We were not interested in preventing a crime. We wanted to catch someone doing something criminal. Then we would have to make up evidence so we didn't need to admit we had cameras, er Microphones, I meant microphones everywhere.

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2220

Portsmouth wiretap bugs city workers

July 25, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Govt, Surveillance, U.S., Workplace

The Portsmouth Police Department doesn’t deny it placed a recording device in its records room – without proper notification – to eavesdrop on its clerks. It’s just that neither the police nor County Attorney Jim Reams believe any laws were broken.

But the more we think about the official explanation for these improper recordings the less sense they seem to make.

For those of you who missed the story, The Portsmouth Herald revealed this week that for four or five months a microphone recorded – and transmitted in real time – the conversations of civilian employees working inside the police department’s records office without their knowledge.

When the workers discovered the recording device and complained, police brass asked Reams to review a Portsmouth Police Department internal investigation to determine if any crime was committed.

Read more of the editorial on Nashua Telegraph.

If data can be de-identified in this context, then surely Google can de-identify it for advertising – oh wait, how will they send me the “right” ads?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=2213

When is personal data truly de-identified?

July 25, 2009 by Dissent Filed under Breaches, Featured Headlines, Legislation, U.S.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is about to rule whether health care entities will need to notify patients if their de-identified data — patient data that has been stripped of all potential for identifying individuals, which is often used for research and development — is breached. As it stands now, de-identified data is not subject to the new breach-notification rules imposed by the HITECH privacy provisions of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus package. The debate pits privacy activists on the one side — who often support notification — with health care organizations on the other, which say the quality of health care hangs in the balance.

This debate hasn’t been getting much attention. That’s unfortunate, because the outcome could have broader implications within the U.S. and even around the world. Validating that personal data can be de-identified in a way that still retains commercial and social usefulness could set a precedent for many other privacy-related standards and debates.

Read more on Computerworld.

(Related) Is this a waste of time & treasure? Liberals believe that government is the proper custodian for anything that controls our lives, never a corporation. There is little chance of a “Free Health Data” repository when government could be wasting billions in multiple attempts to do what Google has already done.

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/googlehealth-manage-your-health/

Google Health: Store & Manage Your Health Information Online

Google Health lets you store and manage your health information online in one centralized place for free. It has a list of partners (hospitals, pharmacies, health records providers) and if your health provider is on that list, you can import your medical records and link them to your profile to automatically update your records.

Sign in with your Google account details and create your personal profile by entering your health conditions, medication, allergies etc. You can have more than one profile (for family members) and give name to each separate profile. Your data is kept private and secure, however, you can share your data with other people (doctors, friends) and control who can access what.

[Coming soon: Your large intestines on Google X-ray Maps? Bob]

Will this even rise to the level of 'general knowledge' in the Facebook crowd?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/07/25/1842203

Facebook Lets Advertisers Use Pictures Without Permission

Posted by kdawson on Saturday July 25, @05:56PM from the controlling-rights-to-your-face dept.

Krokz sends in an LA Times piece that begins

"A warning is bouncing through cyberspace today, landing on the Facebook statuses of many of the social networking site's users. The message: 'Facebook has agreed to let third party advertisers use your posted pictures without your permission.' It continues with a prescription of how you can protect your photos."

The attention-grabbing incident in this furor involved a married woman, whose photo appeared in an ad for a dating service that was presented to her husband to view. Fortunately, both husband and wife had a sense of humor about it.

[From the LA Times article:

Facebook admits in its terms of service that all Intellectual Property content, like photos and videos, belong to you, the user. But the fine print essentially allows Facebook to do what its pleases with such content, with some limitations.

Keep our conversations between you, me and the NSA

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10295761-83.html

HP researchers develop browser-based darknet

by Tom Espiner July 25, 2009 3:58 PM PDT

Two researchers for Hewlett-Packard have created a browser-based darknet, an idea that could make it easier for businesses to keep eavesdroppers from uncovering confidential information.

Darknets are encrypted peer-to-peer networks normally used to communicate files between closed groups of people. Most darknets require a certain level of technological literacy to set up and maintain, including taking care of the necessary servers. However, HP researchers Billy Hoffman and Matt Wood plan next week to demonstrate a browser-based darknet called "Veiled," which they claim requires little proficiency to set up and run.

"This will really lower the barriers to participation," Wood told ZDNet UK. "If you want to create a darknet, you can send an encrypted e-mail saying, 'Here's the URL.' When (the recipient visits) the Web site, the browser can just get (the darknet application) going."

Hoffman and Wood are scheduled to demonstrate the technology next week at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

So easy, a caveman could do it.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-safely-dual-boot-windows-and-linux-with-wubi-installer/

How to safely dual-boot Windows & Linux with Wubi Installer