomplete data. Weird, he thought. Impossible, in fact. “It was as if you gave me the first three digits of a 10-digit bank account number — and then I was able to guess the next seven,” he says. He tried rerunning the experiment on different kinds of phantom images; they resolved perfectly every time.

… That was the beginning of compressed sensing, or CS, the paradigm-busting field in mathematics that’s reshaping the way people work with large data sets. Only six years old, CS has already inspired more than a thousand papers and pulled in millions of dollars in federal grants.



Think this is trivial? Now your invitations can come with a map to the location! (And stalkers can say: I know where you live!)

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/mapenvelope-print-your-own-envelopes/

MapEnvelope: Print Your Own Envelopes With Map

www.mapenvelope.com



My students might find this useful, but increasingly we are using electronic textbooks that can't be resold.

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/hitcampus-sell-old-textbooks/

HitCampus: Find a Best Place To Sell old Textbooks

HitCampus is a tool that compares a number of different websites and tell you how much each of them would offer for your book

www.hitcampus.com



An interesting tool for the next natural or unnatural disaster.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/023629.html

February 28, 2010

Google Person Finder: Chile Earthquake

New York Times: 2 Million Displaced After Chile Quake and Chilean Quake a Warning to U.S. Northwest

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