Clear your calendar! I notice that the
http://www.privacyfoundation.org/
has scheduled the next Privacy Seminar (and lunch) for Friday,
November 4th. Topic to be: Privacy Damage Theories
This is a first! “Stop using
“papyrus era” technology!”
By Dissent,
October 13, 2011
In the aftermath of a breach:
The province’s
privacy watchdog is ordering Cancer Care Ontario to stop sending
screening reports to doctors in paper format.
Information and
Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian says the agency
must find a more secure method to transfer the results,
which contain personal health information.
She says the
agency has decided to develop its own web portal for the delivery of
the reports, but will have to report back to her office to ensure
it’s secure.
Read more from The Canadian Press on
CTV.ca
Unlikely we will ever get a straight
story. Imagine “credential stealing” software that is intended
to gather the data, then do nothing with it... Who designed it,
government contractors?
"Air Force officials have
revealed more details about a
malware infection that impacted systems used to manage a fleet of
drones at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada as
reported last week. The 24th Air Force first detected the
malware – which they characterized as a
'credential stealer' as opposed to a keylogger as
originally reported — and notified Creech Air Force Base officials
Sept. 15 that malware
was found on portable hard drives approved for transferring
information between systems. The infected computers were part of
the ground control system that supports remotely-piloted aircraft
(RPA) operations. The malware is not designed
to transmit data or video or corrupt any files,
programs or data, according to the Air Force. The ground system is
separate from the flight control system used by RPA pilots to fly the
aircrafts."
Now this has potential! All of my
students can take pictures of license plates. My Ethical Hackers can
get names and addresses from DMV, then email addresses. Launder the
money through Luxembourg and sell the Credit Card information to the
Rumanian Mob. What (profitable) fun!
Fake
Speeding Tickets Harass New Yorkers Via Email [News]
… Once the email has earned your
trust, it directs you to open an attachment which is supposedly a
form that can be filled out in response to the ticket. Instead, it’s
a typical Trojan
Horse virus.
I don't like the suggestion that the
Police should Photoshop some of their photos. I do like the idea of
using all the free software.
Stop,
Or I’ll Tweet! Cops Struggle With Social Media
A nightstick, a revolver, and a
smartphone to check in on Foursquare.
That’s the necessary gear of the
future beat cop, as envisioned at the SMILE Conference — aka Social
Media, the Internet, and Law Enforcement — held over three
scorching September days in downtown Dallas.
Does this suggest how future
regulations will look?
SEC
guidance about coming clean about data breaches
October 14, 2011 by admin
Emma Woollacott reports:
The
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered companies to
disclose security breaches, following a year in which
several organizations have been criticized for revealing details
late, if at all.
“Cyber incidents
may result in losses from asserted and unasserted claims, including
those related to warranties, breach of contract, product recall and
replacement, and indemnification of counterparty losses from their
remediation efforts,” says the SEC in its new guidance
notes.
“Cyber incidents
may also result in diminished future cash flows, thereby requiring
consideration of impairment of certain assets including goodwill,
customer-related intangible assets, trademarks, patents, capitalized
software or other long-lived assets associated with hardware or
software, and inventory.”
Read more on TG
Daily. If you read the guidance, you’ll see
it’s not really an order….
Not sure I agree with the ranking, but
it's a start...
So much for “We're doing it for the
customers!” More importantly, this suggests the money invested
might be a waste.
Majority
of Consumers See No Benefit in Sharing Personal Data
October 14, 2011 by Dissent
Congress held a hearing yesterday on
consumer attitude about privacy. Here’s yet another survey on
consumer attitude:
Seventy-four
percent of American and Canadian consumers said they don’t feel
they’re receiving a benefit from sharing personal information with
marketers, according to the latest survey research from LoyaltyOne.
Just 52% said they somewhat or strongly agree with the statement that
companies use their personal data “so they can better serve me.”
Breaking down the somewhat and strongly agree responders, only 9%
said they strongly agree that companies use their information to
serve them better.
Read more on Hospitality
Technology.
(Related) The technology exists and
(apparently) it is easy to sell the data.
"Australian shopping centers
will monitor
customers' mobile phones to track how often they visit, which
stores they like and how long they stay. One unnamed Queensland
shopping center is next month due to become the first in the nation
to install receivers that detect unique mobile phone radio frequency
codes to pinpoint location within two meters."
(Related) As long as someone buys it,
they'll collect it.
Under Verizon's
new privacy policy, as noticed
by Computerworld, the carrier will collect data on the websites
customers are visiting, the apps they're using and the location of
their phones. Verizon will then use the aggregate data for "business
and marketing reports" and to sell relevant
advertising.
Perhaps if it was titled: “How to
avoid lawsuits...” it would be read. In any case, a US version
would be worthwhile. (Hint, hint!)
Privacy
commissioner of British Columbia issues guidelines on using social
media for background checks
October 14, 2011 by Dissent
The Information and Privacy
Commissioner of British Columbia has issued guidelines to assist
organizations and public bodies using social media sites to conduct
background checks of prospective employees, volunteers and
candidates.
Commissioner Elizabeth Denham cautioned
that using social media to conduct background checks
presents legal and other challenges.
“We enter a new era with the
application of privacy laws to social media background checks,” the
Commissioner stated, adding, “the guidelines my Office is issuing
today are designed to provide guidance and practical steps to assist
organizations and public bodies in complying with the law.”
The guidelines
highlight some of the risks associated with performing a social media
background check, such as collecting inaccurate information and
collecting too much personal information. Commissioner Denham stated
that she expected organizations and public bodies to review and adopt
the guidelines so that their practices concerning social media
background checks comply with privacy obligations.
The use of social media background
checks received attention earlier this year when a political party
requested the passwords of its potential leadership candidates to
permit an examination of their social media sites.
“I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!”
to discover that anyone thinks that secret deals with campaign
contributors are not common.
U.S.
Copyright Czar Cozied Up to Content Industry, E-Mails Show
Top-ranking Obama administration
officials, including the U.S. copyright czar, played an active role
in secret negotiations between Hollywood,
the recording industry and ISPs to disrupt internet access for users
suspected of violating copyright law, according to internal White
House e-mails.
The e-mails, obtained via the Freedom
of Information Act, (.pdf) show the administration’s cozy
relationship with Hollywood and the music industry’s lobbying arms
and its early support for the copyright-violation crackdown system
publicly announced in July.
… The e-mails do not entail much
detail of the discussions between the administration and industry —
as any substantive
text in the e-mails (.pdf) was blacked out before being released
to Soghoian.
But the communications show that a wide
range of officials — from Vice President Joe Biden’s deputy chief
of staff Alan
Hoffman, the Justice Department’s criminal chief Lanny
Breuer to copyright czar Victoria
Espinel — were in the loop well ahead of the accord’s
unveiling.
Judge Lamberth delights in pointing out
the ineptitude of government lawyers, and does so again here.
However, I find it difficult to logically separate the real-time and
historical information (as the law clearly does) As I read the
ruling, you need a warrant to find my current location, but you don't
need a warrant to find out where I was a millisecond ago... i.e.
Once location is recorded (becomes a record) it is fair game. That
happens very rapidly in computer systems.
Judge:
No Warrant Needed For Cell Phone Location Data
October 13, 2011 by Dissent
Mike Scarcella writes:
Prosecutors do not
need a warrant to compel a cellular phone service provider to turn
over data about call location, a federal judge in Washington said in
a ruling unsealed Wednesday.
The ruling
(PDF) examines the government’s attempt to get data from the
undisclosed service provider amid a U.S. Attorney’s Office
investigation of an armed robbery of an armored truck.
Read more on The
Blog of LegalTimes. The memorandum and order contains an
interesting discussion of how historical cell
location data is not the equivalent of continuous GPS surveillance,
and hence, Maynard does not really apply.
Al Gore has everyone looking for the
causes of Global Warming.
"Science News reports on a
story which blames a centuries
long cooling of Europe on the discovery of the new world.
Scientists contend that the native depopulation and deforestation had
a chilling effect on world-wide climate. 'Trees that filled in this
territory pulled billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere, diminishing the heat-trapping capacity of the atmosphere
and cooling climate, says Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford
University.' The story notes that the pandemics in the Americas were
possibly an example of human climate manipulation predating the
Industrial Revolution, though isotope
measurements used during research have much uncertainty, so 'that
evidence isn't conclusive.'"
[Somewhere between a hint and a guess? Bob]
Gee, if a Harvard guy says so... But I
find that most people have great difficulty communicating with other
people, let alone logical hardware...
Apple's
Siri Is as Revolutionary as the Mac
… Siri, the
new iPhone's voice-control software, is going to have as big an
impact as that first iPhone did. It's going to fundamentally change
our relationship with computers.
… unnecessary complexity remains.
Why does a user care whether a message from a friend is an email or
an SMS? Why should they have to concern themselves with opening a
browser or a specific app to find out what the weather is going to be
tomorrow?
And try as we might to design hardware
that is ergonomic, there's no denying the impact this technology has
had on our bodies. Repetitive strain injury, degradation of eyesight
— these are the result of using existing computer and phone
interfaces for hours on end.
Siri is the first serious step in
changing all that.
In true Apple fashion, there is little
that is technologically novel.
My Math students will like the
WolframAlpha access via Siri.
A
great week for Google challengers
DuckDuckGo
Despite the wacky name, it's a traditional search engine.
… the site has started to grow. In
fact, its staff doubled late last month, when Weinberg hired
employee #1. And this week, he announced that DDG has done
something perfectly normal for a tech startup: It's accepted
outside financing from venture-capital firm Union Square Ventures
and some other investors.
Wolfram
Alpha Wolfram Alpha isn't exactly obscure, but it also isn't the
household name it deserves to be. So one of the things that excites
me most about Apple's iPhone
4S, which goes on sale today, is that its Siri
voice assistant has Wolfram Alpha baked in. Ask Siri
questions, and she'll hand some of them off to Wolfram Alpha to get
answers.
For my Ethical Hackers. How could you
use this tool without violating Privacy? This is the kind of
software stalkers (or Lower Merion High School administrators)
install...
WebCamImageSave
Capture Images from your Webcam Automatically
… This is a handy tool that allows
you to capture pictures from your camera regularly after the time you
have chosen, and then saves it into image file on your hard disk. In
this way you can keep tabs on who has used your PC during any
particular period. This awesome tool also adds a label with the
date/time that the photo was taken into the image, by using the font,
color, and date/time format that you select.
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