Wednesday, February 15, 2012


“Here at the Fulla Bologna Institute we asked many (Okay, two) interns to carefully consider the question: Are we wrong, or would you like to keep working here? They assured us we were never wrong.”
FBI says social media monitoring won’t infringe privacy rights
February 14, 2012 by Dissent
Jaikumar Vijayan reports:
The FBI today said that its proposed plans to monitor social media sites as part of a broader strategy to improve real-time situation awareness will be fully vetted by the agency’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Unit.
The unit will review the legal implications of the monitoring application and ensure that it meets all privacy and civil rights obligations before it is implemented, the agency said in a statement emailed to Computerworld “Although the FBI has always adapted to meet changes in technology, the rule of law, civil liberties, and civil rights, will remain our guiding principles,” the agency said.
Read more on Computerworld.
Oh, well then, I’m totally reassured. I mean, it’s not like the FBI ever violated civil liberties while adhering to those same guiding principles, right?

(Related) “We're an agency guided by the motto: 'What Would J Edgar Do?'”
Feds Argue Using a Fake Name Can Deprive You of Rights
February 14, 2012 by Dissent
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries reports:
Does using a fake name when you sign up for a cellphone plan mean the government can get information from your phone without a warrant?
That’s one argument the Department of Justice is making in an Arizona case – that using a false name is fraud and means you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Such a stance might raise questions about the widespread practice of using pseudonyms to sign up for services online. But legal experts said it’s unlikely a court would take the argument that far.
Read more on Wall Street Journal.
So let’s review. The government generally maintains that you have no reasonable expectation of privacy when you give your information to a third party. But if you try to protect your privacy by using a pseudonym, then you definitely have no reasonable expectation of privacy? I see….

(Related) The finest investigative agency in the world took months to find some of these inaccuracies? Have they tried Wikipedia? “Of course, we have backups...”
FBI Purges Hundreds of Terrorism Documents in Islamophobia Probe
… The bureau disclosed initial findings from its months-long review during a meeting at FBI headquarters on Wednesday with several Arab and Muslim advocacy groups, attended by Director Robert Mueller. So far, the inquiry has uncovered and purged over 700 pages of documentation from approximately 300 presentations given to agents since 9/11 — some of which were similar to briefings published by Danger Room last year describing “mainstream” Muslims as “violent.” And more discoveries may be forthcoming, as the FBI continues its inquiry and responds to Freedom of Information Act requests for the documents themselves.


I'm sure they'll say they don't check for “privacy”
"In the wake of news that the iPhone app Path uploads users' entire contact lists without permission, Forbes dug up a study from a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the International Security Systems Lab that aimed to analyze how and where iPhone apps transmit users' private data. Not only did the researchers find that one in five of the free apps in Apple's app store upload private data back to the apps' creators that could potentially identify users and allow profiles to be built of their activities; they also discovered that programs in Cydia, the most popular platform for unauthorized apps that run only on 'jailbroken' iPhones, tend to leak private data far less frequently than Apple's approved apps. The researchers ran their analysis on 1,407 free apps (PDF) on the two platforms. Of those tested apps, 21 percent of official App Store apps uploaded the user's Unique Device Identifier, for instance, compared with only four percent of unauthorized apps."


See? It's not as simple as it sounds...
Facebook have been under pressure in recent years from all angles to make privacy options simpler and quick to change. They’ve actually done quite well at this, considering how complicated the Facebook privacy system is overall. However, for those of us who understand the privacy controls well, there are a number of things Facebook could implement to improve the effect of privacy controls.
… Current Situation: One Tag Privacy Setting For All Posts
At the moment, Facebook allows you to limit who can see posts and photos you’re tagged in on your timeline using friends lists (if you go into Privacy > How Tags Work and change your maximum visibility – Read the Facebook Privacy Guide to learn about friends lists). It also allows you to veto the tags before other people see them. So most sensible people use a combination of these tools to ensure workmates and grandparents don’t see drunken party photos.
But this is still very limited, since that tag privacy setting is set just once for everything you’re tagged in, including photos and location posts (once enabled). Any other privacy controls on those photos are controlled by other people.


In American politics, only the minority (loser) party is allowed to propose changes hat will never be adopted.
February 14, 2012
Pew Report - Evidence That America’s Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade
"Approximately 24 million active voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or have significant inaccuracies, according to the Pew Center on the States. Research in Pew's report, Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient, underscores the need for registration systems that better maintain voter records, save money, and streamline processes. This is an effort that eight states are spearheading with Pew’s support."


Faster, cleaner reading on the Internet.
The market for clutter-free reading on the web seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Instapaper and Readability are already fighting for dominance and suddenly we see Evernote jumping into the fray out of nowhere. It has launched a Chrome extension called Clearly that basically does the same thing – clearing the clutter from a webpage and presenting only the main text and images – albeit with more options. It allows you to select smaller or larger fonts, has three themes (grey background, white background etc) and of course, the clip to Evernote option which could steal the show.


Yes, it's shameless self-promotion, and it works! (I got my free copy...)
How to profit from the social-media 'Storyteller Uprising'
His 2011 book, Storyteller Uprising: Trust & Persuasion in the Digital Age," is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the changing world around us, especially anyone who's got an idea, product or service to sell--which is anyone in any kind of business.
Having great content or a high-quality product isn't enough. You have to know how to use digital and social media to get it in front of people and then get them to share it with others.
Even the way Hosein reached out to me is part of a smart digital strategy. Amazon is offering a short window in which the Kindle version is available at no charge, and he's using old-fashioned email, in addition to Facebook, Twitter, etc, to reach people who can get the word out for him.
The book is available, free, until 11:59 p.m. PT on Wednesday, Feb. 15 in the Kindle Store--and goes back to $8.99 after that.


'cause any of my readers can write a book. Think of a University-wide textbook collaboration...
At O'Reilly Media's Tools of Change for Publishing conference today in New York, the digital textbook app-maker Inkling unveiled Habitat, a platform whereby other publishers can tap into the Inkling technology and production infrastructure in order to create their own interactive e-books. Techcrunch's Rip Emerson has a good write-up of the news, something that he describes -- not surprisingly -- in light of Apple's recent textbook announcement.
… "To reinvent the book, you have to reinvent the printing press," he argued. Desktop publishing was the first step in doing just that, but even the shiniest of high-end software there hasn't really addressed some of the inefficiencies in the publishing system (handwritten comments on drafts, emailing massive files back and forth, and so on). The Habitat platform, which is just open to a few early adopters and should be open to more publishers later in the year, deals with both the production and the human processes that go into book-making -- managing the production team in a better cloud-based, collaborative environment.
But this isn't a DIY, self-publishing platform like iBooks Author, it's worth pointing out (although I suppose eventually Inkling could open it up to everyone).
… To learn more about Inkling Habitat and register for our Early Adopter Program, check out www.inkling.com/habitat.


Get Steven Hawking to narrate your slideshow?
Slides are the medium that most people default to when they need to give a presentation in person or over the web. When used correctly, slides are useful in helping you convey a message. The problem with most slide presentations is that there needs to be a speaker's voice attached to them to make them meaningful. Hello Slide is a tool that you can use to add voice narration to slides that you display online.
Hello Slide is different from services like Slideshare's Zipcast because instead of recording your voice you type what you want the narrator to say. Where you might type "speakers notes" in other slide programs, in Hello Slide you type out the narration. Hello Slide creates the audio and narrates your slides for you. While the voice is slightly robotic, it is much much better than most text to speech services.
To get started using Hello Slide, register for a free account, upload a PDF of your slides, then start typing your narration. It's very easy to use Hello Slide.

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