http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=12943
Mx: End Of Privacy: City To Track People With Eye Scanners
August 19, 2010 by Dissent
Jesus Diaz reports:
Imagine a public eye-scanner that can identify 50 people per minute, in motion. Now imagine the government installed these scanner systems all across an entire city. Or don’t imagine it, because it’s already happening, right now.
Leon, Mexico, is doing exactly that, installing real-time iris scanners from biometrics research and development firm Global Rainmakers Inc. These retinal scanners don’t require people to stop and put their eyes in front of a camera.
[...]
The retinal scanning of Leon’s one million population has started already with its convicted criminals. Citizens with no criminal records have been offered the opportunity to “voluntarily” scan their retinas. This, however, is just the beginning.
Read more on Gizmodo (AU).
Think of it as automating the evidence collection process...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20013969-71.html
Facebook friend request gets man in jail
There is now ample reason to believe that the mere existence of Facebook may cause human beings to do things that they know they shouldn't. Such as poke people and send them dead fish, or whatever virtual beings it is that people send to each other.
Somehow, the temptation seems too great, the user interface too attractive, and the immediacy of the communication just too powerful for anyone to resist.
As evidence, might I bring you the alleged behavior of Harry William Bruder from Florida? According to a report from the Pasco Sheriff's Office, Bruder, an employee of Bud's Plumbing, had been separated from his wife, Carol, for two years and was subject to a domestic-violence injunction.
It is possible that Bruder's internal plumbing might have needed some attention. For he was arrested and stands accused of contacting his estranged wife twice on Facebook. Worse, he is reported by the Smoking Gun to have said, on his arrest: "Yeah, I did it."
It used to be, employees only took the stapler...
http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/08/18/1331205/Employees-Would-Steal-Data-When-Leaving-a-Job?from=rss
Employees Would Steal Data When Leaving a Job
Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday August 18, @10:30AM
"Employees openly admit they would take company data, including customer data and product plans, when leaving a job. In response to a recent survey, 49% of US workers and 52% of British workers admitted they would take some form of company property with them when leaving a position: 29% (US) and 23% (UK) would take customer data, including contact information; 23% (US) and 22% (UK) would take electronic files; 15% (US) and 17% (UK) would take product information, including designs and plans; and 13% (US) and 22% (UK) would take small office supplies."
Imagine political ads tied to Behavioral Advertising. Everything you do, every site you visit would result in ads from all the candidates explaining (in 95 words or less) why the other guy is your arch enemy and only they can ensure your right to surf the net.
http://www.fastcompany.com/1680837/google-seeks-government-exemption-from-revenue-oversight
Google Fights for Underdog Candidates (And More Profits)
The majority of Google's revenue comes from AdWords, its flagship pay-per-click advertising product that brought in $23 billion last year. Now, the Internet behemoth is looking to increase those earnings by wading into the tricky world of election law.
On August 5, Google filed a brief with the Federal Elections Commissions (FEC) for an exemption from campaign finance disclosure rules. Under current law, sponsors of campaign ads must disclose their names, affiliations, and contact information in certain instances.
… "But there are a few exceptions to the rule," writes Politico, "such as advertisements delivered via text message or bumper sticker, for example--where the FEC recognizes a 'small items' exemption--ads for which a disclaimer just isn't practical." Google is hoping that its AdWords platform falls under this same "small item" exemption.
Google claims such regulation could jeopardize AdWords as a tool for lesser-known candidates. It wants "confirmation" that its ads--which contain a maximum of just 95 characters--do not require such disclaimers.
… The pair point out that more than half of online voters use "portal news services" such as Google to learn about candidates.
… It may seem a little dry, but don't underestimate the potential consequences of this exemption. Google is trying to grind out an important precedent: "[Due to] severe space limitation, a text ad is fundamentally different from a television or newspaper advertisement," its lawyers claim.
So are text ads fundamentally different? Don't newspapers face similar space constraints? Aren't the AdWords constraints more arbitrary? What's stopping Google from increasing the word count cap on its AdWords product? The brief cites Yahoo and Bing as having similar maximums, but can't those search engines just as easily increase their caps? This is the Internet--real estate is infinite.
(Related) Speaking of Behavioral Advertising...
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/marketing-websites/
How To Find Out What Marketing Websites Know About You
The Wall Street Journal has recently done a feature on website marketing and tracking and more specifically the information that certain websites share about your profile and habits. While cookies/beacons/trackers are nothing new, their article does shed some light on the extent of the issue and the privacy issues at hand. They also have an awesome infographic on some of the major privacy offenders.
BlueKai is a large data warehousing company which sells your marketing data to advertisers.
The site takes information on websites you visit and extrapolates what you might be interested in buying.
… Do you want a credit card? BlueKai already knows how much you make and one of their client sites can show you cards which are tailored to your lifestyle.
… Through their website you can opt-out of their specific tracker and also specify that a charity will get money “based on advertising dollars gained from your feedback.”
The Google Dashboard allows you to see, in one place, what Google services you use and what Google knows about you.
Did you know that 3rd party websites can tell what other websites you have been visiting? View Start Panic for a sample of how this privacy leak works.
The EFF has this great tool to let you know how ‘unique’ your browser is. Through a combination of browser and plugin versions, screen size, and what fonts you have installed, you are actually very identifiable without even entering any personally identifiable information.
Marketers don’t necessarily care what your name or exact location is, they just want to know that certain data is valid for a unique person.
Defend Yourself
So what can you do to defend yourself? There are actually a number of options at hand.
Going down the road, and assuming marketers are truthful in saying that they won’t track you, you can ‘opt-out’ of tracking. Google has a tool to opt out of tracking as well as the major marketing brands.
Some other things you can do is to empty your cache and cookie stores on your computer, or have a plugin do it for you. NoScript is a great Firefox plugin that will block cookies from 3rd party sites. [I use this myself. Works great! Bob]
Being a member of a global community on the web innately opens you up to some sort of tracking. However, I think it is good to at least be diligent in minimizing any type of ‘privacy’ invasion by marketers, because it is true when they say that advertising works better on you than you think. After all, they already know where you live.
A cautionary tale for my statistics students. (and why you should always quote from the original source)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/18/petscol081810.DTL
Damn lies and cat statistics
Take this statistic, once published by the Humane Society of the United States and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and still zealously spread by many local animal welfare organizations and cat spay/neuter advocacy groups: The offspring of a single unspayed cat will, within five years, add up to 420,000 cats.
Four years ago, pet columnist Gina Spadafori ran those figures past Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal's "Numbers Guy." He has a degree in mathematics and physics from Yale University, and his column routinely examines the basis of statistics used in the media.
"The numbers didn't add up to me," Spadafori said. "And it turns out they didn't add up, period."
Bialik did the math in a couple of different ways, and consulted a number of experts in veterinary medicine and wildlife management. The real number? Somewhere between a low of 98 and a high of 5,000 cats in seven years.
… But the real problem, he said, is that a false statistic is very simple to express, and the explanation as to why it's wrong can be very complicated. "It's very easy for someone to make an argument that's bumpersticker-sized," he told me.
… Worst of all, said Wolf, "Complex arguments don't combat sound bites well. You end up sounding like conspiracy theorist on late night radio."
You have to have 1) sources and 2) some way to handle all those books!
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-good-online-sources-free-ebooks-free-app-read/
3 Good Online Sources For Free Ebooks & A Free Ereader App
I’m going to cut through some of the confusion, and show you how to get, keep, and consume free ebooks. It’s a fairly quick skate across the surface though, so you’ll need to do some more work yourself.
… The largest source of out of copyright ebooks is Project Gutenberg.
… For a slightly different view of what’s available, you also might like to take a look at manybooks.
… If you’re looking for some niche products, then you need to use the web to search things out. For instance, the nice people at Baen Books have a free ebook library for science fiction. [My favorite genre. Bob]
There are plenty of other options out there for broad or narrow fields of study. Google is your friend. Be cautious of the sites that require you to sign up, and watch what you download.
Managing Free Ebooks
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