Laptop theft is so common he expected to get away with it? Unfortunately, video surveillance is also common.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070807070938872
(follow-up) University of Toledo professor accused in theft of hard drive
Tuesday, August 07 2007 @ 07:09 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
A University of Toledo professor who reported his computer stolen, leading to concerns that personal information could be at risk, was charged yesterday by UT police with taking the hard drive.
Thomas Tatchell, 33, an associate professor of health education, was charged in arrest warrants filed yesterday in Toledo Municipal Court with receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence, unauthorized use of property, obstructing official business, and filing a false report.
Source - Toledo Blade
[From the article:
... He told UT police he hadn’t been in his office since May 2
... Surveillance video from the office reviewed by UT police shows Mr. Tatchell taking the computer about 9 p.m. June 8, UT spokesman Matt Lockwood said.
Isolated incident or fun new way to embarrass your competition?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2007080707133379
IL: Personal Information at the Center of Insurance Companies' Fight
Tuesday, August 07 2007 @ 07:13 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Breaches
Hundreds of documents, including social security and credit card numbers are supposedly found in an insurance company's dumpster. 13 News brought you the exclusive story Monday.
Ally Insurance Agency in Rockford says its competitor, Insurance King stole client information from Ally's office. But an Insurance King representative who did not want to be named, says he found loads of unshredded papers in the trash behind the office building. He tells 13 News, "You should keep this stuff. What if a claim were to come up and they don't have any proof?" Ally Insurance Vice President Bill Kerschner says, "This is something that does not go to the bank. This stays in our office. So if he's got a copy of that, my question to him is how did he get a copy of it? Did he have somebody come in our office illegally?"
Source - 13NBC
[Should be simple enough to prove – If he has a copy, show us the original... Bob]
Do you suppose the Class Action lawyers data mine these lists?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070806064415323
Data “Dysprotection:” breaches reported last week
Monday, August 06 2007 @ 06:44 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 - Chronicles of Dissent
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015643.html
August 06, 2007
Questions and Answers on the Protect America Act of 2007
Follow-up to August 5, 2007 posting - Bill to Amend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Ready for President's Signature - today's FAQ: How far does the new wiretap law go? by Declan McCullagh - "Over strong objections from civil liberties groups and many Democrats, legislators voted over the weekend to temporarily rewrite a 1978 wiretapping law that the Bush administration claimed was hindering antiterrorism investigations."
Related government documents:
Some interesting statistics
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015650.html
August 06, 2007
Consumer Report's 2007 State of the Net
"The risk associated with using the Internet remains high. Our State of the Net assesses the likelihood and impact of four leading online hazards, listed in order of incidence, based on the survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center and our follow-up investigation."
In this report: Overview >> Phishing >> Viruses >> Spam >> Social networking >> A safer net >> How criminals deceive >> Where criminals plot >> State of the Net >> Properly erasing hard drives >> Ways to stay safe online >> Canadian online security
New legal term: “Screwed up”
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070806/163525.shtml
Judge Says Jury Screwed Up In Awarding Alcatel-Lucent $1.5 Billion From Microsoft For MP3 Patents
from the so-sorry-about-that dept
Back in February, a jury told Microsoft to pay Alcatel-Lucent $1.5 billion for supposedly violating some patents Alcatel-Lucent held on MP3 technology. The case helped highlight the patent thicket around MP3 technologies, as Microsoft had licensed the technology from the creator of the MP3 technology, Fraunhofer. Back in May, as the judge was considering what to do about the jury's award, Alcatel-Lucent actually claimed that $1.5 billion wasn't enough. It appears the judge not only didn't buy that story, but didn't buy the jury's reasoning either. Today he threw out the jury's ruling, noting that Microsoft doesn't even infringe on one of the patents in question, and the other one is jointly owned by Fraunhofer, and therefore Microsoft has a legitimate license to it already. As the judge said, "The jury's verdict was against the clear weight of the evidence." As you might imagine, Alcatel-Lucent is not happy about this, calling the ruling "shocking and disturbing." So, there is likely going to be a long appeals process. However, this is the second time in recent weeks that we're seeing courts take a more reasonable approach on patents. Hopefully, it's the start of a trend.
This closely parallels what happens in organizations when the computer is unavailable. No other work gets done either.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20070803/191959.shtml
Congressional Computer Crashes: Congressional Reps Too Confused To Vote
from the oh-no! dept
It's no secret that many members of Congress seem to not understand technology issues, but they sure don't seem to like it when their own technology malfunctions. The Raw Feed points us to the news that the Congressional computer that shows vote tallies in the House of Representatives went on the fritz Friday afternoon, leaving those poor Congressional Representatives with no large monitor to tell them how their colleagues were voting. Apparently, without having this information being prominently displayed, some were concerned that they wouldn't know if their votes were being accurately counted (they were), and therefore began debating whether voting should cease until the computer was fixed. Rep. Joe Barton pointed out that each side had their own computers with tallies, and if those tallies matched up, it seemed silly to delay the voting, but eventually the Representatives decided it was just too difficult and recessed while the machines were fixed. What ever did they do before computers?
Tools & Techniques: (Take that IE users!)
http://immike.net/blog/2007/08/06/single-line-of-html-crashes-ie-6/
Single line of HTML crashes IE 6
Microsoft, Web Development August 6th, 2007
A Japanese blogger who goes by the name Hamachiya2 has discovered a single line of HTML and CSS that crashes IE 6. The line is:
If you’re brave, you can click here to try it out. The code is rendered correctly in Firefox, Safari and Opera (didn’t get a chance to try any other browsers, but presumably they work too). But in IE 6 it raises a fatal error in mshtml.dll.
Blog globally, sue locally?
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1186132001827
Californian Can Be Sued in N.J. for Alleged Libel on Internet
Henry Gottlieb New Jersey Law Journal August 6, 2007
New Jersey's long-arm jurisdiction over Internet disputes just got a little longer.
A state appeals court ruled Thursday that a California resident accused of making libelous statements in a Web-based forum can be sued in New Jersey because the material was "targeted" toward a New Jersey audience. [“We could tell, 'cause they was lots a spelling errors!” Bob]
Many state courts have ruled that posting libelous material in open forums that can be seen everywhere does not vest jurisdiction in the victim's state. Where the libeler posts the comments is what counts.
But in Goldhaber v. Kohlenberg, A-5114-05, the allegedly libelous material was not only directed at a New Jersey resident; it included disparaging or insulting references to a town, a police department and the New Jersey resident's neighbors.
Given such targeting, the defendant had reason to foresee he would be hauled into court in New Jersey, [by that logic, the NJ Judges should expect to be hauled before the California courts for harassing their citizens. Bob] Judge Dorothea Wefing said, joined by Judges Lorraine Parker and Joseph Yannotti.
... Kohlenberg declined to submit to personal jurisdiction in New Jersey and the Goldhabers obtained a default judgment for $2,644 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages. Thursday's appellate decision vacated the default judgment, giving Kohlenberg an opportunity to defend himself against the libel charge, but he will have to do it in New Jersey.
... Courts in Minnesota, Connecticut, Nevada, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, to name a few, have ruled that the mere posting of messages on an open forum by a resident of one state read in a second state was not sufficient to confer jurisdiction on the latter.
In a print media case, though, the U.S. Supreme Court adopted what is known as an "effects" test. The Court granted jurisdiction in California to the libel claims of Hollywood actress Shirley Jones against the Florida-published, but internationally circulated, National Enquirer in Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783 (1984).
The New Jersey court found Calder applicable in an Internet setting and went a step farther and used a so-called targeting-based analysis. It found that the posted comments not only circulated widely in New Jersey; they appeared to be targeted to a New Jersey forum.
Ubiquitous surveillance: Did you think there were exceptions?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070807071118853
UK: Cameras in toilets 'a breach of privacy'
Tuesday, August 07 2007 @ 07:11 AM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Non-U.S. News
MORE than 1,000 workers could take part in industrial action after CCTV cameras were installed in a factory's toilet blocks, The Northern Echo can reveal.
The move by ThyssenKrupp Automotive (TKA) Tallent Chassis, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has been branded a "horrendous breach of employee privacy".
Source - The Northern Echo
Ubiquitous surveillance: Did you think there were inviolate legal protections?
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=38452
FEMA To Contact Up To 2.2 Million Applicants Affected By Court Order Directing Release Of Personal Information
Release Date: August 6, 2007 Release Number: HQ-07-155
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is launching an effort to contact up to 2.2 million applicants for federal disaster assistance to inform them that a federal appellate court ruling requires FEMA to release certain personally identifiable information. This information would normally be protected [Except when someone wants it... Bob] under the Privacy Act and the exemption for personal privacy under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
FEMA will send letters and make phone calls to notify people that the addresses of their disaster-damaged dwellings are included in the order, and must be released to certain media organizations. Information on the applicant notification timetable, distribution of information to the requesters; a state-by-state breakdown of disaster events, counties and disasters numbers may be found at www.fema.gov/individual/privacy.
Ubiquitous surveillance: Did you think it didn't apply to you?
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22203308-23109,00.html
Everyone in the world to be on website
By Helene Labriet-Gross in San Francisco August 07, 2007 12:39pm Article from: Agence France-Presse
A US web firm is preparing to launch an ambitious internet search engine it hopes will eventually track down the names of the world's six billion people.
Spock.com says it has already indexed 100 million people and is adding a million names per day on the invitation-only, beta version of its website, which will be made available to the public in mid-August.
Business model I like this one on many levels!
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/NYM01106082007-1.htm
AmieStreet.com Announces Series A Financing Led By Amazon.com
PR Newswire August 06, 2007: 12:01 AM EST
NEW YORK, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- AmieStreet.com, a fast-growing digital music store with a unique demand-based pricing system, announced today the completion of its Series A financing led by Amazon.com, Inc. . The amount of Amazon's investment and the terms are not disclosed.
... AmieStreet.com is the first digital music store propelled by social networking, where members of the community drive the discovery, promotion and pricing of music. All songs on AmieStreet.com start at a price of zero cents. As more people download a song the price rises, capping at $0.98.
Interesting claim. Will anyone believe it?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015647.html
August 06, 2007
DHS Privacy Act System of Records Notice for the Automated Targeting System
Press release: "The Department of Homeland Security has posted on its web site, and will publish on Aug. 6, 2007, in the Federal Register, four Privacy Act records involving the Automated Targeting System (ATS). The records are an updated System of Records Notice (SORN), the Discussion of Public Comments Received on the SORN, a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Privacy Act Exemptions, and a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). In doing so, the department has strengthened privacy protections for all individuals traveling in to and out of the United States."
System of Records Notice for the Automated Targeting System (PDF, 26 pages)
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (PDF, 12 pages
Response to Public Comments (PDF, 23 pages)
Reducing the candidates to a spreadsheet... “No nuance here!”
http://digg.com/politics/Chart_of_presidential_candidate_s_positions
Chart of presidential candidate's positions
Chart of 18 Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and their positions on 25 issues ranging from Iraq, immigration, universal heathcare, stem cell research, and same-sex marriage.
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=868063604&size=o
Swap early and often!
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9755958-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Vote-swapping Web sites are legal, appeals court (finally) says
Posted by Declan McCullagh August 6, 2007 7:08 PM PDT
It took seven years, but a federal appeals court has finally vindicated the creators of vote-swapping Web sites that let Al Gore and Ralph Nader fans support their chosen candidates in the 2000 presidential election.
The purpose of the sites, which included the now-defunct voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com, was to let a Nader supporter in a state where George Bush might win "swap" his vote with a Gore supporter in a state like Texas where Republican victory was practically assured.
There was no actual way to enforce the swap. But the killjoys who inhabit government bureaucracies were nevertheless unamused and came up with the bizarre claim that operating a vote-swap site was a criminal act. California Secretary of State Bill Jones even threatened to prosecute voteswap2000.com and votexchange2000.com (which immediately shut their virtual doors in response).
Fortunately, the site operators--Alan Porter, Patrick Kerr, Steven Lewis, and William Cody--had the means to force the issue and take the state of California to court. They met with little luck before a federal district judge.
But on Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (PDF) that "the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms as well as the communication and vote swaps they enabled were constitutionally protected" and California's spurious threats violated the First Amendment. The 9th Circuit also said the threats violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
Here's the key graf: "Both the websites' vote-swapping mechanisms and the communication and vote swaps that they enabled were...constitutionally protected. At their core, they amounted to efforts by politically engaged people to support their preferred candidates and to avoid election results that they feared would contravene the preferences of a majority of voters in closely contested states. Whether or not one agrees with these voters' tactics, such efforts, when conducted honestly and without money changing hands, are at the heart of the liberty safeguarded by the First Amendment."
Won't RIAA have a kitten?
http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/anywhere--Enjoy-Your-iTunes-Library-From-Anywhere/
Anywhere.FM - Enjoy Your iTunes Library From Anywhere
posted 6 Hours 32 Minutes ago by rakohn | Visit http://www.anywhere.fm view profile
Wish you could listen to your iPod library while at work or some other place you haven’t brought your iPod or its connectors to? With Anywhere.FM you can upload your entire iTunes library with their handy uploading tool and save it for easy access from anywhere with internet. This is great if you have a song you want to play for someone or don’t have your iPod accessible, making it easy to reach the music you love from anywhere. You listen to songs via playlists, and you can listen to other members’ playlists as well. This is great for discovering new music if you like the music tastes of particular users. The site lets you know how similar your music tastes are based on your music libraries so that you have a better idea without even looking of whose playlists you might enjoy more.
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