If true, someone needs to understand
the discovery process. I would certainly try to get my hands on the
source code for their applications to determine exactly what they
were doing.
Class
Action Suit Filed Against Path Claims More Data Was Collected Besides
Address Books
April 4, 2012 by Dissent
George Jenkins writes:
A second
class-action lawsuit was filed against Path
Inc. claiming the company’s mobile app collected more
information than just users’ address books. The suit also claimed
that users of the Path app were:
“… victims of
unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business practices; wherein their
property, privacy, and security rights were violated…”
The additional
data allegedly collected without notice and without consent included
find GPS locations, users’ personally identifiable information, and
the personal information of minor children.
Read more on I’ve
Been Mugged.
[From the article:
You can download the Hernandez et al v
Path Inc. complaint from Courthouse
News
Isn't this exactly what Facebook was
designed to do? Introduce you to your classmates? Baylor must be a
very social place!
Baylor
Law Screw-Up Reveals Personal Data of Entire Admitted Class: Data
That We’ve Got
April 4, 2012 by admin
Elie Mystal writes:
There are data
breaches, and then there are data dummies. The people at Baylor
Law seem to be in the latter category.
Nobody was trying
to steal the personal information of the admitted students at Baylor
Law. But a screw-up by someone at the school resulted in all of the
personal information of the admitted class getting transmitted to
everybody else in the admitted class.
All of it. Names,
addresses, grades, and LSAT scores. Pretty much everything besides
social security numbers.
Read more on Above
the Law, where their redacted table showing some of the
admissions information suggests that 442 applicants had some personal
information exposed.
(Related?) Facebook: the lazy
policeman's friend! (Actually good procedure, bad follow-up) Could
you explain why a bar is your “friend?”
"A 28-year-old woman was
recently accused of assault and arrested based on a thumbnail photo
from her profile pic on Facebook. Artist Lizz Aston was identified
in a lineup after police
used a picture from her Facebook profile. From the article: 'In
an interview she said, "I told the officer I was at an art
opening for a friend, then went home with my boyfriend because he
injured his knee. We stayed in for the rest of the night and I did
research on the computer for an art installation I was working on.
The officer didn't care ... I don't think the police looked into it
further." Aston said, the officer "read me my rights. I
was searched, finger printed and processed."'"
[From the article:
She retained a lawyer "had
numerous court dates and spent thousands of dollars to right this
wrong."
She described it as "outrageous"
that someone could "scroll down the friends list for the bar and
point out someone that had brown hair and bangs" and that would
be enough to enter someone into the justice system.
The State Department has a list of
third world countries you should avoid. Perhaps we need one for
third world states? (I'm now doomed if I ever drive through Arizona)
Arizona
pushes law to make 'annoying' comments illegal
… "Government may criminalize
speech that rises to the level of harassment and many states have
laws that do so," David Horowitz, executive director for the New
York-based First Amendment advocacy group Media Coalition, wrote in a
letter
to Gov. Jan Brewer, "but this legislation takes a law meant
to address irritating phone calls and applies it to communication on
web sites, blogs, listserves and other Internet communication."
What Horowitz is saying is that this
law could be used as grounds to seek criminal charges against someone
who posts a pushy, controversial, or offensive comment on a social
networking-site like Facebook or Twitter.
Do I really care if the local Dog
Catcher owns a few shares of Purina?
April 04, 2012
Disclosure
of Assets and Income by Public Officials Is Crucial to Curbing
Corruption, Finds New StAR Study
"Disclosure
by public officials of their income, assets and
interests [Are we talking about their Facebook page? “I love long
walks on the beach with my dog...” Bob] should be
mandated if the fight against corruption is to succeed, according to
a study released today by the Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) Initiative
of the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The first global study of financial disclosure laws and practices,
Public
Office, Private Interests: Accountability through Income and Asset
Disclosure calls for renewed commitment to income and asset
disclosure to deter the use of public office for private gain and to
help manage actual and apparent conflicts of interest in the public
sector. The study also finds that asset disclosure
systems are more effective when there is a credible threat that
violations will be detected and punished." [A bounty system?
Bob]
“Try the veal! (patent pending)”
"Can a farmer commit
patent infringement just by planting soybeans he bought on the
open market? This week, the Supreme Court asked the Obama
administration to weigh in on the question. The Court is pondering
an appeals court decision saying that such planting can, in fact,
infringe patents. Last year, the United States Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit ruled, as it had on several previous occasions,
that patent exhaustion did not cover second-generation
seeds. The Supreme Court has now asked the Solicitor General,
the official in charge of representing the Obama administration
before the Court, to
weigh in on the case."
Perspective: Cable stole the market by
offering a wider selection, now they know what the local broadcast
stations felt like... Also, it's cheaper, right?
"Netflix and Hulu are
convincing millions of cable, satellite and telco subscribers to cut
the cord and dive into video streaming. That's the conclusion of
a new report released this week by the Convergence Consulting Group,
which finds that 2.65 million Americans canceled TV subscriptions
between 2008-2011 in favor of lower-cost internet subscription
services or video platforms. Though Convergence co-founder Brahm
Eiley projects that the number of people opting out of TV
subscription services will begin to slow in 2012 and 2013. Part of
the problem, Eiley argues, may be the rising price tag for streaming
rights to programming which could cause fiscal fits for Netflix."
Perspective: Nothing new here, but I'm
seeing many more article on tele-commuting recently than I have for
years.
"British telecoms operator O2
has found that 88% of its staff are just as productive working
remotely, while one-third
claimed that they actually got more work done when they worked from
home. 3,000 employees at O2's head office took part in a program
that had them to work from home for one day, as practice for problems
that may occur during the Olympic Games. From the article: '“The
success of O2’s experiment extends much further than just allowing
some of the workforce to stay at home and work. It proves that with
the right thinking and planning, even the largest organizations can
protect themselves from the most severe disruptions to their
business,” said Ben Dowd, business director at O2.'"
Perspective (Even if I don't know what
new and insightful things this tells me, it must tell me something
new and insightful...)
People
who love e-reading simply love reading
A report
released today by the Pew Research Center shows that one-fifth of
U.S. adults have read an e-book in the last year and that e-reader
owners not only prefer to buy rather than borrow books, but they also
read more books.
… The research center found that
e-book readers go through an average of 24 books a year, while those
who don't own the digital devices read an average of 15 books a year.
… "Every institution connected
to the creation of knowledge and storytelling is experiencing a
revolution in the way information is packaged and disseminated,"
another author of the report Lee Rainie said in a statement. "It's
now clear that readers are embracing a new format for books and a
significant number are reading more because books can be plucked out
of the air."
I know a few techie-lawyers, I wonder
what they would come up with?
Found:
The Future of Process Servers
By 2022, process servers who sneak up
on you to deliver a paper summons will be out of work. By then, all
of the devices around you that pinpoint your identity through facial
or voice scans will be able to helpfully inform you about any and all
court proceedings you have been invited to take part in.
For my Website class...
They may have used Wikipedia to create
this Infographic...
Cloud
Computing In Action – Rise and Fall of Britannica – Infographic
The business model for e-Wall Street?
With
JOBS Act Becoming Law, Crowdfunding Platforms Look To Create
Self-Regulatory Body
Today, President Obama signs
the JOBS Act into law, legalizing crowdfunding in startups by
non-accredited investors, so that anyone and their mother can invest.
The new law stipulates that entrepreneurs can now raise money from
any and all, however, startups are limited to $1 million per year,
and must stick to portals approved by the Securities and Exchange
Commission. What’s more, the legislation dispenses
with the 500-shareholder rule, which put a limit on the
number of shareholders a company was allowed before registering with
the SEC (and going public).
It's pretty clear there is a huge
market waiting to be served...
India’s
Low-Cost Tablet To Get Test Market In Philadelphia Schools?
The saga of India’s “$35 tablet”
is long and slightly
disappointing. While the idea of low-cost, standard hardware to
be distributed in needful communities is a great one, the
fact is that the device itself is more or less junk.
Poorly built, with a small battery, outdated OS, and low-quality
touchscreen, the Aakash has not had a good reception among people who
care about such things.
But it’s only the beginning of the
road for this type of device, and DataWind, the company that made the
Aakash, has already announced
the follow-up — and now they’re considering expanding the
market to the US. A
pilot study may be in the works for under-served schools in
Philadelphia.
Dilbert shows us how to exploit the
lure of “free stuff!”
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