Tuesday, November 15, 2011


Be “social” at your own risk?
Facebook 'virus' shows hardcore porn and violent images
Facebook says it is looking into reports that pornographic and violent images have been posted to its website.
… According to the technology site, ZDnet, the material is being spread via a "linkspam virus" which tempts members to click on a seemingly innocuous story link.


It will probably still be a few years before they plug the “I overpaid, send me a refund” bug...
wiredmikey writes with an analysis of a GAO report on the dismal failure of the IRS to implement secure IT practices. From the article:
"The Government Accountability Office has blasted the Internal Revenue Service for failing to implement stronger security measures after a succession of dismal reports on the subject. In a report issued to the Secretary of the Treasury last week, the GAO said that the IRS had met just 15 percent of the 105 previously reported recommendations where information security is concerned. Taking a blunt approach, the GAO said that the IRS 'lacks reasonable assurance as to the accuracy of financial information or the adequate protection of sensitive taxpayer information.' ... It also said it would issue a limited distribution report to the IRS that addresses details omitted from this most recent report due to the sensitivity of the information."


The old, “They are selling my personal information!” argument fails again.
LinkedIn Beats Referrer URL Privacy Class Action on Article III Standing Grounds–Low v. LinkedIn
November 14, 2011 by Dissent
Venkat Balasubramani writes:
Low brought a putative class action against LinkedIn, complaining about the fact that LinkedIn “allows transmission of users’ personally identifiable browsing history and other personal information to third parties, including advertisers, marketing companies, data brokers, and web tracking companies . . . ” He asserted a variety of different claims, including under the Stored Communications Act, the California Constitution, breach of contract, conversion, and California consumer protection statutes. The Court finds that Low failed to satisfy Article III standing and dismisses (with leave to amend).
Read more on Technology & Marketing Law Blog. After reviewing the decision, Venkat does a great job of explaining why so many potential class action lawsuits are getting tossed. And if you’re thinking of filing a lawsuit against some business alleging harm due to their practices, you’ll definitely want to read his comments and those of Eric Goldman below the piece.


US Guidelines? “Keep repeating, 'It's probably harmless.'”
EU adopts guidelines on airport body scanners to protect privacy
November 14, 2011 by Dissent
Associated Press reports:
The European Union adopted new guidelines Monday on using body scanners at airports, hoping to address the privacy concerns that have delayed their implementation across the continent.
Siim Kallas, the EU commissioner responsible for transport, said under the rules the technology will only be used with strict safeguards to protect health and fundamental rights.
Read more on The Washington Post.


I predict, this is exactly how they won't do it.
W3C Proposes Do Not Track Privacy Standard
November 14, 2011 by Dissent
Mathew J. Schwartz reports:
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body that develops the protocols and guidelines for the Web, Monday released the first draft of its proposed standard for implementing “Do Not Track” online.
Do Not Track refers to giving consumers the ability to opt out of having their personal information and online browsing habits tracked by advertisers, marketers, and websites in general. The final W3C Do Not Track standard–due out by the summer of 2012–will detail both how consumers can express their tracking preferences, as well as how websites and their affiliates will acknowledge those preferences.
Read more on InformationWeek.
From the W3C site:
To address rising concerns about privacy on the Web, W3C publishes today two first drafts for standards that allow users to express preferences about online tracking:
These documents are the early work of a broad set of stakeholders in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisers, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. W3C invites review of these early drafts, expected to become standards by mid-2012. Read the full press release and testimonials and learn more about Privacy.


Interesting. If I wrote a technical brief, explaining how Privacy could be protected, the courts would simply ignore it...
November 14, 2011
Commentary - Scholars' Briefs and the Vocation of a Law Professor
  • "At least within the loosely defined domain of public law, any law professor who does not get asked to sign a "scholars' briefs" is not much of a scholar. Scholars briefs, in which collections of professors appear as amici curiae to support a party in litigation before a court, appear to grow more common each year. During the 2010 Term, in which the Supreme Court decided 85 cases, it received 56 briefs on behalf of groups of self-identified legal scholars or law professors, with at least one such brief being filed in 30 cases, or more than a third of the total. The subject of scholars’ briefs, and the standards that law professors ought to apply in determining whether to sign them, has received almost no attention in the literature. Yet the topic is an important one. Besides forming an increasingly significant component of many law professors’ professional lives, scholars’ briefs open a window onto broader questions about law professors’ professional roles. We are long past the day, if there ever was one, when most law professors thought their sole professional contributions should come through traditional scholarship and teaching. Modern law professors familiarly participate in law reform initiatives, take on paid and unpaid client representation, and write regularly for non-scholarly audiences. Indeed, many law schools now boast in their alumni magazines and on their websites whenever their faculty publish op-ed articles, appear on radio or television programs, or even post comments on blogs."


Lying in a Singles Bar does not leave an evidence trail... Now that we record everything anyone says online and keep it forever, it becomes easy (automate-able?) to find BS artists! (We will need an exemption for politicians...)
DOJ: Lying on Match.com needs to be a crime
The U.S. Department of Justice is defending computer hacking laws that make it a crime to use a fake name on Facebook or lie about your weight in an online dating profile.
In a statement obtained by CNET that's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites' often-ignored, always-unintelligible "terms of service" policies.
The law must allow "prosecutions based upon a violation of terms of service or similar contractual agreement with an employer or provider," Richard Downing, the Justice Department's deputy computer crime chief, will tell the U.S. Congress tomorrow.


I think they do too (assuming they paid him more when he started Blogging...
"Noah Kravitz worked as a mobile phone reviewer for a tech website called Phonedog for four and a half years. While there, he started a Twitter account (of his own volition) with the handle @PhoneDog_Noah to tweet his stories and videos for the site as well as personal stuff about sports, food, music, etc. When he left Phonedog, he had approximately 17,000 followers and changed his Twitter handle to @noahkravitz. This summer, Phonedog started barking that it wanted the Twitter account back, and sued Kravitz, valuing the account at $340,000 (!), or $2.50 per follower per month. [That makes my Blog worth more than $10! Bob] Kravitz claims the Twitter account was his own property. A California judge ruled that the case can proceed and theoretically go to trial. Meanwhile, Kravitz continues to tweet."


For the Network Security students.
November 14, 2011
DoD IA Policy Chart - Build and Operate a Trusted Global Information Grid
"Building, operating and securing the Global Information Grid (GIG) for the Department of Defense is a complex and ongoing challenge. The Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) for Cyber Identity and Information Assurance has developed a strategy for meeting this challenge, which is available here: Build and Operate a Trusted GIG


Don't tell my students! (Do the edit Blogs?)
Kibin: Get Your Essays & Documents Edited For Free
There are numerous websites that offer editing services for a fee. But a new web service called Kibin is offering document editing by real people for free.
… Each edited document is proofread by the Kibin staff for quality. People who earn enough credits by editing others’ documents can have their own documents edited for free. The site also offers quality editing for $0.01 per word and at other rates.
Similar tools: Shutterborg, Notapipe and Revizr.

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