http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=424
The Privacy Implications of “Friending” the White House (Part II)
Danielle Ctiron blogs on Concurring Opinions:
Since I last wrote about President Obama’s Facebook friends, Government 2.0 has steadily progressed. Since early May, our Commander-in-Chief has added more than 150,000 new friends. The FDA has initiated its Transparency Blog and will soon add a Twitter feed and Facebook page. More state agriculture agencies reach the public through social networking sites. Of course, the government social-networking phenomenon is not brand new: since 2007, the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has maintained a virtual island in Second Life and the CDC has had a MySpace page. Nonetheless, it is a particularly auspicious time to think about this trend’s privacy implications especially in light of the GSA’s recent agreement with video-sharing and social networking sites to permit agencies to use their services.
Read more on Concurring Opinions.
(Related)
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=455
Privacy and the White House Cyberspace Policy Review
The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) has:
… released a report to help track the progress of the privacy “action items” contained in the Administration’s recently released Cyberspace Policy Review. The Review discusses a wide range of issues that the country needs to address in order to ensure that national security, economic and civil liberties interests are adequately protected. The action items outlined in the CDT report were derived from the Review and President’s subsequent remarks on the document. The action items that develop from these themes are offered to supplement the Review’s broader near and mid-term Action Plan for the incoming Cybersecurity Policy Official.
Their report identifies 12 action items:
1. Create a National Dialogue on Cybersecurity and commitment to privacy and civil liberties guaranteed by constitution
2. Ensure That Federal Government Will Not Monitor Private Networks in Pursuit of Cybersecurity
3. Hire a Privacy Officer at NSC (and/or EOP)
4a. Draft a policy strategy for privacy in authentication technologies
4b. Encourage privacy enhancing technologies for authentication
5. Reconstitute the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board
6. Build engagement mechanisms for civil liberties and privacy advisors on cybersecurity
7. Develop incident response sharing mechanisms that protect privacy
8. Ensure intrusion detection policy and mechanisms protect privacy
9. Define privacy objectives for future infrastructures
10. Establish global policy standards to protect privacy rights and civil rights
11. Ensure privacy protection in information sharing regimes.
12. Develop international standards to protect privacy of data used in cloud computing
Report: Privacy and the White House Cyberspace Policy Review [PDF]June 19, 2009>
it's the 'around the world' part that bothers me. Makes it sound like they are looking for what is possible rather than taking the time to think about what is right.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=471
Internet surveillance laws in Canada and around the world
The Canadian government has been trying to modernize its surveillance and wiretapping laws for years now, to take into account the growth of cellphone and internet communications. Canada’s current telephone wiretap laws are more than 30 years old. Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said in June 2009 that the current legal framework was designed “in the era of the rotary telephone.”
This article by CBCNews provides a brief history of relevant Canadian law and mentions specific laws in other countries.
The big brouhaha, of course, is over two specific bills introduced this week in Canada, C-46 and C-47:
C-46: Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act. Full-text here.
Summary:
The enactment amends the Criminal Code to add new investigative powers in relation to computer crime and the use of new technologies in the commission of crimes. It provides, among other things, for
(a) the power to make preservation demands and orders to compel the preservation of electronic evidence;
(b) new production orders to compel the production of data relating to the transmission of communications and the location of transactions, individuals or things;
(c) a warrant to obtain transmission data that will extend to all means of telecommunication the investigative powers that are currently restricted to data associated with telephones; and
(d) warrants that will enable the tracking of transactions, individuals and things and that are subject to legal thresholds appropriate to the interests at stake.
The enactment amends offences in the Criminal Code relating to hate propaganda and its communication over the Internet, false information, indecent communications, harassing communications, devices used to obtain telecommunication services without payment and devices used to obtain the unauthorized use of computer systems or to commit mischief. It also creates an offence of agreeing or arranging with another person by a means of telecommunication to commit a sexual offence against a child.
The enactment amends the Competition Act to make applicable, for the purpose of enforcing certain provisions of that Act, the new provisions being added to the Criminal Code respecting demands and orders for the preservation of computer data and orders for the production of documents relating to the transmission of communications or financial data. It also modernizes the provisions of the Act relating to electronic evidence and provides for more effective enforcement in a technologically advanced environment.
The enactment also amends the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act to make some of the new investigative powers being added to the Criminal Code available to Canadian authorities executing incoming requests for assistance and to allow the Commissioner of Competition to execute search warrants under the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.
C-47: Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act. Full text here.
Summary:
This enactment requires telecommunications service providers to put in place and maintain certain capabilities that facilitate the lawful interception of information transmitted by telecommunications and to provide basic information about their subscribers to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Commissioner of Competition and any police service constituted under the laws of a province.
Interesting search tool to complement Google.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrobest/3485574749/sizes/o/in/set-72157617478192160/
Collecta: Find Out What’s Happening Right Now
… When you enter a search term on Collecta, it looks through social media content like blog posts, comments, news articles, Twitter updates, Flickr photos… etc, and only show results that have been posted after you started your search.
Perhaps my hacker class could write a specification. (As is often the case, the meat is in the comments.)
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/06/20/1941213/Best-Handset-For-Freedom?from=rss
Best Handset For Freedom?
Posted by kdawson on Saturday June 20, @11:03PM from the start-with-android dept. privacy cellphones
Father Thomas Dowd writes
"The images we are seeing of Iran are being captured on cell phones and the text is being twittered over SMS. Still, the government has some control over the networks, and we are all familiar with fears of wiretap technologies to spy on users. If the cell phone is the new tool of freedom, what would the best 'freedom handset' contain? I'm thinking of a device with an open OS, where each phone could be a router for encrypted messages passed through Bluetooth/WiFi/whatever, thereby totally bypassing physical infrastructures when necessary. Of course, some sort of plausible deniability encryption a la Truecrypt would also be good, in case the secret police catch you with your phone. What else might we need?"
(Related) When everyone can communicate freely, what form of government will the consensus choose?
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/06/18/1970353.aspx
How Iran's Internet works
Posted: Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:22 PM by Alan Boyle
An analysis of Iran's Internet reveals a deep level of diversity, with a level of surveillance (and surveillance-dodging) that goes just as deep.
… On the Internet, no one knows you're Iranian
(Related) And perhaps rules for any-twit
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/06/rules-of-engagement-for-journalists-on-twitter170.html
Rules of Engagement for Journalists on Twitter
by Julie Posetti, June 19, 2009
… I've been researching the ways in which journalists and traditional media outlets are using Twitter and exploring the ethical dilemmas raised by the clash of the private and the public for journalists in the sphere via interviews with Australian, US and South African journalists. And, while I'm convinced Twitter is now a vital journalistic tool for both reporting events and breaking down barriers between legacy media and its audiences, there are still multiple questions around professional journalists' activities on Twitter that require thoughtful, open debate.
Top 20 Take Away Tips for Tweeting Journos
1) Think before you tweet -- you can't delete an indiscreet tweet! (Well, you can, but it will survive in Twitter search for three months and it's likely live on as cached copy somewhere.)
13) Don't tweet while angry or drunk.
17) Twitter is a 'time vampire' (via @anne_brand) -- you don't need to keep track of all tweets, so dip in and out through the day.
Probably not related, but amusing (and probably useless) facts?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrobest/3485574749/sizes/o/in/set-72157617478192160/
Facebook vs, Twitter
It's about change. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose
EFF and PK Reluctantly Drop Lawsuit For ACTA Info
Posted by kdawson on Sunday June 21, @04:43AM from the ours-to-know-and-yours-to-find-out dept. court business government
mikesd81 notes a press release on the EFF website that begins
"The Obama Administration's decision to support Bush-era concealment policies has forced the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Knowledge (PK) to drop their lawsuit about the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Federal judges have very little discretion to overrule Executive Branch decisions to classify information on 'national security' grounds, and the Obama Administration has recently informed the court that it intends to defend the classification claims originally made by the Bush Administration. ... Very little is known about ACTA, currently under negotiation between the US and more than a dozen other countries, other than that it is not limited to anti-counterfeiting measures. Leaked documents indicate that it could establish far-reaching customs regulations governing searches over personal computers and iPods. Multi-national IP corporations have publicly requested mandatory filtering of Internet communications for potentially copyright-infringing material, as well as the adoption of 'Three Strikes' policies requiring the termination of Internet access after repeat allegations of copyright infringement, like the legislation recently invalidated in France. Last year, more than 100 public interest organizations around the world called on ACTA country negotiators to make the draft text available for public comment."
Think they'll come out with a Kindle=killer?
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021633.html
June 20, 2009
New Interface for Google Books
"Google's book search engine has a new interface [details and screen shots provided] that adds many missing features. The sidebar has been moved to the left, you can now embed a book by click on "Link" and selecting the embedding code, there's a new thumbnail view for pages and the table of contents can be accessed as a drop-down." [via Google Operating System blog]
Related postings on Google Book search
Because I grab videos to explain complex topics (Chi Square, Quadratic equations, getting to class on time) these tools are handy. Also useful for my website students.
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/download-any-video-on-the-web-with-downloadhelper/
Download Any Video On The Web With DownloadHelper
Jun. 20th, 2009 By Guy McDowell
… It plugs in to Firefox, so it’s always there in my toolbar, right when I need it.
… Point your browser at the DownloadHelper site. Once you are there, look for the Add to Firefox button and click right there.
… DownloadHelper even gives me the ability to convert the video from FLV to, say, AVI or any other format. If this were a documentary, I might want to change it to AVI, so I could burn it to a DVD. To perform the conversion, you need to have some more software installed like FFMPEG, which you can learn more about over at FFMPEG.org. It appears to be the backbone to many video conversion software applications.
… For other methods of saving online videos, check out:
4 Quick Ways To Download YouTube Videos Off The Net
18 Free Ways To Download Any Video off the Internet
Download, Viewing and Converter Tools for Youtube & Google Video
If you can create personal computers in a garage, could you create personal plague in a garage?
http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/06/20/163200/DIY-Biologists-To-Open-Source-Research?from=rss
DIY Biologists To Open Source Research
Posted by Soulskill on Saturday June 20, @01:33PM from the meatware-hacking dept. biotech science
destinyland writes
"Falling costs and garage tinkering are creating a grass roots movement of amateur biologists whose research is more transparent than that of academia. They are building lab equipment using common household items and even synthesizing new organisms, and their transparency also allows the social pressure which creates more ethical research. DIY Bio.org fosters lab co-ops for large equipment and provokes important discussions. (Would it be ethical to release a homegrown symbiote that cures scurvy in hundreds of thousands of people?) This movement could someday lead to bottom-up remedies for disease, fuel-generating microbes, or even a social-networked disease-tracking epidemiology. 'In much the same way that homebrew computer science built the world we live in today, garage biology can affect the future we make for ourselves,' argues h+ magazine, which featured the article in their summer issue."
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