Another fun case to follow!

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20080706061945100

How America is snooping on YOU ... and may soon be snooping a whole lot more

Sunday, July 06 2008 @ 06:19 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

Dutch Liberal MEP Sophie In’t Veld was becoming irritated. Whenever she tried to board a flight in America – something she does several times each year – she was delayed by special security checks, subjected to questioning, additional searches of her bags and screening for explosives.

.... Last week, she filed a US lawsuit, the first of its kind, demanding access to her records.

... Her case comes at a critical juncture. Since the start of this year, operating almost entirely beneath the public radar, the US Government has been making a concerted, multi-faceted push for unrestricted access to vast volumes of personal data held by governments on this side of the Atlantic.

What the US is after goes far beyond the ability to make requests case by case. They seek the ability to go on electronic fishing expeditions among British and other European databases held by law enforcement, immigration, financial and other official bodies – without even having to inform the databases’ custodians, let alone their subjects.

Source - thisislondon.co.uk

[From the article:

The report says such ‘automated decisions’ can be taken ‘without human involvement’, as long as there are ‘appropriate safeguards in place, including the possibility to obtain human intervention’.

‘In the real world, such protection is meaningless,’ said Tony Bunyan, Statewatch’s director. ‘If there’s no right to be informed what a database says about you, the first you’re going to know is when you’re wrongly arrested, when you don’t get that job, or when you can’t get on that plane.’

Editorial cartooning goes viral?

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/07/mark-fiore-cartoon-compromise

July 3rd, 2008

Cartoon: The Return of Snuggly, the Security Bear

Posted by Hugh D'Andrade

A few months back, SF Gate cartoonist Mark Fiore introduced his character Snuggly, the Security Bear, with a brilliant take on telecom immunity. Now, Snuggly is back, and he has a few words to say about "compromise."

http://www.markfiore.com/constitutional_compromise_0

It's not the limit – it's being told your service is unlimited...

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/05/2033201&from=rss

In Japan, a 900 Gigabyte Upload Cap, Downloads Uncapped

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 05, @04:45PM from the no-such-luck-in-tennessee dept. The Internet

Raindeer writes

"While the Broadband Bandits of the US are contemplating bandwidth caps between 5 gigabyte and 40 gigabyte per month, the largest telco in Japan has gone ahead and laid down some heavy caps for Japan's broadband addicts. From now on, if you upload more than 30 gigabyte per day, your network connection may be disconnected. Just think of it ... if you're in Japan and want to upload the HD movie you shot of yesterday's wedding, you soon might hit the limit. The downloaders do not face similar problems."

Next: Ride the Rockies?

http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/05/1711221&from=rss

Google Creates Tour De France Video Maps

Posted by timothy on Saturday July 05, @01:32PM from the now-now-let's-not-gush-too-much dept. Google Transportation

An anonymous reader writes

"In honor of the Tour de France's start today, Google has used its awesome Street View technology to compile amazing Tour de France route views. A great description of the technology that went into creating this can be found in this LinuxDevices article. At least, I'm assuming these are the cameras — Google acknowledged using Elphel cameras for book scanning and 'capturing street imagery in Google Maps.' And from the article, the cameras have come along way from the days when crazy cat ladies and other privacy freaks scuppered Street View in San Francisco a couple of years back."

An article studying the anthropologists...

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/63666.html?welcome=1215346012

Meet Motorola's In-House Tech Anthropologist

By Wailin Wong Chicago Tribune 07/06/08 4:00 AM PT

Related. “What's good for Coke is good for America?”

http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11670946

Index of happiness?

Jul 3rd 2008 | NAIROBI From The Economist print edition

... “We see political instability first because we go down as far as we can into the market,” says Alexander Cummings, head of Coca-Cola’s Africa division. The ups and downs during Kenya’s post-election violence this year could be traced in sales of Coke in Nairobi’s slums and in western Kenya’s villages. Events in the Middle East, such as the 2006 war between Hizbullah and Israel, can dent sales in Muslim parts of Africa, though anti-American feeling usually wears off quite quickly.