http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081121054252762
Obama's cell phone records breached
Friday, November 21 2008 @ 05:42 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, his transition team said Thursday.
Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the team was notified Wednesday by Verizon Wireless that it appears an employee improperly went through billing records for the phone, which Gibbs said Obama no longer uses.
In an internal company e-mail obtained by CNN, Verizon Wireless President and CEO Lowell McAdam disclosed Wednesday that "the personal wireless account of President-elect Barack Obama had been accessed by employees not authorized to do so" in recent months.
Source - CNN
[From the article:
Gibbs said that anyone viewing the records likely would have been able to see phone numbers and the frequency of calls Obama made, but that "nobody was monitoring voicemail or anything like that." [...and we have the NSA's word on that! Bob]
Here in Texas, it just takes a mouse click to publish your personal information. To remove it, simply file form C-22 in quituplicate with the appropriate clerks five days prior to publication.
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081120184306497
El Pasonas Must Request To Remove Private Info From Web Site
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 06:43 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The job of the county clerk's office is to simply preserve and record public and vital records of individuals in the community. The county clerk said it's not against the law to publish these records on the Internet, but she's working on a system to remove identifying information.
Your personal documents that could contain identifying information are public records. And it's easy to get to when ithey're published on the county Web site. It's an identity theft issue that should concern everyone.
... If you've ever filed any documents in the El Paso County Court, you should check the Web site to see if there's private information. If there is, you need to request a redaction, and you can do that by calling the county clerk's office or going to the Web site and filing out a form giving specific instruction as to what information to remove.
Source - KFOX TV
[From the article:
Briones explains it's not against the law to publish these records; in fact, it's her job. But she said her office is working on obtaining the software needed to remove private information from public records.
What information do you need to commit this crime? Detailed credit card purchases?
http://pokedandprodded.health.com/2008/11/18/fake-fda-agents-target-people-who-buy-drugs-online/
Fake FDA Agents Target People Who Buy Drugs Online
By Theresa Tamkins | November 18, 2008
... The FDA says scam artists claiming to be “FDA special agents” have been phoning people and threatening them with prison if they don’t cough up a pile of cash, typically thousands of dollars.
... The targets are generally people who have already been the victims of credit card fraud, or who have purchased drugs on the Internet or over the phone.
Should “punishment” be based on volume or procedures?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081121055730180
UK: EDS goes unpunished for data loss (follow-up and update)
Friday, November 21 2008 @ 05:57 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Justice secretary Jack Straw has been accused of letting EDS get away with " a slap on the wrist" after losing a hard drive containing sensitive personal data on prison staff.
... In a Commons statement on the outcome of the inquiry Straw revealed that the hard drive contained bank details, addresses, National Insurance numbers and dates of birth on 256 staff, and not 5,000 as originally reported.
... Straw said that EDS "is taking appropriate action", including disciplinary action "if necessary", and that National Offender Management Service (Noms) staff face disciplinary action for concealing the news from ministers.
Source - computing.co.uk Related - BBC
Privacy as a strategic weapon? Don't stand behind the bazooka!
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081120084310564
Does AT&T’s Newfound Interest in Privacy Hurt Google?
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 08:43 AM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
When I first read about the formation of a new privacy think tank in Washington funded initially by AT&T, my first instinct was to see it in light of the company’s battle against Google. And I do think that is part of the story, but I also think the new group has the potential to do some real good.
.... Several commentators, including Zachary Roth of Talking Points Memo and Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, have seen this as a business group trying to block any new government intervention in the advertising business. My take is that this fits more into the movement by a lot of companies to undercut the growing power of Google. Microsoft has spent a lot of time talking about privacy in Washington because it sees the topic as Google’s Achilles heel.
Source - NY Times
Take every opportunity to NOT talk about your failures...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081120132028331
8 Corporations No-Shows At ID Theft Hearing
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 01:20 PM EST Contributed by:PrivacyNews
They were targeted by an international ring of computer thieves -- so why did a number of large retail chains fail to notify customers in California about the theft of sensitive credit information?
That question was left unanswered Wednesday in a Capitol hearing about identity theft, as eight corporations were no-shows.
According to a federal indictment, all eight corporations were victimized through identity theft and stolen data by a large international ring of hackers.
Office Max, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, TJX -- also known as TJ Maxx -- DSW, and Dave & Buster's, Boston Market and Forever 21 opted to ignore the invitation from the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Source - KCRA
Comment: maybe the Assembly Judiciary Committee should extend another "invitation" a little more forcefully? The companies who did not notify customers need to explain when they first found out that they had had a breach and whether customers were then notified, and if not, why not. -- Dissent
This looks interesting, but I'm having problems accessing the PDF.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/019866.html
November 20, 2008
National Intelligence Council Report - Global Trends 2025- A Transformed World
Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, November 2008 - "We prepared Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World to stimulate strategic thinking about the future by identifying key trends, the factors that drive them, where they seem to be headed, and how they might interact. It uses scenarios to illustrate some of the many ways in which the drivers examined in the study (e.g., globalization, demography, the rise of new powers, the decay of international institutions, climate change, and the geopolitics of energy) may interact to generate challenges and opportunities for future decisionmakers. The study as a whole is more a description of the factors likely to shape events than a prediction of what will actually happen."
Will this ruling cause other states to adopt similar laws?
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/state-can-ban-p.html
State Can Ban Prescription Data Mining, Appeals Court Rules
By Ryan Singel November 20, 2008 8:11:43 PM
Data-mining companies have no constitutional right to buy prescription data in order to help pharmaceutical companies lobby doctors to prescribe their brand-name drugs, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
The 3-0 decision by the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals re-instates New Hampshire's 2006 ban on the commercial use of prescription information which is routinely bought from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers by data mining companies. That information includes the names of the doctor, patient and drug.
The companies sell the profiles to drug companies, whose 'detailers' then canvass doctors, buy lunches and give them free samples in order to influence what drugs they sell -- an effective marketing technique the industry spends $4 billion a year on.
[From the article:
The plaintiffs, who are in the business of harvesting, refining, and selling this commodity, ask us in essence to rule that because their product is information instead of, say, beef jerky, any regulation constitutes a restriction of speech. We think that such an interpretation stretches the fabric of the First Amendment beyond any rational measure.
The court also ruled that even if the state did stifle free speech with its ban on sharing or selling the information for commercial use, it would still be constitutional since the state has a vested interest in keeping health costs low.
The heavy hitters have been waiting for a case they could use to batter the RIAA. Perhaps this is it? More likely, the RIAA will back away.
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1830237&from=rss
Lessig, Zittrain, Barlow To Square Off Against RIAA
Posted by timothy on Thursday November 20, @01:47PM from the ensemble-cast dept. The Courts Music
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes
"The RIAA's case in Boston against a 24-year-old grad student, SONY BMG Music v. Tenenbaum, in which Prof. Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School, along with members of his CyberLaw class, are representing the defendant, may shape up as a showdown between the Electronic Frontier and Big Music. The defendant's witness list includes names such as those of Prof. Lawrence Lessig (Author of 'Free Culture'), John Perry Barlow (former songwriter of The Grateful Dead and cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation), Prof. Johan Pouwelse (Scientific Director of P2P-Next), Prof. Jonathan Zittrain (Author of 'The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It'), Professors Wendy Seltzer, Terry Fisher, and John Palfrey, and others. The RIAA requested, and was granted, an adjournment of the trial, from its previously scheduled December 1st date, to March 30, 2009. (The RIAA lawyers have been asking for adjournments a lot lately, asking for an adjournment in UMG v. Lindor the other day because they were so busy preparing for the Tenenbaum December 1st trial ... I guess when you're running on hot air, you sometimes run out of steam)."
Related: The Internet as a disintermediator.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10104750-27.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Byrne/Eno succeed in cutting out the middleman
Posted by Matt Rosoff November 20, 2008 5:01 PM PST
Back in August, I noted that the new David Byrne/Brian Eno album, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, was available in its entirety as a free streaming audio file.
They also put up a free download of one track, "Strange Overtones." Later, they offered several packages to purchase--from downloads-only for $8.99 to a deluxe package with a hardbound book, screensaver, and extra songs for $69.99.
Turns out that this release and marketing strategy was driven by Topspin Media, which is led by former Yahoo Music Vice President Ian Rogers.
A couple weeks ago, Rogers spoke at a Grammy-sponsored event in Seattle and, as Idolator reports, the results of the Byrne/Eno experiment have worked out quite well for the artists. After eight weeks of digital-only sales, the duo have already grossed what they would have earned from a typical record company advance for artists of their expected sales profile. And that's without any physical CDs--they don't drop into retail stores until November 30.
As Nine Inch Nails has already shown, the key for established artists is to reach out to their "superfans" and give them opportunities to feel like they're part of an exclusive club. In the case of Byrne/Eno, it really worked: of the people who entered an e-mail address, more than 50 percent opened the subsequent e-mail, and more than 20 percent eventually purchased music through the site.
I'm a David Byrne fan--I've bought most of his solo CDs (which range from OK to great), and have seen him in concert a few times (always outstanding). Sure enough, as soon as I found out that I could buy a physical CD through the site, that's what I did. I guess I'm not a superfan, as I didn't spring for the $70 deluxe package, but I did buy tickets for Byrne's Seattle stop as soon as I heard they were going on sale.
First rule of hacking: Use someone else's identity. (We They call it “e-deniability”)
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081120183448616
Ca: RCMP not charging rights watchdog over hacking allegations
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 06:34 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
The RCMP will not pursue charges against the Canadian Human Rights Commission over allegations that its investigators hacked an Ottawa woman's wireless internet account to conceal their identity on websites under investigation for hate speech, the National Post has learned.
A parallel investigation of the same incident by the Privacy Commissioner remains ongoing.
Source - National Post
[From the article:
In his testimony, Alain Monfette, director of Bell Canada's law enforcement support team, read out the name and address of a woman, coincidentally a Bell Canada employee, whose computer IP address matched that of Jadewarr at the time in question, according to the Florida-based owner of stormfront.org, Don Black.
Neither the CHRC lawyers nor Mr. Lemire's team had ever heard of her. She has no connection to CHRC investigators, but she did have a laptop computer with a wireless connection, and the address Mr. Monfette gave for her apartment in downtown Ottawa is near the CHRC offices.
This led to speculation that CHRC staff were illegally using an innocent woman's internet account to hide behind her identity when investigating target websites, a claim Mr. Lemire made in a formal complaint to police, while also posting detailed photographs and schematics of her apartment building. That investigation is now concluded without charges.
It's not that there is no competition. It's simply that most competitors want to (make their life easier / screw their customers) too.
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1633231&from=rss
CRTC Rules Bell Can Squeeze Downloads
Posted by samzenpus on Thursday November 20, @12:21PM from the throttle-away dept. The Internet
pparsons writes
"Bell Canada Inc. will not have to suspend its practice of 'shaping' traffic on the Internet after a group of companies that resell access to Bell's network complained their customers were also being negatively affected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today released a decision that denied the Canadian Association of Internet Providers' request that Bell be ordered to cease its application of the practice to its wholesale customers."
Forensic niche: “If you build it, they will come.” (Not as simple as it sounds.)
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/11/professor-sees.html
Experimental Shoe-Print Database Sees the Soles of Criminals
By Ryan Singel November 20, 2008 1:58:37 PM
Dr. Sargur Srihari, a computer science professor, is building a search engine populated with thousands of shoe images scraped from internet shoe stores that would let police forensics units submit a photo of a shoe print from a crime scene and quickly learn the gender, size and brand of shoe a killer or thief was likely wearing.
Not ready for prime time, but I can see this technology enabling a computer ballet. (en-point and click?)
http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/21/0215233&from=rss
Oblong's g-speak Brings "Minority Report" Interface To Life
Posted by timothy on Friday November 21, @12:50AM from the staged-mock-up-or-real-time-control? Dept. GUI Displays Input Devices
tracheopterix writes
"Oblong Industries, a startup based in LA has unveiled g-speak, an operational version of the notable interface from Minority Report. One of Oblong's founders served as science and technology adviser for the film; the interface was an extension of his doctoral work at the MIT Media Lab. Oblong calls g-speak a 'spatial operating environment' and adds that 'the SOE's combination of gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels brings the first major step in computer interface since 1984.'"
The video shown on Oblong's front page is an impressive demo.
Soon every toddler will be quoting this study!
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/20/1755213&from=rss
Study Recommends Online Gaming, Social Networking For Kids
Posted by Soulskill on Thursday November 20, @01:02PM from the seeing-the-writing-on-the-wall dept.
Blue's News pointed out a report about a study sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation which found that online gaming and social networking are beneficial to children, teaching them basic technical skills and how to communicate in the Information Age. The study was conducted over a period of three years, with researchers interviewing hundreds of children and monitoring thousands of hours of online time. The full white paper (PDF) is also available.
"For a minority of children, the casual use of social media served as a springboard to them gaining technological expertise — labeled in the study as 'geeking out,' the researchers said. By asking friends or getting help from people met through online groups, some children learned to adjust the software code underpinning some of the video games they played, edit videos and fix computer hardware. Given that the use of social media serves as inspiration to learning, schools should abandon their hostility and support children when they want to learn some skills more sophisticated than simply designing their Facebook page, the study said."
Attention teachers: There are worse things that plagerism...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20081120183852698
Texas Professor Fired For Vigilante Justice on Plagiarism
Thursday, November 20 2008 @ 06:38 PM EST Contributed by: PrivacyNews
Loye Young, adjunct professor at Texas A&M International University, utilized unconventional measures to combat plagiarism in the classroom. Young warned students that he would publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating, or stealing. “If students don’t know that they will be prosecuted, this will not stop,” he said. “You need to have a deterrent, and it needs to be public.” When he caught six students cheating in his management information systems course, Young published a story about the students on his online course blog – detailing the identification of each student, that he planned to report them to university officials and that each would receive a failing grade in the course. In response to these actions, university administrators promptly fired Young for violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which bars the release of students’ educational records without their permission.
Source - AACRAO
For my website class (so they can explain it to me)
http://digg.com/tech_news/Giz_Explains_Every_Video_Format_You_Need_to_Know
Giz Explains: Every Video Format You Need to Know
gizmodo.com — Once upon time, video codecs and formats were really only the concern of AV nerds, anime freaks and hardcore not-so-legal movie downloaders. Now, even the most part-time of geeks has to deal with them. The zen of knowing what bits of data to pull out to make big data chunks smaller —make for better quality video while taking up less space
http://gizmodo.com/5093670/giz-explains-every-video-format-you-need-to-know
Okay, this could be interesting, but if my wife sees it, I'll have life size pictures of the horse all over the house!
http://www.killerstartups.com/Video-Music-Photo/stickyfan-com-make-posters-out-of-pictures
Stickyfan.com - Make Posters Out Of Pictures
StickyFan is a service whereby you submit a digital photograph and it is turned into a poster that you can order through the web. This solution is initially geared towards fathers who have child athletes and want to show off their little superstars in a big way, but it is theoretically possible to order posters that take babies and pets as the starting point, too. In fact, the service is even suitable for car lovers and hot rods aficionados.
Pricing starts at US$ 20, and the posters themselves are made to adhere to any surface, be it a wall or a window. These can also be moved at will.
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