I mentioned this before, but without the link to the paper

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20090406050200482

Facebook hit by new security concerns over privacy settings

Monday, April 06 2009 @ 05:02 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

A team from the University of Cambridge's computer laboratory has showed how Facebook public profiles could be used to find out personal information despite appearing to contain only a few details.

In the paper, titled ‘Eight Friends Are Enough', the team pointed out that it was possible to reconstruct a user's friends list in a way that could allow marketers, governments and even criminals to understand the private relationships between different people.

Source - SC Magazine

[The paper: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jcb82/8_friends_paper.pdf

Statistics

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10211950-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

Survey: Credit card fraud a top concern in U.S. as economy melts

by Elinor Mills April 5, 2009 9:01 PM PDT

This should come as no surprise to anyone, but people in the U.S. are worried that as the economy worsens, the chances for identity fraud, particularly with regard to credit card data theft, will increase.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans believe that the global financial crisis increases their risk of identity and related fraud, according to the Unisys Security Index due to be released on Monday.

Related. Bad statistics: good data poorly communicated (and not checked by management)

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/04/05/2010243&from=rss

Flawed Map Says L.A.'s Crime Highest Next to Police HQ

Posted by timothy on Sunday April 05, @05:31PM from the statistics-are-coming-from-inside-the-station dept.

CNET briefly describes how a poorly chosen default behavior has led to an online crime map of Los Angeles (on a site designed at a cost of $362,000) that shows that "a location just a block from the department's new headquarters is the most crime-ridden place in the city." I wonder how often this sort of error would completely skew things like real-estate maps that attempt to show whether houses in a certain neighborhood are worth more than those in the one next door.

Every breath you take

Every move you make

Every bond you break

Every step you take

Ill be watching you

http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=2009040509010032

Essays on Deep Packet Inspection and Privacy

Sunday, April 05 2009 @ 09:01 AM EDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada invited a series of essays on deep packet inspection and the interplay between privacy, data protection and modern network technologies. They have now published the essays online at http://dpi.priv.gc.ca (or in French).

The site allows readers to comment, excerpt and even vote on essays that interest or frustrate them.

Contributors include Harry Abelson, Ralf Bendrath, Roger Clarke, Richard Clayton, Susan P. Crawford, Ronald Delbert, Brooks Dobbs, Bert Jaap-Koops, Danielle Keats Citron, Stéphane Leman-Langlois, Paul Ohm, Christopher Soghoian, Anil Somayaji, Maxim Weinstein, and a review of the Internet traffic management practices of Internet service providers written by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner Of Canada.

This might be useful...

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10212673-2.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

First hands-on with Pogoplug

by Rafe Needleman April 6, 2009 5:00 AM PDT

The Pogoplug, which I first covered from CES, connects any USB hard drive to your local network and also puts it on the Internet so you can share files

… Once connected, you go online to the Pogoplug site to register your particular unit based on its serial number. This gives you password-controlled access over the Web to the storage device you have plugged into it. If you attach a USB hub, you can use it to access multiple hard drives or memory sticks. [You really ought to encrypt anything you don't want the world to see. Bob]

Where there is a need, someone will step in to fill it. Don't any of the Colleges in Denver teach Journalism any more? (That may explain it.)

http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021025.html

April 05, 2009

Large Decline in Reporters Covering State Government Issues

"American Journalism Review’s latest survey of the nation’s state capitols finds a dramatic decrease in the number of newspaper reporters covering state government full time. A handful of digital news outlets are springing up to fill the breach. When will these efforts be enough to compensate for the loss of the newspaper watchdogs? [Peggy Garvin]

• Related postings on newspaper closings and shift to online news

I want to write a movie about this wise and humble Blogger...

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web20/fivesprockets-com-virtual-production-studio

FiveSprockets.com - Virtual Production Studio

http://www.fivesprockets.com/fs-portal/

Everyone wants to write a movie once in their life. It’s something like being an astronaut, every child’s dream. Well, since no one has invented a startup that lets you play around space, then you’re going to have to settle for film making.

This is when Fivesprockets.com comes in. With the site’s tool, you’ll be able to create your own scripts, screenplays, and basically anything else that fits the Video producer role. Every section is greatly explained and easy to find, so even if you’re not the brightest of future screen-writers, you’ll get the hang of it quickly. It’s great to see startups that are taking it one step forward, trying to innovate with every update. This one does just that, and it performs wonderfully.

I know many struggling film students that are going to love this startup. If you’re interested in becoming a movie screenwriter, you should get your feet wet before taking the plunge at Fivesprockets.com.