For the answer to this and everything
you ever wanted to know about drones, come to the
PrivacyFoundation.org seminar next Friday.
If
I Fly a UAV Over My Neighbor's House, Is It Trespassing?
… "Once upon a time, you had
the rights to your property under the soil and to the sky. It went
by the colorful, Latin label "ad coelum et ad inferos"---to
the heavens and hell," Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law
professor and former research director of Stanford's Center for
Internet and Society, told me. "But subsequent case law
recognized the limits imposed by commercial aviation and other
realities of the modern world. Now you own the air and soil rights
you might reasonably use and enjoy."
That original dictum -- ad coelum et ad
inferos -- was never part of legislation, but rather passed to us
from British common law. The process by which this notion of
property was limited really began in the early twentieth century,
when we began to regularly reach into the heavens and nominally
closer to hell. Timothy Ravich is an aviation lawyer who contributed
an article to the North Dakota Law Review (UND
is a major hub of civilian aerospace training) on "the
integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace.
[Actually, several articles Bob] "
I figured if anyone knew the legal status of my neighborhood flights,
it would be him.
Perhaps the IRS system for refunds is a
bit too automatic? How many people does it take to file 88,724
returns? One, if they can use a computer...
Feds
arrests dozens in ID theft-tax fraud takedown in South Florida
October 10, 2012 by admin
How big a problem is ID theft/tax
refund fraud? Well, the government says it’s to the tune of $5.2
billion.
In human terms, here’s some
interesting stats:
Among major U.S.
cities with the most fraud-related tax filings: Tampa (88,724
returns, with refunds of $468,382,079); Miami (74,496 returns, with
refunds of $280,509,449) and Atlanta (29,787 returns, with refunds of
$77,113,392).
Read more on The
Miami Herald.
Do I read this correctly? They
compromised not only their students, but every Florida high school
student eligible for this scholarship?
Almost
280,000 to be notified of hack at Northwest Florida State College; ID
theft reported
October 10, 2012 by admin
Jim Turner reports:
An information
security breach has been reported involving employee and student
records at Northwest
Florida State College in Niceville.
[They should move... Bob]
[...]
According to the
state Department of Education, the breach included more than 3,000
employee records and approximately 76,000 Northwest College student
records containing personal identification information; and
approximately 200,000 records with information including names,
Social Security numbers, dates of birth, ethnicity, and gender for
students across the state who were eligible for Bright Futures
scholarships for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years.
Read more on Sunshine
State News.
The college has set up a web
site for the breach. According to their update
today:
The NWFSC student
information compromised in the security breach contains public
directory information including name and address, as well as
confidential student data including birth date and Social Security
number. The Bright Futures scholars’ data file includes all State
of Florida Bright Futures eligible students during the 2005-06 and
2006- 07 academic years. This data file contains student names,
Social Security numbers, dates of birth, ethnicity and gender. No
student academic files have been compromised. [Because they are not
students! Bob]
The college reports that the breach was
discovered following an internal review conducted between October 1 –
5 after the college started receiving reports from employees of
fraud. Even the college’s president became a victim.
In a memo
to employee sent on October 8 via e-mail, the college informed
them:
We know from May
21, 2012 until September 24, 2012 one or more hackers accessed one
folder on our main server. This folder had multiple files on it. No
one file had a complete set of personal information regarding
individuals. However, by working between files, the hacker(s) have
been able to piece together enough information to be able to engage
in the theft of identity of at least 50 employees.
We know by working
between files data regarding Name, Social Security Number, Date of
Birth, and Direct Deposit Account numbers were accessed. Additional
directory information such as address, phone numbers, college email
address, etc. was also likely compromised.
We know three
specific mechanisms have been used to engage in identity theft. The
first is to use PayDayMax, Inc. as a conduit for taking out a
personal loan which is repaid by debiting your bank account. The
second is the same process using Discount Advance Loans. The third
is to apply for a Home Depot Credit Card in an employee’s name and
then use that card.
We know current
employees and all retirees/past employees since 2002 that have had
direct deposit of their pay have the potential to have had their
information compromised.
The college says that the system has
now been secured.
Kudos to the college for doing a
terrific job of notifying employees promptly and issuing timely
updates as they learn more.
How to win friends and influence
people, the online version...
Millions
of PlaySpan user IDs and passwords leaked online
October 10, 2012 by admin
Craig Chapple reports:
World of Tanks,
Guild Wars and Eve Online players hit by huge security breach
Hackers have
breached and leaked the personal information of millions of PlaySpan
Marketplace users online.
Private details
compromised included user IDs, email addresses and encrypted
passwords.
In a statement to
Develop, a PlaySpan spokesperson insisted however that there
is no evidence that credit, debit or pre-paid card data had been
accessed. [Not the same as “There is evidence that they did not
access the data.” Just suggests they didn't keep logs. Bob]
Read more on Develop.
Apparently, there is more to the plan
than “keep the data for two years” Of course, this could never
happen in the US
AU:
Web snooping plan suppressed by government
October 10, 2012 by Dissent
Looks like Australia’s government has
decided that transparency is not as important as, say…. everything
else. It’s refusing to release details of its super-secret data
retention plan. Philip Dorling reports:
National security
bureaucrats are keeping secret the details of a plan to store
the internet history of all Australians for at least two years.
The Prime
Minister’s department has rejected a Freedom of Information
application by Fairfax Media for release of its file on the proposed
“third tranche” of national security laws on the grounds that
declassification would “substantially and
unreasonably divert the Department’s resources from its other
operations”. [Translation: It's a bother... Bob]
Read more on The
Age.
[From
the article:
However Steve McFarlane, assistant
secretary heading the Defence and Intelligence Branch of the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has refused to process
Fairfax Media's FOI application for access to papers relating to the
data retention and other proposals on the grounds that reviewing 21
documents totalling 93 pages would result in a “substantial
impairment” to the operations of the Department.
Mr McFarlane further insisted that most
of the material would be withheld from public access anyway owing to
the “sensitive nature of the subject matter”.
(Related) …Okay, maybe it can happen
here. Are there no laws covering the collection of data by
government agencies?
FBI
Exempts Massive Database from Privacy Act Protections
October 11, 2012 by Dissent
From EPIC.org:
The Federal Bureau
of Investigation has exempted
the FBI
Data Warehouse System, from important Privacy Act safeguards.
The database ingests troves of personally identifiable information
including race, birthdate, biometric information, social security
numbers, and financial information from various government agencies.
The database
contains information on a surprisingly broad category of individuals,
including
“subjects,
suspects, victims, witnesses, complainants, informants, sources,
bystanders, law enforcement personnel, intelligence personnel, other
responders, administrative personnel, consultants, relatives, and
associates who may be relevant to the investigation or intelligence
operation; individuals who are identified in open source information
or commercial databases, or who are associated, related, or have a
nexus to the FBI’s missions; individuals whose information is
collected and maintained for information system user auditing and
security purposes.”
The Federal Bureau
of Investigation has exempted these records from the notification,
access, and amendment provisions of the Privacy Act. Earlier this
year, EPIC opposed
the Automated Targeting System, another massive government database
that the Department of Homeland Security exempted from Privacy Act
provisions. For more information, see EPIC:
The Privacy Act of 1974 and EPIC:
Automated Targeting System.
So less transparency and the oversight
and protection is …. where?
I suppose it's because it's an election
year (translation: Time of wildly increased spin by politicians) but
I fail to see how privacy “ensures” benefits.
President’s
bioethics panel urges new privacy protection to ensure benefits from
DNA decoding
October 11, 2012 by Dissent
Lauran Neergaard of Associated Press
reports:
It sounds like a
scene from a TV show: Someone sends a discarded coffee cup to a
laboratory where the unwitting drinker’s DNA is decoded, predicting
what diseases lurk in his or her future.
A presidential
commission found that’s legally possible in about half the states —
and says new protections to ensure the privacy of people’s genetic
information are critical if the nation is to realize the enormous
medical potential of gene-mapping.
Such whole genome
sequencing costs too much now for that extreme coffee-cup scenario to
be likely. But the report being released Thursday says the price is
dropping so rapidly that the technology could become common in
doctors’ offices very soon — and there are lots
of ethical issues surrounding how, when and with whom the results may
be shared.
Read more on Chicago
Tribune.
It's a start...
Government
of Malta proposes inclusion of digital rights in Constitution
October 11, 2012 by Dissent
Francesca Vella reports:
The government has
presented a White Paper proposing the inclusion of digital rights in
the Constitution as a means of introducing new rights to internet
access, accessing information online, online freedom of expression,
and the right to informational self-determination
[...]
On the right to
privacy, the White Paper refers to the introduction of a specific
digital civil right to informational self-determination, which would
remove any perceived doubts that the state would become a ‘Big
Brother’ through online monitoring of its citizens’ participation
in the information society.
Wow. Read more on The
Malta Independent Online.
The White Paper can be accessed here
(pdf). The government is seeking comments to be submitted to
consultations.mitc@gov.mt
by November 30, 2012. From the White Paper:
The introduction
of a specific digital civil right to informational self-determination
would remove any perceived doubts that the State would become a Big
Brother through online monitoring of its citizens’ participation in
the information society.
A new digital
right must confirm that the right to privacy refers both to: a)
directly personally identifying information as well as to b)
indirectly personally identifying information (such as cookies,
users’ online behaviour and site visiting patterns).
Amongst others,
Internet privacy involves the right to decide how personal
information is being processed, stored, communicated and transmitted
over the Internet by third parties including private entities as well
as governments.
It is proposed
that:
(i)
The State should recognise, promote and safeguard a citizen’s right
to Informational Self-Determination and Privacy, that is, the right
of an individual to decide what information about himself should be
communicated to others and under what circumstances, through any
media, including on the Internet, regardless of frontiers.
(i)
The State should undertake not to introduce restrictions which would
hinder the right to Informational Self-Determination and Privacy and
which are unjustifiable or unnecessary in a democratic society.
It must be irritating to discover that
your lawyers didn't follow Best Practices but rather Mal Practices...
How
Zappos’ User Agreement Failed In Court and Left Zappos Legally
Naked
October 10, 2012 by admin
Eric Goldman writes:
In January, Zappos
(part of $AMZN) announced
a massive data security breach affecting 24 million consumers.
As typically happens in these situations, plaintiffs’ class action
lawyers swarmed over Zappos for the breach, filing dozens of
lawsuits. Zappos tried to send the lawsuits to arbitration based on
an arbitration clause in its user agreement. Recently, a federal
court struck down Zappos.com’s user agreement, denying Zappos’
arbitration request. This is an unfortunate ruling for Zappos,
because its contract–now dead–would have been quite helpful in
combating this high-profile and potentially very expensive data
security breach lawsuit. More importantly, the mistakes Zappos made
in its user agreement–though common throughout the Internet–are
completely and easily avoidable. This
post will make some suggestions for how to avoid Zappos’ fate.
Read more on Forbes.
Towards a greater emptiness?
"Futurist and author Ray
Kurzweil predicts the cloud will eventually do more than store our
emails or feed us streaming movies on demand: it's going to help
expand
our brain capacity beyond its current limits. In a
question-and-answer session following a speech to the DEMO technology
conference in Santa Clara, California last week, Kurzweil described
the human brain as impressive but limited in its capacity to hold
information. 'By the time we're even 20, we've filled it up,' he
said, adding that the only way to add information after that point is
to 'repurpose our neocortex to learn something new.' (Computerworld
has posted up the full video of the talk.) The solution to
overcoming the brain's limitations, he added, involves 'basically
expanding our brains into the cloud.'"
[The video:
Perspective
According to a study released today by
the research firm Gartner, Lenovo has overtaken HP (Hewlett-Packard)
as the number one seller of PCs worldwide. This move comes at a time
when overall PC sales have faltered due to the economy and
competition from mobile gadgets. Still, Lenovo managed to grow
during this downturn, increasing its sales by nearly 10%.
This was a bit of a kerfuffle until the
school reconsidered their rethink...
Judge
Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project
A federal judge on Wednesday threw out
a copyright infringement lawsuit against universities that
participated in a massive book-digitization project in conjunction
with Google without permission from rights holders.
U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of New
York dismissed an infringement lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild
and other writers’ guilds, saying the universities had a fair use
defense. The guild accused the University of California, University
of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Cornell University and University
of Michigan of wanton copyright infringement for scanning and placing
the books into the so-called HathiTrust
Digital Library.
The trust consists of 10 million
digital volumes, 73 percent of which are protected by copyright. The
trust provides full-text searches only with a rights holder’s
permission, and gives full-text access for readers with “certified
print disabilities,” Baer said.
Perspective
You probably
already know this by now, but there are a lot of people using
Twitter. A new study
conducted by Beevolve gives us an insane amount of statistics on
these users, gauging everything from how many followers the average
user has to which background color is used the most by females and
males. The study – which surveyed a total of 36 million Twitter
profiles – may confirm a lot of the stuff you already assumed about
Twitter, but there are some surprises to be found in the results.
Perspective (for my Disaster Recovery
students)
Europe
suffered 51 'severe' communications outages in 2011, study shows
… The report, released today by the
European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), said that
11 EU member states reported
51 "severe outages" in their countries' communications
networks and services during 2011.
The report said that 60 percent of the
incidents affected cellular networks or mobile Internet, with the
remainder involving services such as fixed phone and internet,
messaging and e-mail.
… Only 6 percent of
all reported incidents that led to outages were a result of malicious
attacks. [But you have to approach each one as potential terrorist or
cyberwar attacks until proven otherwise... Bob] The
malicious attacks were often low-tech, such as vandalism or cable
theft, rather than cybercrime, ENISA said.
(Related) If most of my students have
SmartPhones...
$13
E-Reader Could Be Your Next Smartphone Accessory
It seems you can’t finish a book
without a new e-reader being announced. The newest way to read books
without killing a tree comes from Germany, and if the company, txtr,
can get carriers on-board, it’ll cost
as little at $13, or less that J.K. Rowling’s latest book.
… Engadget reports that txtr is
currently
in talks with AT&T and Sprint.
We’re waiting to hear back from txtr
on how much the beagle would cost without a subsidy. Maybe a
wallet-busting $25?
I have a few Artsie type students...
CreativeLIVE
Is a Free Online School for Artists and Entrepreneurs
… If you’re looking for creative
or entrepreneurial courses, you can turn to CreativeLIVE.
The two-year-old startup just raised $7.5 million to live-stream
workshops on how to start a business, photography basics, and web
design, to name a few.
… Every course is live-streamed in
real time and completely free.
What’s the catch? The courses are
offered on a scheduled basis and last about two to three days. If
you miss a class, you can’t watch again for free, but you can get
your hands on the videos and lessons if you pay. Prices range from
$50 to $300, and courses are often discounted. You can also
pre-order a class that you know you want to take, but won’t have
time to sit down and watch the live lecture.
The premise of free, live-streamed
workshops has worked well for CreativeLIVE. The company says that
since its launch in April 2010, more than 1 million students from 200
countries have taken a course. CreativeLIVE also isn’t having a
hard time getting people to pay an average of $100 for a class.
For the Swiss Army folder...
Screenr
A web based screen recorder.
(Ditto)
RefSeek
Currently in public beta, RefSeek is a
web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make
academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches
more than one billion documents, including web pages, books,
encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers.
[Check the Directory
Bob]
(Ditto) Run it before
your PC crashes and store it with your backups...
MyKeyFinder
-- Finding Serial Numbers of Installed Apps in Windows Easily
… instead of buying the app again
you can always use a user-friendly tool named MyKeyFinder which can
help you find the serial numbers of all the apps installed in your
PC! This handy tool for Windows is free of cost but can prove to be
a blessing in such cases.
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