http://www.phiprivacy.net/?p=2838
UK: West Berkshire Council takes action after losing children’s personal data
By Dissent, June 2, 2010 8:38 pm
West Berkshire Council is taking remedial action after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found it in breach [Losing the data meant nothing. Being found in breach is wat spurred the action. Bob] of the Data Protection Act (DPA) following the loss of a USB stick containing the sensitive personal information of children and young people.
The memory stick, which was unencrypted and not password protected, contained, among other things, information relating to the ethnicity and physical or mental health of the children. The ICO found that unencrypted devices, in operation before the council introduced encrypted memory sticks in 2006, were still being used by members of staff. [“Hey! If it ain't broken, why fix it!” Bob] Further enquiries revealed staff had not received appropriate training in data protection issues and monitoring of compliance with the council’s policies was found to be inadequate. This is the second data security incident reported by West Berkshire Council within six months. [Apparently they didn't bother to “take action” after the earlier one... Bob]
Nick Carter, Chief Executive of West Berkshire Council, has now signed a formal Undertaking to ensure that portable and mobile devices used to store and transmit personal data are encrypted. Staff will also be made fully aware of the council’s policy for the storage of personal data and receive appropriate training on data protection and IT security issues.
Sally-anne Poole, Enforcement Group Manager at the ICO, said: “It is essential that organisations ensure the correct safeguards are in place when storing and transferring personal information, especially when it concerns sensitive information relating to children. A lack of awareness and training in data protection requirements can lead to personal information falling into the wrong hands. I am aware that staff have been provided with encrypted USB sticks since 2006 but older devices were not recalled. I am pleased that the council has now taken action to prevent against further data breaches.”
A full copy of the Undertaking can be viewed here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection/enforcement.aspx
Source: Information Commissioner’s Office
“It's for the children! You're not supporting child abuse are you?”
EU To Monitor All Internet Searches
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday June 03, @12:14AM
"The European Parliament is issuing a written declaration about the need to set up an early warning system to combat sexual child abuse. However, the substance of the declaration is to extend the EU data retention directive to search engines, so that all searches done on for example Google will be monitored. If you are a citizen concerned about the right to privacy and freedom on the Internet, you can help by sending e-mail to the MEPs from your country and explaining the issue to them."
It can't hurt...
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/secure-facebook-settings-easy/
How To Secure Your Facebook Settings The Easy Way
Well, there's certainly no way anyone will use the guides scattered all over the web to do this now. I glad the FTC has that under control.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=10780
Spyware Seller Settles FTC Charges; Order Bars Marketing of Keylogger Software for Illegal Uses
June 3, 2010 by Dissent
Filed under Businesses, Court, Featured Headlines, Internet, Surveillance
The Federal Trade Commission has put the brakes on the business practices of an operation that was selling spyware and showing customers how to remotely install it on other people’s computers without their knowledge or consent.
The FTC is announcing a settlement that bars the sellers of the “RemoteSpy” keylogger from advertising that the spyware can be disguised and installed on someone else’s computer without the owner’s knowledge. It requires that the software provide notice that the program has been downloaded and obtain consent from computer owners before the software can be installed. [Let's see how long it takes to hack your way around that... Want to see it again? Bob]
Oh great. Now we can have reams of text that nobody reads to go with the hours of video that nobody watches. Just because we CAN do a thing is not justification FOR doing it.
Software Describes Surveillance Footage In AI-Generated Text
Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 02, @02:14PM
"A computer vision research group at UCLA has put together a system that watches surveillance footage and generates a text description of the events in real time. It only works on traffic cameras for now but demonstrates how sophisticated computer vision is becoming. Interestingly, the system was built thanks to a database of millions of human-labeled images put together by Chinese workers."
Nifty little resource.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/024401.html
June 02, 2010
Google Announces Free Download of 10 terabytes of patents and trademarks
Google Public Policy Blog: "When we launched Google Patent Search in 2006, we wanted to make it easier for people to understand the world of inventions, whether they were browsing for curious patents or researching serious engineering. Recently, we’ve also worked on a number of public data search features, as well as experimental features like the Public Data Explorer... That’s why we’re proud to announce that the USPTO and Google are making this data available for free at http://www.google.com/googlebooks/uspto.html. This includes all granted patents and trademarks, and published applications -- with both full text and images. And in the future we will be making more data available including file histories and related data."
One of the downsides of the “Double Secret” process that created this treaty in the first place.
India Attempts To Derail ACTA
Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 02, @06:06PM
"Ars Technica is reporting that India is attempting to gather support from other large countries that have been intentionally left out of the ACTA process to actively protest it. India fears that ACTA will eventually be used against it and other countries that were given no chance to be a part of the process drafting it. Among the primary concerns are the possibility of medical shipments being seized if they use a port in transit that is controlled by a country with a patent on the pharmaceuticals."
Interesting speculation. Is Rupert Murdock quaking in his boots?
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2010/06/yahoo-signals-major-challenge-to.html
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Yahoo signals major challenge to newspapers
Yahoo appears to be getting ready to produce local websites filled with original content that could compete with newspapers, posing a particular challenge to the hundreds of publishers who now sell advertising for the powerful portal.
The apparent intention to target the sweet spot for publishers was signaled last month when Yahoo announced plans to buy Associated Content for $100-ish million to gain access to some 380,000 individuals who are willing to write articles, take pictures and produce videos for rates starting at $2 per effort. The deal is scheduled to close later this year.
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