Fortunately, I already have a foil
lined cowboy hat. Just remember, don't look up!
"A new federal law, signed by
the president on Tuesday, compels the Federal Aviation Administration
to allow
drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors — from
selling real estate and dusting crops, to monitoring oil spills and
wildlife, even shooting Hollywood films. Local police and emergency
services will also be freer to send up their own drones. But while
businesses, and drone manufacturers especially, are celebrating the
opening of the skies to these unmanned aerial vehicles, the law
raises new worries about how much detail the drones will capture
about lives down below — and what will be done with that
information. Safety concerns like midair collisions and property
damage on the ground are also an issue."
“Gee whiz, everyone wants us to do
our job! How strange.”
WPF
files FTC complaint against Google and others over Safari privacy
settings circumvention
February 18, 2012 by Dissent
The World Privacy
Forum filed
a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission today regarding
the circumvention of users’ expressly stated browser privacy
choices without notice. “The World Privacy Forum requests that the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigate Google, Vibrant Media,
Media Innovation Group, and Pointroll for potential violations of
Section 5 of the FTC Act. These companies willfully overrode users’
privacy preferences as expressly stated by the users in their browser
settings. Overriding privacy preferences and doing so without notice
are both unfair and deceptive business practices.” The complaint
further requests the Commission look into the companies’ violations
of the NAI code, and in Google’s case, violation of its consent
agreement with the Commission.
The complaint cites the Buzz consent
order, an order that EPIC also cited in filing its own action to
compel the FTC to block Google’s announced privacy policy changes,
slated to go into effect March 1.
The latest brouhaha arose after
publication of research by Jonathan Mayer, Safari
Trackers.
(Related) “You have to pick your
battles. Just because it irritates millions of people doesn't mean
it rises to the level where we would get heat from the politicians
that fund us...”
FTC
Files Opposition / Motion to Dismiss in EPIC v FTC
February 18, 2012 by Dissent
From EPIC.org:
The Federal Trade
Commission today filed an opposition
and a motion
to dismiss in response to EPIC’s complaint
to compel the agency to enforce the October 2011 Consent
Order against Google. The government stated that EPIC would
“deprive the Commission of the discretion to
exercise its enforcement authority.” The government
also charged that EPIC’s lawsuit is “completely baseless.” The
papers were filed in federal District Court on the same today that
the Wall Street Journal reported
that Google had subverted the privacy settings of millions of users
of the Internet browser software Safari. For more information see:
EPIC:
EPIC v. FTC (Google Consent Order).
Wow. Talk about stupid decisions...
"The universities of Western
Ontario and Toronto have
signed a deal with Access
Copyright that allows for
surveillance of faculty correspondence, defines
e-mailing hyperlinks as equivalent to photocopying a document,
and imposes an annual $27.50 fee for every full-time equivalent
student to pay for it all. Access Copyright is a licensing agency
historically used by most universities in Canada to give them blanket
permission to reproduce copyrighted works, largely to address
photocopying concerns that may extend beyond basic fair-use. Since
the expiration of this agreement, and with recognition that many
academic uses do not require copyright permissions or payments or are
already covered under vendor-specific agreements, Canadian academic
institutions have been united in opposing continuation of the
agreement with the agency. Access Copyright has countered with a
proposal for increased fees, and expansion of
the definition of copyright to include linking and the need for
online surveillance. In a strange breaking of
ranks, the University of Western Ontario and the University of
Toronto have capitulated and signed agreements that basically accede
to the licensing agency's demands. The Canadian Association of
University Teachers bulletin provides detailed
background on the issue (PDF)."
“Our serfs are so ignorant that they
will happily pay for us to monitor their private lives...”
“If you've got nothing to hide, we'll
make something up.”
"In vogue with other countries
cracking down on freedom and democracy on the internet as discussed
in Slashdot recently, the UK is joining in with plans
to track all phone calls, text messages, email traffic and websites
visited online, all to be stored in vast databases under new
government anti-terror plans. As reported in The Telegraph, security
services will have access to information about who has been
communicating with each other on social networking sites such as
Facebook, direct messages between subscribers on Twitter would also
be stored, as well as communications between players in online video
games. The scheme is a revised version of a plan drawn up by the
ex-Labour government which would have created a central database of
all the information. The idea was later dropped in favor of
requiring communications providers to store
the details at the taxpayers' expense."
(Related)
"Australian police, along with
government agencies, are accessing phone and internet account
information, outward and inward call details, phone and internet
access location data, and details of IP addresses visited of
Australian citizens, all
without judicial warrants . In the last two years, some states
have shown an increase of more than 50 per cent in these surveillance
authorizations, which can be granted by senior police officers and
officials instead of a magistrate or judge."
'cause if you want to remain anonymous,
you must be a terrorist!
Feds
Want to Warrantlessly Track Phones Bought with Fake Names
If the DOJ gets its way, it won't need
a warrant to monitor people who buy cell phones and other electronic
services using a fake name, according
to a story in today's Wall Street Journal.
The DOJ is arguing that because a
California man used a fake name when he bought a broadband card,
service and a computer (and rented his apartment) he's not entitled
to protection under the fourth amendment.
The government used a device called a
Stingray to locate the broadband card being used by Daniel David
Rigmaiden. The Stingray mimics a cell phone tower, and pings the
target device. It measures the signal strength, and then moves to
another location and measures it again. It uses that data to
triangulate the phone's position. They
are increasingly being used by law enforcement.
The Next Big Thing?
Beyond
Facebook: The Rise Of Interest-Based Social Networks
… Some say “social
is done,” Facebook is all the social media anyone would ever
want or need. Unquestionably, as it nears one billion accounts, in
the solar system of social media, Facebook is the Sun — the
gravitational center around which everything social revolves.
But while some may pronounce that
Facebook is all the social we’d ever need, users clearly haven’t
gotten the memo. Instead, users are rapidly adopting new
interest-based social networks such as Pinterest,
Instagram, Thumb,
Foodspotting, and even the
very new Fitocracy.
… Interest-based social networks
have a markedly different focus and approach than Facebook. The
Pinterest, Thumb and Foodspottings of the world enable users to focus
and organize around their interests first, whereas Facebook focuses
on a user’s personal relationships.
For my Ethical Hackers: Perhaps you
should contact your targets BEFORE you hack them?
"The BBC reports that software
development student Glenn Mangham, a 26-year-old from the UK, was
jailed 17 February 2012 for eight months for computer misuse, after
he discovered serious Facebook security
vulnerabilities. Hacking from his bedroom, Mangham
gained access to three of Facebook's servers and was able to download
to an external hardrive the social network's 'invaluable'
intellectual intellectual property (source code). [Why
would there be any source code on Internet connected servers? Oh
wait... Have I “discovered” another “serious security
vulnerability?” Bob] Mangham's defense
lawyer, Mr. Ventham, pointed
out that Mangham is an 'ethical hacker' and runs a tax registered
security company. The court heard Mangham previously breached
Yahoo's security, compiled a vulnerability report and passed on to
Yahoo. He
was paid '$7000 for this achievement,' and claims he was merely
trying to repeat the same routine with Facebook. But in passing
sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath said despite the fact he did not
intend to pass on the information gathered, his actions were not
harmless and had 'real consequences and very serious potential
consequences' for Facebook. The case's prosecutor, Mr. Patel, said
Facebook spent '$200,000 (£126,400) dealing with Mangham's crime.'"
I'm not so sure that I'd like a “keeper
of any information they can gather about me” to “help” me
generate a password...
"Google is in the process of
developing
a tool to help users generate strong passwords for the various
and sundry Web sites for which they need to register and
authenticate. The password-generator is meant to serve as an interim
solution for users while Google and other companies continue to work
on widespread deployment of the OpenID standard. The tool Google
engineers are working on is a fairly simple one. For people who are
using the Chrome browser, whenever a site presents them with a field
that requires creating a password, Chrome
will display a small key icon, letting the users know that they
could allow Chrome to generate a password for them."
315 million for “failure to test?”
"A preliminary
settlement has been reached in the class-action lawsuit brought
against Apple in
June 2010 over the 'Antennagate' fiasco. Ira Rothken, co-lead
counsel for the case, says there are 21
million people entitled to either $15 or a free
bumper. 'The settlement comes from 18 separate lawsuits that were
consolidated into one. All share the claim that Apple was
"misrepresenting and concealing material information in the
marketing, advertising, sale, and servicing of its iPhone 4 —
particularly as it relates to the quality of the mobile phone antenna
and reception and related software." The settlement has its own
Web site, www.iPhone4Settlement.com,
which will be up in the coming weeks (the site doesn't go anywhere
right now). There, customers will be able to get information about
the settlement and how to make a claim. As part of the arrangement,
e-mails will also be sent alerting original buyers to the settlement
before April 30, 2012. The claims period is then open for 120
days.'"
How do I categorize this one? Sort of
like a reverse 911? Sort of like a gang of vigilantes? Neighborhood
watch? Could this return that sense of community we seem to be
losing?
"A Kenyan chief in a town far
from the bustling capital foiled a predawn robbery recently using
Twitter, highlighting the far-reaching effects of social media in
areas that don't have access to the Internet. Chief Francis Kariuki
said he got a call in the dead of the night that thieves had broken
into a neighbor's house. Local residents, who subscribe
to his tweets through a free text messaging service,
jumped into action. They surrounded the house, sending the thugs
fleeing into the night. In the town 100 miles from Nairobi, a
majority of residents don't have access to computers, the Internet or
smart phones. The sporadic cyber cafes strewn across the landscape
charge for Internet access. However, almost
every household has a cell phone and text messages are a major form
of communication in the nation."
Any perspective is helpful...
February 18, 2012
A
Comprehensive Guide for Best Practices in Cloud Computing for State
and Local Governments
A
Comprehensive Guide for Best Practices in Cloud Computing for State
and Local Governments, February 2012
- "Sensing the convergence of these business and technology trends, in September 2011 the TechAmerica Foundation formed a group of experts to develop guidance for helping state and local governments evaluate, adopt and implement cloud computing. This State and Local Government Cloud Commission (SLG-CC) initiative follows the Foundation’s earlier release of a blueprint for the U.S. federal government’s adoption of cloud computing, which supported the Obama Administration’s cloud-first strategy for government technology and for driving U.S. commercial leadership and innovation... This paper is a distillation of the SLG Cloud Commission’s efforts. It addresses cloud access and deployment challenges that are unique to states and localities — including procurement practices — and provides recommendations for surmounting barriers. In producing its recommendations, the Commission considered delivery of critical services to the public, such as healthcare, human services, and education, and discussed ways that large, complex programs can best leverage the cloud."
(Related)
Multitenancy
and Cloud Platforms: Four Big Problems
Who do you know that might benefit from
this freebie?
With all of the innovation currently
going on in computer science, many of us often get curious about
finding out more. The Computer Science 101 is an excellent way to do
that where everybody, even people with no computer science knowledge
or experience, can take an online course. The course is offered free
of charge by Nick Parlante who has been teaching computer
science at Stanford for more than 20 years.
The course starts February 2012 and in
addition to providing a general background of hardware and software,
also dives into short bits of computer code so students can discover
the potential and limitations of computer science. The
course is completely browser based so there is nothing to install or
download.
Similar tool: Google
Code University,
Business opportunities? Would Burger
King & Pepsi sponsor my Open Source Math textbook?
New
Hope For Open Source Textbooks
… Free digital open source
textbooks are a promising alternative for states looking to cut costs
and for universities trying to spare students from the soaring price
of higher education. A growing number of laptop computers and
tablets in the classroom provide an even greater opportunity to
switch.
… The idea of open source textbooks
is not new. They have been around for more than a decade, a period
in which the major commercial publishers hiked textbook prices faster
than inflation.
Until recently, however, open source
textbooks gained little traction, in part, because of the byzantine
process for approving school books. State and local school boards,
which insure that books meet standards, are not known for innovative
thinking.
… One source of hope is a new
initiative from Apple that offers publishers tools to more easily
create digital textbooks and then sell them in Apple’s iBookstore
for iPads. Kno and
Inkling, two
start-ups, offer competing platforms.
All three companies
welcome working with publishers of free textbooks. In
fact, a free open source statistics textbook from 20
Million Minds Foundation, a publisher of open source textbooks,
is already available on Kno.
… Neeru Khosla, co-founder of CK-12
Foundation, a non-profit open source textbook publisher, said
that the toughest part of open source textbooks is dealing with the
state bureaucracy.
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