http://www.databreaches.net/?p=6413
Credit card blunder not the first transaction error
July 26, 2009 by admin Filed under Breach Incidents, Financial Sector, Non-U.S., Other
A Carterton resident caught in a BNZ [Bank of New Zealand] privacy breach says his scrupulous home audits have uncovered similar transaction errors and saved him thousands.
The man, who declined to be named, triggered a BNZ blunder after a check of their credit card statement in January revealed a $20 transaction source out of Auckland that was not their own.
An Auckland woman, who wished to be known only as Mrs Hansford, had typed in a single wrong number from her credit card and mistakenly accessed the account belonging to the Carterton man and his partner (emphasis added), is irate that the BNZ disclosed her personal details so the man could resolve the matter. [We tossed in the Identity Theft as an added bonus! Bob]
The woman learned of her error when the Carterton man emailed her two days after she made a $20 internet transaction for digital photo prints.
The Carterton man said when the Auckland purchase was noticed he called BNZ to ask what went wrong.
He said he was “astounded” when a staff member denied the bank was responsible before giving him Mrs Hansford’s home address, work address, mobile phone number and private email address “so I could fix the matter myself”.
Read more in The Wairarapa Times-Age.
So if you just type in someone else’s credit card number, you get to conduct transactions on their account? If so, BNZ has much bigger problems than just giving out another customer’s details as they did… [Amen! Bob]
Should be an interesting debate, but arguing “Who” rather than “How” is clearly obfuscatory.
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2241
I wouldn’t trust Google with my personal info
July 26, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Internet, Non-U.S.
David Davis, Conservative MP for Haltemprice & Howden, has an op-ed in The Times that begins:
When I read in the pages of this newspaper this month that the Conservative Party was planning to transfer people’s health data to Google, my heart sank. The policy described was so naive I could only hope that it was an unapproved kite-flying exercise by a young researcher in Conservative HQ. If not, what was proposed was both dangerous in its own right, and hazardous to the public acceptability of necessary reforms to the state’s handling of our private information.
There are powerful arguments for people owning their own information and having rights to control it. There are massive weaknesses in the NHS’s bloated central database and there are benefits from using the private sector. But there are also enormous risks, so we are still a long step from being able to give personal data to any company, let alone Google.
Read more in The Times.
(Related) Another argument that relies on a misunderstanding of how the world works. Radia seems to think databases are one-way black holes for data. What use would a database be if you could not retrieve data or correct/update it? The privacy/security concern is: How do I ensure the person requesting access (for whatever purpose) is authorized?
http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2247
Legal restrictions won’t ensure privacy online
July 27, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Businesses, Internet
In response to Jonathan Zittrain’s op-ed, “Lost in the Cloud,” Ryan Radia, Information Policy Analyst at Competitive Enterprise Institute, writes to the NY Times:
[...]
Mr. Zittrain proposes a “fair practices law” that would require companies to release personal data back to users upon request. Such a rule may sound workable, but purging specific data across globally dispersed server farms is no simple endeavor. Who is to pay for the implementation of such privacy procedures — especially for free services like Facebook or Twitter that have yet to turn a profit?
A better approach to online privacy is to educate users on safeguarding personal information. Ultimately, however, the only foolproof approach to protecting sensitive data online is to simply not disclose it.
What a great argument for not using services like PHRs. Then again, it’s also a great argument for not using EHRs, EMRs, and for never providing the government with our sensitive data. Yes, users need to be educated, but those collecting the information and using it need to have more responsibility and accountability — Dissent.
Very interesting new tool. Take a few minutes to look at their video. (Not US centric)
The Web of Data, Beyond What Google and Yahoo Show
Posted by timothy on Sunday July 26, @07:00PM from the thought-symantic-was-just-some-company dept. internet science
jccq writes
"Both Google and Yahoo have been supporting Semantic Web markup (RDFa, RDF and Microformats) for weeks and months respectively. What they do, at the moment, is use the markup only for visual feedback by returning better looking, more functional 'page snippets.' But how would it look if you could get all these bits and compose them automatically to form a single structured information page about what you're searching for? The folks at the DERI institute have just released Sig.ma, a visual browser and mashup generator that will go all over the web of data and find dozens of sources to combine together when answering a user query. It also comes in API mode to reuse the information Sig.ma finds inside applications. Here are a screencast and a blog post, with semantic-web-geek details."
What's happening at O'Reilly Open Source Convention you ask? Here's the “Speed Presentation” video, including how to hack your Kindle...
Ignite OSCON
Would that more organizations took this approach...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10295801-52.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
Technology and the megachurch
by Daniel Terdiman July 26, 2009 6:00 AM PDT
… Thought to be one of the most powerful and important megachurches in the United States, its lead pastor says that if churches don't embrace new technologies, they'll be left behind. [That's not a reference to the Rapture, is it? Bob]
Short, but not entirely useless. (They even have a section of “Best Practices”)
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/021900.html
July 26, 2009
Twitter 101 for Business - A Special Guide
Twitter 101 for Business: "Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter."
Don't believe it. This article was machine generated.
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday July 26, @09:11AM from the forecasting-a-great-toaster-revolt dept. robot technology
Strudelkugel writes
"The NY Times has an article about a conference during which the potential dangers of machine intelligence were discussed. 'Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.' The money quote: 'Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,' Dr. Horvitz said. 'Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.'"
Global Warming! Global Warming! All kinds of inventive arguments against releasing the data. Makes me think they have something to hide – after all, it can't all be proprietary/copyrighted/trade secret, can it? Didn't the government gather some data on its own? (Many links to “Global Doubters”)
http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/27/0520216/Temperature-Data-Wants-To-Be-Free?from=rss
Temperature Data Wants To Be Free
Posted by timothy on Monday July 27, @05:07AM from the could-deal-with-some-nuclear-winter-right-now dept. government censorship earth storage science
An anonymous reader writes
"The UK's Met Office Hadley Centre and University of East Anglia have been refusing access to the data used for their global climate averages and scientific studies. A copy of the data has leaked, and attempts continue to accomplish the release of the data by whoever maintains it. Excuses have included confidentiality agreements which cannot be verified because no records were kept, mention of the source has been removed from the Met Office web site, and IPCC records were destroyed."
If we automate this, perhaps we could make LOTS of money. (Assuming they want to know what HAL thinks...)
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-earn-money-by-taking-online-surveys/
You Actually Can Earn Money by Taking Online Surveys
Deep research?
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-forum-search-engines-to-search-40-000-message-boards/
3 Forum Search Engines to Search 40.000+ Message Boards
Jul. 26th, 2009 By Darko
Tools & Techniques
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/a-mini-ftp-guide-for-beginners/
A Beginner’s Guide to FTP Commands
Tools & Techniquse
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-solve-your-windows-problems-with-event-id/
How To Solve Any Windows Problem with Event ID
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