Would this
apply to Alfred E. Neuman?
Court
grants First Amendment protection to Facebook 'Like'
… The likable
ruling was included in a decision published by the Fourth US Circuit
Court of Appeals in Bland v. Roberts.
In the case, which is
still ongoing, Bobby Bland and five of his co-workers in the
Sheriff's Department in Hampton, Va., are suing their former
employer, Sheriff B.J. Roberts, for wrongful termination. Part of
the suit hinged around the question of whether liking a campaign's
Facebook Page is protected speech. One of the plaintiffs, Daniel
Carter, said that he was fired for liking the Page of a candidate
running against Roberts in the 2009 election.
Is this the opposite of
“Cool?”
Windows
Phone 8 gets security thumbs-up from US government
Robert Hoover, a
Windows Phone project manager, wrote on the
official Windows Phone blog that Win Phone 8 has reached an
"important new security milestone," which could make the
platform a prospect for governments and organizations that require
high security and encryption on their networks and communications
platforms.
The U.S. government has
granted Win Phone 8 the FIPS 140-2 (PDF)
security accreditation. FIPS 140-2 is used to scrutinize and assign
a level of security to devices, including tablets
and smartphones, that use cryptographic algorithms to protect
sensitive data stored within.
Remember
the old “Practice safe hex!” campaigns? (Only $10)
USB
Condoms Protect Your Data While You Charge
A company by the name
of Int3.cc has just introduced what they are calling USB
Condoms, a small device that goes on the end of your USB plug to
protect your data from “juice jacking”, which is when someone is
able to steal your data through a public charging station.
Since most phones are
set up to allow data transfer just by connecting to a USB port, the
USB Condoms work by blocking the data transmitters and receivers of a
USB port without blocking the charging components.
… The USB
Condoms are currently sold out on Int3.cc’s website, but they
state that they should be getting more inventory soon.
Sort of a Big Data,
Social Networking, target identifying, 'now we can squash them like a
bug' kind of thing. Also useful for spreading disinformation?
US
Military Scientists Solve the Fundamental Problem of Viral Marketing
Viral messages begin
life by infecting a few individuals and then start to spread across a
network. The most infectious end up contaminating more or less
everybody.
Just how and why this
happens is the subject of much study and debate. Network scientists
know that key factors are the rate at which people become infected,
the “connectedness” of the network and how the seed group of
individuals, who first become infected, are linked to the rest.
It is this seed group
that fascinates everybody from marketers wanting to sell Viagra to
epidemiologists wanting to study the spread of HIV.
So a way of finding
seed groups in a given social network would surely be a useful trick,
not to mention a valuable one. Step forward Paulo Shakarian, Sean
Eyre and Damon Paulo from the West Point Network Science Center at
the US Military Academy in West Point.
These guys have found a
way to identify a seed group that, when infected, can spread a
message across an entire network. And they say it can be done
quickly and easily, even on relatively large networks.
Ref:
arxiv.org/abs/1309.2963
:A Scalable Heuristic for Viral Marketing Under the Tipping Model
Do we
(here in the US) have a four-step “Get out of jail free!”
procedure? (If not, could we?)
Case Note
248601 [2013] NZ PrivCmr 4 : Medical practice mitigates future harm
after data breach
A doctor working in a
suburban medical practice had his car broken into and bag stolen.
The bag contained a USB stick holding the personal information of a
number of patients, including the complainant. The data detailed the
complainant’s first and last names. Also included were details of
their prescribed drugs and medical diagnosis.
One of the doctor’s
patients complained to us.
The medical practice
acted quickly and fulfilled all four key steps an
agency should follow in response to a privacy breach.
These steps aim to contain the breach and reduce harm to the subjects
of the breach.
Breach
containment and preliminary assessment
Following
a data breach, an agency must take immediate steps to contain or
limit it. This includes designating an appropriate individual to
lead the initial investigation and determine who needs to be
notified.
The
medical practice received news of the theft the following day and the
manager immediately made plans to contact the affected individuals.
Our complainant was informed of the breach by his general
practitioner and offered a meeting with the manager to discuss the
situation.
Evaluation of
the risks associated with the breach
An
appropriate evaluation includes considering what personal information
was involved, establishing the cause and extent of the breach,
considering who was affected by the breach and whether those affected
might be harmed.
The
manager noted that the only identifying details in this case were the
complainant’s first and last name. He had frequently changed
address in recent years and did not have a listed telephone number.
The manager believed the main harm was that the complainant may lose
trust in the medical practice. However, the complainant had
continued to use the agency’s services since the breach.
Notification
The
patients were notified as soon as reasonably possible. The manager
of the medical practice met the complainant to discuss the theft and
apologised for the loss of his personal information.
Prevention
As
a result of the breach, the medical practice took steps to increase
the security of any data that was to leave the premises. A review
was conducted of their patient information security policy.
Immediate changes were drafted for sign off by the practice’s
Board.
The
medical practice purchased new encrypted USB sticks immediately after
the data breach, to be used where data is to leave the premises.
[Never before? Bob] An active
register containing a list of the staff who are to use these keys was
implemented and an agreement drawn up for staff to sign,
acknowledging that they are responsible for the safety of the
information.
Staff
were advised both verbally and electronically of the new process and
the medical practice ensured there was a transparent communication
process with the staff about this incident.
The complainant sought
damages as a result of the breach. However we were not satisfied
that he suffered harm that warranted damages.
We also considered the
medical practice had taken appropriate steps in the circumstances.
See our privacy breach
guidelines at:
http://privacy.org.nz/news-and-publications/guidance-notes/privacy-breach-guidelines-2/
(Related)
Is this also possible only in New Zealand?
Stuff reports:
An
insurance company has been forced to reach a settlement and change
its policies after breaching a man’s privacy by accessing his full
medical history without permission.
The
unidentified man brought a complaint to the Office of the Privacy
Commissioner after the company he applied to for trauma insurance
accessed his full medical records for the previous five years.
Read more on Stuff.
Related: Case
Note 226245 [2013] NZ PrivCmr 2 : Over-collection of medical notes by
insurance company
A place to look. Are
we as advanced as New Zealand?
I wish they had
published these before I spent days revising my privacy
practices notice and having them printed, but if you still need them,
HHS has provided customizable templates for your notices here.
Remember the new law goes into effect September 23.
(Related) Or, can we
relax and let the government handle everything?
Jesse Holland and Kelli
Kennedy report:
The
Obama administration is planning a
high-level effort to reassure Americans about the privacy and
security of the information submitted under the new health care law,
hoping to blunt complaints from Republican opponents that enough
isn’t being done to protect consumer data.
Attorney
General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius, Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Edith Ramirez and other
federal and state officials are set to meet Wednesday at the White
House to discuss security measures designed to keep
scammers and identity thieves from taking advantage of what could be
millions of Americans attempting to enroll for health coverage
under the Affordable Care Act starting in October.
Read more on Huffington
Post.
Is this an issue of
just better informing/reassuring the public, or is it the case that
more security and privacy protections will be introduced? It sounds
like the White House will be emphasizing the former.
Another
“Privacy in the Age of Big Data”
article.
Patrick Ouellette
reports:
Health
privacy and security are often mentioned in tandem, but Deborah Peel,
Founder and Chair of Patient Privacy Rights and Adrian Gropper, Chief
Technology Officer of Patient Privacy Rights, took a different view
in a recent Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2)
webcast.
The
presentation, titled “Competing
for Patient Trust and Data Privacy in the Age of Big Data”
detailed a few of the nuances between patient data privacy and
security and why privacy is so significant as healthcare
organizations pull together huge data sets for health information
exchange (HIE) and accountable care.
Read more on
HealthITSecurity.com.
(Related) Is this a
valid use of social media?
Your
Deadbeat Facebook Friends Could Cost You a Loan
It's already well known
that Facebook and other social media networks harvest user data and
sell it to companies that use that info to peddle their products to
consumers. But some lenders have begun to find a new use for this
information, scrutinizing Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn data to
determine the credit-worthiness of loan applicants. It's an
unprecedented practice that consumer advocates say can be unfair or
discriminatory—and one that is poised to only become more prevalent
in the years ahead.
Among the US-based
online lenders that factor in social media to their lending decisions
is San Francisco-based LendUp,
which checks out the Facebook and Twitter profiles of potential
borrowers to see how many
friends they have and how
often they interact; the company views an active
social media life as an indicator of stability.
No discrimination
against the new guys...
Pandora
scores legal victory against music publishers
… A federal court
in New York has ruled
in favor of Pandora's motion that it can play all of the songs
covered in the ASCAP library, the online music service announced
Wednesday. Pandora had argued that a consent decree with ASCAP gave
it a blanket license to play all such music despite attempts by some
publishers to negotiate their own separate deals.
The case arose when
ASCAP members EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and
Universal Music Publishing Group tried
to remove their licensing rights from ASCAP as a way to negotiate
directly with online radio services such as Pandora, according to
Reuters. Pandora claims these withdrawals shouldn't affect its
overall license with ASCAP.
The future of the
education bid-ness?
The
Next Step on the Path to an Online-Only Education?
MIT will soon offer a
free, two-year online course sequence. (Then you pay to take a
test.)
Compare and contrast
the previous business with this one...
Grand
Theft Auto V Makes $800 Million On First Day
(Related)
Apple
expected to sell 5-6M iPhone 5S, 5Cs this weekend
Even the one based on
the Zombie TV show?
11
Cutting-Edge Free Online Courses Worth Taking This Fall
Just in
case all my math students want to download all those math videos...
3
Ways to Download All Videos in a YouTube Channel
YouTube is great to
check out videos on the fly. It’s fast, dynamic and incredibly
easy to find other related videos. However, if you have to go
offline, that won’t do you much good. Why not download those
videos to your computer instead? Not only does this let your enjoy
your videos offline, you can also use them in presentations or your
own projects.
Downloading a single
YouTube video is simple, but it’s a bit harder to download all the
videos from a particular YouTube channel in one go. Today we’ll be
offering you three ways to tackle this problem.
For my Criminal Justice
students
A
Smartphone Case Delivers a Defensive Jolt
The Yellow Jacket
smartphone case is meant to protect more than a phone.
The $140 smartphone
cover conceals a stun gun.
For all my
students. Remember, you only need to find one that you
like...
CherryTree:
A Wiki-Style Notebook That’s Polished and Functional
Which organization tool
is best for you? Evernote
seems to be a wide favorite for our readers, but less
conventional alternatives outside the mainstream exist. Take for
example personal wiki-style notebook apps like the awesome
personal wikis I wrote up recently. In that article, I praised
TiddlyWiki for
its speed and features, but there may be a contender on the horizon:
CherryTree.
Hey! It can't hurt!
– Entrepreneurs often
lack time and money to make basic branding materials – logo,
website, business cards, etc – all with the same look and feel.
Yet when everything matches, your business looks more professional.
And potential customers recognize you more easily. Logo Garden has
invented do-it-yourself (DIY) logos, then DIY websites. The result
is dazzling looks, instant launch, and zero cost.
For all my
students
Four
Helpful Web Search Strategy Tutorials
Vaughn
Memorial Library at Acadia University hosts four
free animated tutorials designed to teach lessons on web research
strategies. The four tutorials are Credible
Sources Count, Research It Right, Searching With Success, and You
Quote It, You Note It.
In
Credible
Sources Count students learn how to recognize the validity of
information on the Internet. It's a good tutorial except for a
strong emphasis on using domain names for determining validity.
Research
It Right walks students through the process of forming a research
question through the actual research steps.
Searching
With Success shows students how search engines function. The
tutorial gives clear examples and directions for altering search
terms.
You
Quote It, You Note It shows students what plagiarism is and how
to avoid accidentally plagiarizing someone's work.
A freebie
for all my students...
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