You rarely know the victims. Perhaps this will prompt new law?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070624165423345

UK: £15m Charles' Bank Secrets Stolen

Sunday, June 24 2007 @ 04:54 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

PRINCE Charles's personal bank details have been stolen, it was feared last night.

They include his vital account number, sort code and national insurance number.

The Prince's secret details are believed to have been on a laptop computer stolen from an accountant's car. The accountant works for payroll firm Moorepay which handles wages for Charles's Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Source - The People

Weekly recap

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070625061018458

Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Monday, June 25 2007 @ 06:10 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

A recap of incidents or privacy breaches reported last week for those who enjoy shaking their head and muttering to themselves with their morning coffee.

Source - Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week

Ubiquitous surveillance

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070625053500735

When Public Records Are Too Public (commentary)

Monday, June 25 2007 @ 05:59 AM CDTContributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Internet & Computers

The Web wasn't created to appeal to our sense of voyeurism. It just feels that way sometimes.

I'm not talking about dirty pictures, but the ability the Web's given all of us to snoop on our friends, colleagues and neighbors, from Googling the new guy in the next cube to finding out what the people next door paid for their house to seeing which neighbors have given money to which candidates and parties.

Source - Wall Street Journal

Are you secure enough to be our customer? I love it! Note: This has been a B2B fact of life for years, but still a TJX can pass the Credit Card audit... Banks are trying to shift liability there too.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070624120939982

NZ: Banks demand a look inside customer PCs in fraud cases

Sunday, June 24 2007 @ 12:09 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

Banks are seeking access to customer PCs used for online banking transactions to verify whether they have enough security protection.

Under the terms of a new banking Code of Practice, banks may request access in the event of a disputed transaction to see if security protection in is place and up to date.

The code, issued by the Bankers’ Association last week after lengthy drafting and consultation, now has a new section dealing with internet banking.

Liability for any loss resulting from unauthorised internet banking transactions rests with the customer if they have “used a computer or device that does not have appropriate protective software and operating system installed and up-to-date, [or] failed to take reasonable steps to ensure that the protective systems, such as virus scanning, firewall, antispyware, operating system and anti-spam software on [the] computer, are up-to-date.”

Source - Computerworld (NZ)

See what i mean...

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2007062505400283

Banks Claim Share of Credit Card Security Costs Is Unfair

Monday, June 25 2007 @ 06:01 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Businesses & Privacy

A panel of financial services and retail executives this month disagreed on which side bears the brunt of the burden to ensure compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.

Executives from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and First Horizon National Corp. told an audience at Symantec Corp.’s Vision user conference here that high-profile data breaches at retailers like The TJX Companies Inc. are not originating from their side of the fence — yet they must spend significant sums to make sure such incidents don’t happen.

... An AT&T Inc. executive, on the other hand, contended that banks have so far done little to share in the burden of ensuring credit and debit card security compared with businesses that accept such payments.

Source - Computerworld

Perhaps classes should be copyrighted, then the RIAA could post armed guards in each classroom?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070624165131438

AU: Teachers being secretly filmed by students

Sunday, June 24 2007 @ 04:51 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

HIGH school teachers have complained they are being secretly filmed by students in the classroom and the videos posted on the internet.

In a sinister development involving mobile phone cameras, videos taken by students during classes are appearing on the MySpace and YouTube sites, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Source - Adelaide Now

How to look like a terrorist. Note how these guidelines still assume a traditional (1950s?) work ethic

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/24/1731244&from=rss

FBI Seeks To Restrict University Student Freedoms

Posted by Zonk on Sunday June 24, @04:41PM from the damned-liberal-freethinking-commie-pinkos dept.

amigoro writes with a link to the Press Escape blog, which is discussing new guidelines suggest by the FBI for university administrations. The Federal Bureau, worried about the possibility of international espionage via our centers of learning, now sees the need to restrict the freedoms of university students for national security. "FBI is offering to brief faculty, students and staff on what it calls 'espionage indicators' aimed at identifying foreign agents. Unexplained affluence, failing to report overseas travel, showing unusual interest in information outside the job scope, keeping unusual work hours, unreported contacts with foreign nationals, unreported contact with foreign government, military, or intelligence officials, attempting to gain new accesses without the need to know, and unexplained absences are all considered potential espionage indicators."

Games for profits. Follow your niche! (This goes in my “Start a Small Business” folder.)

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/24/0625221&from=rss

WoW Database Site Sells For $1 Million

Posted by Zonk on Sunday June 24, @05:29AM from the almost-enough-for-an-epic-flying-mount dept. Role Playing (Games) Businesses The Almighty Buck

MattHock writes "Wowhead (a WoW information database) has been sold to ZAM (Affinity Media) for the price of $1 million. ZAM is the owner of several other WoW databases, including Thottbot and Allakhazam. Until recently Affinity was also the owner of IGE, a highly controversial company that sold in-game wealth for real life money. Affinity recently sold IGE, which Wowhead claims as the reason they allowed the sale to go through. But did ZAM really sell IGE? The blogger who put this story online doubts that IGE and ZAM have actually distanced themselves. He believes that the supposed sale was just actually a means of restructuring to hide the relationship, similar to how IGE's relationship to Thottbot was hidden for a number of months through a convoluted set of parent companies."

Here's an example of a simple, geographically limited “business” that can be easily replicated for a variety of niche markets, depending on what interests you.

http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2007/06/24/vermont-directory-of-foundations-now-available/

Vermont Directory of Foundations Now Available

Filed under: US-Vermont

The Vermont Community Foundation has published the latest version of the Vermont Directory of Foundations in three different ways — printed book, free PDF download, and a free searchable database, now available at http://fdovermont.foundationcenter.org/.

Is this an indication of a change in Hollywood?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/business/media/25diehard.html?ex=1340424000&en=cd23e21a8120ae90&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

A Spurned Parody of ‘Die Hard’ Returns to YouTube, Approved

By MARIA ASPAN June 25, 2007

The story seems familiar to online video users: fans create a parody video using pirated studio content and post it on YouTube, and the studio’s lawyers quickly have it removed for violating copyright law. But this time the studio’s marketing team relented —and even paid the fans to repost their video.

Last August, a New York-based “comic-rock” group named Guyz Nite created an online video for their song “Die Hard,” a rather worshipful three-minute guide to 20th Century Fox’s action-movie franchise starring Bruce Willis. (The song’s refrain says, “We’re gonna die, die, die as hard as we can!”) The video used clips from the first three “Die Hard” movies, and within days Fox’s legal department requested that the video be removed from YouTube.

But in February, with a fourth “Die Hard” movie on the horizon, Fox’s marketing department contacted the band and offered to pay it to repost the video, using additional video clips to promote the new film, “Live Free or Die Hard,” which opens on Wednesday. The new version of the video has been viewed almost 90,000 times on YouTube; the reposted old version has been viewed almost 100,000 times.

... The “Die Hard” video, with its jaunty tune and irreverent plot summaries of the first three movies, is reminiscent of “Seven Minute Sopranos,” a tightly edited video guide to the first six seasons of the HBO series. That video was later revealed to be the work of an HBO employee.

[The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTyw6cq86kY ]

How can you possibly do research in all languages? (see next article)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015243.html

June 24, 2007

Encyclopedic Reference Work Cataloging all of the World’s 6,912 Known Living Languages

Ethnologue: "An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages." [This web edition of the Ethnologue contains all the content of the print edition and may be cited as: Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.]

• Far from the Madding Gerund and Other Dispatches from Language Log (Paperback)

Well, maybe not all languages, but more every day.

http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9731147-2.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=Webware

How to translate RSS feeds

By Rafe Needleman – June 19, 2007, 5:00 AM PDT

... It's not as easy as using a one-step translation service, but it's worth the effort for reading blogs you think you might like that are not in your language. I'll walk through a demo of translating Webware into French. Here's what you do:

Burn before repair? Certainly another reason to secure your data! (This bozo deserves to be caught.)

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070623082005781

By taking one's computer in for repairs, one assumes the risk of a private search

Saturday, June 23 2007 @ 08:20 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Best Buy in Shreveport was installing a new hard drive in the defendant's computer, and they did a simple diagnostic check not requested by the defendant [Fire him! Bob] to verify that the comptuer was operating correctly, because it had operations issues. The repairman used his own flashdrive [Fire him! Bob] to check the computer's function, and then the computer opened [A miracle! The computer did something it was not asked to do? Bob] the default "My Pctures" (sic) folder, and he found child porn. The police were called. The search was a purely private search. The advances in computer technology and privacy concerns do not yet require the courts to revisit the expectation of privacy issues. State v. Horton, 2007 La. App. LEXIS 1315 (2d Cir. June 20, 2007)

Source - FourthAmendment.com (blog)

[From the blog entry: “In a sense, the discovery of the images the by technician in this case is more analogous to a "plain view" discovery of evidence of a crime.” ]

Some nifty quotes! My very negative interpretation of this: The same growth rates can be expected in your organization. Are you ready?

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015238.html

June 22, 2007

The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010

The Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010 - "In this detailed white paper, IDC researches and analyzes the impact of ever-increasing amounts of digital information generated worldwide. It defines the digital universe and forecasts its growth to an incredible 988 exabytes (or 988 billion gigabytes) in the year 2010. Get a clear picture of what this expanding universe means to you and your organization. Find out what’s driving growth—from files and e-mail to voice data and images. And learn about strategies for managing the rapidly expanding digital universe."

• Related review, Backbone Magazine: Data explosion—each of us sent six exabytes of e-mail last year, June 7, 2007 - "In 2006, the amount of digital information created, captured and replicated worldwide was equal to 161 billion gigabytes, or 161 exabytes [...the 161 exabytes generated in 2006 total approximately three million times more information than is contained in all the books ever written.] If you took that information and bound it in books the size of the latest Harry Potter novel, you’d get 12 stacks of books that each stretched from the Earth to the Sun."

I'm not sure this helps me understand...

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015237.html

June 22, 2007

Enterprise 2.0 Whitepaper

Donald Tapscott's White Paper: Winning With The Enterprise 2.0, "addresses the advantages and challenges of implementing E2 technologies." (62 pages, PDF)

Perhaps we could inject ads into tax forms, court fillings, etc. This could cause problems with the homework I assign my Web Site class. Are there Copyright issues here?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/23/real-evil-isp-inserted-advertising/

Real Evil: ISP Inserted Advertising

Duncan Riley June 23 2007

Texas based ISP Redmoon has implemented software that hijacks pages being visited by their customers by placing Redmoon’s own ads on these pages.

A useless threat?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2007062317130822

Google threatens to close gmail germany over privacy concerns

Saturday, June 23 2007 @ 05:13 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News

According to spiegel.de (german), Google is threatening to close down the german version of it’s popular gmail service if the german Bundestag passes it’s new internet surveillance law. According to googles german privacy representative, Peter Fleischer, the new law would be a severe blow against privacy and would go against Googles practice of also offering anonymous e-mail accounts.

Source - Google Blogoscoped

[Actual Post: http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-06-23-n52.html ]

Interesting question: If he provides a service by offering forms online that you otherwise have to drive to the motor vehicle office to obtain, is there a problem? One source for forms, indexed so people can find them, might actually be a useful service.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--websitesuit0622jun22,0,7278255.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

Mass. sues operator of vehicle registry Web site

June 22, 2007, 7:53 PM EDT

BOSTON (AP) _ The state is suing a New York man who allegedly operated a Web site that mimicked the state's Registry of Motor Vehicle site and misled consumers into paying a fee to download forms they could obtain for free.

The attorney general's office filed the complaint Thursday against Chris Wiesner, 55, of Alpine, N.Y., and his business, www.Download-Forms-DMV.com, according to a statement released Friday.

... The attorney general's office said that since November 2005, [not a very fast response... Bob] about 28,000 consumers paid over $280,000 to Wiesner online to download forms from his Web site.

The state alleges that Wiesner crafted his Web site so that consumers using Internet search engines would locate the site in a sponsored link or have it listed as one of the primary Web sites on the response page. [Let's hope that's not illegal Bob]

Those accessing his site would be required to become a subscriber by entering their credit or debit card information and pay a $10 fee in order to get forms they could have obtained free if they went directly to the Massachusetts RMV or vehicle registry Web sites of 18 other states, the attorney general's office said.

Related? Will the US object if Google does a better job?

http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2007&m=June&x=20070612175746xlrennef0.9354822&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

12 June 2007

New U.S. Web Site Helps Legal Immigrants Assimilate

WelcometoUSA.gov provides wide variety of information

Washington -- The United States is welcoming legal immigrants with a new Web site that helps them find such things as the requirements for naturalization, the location of nearby English-language classes or a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Typical press release. Are they setting themselves up for a fall? See the next couple of articles...

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou070622_jj_bankid.4056cb0.html

Bank warns of possible ID theft

10:14 AM CDT on Friday, June 22, 2007 By Laura Elder / The Daily News

TEXAS CITY — Texas First Bank is notifying about 4,000 customers that their personal information could have been compromised when thieves last month stole a laptop computer during a car theft in Dallas.

But officials say there’s no cause for alarm and that the bank is taking measures to protect affected customers against identity theft.

They said the odds that thieves have been able to retrieve any information from the laptop are low.

The laptop had a heavily secure password [Try searching Google for the phrase “heavily secure password” and then tell me their PR department didn't invent it on the spot. Bob] and was equipped with technology designed to prevent unauthorized access, said Matt Doyle, vice chairman of the Texas City-based bank. [No encryption? Bob]

... Officials say the laptop owned by S1 Corp., the bank’s former online banking vendor, [Should they still have this data? Bob] was stolen on May 19.

... Texas First had changed online banking vendors in March but still was in the process of converting data, Doyle said.

... Texas First said it is offering a free 24-month [Twice normal? Perhaps they feel more guilty than others? Bob] membership to Equifax Credit Watch, an identity-theft protection service, to customers who might have been affected by the theft.

The service alerts customers to changes in their Equifax credit file. Among other measures, the bank also is offering to pay for $20,000 in identity-theft insurance with no deductible to customers whose information could have been compromised. The bank also is monitoring accounts.

AGs are finding easy picking here. All they need do is ask the simple questions journalists no longer ask...

http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=c8d5d2c5-eff8-4a83-8f6a-9b4c31e2da5b

Pfizer Gets More Time On Data Breach

By Lee Howard Published on 6/23/2007 in Home »Business »Business Main Photo

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has granted Pfizer Inc. a two-week extension to prepare responses to a series of questions about a data breach last month at the company that led to the posting of nearly 17,000 Social Security numbers and other personal information on the Internet.

... Pfizer had been asked, in a June 6 letter from Blumenthal, to answer 14 questions about the security breach, including specifics that Pfizer has been reluctant to disclose in the past, such as how it first learned of the breach, how it determined what data was actually accessed and what potentially was accessed, and when it first discovered the problem. Blumenthal also asked Pfizer to outline a plan for preventing future security breaches [A plan! What a concept! Bob] and to identify any corporate policies relating to the security of computers, facilities and personal information.

This is so common, I bet someone has written a paper on how to deal with it... Now if organizations only had someone who could read... (Some amusing comments, too.)

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070622/084529.shtml

Ohio Data Leak Follows The 'Worse Than First Thought' Plan

from the working-for-you dept

It's pretty much par for the course that when a data leak gets disclosed, it's followed up a few weeks later with another announcement revealing that even more people's information was lost than first thought. Whether that's because it takes some time to figure out the extent of losses or is just a PR ploy [If it is, it's a bad one. Bob] is open for debate. In any case, you might remember the recent case in Ohio, where the personal information of all the state's 64,000 or so employees was lost when a storage device containing it was stolen out of an intern's car. True to form, the state's governor has issued an update, revealing that it's not just the state employees whose info was stolen, but a total of about 500,000 people, including welfare recipients, state employees' dependents, and taxpayers with uncashed income tax refunds. We noted earlier that the intern had the device as part of the state's security protocol, in which employees rotated taking backups home with them in case data on the state's system was lost. While storing backups off-site has some merit, this incident highlights the idiocy of just passing out devices to employees and having them take them home, rather than storing them in some more secure manner. The state has now ordered an end to the practice, while the state police have set up a post office box "in hopes that the storage device would be returned anonymously." Somehow, given the great job state officials have done to advertise the potential value of the device, that seems pretty unlikely.

This is the first time I've seen this in an Identity Theft case. I like the idea, but need to know more about how it is secured. (They don't have the best reputation...) Not easy to find on the web site, either.

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070622104656171

OH: Your name on stolen data disk?

Friday, June 22 2007 @ 10:46 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches

To see if your name is on the list of people whose personal information was on the stolen computer tape, go to www.ohio.gov/idprotect on the Internet.

You will be given a personal ID number at that site to sign up for Debix ID protection.

Letters have been mailed to all affected Ohioans, also containing a PIN number and details about free ID protection.

Or call this automated number, 888-644-6812, for updates.

To speak to someone live, call 800-267-4474 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Source - The Enquirer

Worth reading? (You can shoot for “low key” but remember, the entire internet is watching you...)

http://foi-privacy.blogspot.com/2007/06/low-key-launch-for-nsw-lrc-privacy.html

Friday, June 22, 2007

Low key launch for NSW LRC privacy paper

Without any fanfare (not even a media release), the NSW Law Reform Commission has released its Consultation Paper on "a statutory cause of action for privacy". The Paper provides a broad canvas of the issues, case law developments, the situation in other similar countries and puts forward a tentative view that we should join the ranks of those who should act to fill this current significant gap in our legal framework.

The Commission makes two proposals: that if a statute is to create a cause of action, the approach should be to identify in the legislation the objects and purposes it seeks to achieve, and incorporate a non-exhaustive list of the types of invasion that fall within it. It also suggests that the range of remedies include but not be limited to, damages (other than exemplary damages).

The Paper lists 20 questions and seeks responses during a consultation period to run until September.

Would this have any bearing on the evidence found on a multi-user computer?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070622125738216

The Supreme Court's Recent Decision Regarding Whether a Car Passenger is "Seized" in a Traffic Stop (Analysis)

Friday, June 22 2007 @ 12:57 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: In the Courts

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ruled, in Brendlin v. California, that when a police officer effects a traffic stop of a passenger vehicle, the passengers - and not just the driver -- are "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, the passengers - and not just the driver -- may challenge the constitutionality of the stop.

The decision was interesting for a number of reasons - including its unanimity. (Justice Souter wrote for the entire Court.) In this column, I'll discuss why the decision was unanimous, and focus on the specific nuances of the Court's holding.

Source - FindLaw's Writ

What law prohibits videotaping the police? Would this apply to surveillance cameras?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/22/220254&from=rss

Charges Dropped In PA Video Taping Arrest

Journal written by twitter (104583) and posted by kdawson on Friday June 22, @06:24PM

from the common-sense-prevails dept.

Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed has reversed himself completely over the charges against Brian Kelly, arrested for wiretapping after videotaping a police stop. Now let's see if they are good enough to compensate Kelly for the 26 hours he spent in jail and the anguish of the cloud over his future caused by a felony arrest. From the article: "... [DA] Freed said his decision will affect not only Brian Kelly, 18, but also will establish a policy for police departments countywide. 'When police are audio- and video-recording traffic stops with notice to the subjects, similar actions by citizens, even if done in secret, will not result in criminal charges,' Freed said yesterday. 'The law itself might need to be revised.'"

The reasoning seems weak...

http://fox43.trb.com/news/wpmt-062007-wiretapping,0,3631978.story?coll=wpmt-news-3

Carlisle teen cleared after wiretapping incident

June 20, 2007

... The arresting officer was already taping the stop with a dashboard camera and therefore he had no expectation of privacy.

...and does the ACLU know about the anti-videotaping law?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/22/188214&from=rss

Citizens Given Video Cameras To Monitor Police

Posted by kdawson on Friday June 22, @02:12PM from the project-vigilant dept. The Courts

atommota writes "After years of complaints of police misconduct, the ACLU is giving free video cameras to some residents of high-crime neighborhoods in St. Louis, MO to help them monitor officers. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri launched the project Wednesday after television crews last year broadcast video of officers punching and kicking a suspect who led police on a car chase. 'The idea here is to level the playing field, so it's not just your word against the police's word,' said Brenda Jones, executive director of the ACLU chapter. The ACLU has worked closely with the police to make sure they are aware of this program. This is in stark contrast to the recent Pennsylvania arrest for felony wiretapping of a guy who was videotaping a police stop."

How come this isn't a concern of the Digital Rights world?

http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/533?ref=rss

Elcomsoft cracks Quicken "backdoor"

Published: 2007-06-22

Russian security software firm Elcomsoft announced on Friday that the company's researchers had cracked the master password that secures encrypted Quicken files and which allows the software's developer, Intuit, to retrieve lost passwords.

Calling the existence of a 512-bit encryption key a "backdoor," Elcomsoft said the master key could be used by the federal government to access taxpayer records. Starting with Quicken 2003, Intuit beefed up the encryption of Quicken's password protection. While the better protection made it infeasible for a cracker to brute force the password to a particular Quicken file, Intuit offers a service to recover the files for people who had lost their passwords.

Does that mean freelancers need to control this with a contract?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/22/1322234&from=rss

Court Ruling Limits Copyright Claims

Posted by Zonk on Friday June 22, @11:18AM from the put-your-cap-back-on dept. Media The Courts

Spamicles writes "A federal appellate panel in Atlanta has reversed its circuit's 6-year-old opinion in a major copyright case, declaring the ruling's mandate on behalf of freelance photographers to be "moot." Until now, publishers could be forced to share with freelancers whenever they reproduce and sell those freelancers' previously published works in merchandise designed for computer access. The new ruling says that reproduction on a CD or other media is not a new use of formerly published issues. The full court decision (pdf) is available online, and Law.com has an analysis of the ruling's repercussions."

Attention Virtual Lawyers!

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9733848-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Congress set to issue virtual taxation report in August

Posted by Daniel Terdiman June 22, 2007 1:33 PM PDT

For months, the community of virtual world publishers, players and economists has been holding its breath, waiting for the U.S. Congress to issue its report on the potential taxation of virtual goods.

... Meanwhile, a lot is riding on the outcome. If Congress signals it intends to start taxing in-world commerce, that could create huge problems for publishers who may have to figure out efficient ways to track all such trades. If Congress goes the other way, many people will feel that it is just punting and that it will still only be a matter of time before some major government decides to step in.

Is this related to the story above? In any case, some interesting comparisons.

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015224.html

June 21, 2007

EU: eGovernment in the European countries

EU: eGovernment in the European countries, 19 June 2007: "As part of its mission to inform the European eGovernment community about key issues of common interest, the eGovernment Observatory maintains a series of Factsheets presenting the situation and progress of eGovernment in 32 European countries: EU-27, Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, providing for each one of them a wide and consistent range of information... As a general rule, factsheets are updated every 6 months with a new Edition."

Also a concern for Virtual Lawyers? (...and the “traditional” phone companies?)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015222.html

June 21, 2007

Surveys Examine the Impact of the Growing Cell-Only Population

Follow up to May 14, 2007 posting, Nearly 16% of U.S. Homes Have No Landline Phone, see also these related studies:

• The Landline-less Are Different and Their Numbers Are Growing Fast, by Scott Keeter, Director, Survey Research, Pew Research Center, June 20, 2007

• What's Missing from National RDD Surveys? The Impact of the Growing Cell-Only Population, by Scott Keeter (Pew Research Center), Courtney Kennedy (University of Michigan and Pew Research Center), April Clark (Pew Research Center), Trevor Tompson (The Associated Press), and Mike Mokrzycki (The Associated Press).

Ditto? What happens if a “Please lock your door” message delays a “Your baby has stopped breathing” message?

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070621/175808.shtml

Police Plan To Bluespam People About Locking Their Doors

from the this-is-a-good-idea-how? dept

We still can't figure out why anyone thinks "bluespamming" is a good idea. Bluespamming, if you don't know, is setting up a system to look for phones with bluetooth enabled, and sending them an automatic message if they're nearby. It's spam, via bluetooth. Yet, for some reason, many organizations that are doing it, such as the US Navy don't seem to realize it's intrusive and annoying. The latest to dip into bluespamming are police in West Yorkshire who somehow think that bluespamming people reminders to lock their doors and windows will be effective. Perhaps it'll teach people to better lock up their mobile phones so bluespamming doesn't bother them instead.

For those of us who laughed...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118248076104444461.html

Business.com Could Hit Jackpot on Auction Block

By DENNIS K. BERMAN June 22, 2007; Page B3

Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton were widely mocked for lavishing $7.5 million on a single Internet domain name -- business.com -- back in 1999. It was the single highest price paid for a domain name at the time.

Now look who is having the last laugh.

The company that grew out of business.com -- a search engine used by businesses to find products and services -- is now on the auction block, and could fetch anywhere between $300 million and $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

Surely your software is not obsolescent, but is this the sign you must upgrade?

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2192667/microsoft-stops-shipping-office

Microsoft stops shipping Office 2003

Posted by Reverend on 22 Jun 2007 - 17:55 GMT

Microsoft has confirmed that it will stop shipping Office 2003 at the end of June 2006.

Stupid is as stupid does. F Gump

http://digg.com/offbeat_news/What_s_Wrong_With_This_Picture_14

What's Wrong With This Picture?

just take a moment and figure it out - you'll laugh when you do

http://www.20xx20.myby.co.uk/erm.jpg

Some Folk Wisdom is worth quoting...

• If you are choking on an ice cube, don't panic. Simply pour a cup of boiling water down your throat and presto, the blockage will be almost instantly removed.

• Clumsy? Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

• You can avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat just by using the sink.

• Sometimes, we just need to remember what the rules of life really are: in life, you only need two tools - WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move but should, use the WD-40. If it should not move and does, use the duct tape.

Thought for the day : SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKYS..... THEY ARE NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING... BUT THEY STILL BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN YOU PUSH THEM DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS

A short follow-up. Probably all organizations will get reports like this. What is unusual is when the organization actually does something because of it. NOTE: If this breach impacts Strickland’s political career, expect a flood of laws to protect politicians.

http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070622/UPDATES01/70622004/1002/NEWS01

Report warned Strickland of data risk

COLUMBUS (AP) — Months before a computer device containing the Social Security numbers and other personal information of more than 500,000 Ohioans was stolen from an intern’s car, the state was warned it was vulnerable to data theft, The Columbus Dispatch reported Friday.

Before he took office in January, Gov. Ted Strickland asked teams of experts to evaluate key areas of state government and submit findings and recommendations.

The team studying the Office of Information Technology concluded the state had “little to no policy guidance or standards” for protecting Social Security numbers and other sensitive information, according to a report prepared as part of Strickland’s transition team.

What weren't you thinking? Mug shots?

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/jun/21/istep-collage-causes-a-stir/

ISTEP collage causes a stir

By John Martin (Contact) Thursday, June 21, 2007

New Harmony (Ind.) School officials acknowledged Wednesday that a picture collage of students who did not pass the most recent ISTEP test has filtered out into the community.

They said the privacy breach violates a federal law and they are trying to determine why and how it happened.

The pictures were intended to be given only to faculty at New Harmony's public school, which has students in kindergarten through 12th grade, said Fran Thoele, superintendent of the school district.

... Asked if she thought the principal's motivational tactic was appropriate, Thoele replied, "If the teachers would have used it in the way it was Thoele said the leak of the pictures could be a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. [Huh? Bob]

... The principal's statement goes on to say that the school "is taking this very seriously," and "if the person responsible is found, they will be handled in accordance to school board policy regarding student confidentiality and ethical behavior.

"It is unclear why this teacher [Why is it a teacher? Bob] chose this type of act instead of using the proper school procedure to express concerns."

We can, therefore we must!

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/business/story.html?id=eebb77fa-249a-4101-8357-df57c47ee8ac

EUB fails integrity test by spying on residents

Paula Simons, The Edmonton Journal Published: Thursday, June 21, 2007

When the story started oozing out, it sounded almost too paranoid to be true.

The Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, an arm of the Alberta government, has been hiring private investigators to monitor farmers and acreage-dwellers from central Alberta.

... The landowners oppose an application by AltaLink to build a new 500,000-volt transmission line from Wabamun to Calgary across their properties.

Tempers have been running so high, the EUB has actually banned members of the public, including affected property owners and opposition MLAs, from attending the "public hearings" in person.

Instead, they have to watch the proceedings from a separate building on closed-circuit TV. Not satisfied with that security measure, the EUB went one step further and hired private undercover agents to infiltrate those meetings.

The EUB says its agents were only supposed to monitor those watching the hearings, to watch for signs of violence.

But the farmers and their lawyers allege the private investigators also insinuated themselves into private solicitor-client conversations.

Coming soon to a country near you!

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/91539

Data Protection Commissioner deplores "trend towards a Big Brother state"

21.06.2007 14:51

Upon presenting his 8th Report Harald von Bose, the Data Protection Commissioner of the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, has publicly deplored the increasing degree to which the state and private companies crave and achieve access to the personal data of citizens. "Restraint and moderation are no longer much in evidence," he said on Wednesday in Magdeburg. "The trend towards a big Brother state defined by comprehensive registration, surveillance, evaluation and control has picked up pace significantly," he added.

Apparently they are done with Estonia...

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/22/021239&from=rss

Crackers Cause Pentagon to Put Computers Offline

Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday June 22, @01:15AM from the better-safe-than-sorry dept. Security United States IT

Anarchysoft writes "As many as 1500 Pentagon computers were brought offline on Wednesday in response to a cyber attack. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported of the fallout both that the attack had 'no adverse impact on department operations' and that 'there will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences.' When asked whether his own e-mail had been compromised, Gates responded, 'I don't do e-mail. I'm a very low-tech person.'"

Do you think someone should tell them it's not just search engines?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101143.html

EU Probe to Look at All Search Engines

By AOIFE WHITE The Associated Press Thursday, June 21, 2007; 7:13 PM

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A European Union probe triggered by concerns over how long Google Inc. stores user information has widened to include all Internet search engines.

The EU's panel of national data protection officers said it's now concerned over the retention of data that the companies use to deliver more relevant search results and advertising. Some fear the data could be targeted by hackers and governments. [Most are completely oblivious... Bob]

Ubiquitous surveillance: No more taking tests in the nude, people. Please!

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070619/194045.shtml

Online Test Takers To Have Their Every Move Watched By Special Webcams

from the we're-watching-you.... dept

For years now, there have been questions about the increase in high-tech cheating among students. One solution, of course, is to change the way students are measured, recognizing that collaboration is important so that working together and using additional sources is encouraged (you know, like in the real world). However, there still can be times where a good old fashioned test might make sense -- and that gets even more difficult when you're dealing with an online only school trying to give an online exam. A few years ago we discussed one school that was testing the use of a webcam system to take regular snapshots of the student while they took the test. It appears that just that type of technology is becoming increasingly popular for online test taking, with some believing it's more effective at preventing cheating than traditional proctored exams. The new camera system records a 360 degree view (to make sure there's no one behind the camera helping out), records all audio as well and even requires a fingerprint to make sure you're really who you say you are. It also has some method for alerting monitors to suspicious activity (such as if someone starts getting a bunch of questions right soon after taking a phone call). All in all, it sounds pretty thorough -- though, we're sure someone will figure out an effective way around it before too long. In the meantime, some are suggesting that such a system is too invasive -- but as long as the test-taker knows what he or she is getting into, it's hard to see how that's a problem.

Ubiquitous surveillance: What are you doing in that womb, kid?

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newjersey/ny-bc-nj--hivtesting0621jun21,0,237135.story?coll=ny-region-apnewjersey

NJ lawmakers approve HIV testing for pregnant women, newborns

By TOM HESTER Jr. Associated Press Writer June 21, 2007, 10:15 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey on Thursday moved to require both pregnant women and some newborns to be tested for HIV.

... It requires all pregnant women be tested twice for HIV, once early and once late in the pregnancy, unless the mother asks not to be tested.

It also requires newborns to be tested if either the mother has tested positive or her HIV status is unknown at time of birth.

... The American Civil Liberties Union and women's groups contend the bill deprives women of authority to make medical decisions.

"Women's privacy rights and choices are as constitutionally valid as any other citizen, regardless of reproductive status," said Maretta J. Short, New Jersey's National Organization of Women president.

... According to the Kaiser Foundation, a nonprofit research organization focusing on U.S. health care issues, Arkansas, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas require health care providers to test a mother for HIV, unless the mother specifically asks not to be tested.

Connecticut, Illinois and New York test all newborns for HIV, according to the foundation.

Seems to be a theme in the news today...

http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/21/2032235&from=rss

E-Voting Report Finds Problems with Modern Elections

Posted by Zonk on Thursday June 21, @06:04PM from the i'm-going-to-count-these-again-if-you-don't-mind dept. Politics Technology

JonRob writes "The Open Rights Group has released a report on challenges faced by voting technology. Using the May 2007 Scottish/English elections as a testbed, researchers have collated hundreds of observations into a verdict on voting in the digital age. 'The report provides a comprehensive look at elections that used e-counting or e-voting technologies. As a result of the report's findings ORG cannot express confidence in the results for the areas we observed. This is not a declaration we take lightly but, despite having had accredited observers on location, having interviewed local authorities and having filed Freedom of Information requests, ORG is still not able to verify if votes were counted accurately and as voters intended.' The report is available online in pdf format for download."

So a willingness to share your source code should be a competitive advantage, right? (ES&S must have good lawyers...)

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070620/190152.shtml

Appeals Court Says E-Voting Company Doesn't Need To Reveal Source Code

from the this-again? dept

Back in January, a district court turned down the request from the losing candidate in a Florida election trying to see the source code of the e-voting machine, since it appeared to lose a ton of votes. The judge in that case worried that exposing the code to experts for review (not to the whole world) would somehow violate the company's trade secrets. An appeals court has now agreed, and will not force ES&S to hand over the code even though a report between the two cases showed that ES&S knew its machines were buggy while experts like Ed Felten show that a bug in the software could explain the mistakes found in the system. But, of course, protecting the "trade secrets" of a company that can't program straight is apparently more important than, say, a functioning democracy.

Is this a hospital's responsibility under HIPAA? If they discover a situation like this can they ignore it? It looks like they believe they are required to investigate...

http://web.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=682838f39bee1784

Blog sued by hospital

By Bill Hankins The Paris News Published June 20, 2007

Essent Healthcare, parent company of Paris Regional Medical Center has filed a lawsuit in Lamar County’s 62nd District Court against unknown “bloggers,” contending a blog — http://the-paris-site.blogspot.com — has defamed the hospital and that bloggers are breaking the law in releasing patient confidential information.

... “It is our duty as a healthcare entity and our obligation to the community to protect our patients’ rights to privacy,” said Kim Fox, a spokesperson for Essent. “We are morally and legally compelled to do everything we can to stop these violations.”

Part of my continuing rant that we will need “Virtual Law” experts in the very near future!

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/20/virtual-goods-the-next-big-business-model/

June 20 2007

Virtual Goods: the next big business model

Susan Wu

This guest post is written by Susan Wu, a Principal with Charles River Ventures, where she focuses on digital media, software, and infrastructure. Susan is coproducing the Virtual Goods Summit this Friday at Stanford University - most of the companies mentioned below will be presenting.

People spend over $1.5 billion on virtual items every year.

... While people preoccupy themselves with mocking the absurdities of some of these virtual worlds, the reality is that there are many businesses out there making meaningful amounts of money in virtual goods:

• Tencent is one of the largest Internet portals in China with over 250 million active user accounts. They generated $100 million+ in Q1 of 2007 and over 65% of their revenue comes from virtual goods.

• Habbo Hotel has over 75 million registered avatars in 29 countries and 90% of their $60 million+ yearly revenue comes from virtual goods.

• Gaia Online does over 50,000 person to person auctions and 1 million message board posts a day- making them the 3rd largest auction site and the 2nd largest message board on the Internet. Their average user consumes 1200 page views a month. They employ 3 people whose sole job it is to open snail mail envelopes full of cash that people send in for virtual goods.

• There’s a commonly held misperception that virtual goods are only for online gamers. Both Dogster and HotorNot are succeeding with a hybrid ad/virtual goods business model. Currently, over 40% of HotorNot’s revenue comes from virtual goods.

• Major mainstream brands are now buying advertising in the form of virtual goods in social networks. Gaians can now purchase and pimp their virtual Scion xBs. Coca Cola and Tencent partnered to allow Tencent’s users to trade codes taken from real Coke cans for virtual objects in the Tencent network. Wangyou, a Chinese based social network, has also been extremely aggressive in experimenting with branded virtual goods.

... So why do people spend real money on virtual objects? There are four major reasons:

Virtual objects aren’t really objects - they’re services

... People on HotorNot are paying $10 to send the object of their affection a virtual flower - which is a staggering 3-4x what you might pay for a real flower!

Virtual objects create real value for people

... I see widgets fueling a massively distributed microtransaction economy in the not too distant future.

The cost of buying objects can be cheaper than “earning” them

You can make money off of virtual objects

Last year we were inundated with stories about Second Life’s first real estate millionaire.

Perhaps a simple re-work of other papers?

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070620180003328

ANNOUNCE: FINAL CALL FOR STUDENT ABSTRACTS

Wednesday, June 20 2007 @ 06:00 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Other Privacy News

FINAL CALL FOR STUDENT ABSTRACTS

The Student "I": A student conference on privacy and identity

University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law October 25, 2007

Graduate and undergraduate students from all disciplines are invited to submit an abstract for The Student “I”, a student conference on October 25, 2007 at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada.

Preceding the Revealed “I” conference hosted by researchers from On the Identity Trail, this day long student conference brings together students from around the world, selected through a peer-review process, to present research relating to identity, privacy, anonymity, technology, surveillance, and other related topics engaged by the On the Identity Trail project.

Source - blog*on*nymity

Sure. Research. Right. Although I think the author got it right – as do most of the comments. Actually worth reading!

http://digg.com/business_finance/10_Sales_and_Marketing_Tips_I_Learned_From_Strippers

10 Sales and Marketing Tips I Learned From Strippers

Strippers are such great salespeople. Reall, they use a lot of highly effective sales and marketing techniques that can be applied in any business.

http://www.wisecamel.com/2007/06/20/10-sales-and-marketing-tips-i-learned-from-strippers/

For those who have the white bronco as their screensaver...

http://digg.com/celebrity/O_J_Simpson_s_Murder_Confession_Leaked_to_BitTorrent

O.J Simpson’s ‘Murder Confession’ Leaked to BitTorrent

In 2006 O.J Simpson announced he was releasing a book in which he would detail what would have happened, had he really committed the murders of his ex-wife and her boyfriend in 1994. After public outrage, the book was shelved and 400,000 copies of the book were destroyed but now a digital version has been leaked to BitTorrent.

Story: http://torrentfreak.com/oj-simpsons-murder-confession-leaked-to-bittorrent/

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?bdmmd2lmuzy