I'm confused too, but that
happens so frequently that I'm used to it...
By Dissent,
April 14, 2012
If you’re not familiar with
bankruptcy proceedings, you may be as confused by this breach
notice by Duke University Health System as I was.
After reading it a few times, I finally
thought I may have understood what happened, but then I read Jeff
Drummond’s blog post as to why the DUHS never called this
notice a “breach” and whether it even was a breach under HIPAA.
Go read both and see what you think.
If the “risk of harm” standard is/was eliminated by the final
regulations, I think this would be considered a breach under HIPAA,
but as the law stands now? I don’t know.
[From
the Blog:
The data is definitely PHI. However,
PHI can be disclosed for treatment, payment, and healthcare
operations. Why did Duke disclose this data in bankruptcy court
records? To get paid. That makes it a disclosure for payment
purposes, so no HIPAA breach, right?
… So, if Duke did a breach risk
analysis and determined a lack of substantial risk of harm, they
wouldn't have to give any notice. However, that's rolling the dice,
for sure. So, I'm guessing they decided to provide the notice, but
not admit that the "incident" is actually a "breach."
Oh, the horror! How will Google
(market cap. $200 Billion) possibly survive? They might need to
sell 50 shares of stock! Imagine the dilution on the other 325
million shares! (Why does the FCC fine like it's still 1934?
FCC
Proposes $25,000 Fine on Google
“Suspicions confirmed!” If
everyone understands this, who will step forward and propose a
change?
"Former TSA head Kip Hawley
talks about how
the agency is broken and how it can be fixed: 'The crux of the
problem, as I learned in my years at the helm, is our wrongheaded
approach to risk. In attempting to eliminate
all risk from flying, we have made air travel an unending nightmare
for U.S. passengers and visitors from overseas,
while at the same time creating a security system that is brittle
where it needs to be supple. ... the TSA's mission is to prevent a
catastrophic attack on the transportation system, not to ensure that
every single passenger can avoid harm while traveling. Much of the
friction in the system today results from rules that are direct
responses to how we were attacked on 9/11. But it's simply no longer
the case that killing a few people on board a plane could lead to a
hijacking. ...The public wants the airport experience to be
predictable, hassle-free and airtight and for it to keep us 100%
safe. But 100% safety is unattainable.
Embracing a bit of risk could reduce the hassle of today's airport
experience while making us safer at the same time."
Should we follow this for its
implications for crowd sourcing?
"Canada Post has filed
a copyright infringement lawsuit against Geolytica, which
operates GeoCoder.ca, a website
that provides several geocoding services including free access to a
crowd-sourced, compiled database of Canadian postal codes. Canada
Post argues that it is the exclusive copyright holder of all Canadian
postal codes and claims that GeoCoder appropriated the database and
made unauthorized reproductions. GeoCoder
compiled the postal code database by using crowdsourcing techniques,
without any reliance on Canada Post's database, and
argues that there can be no
copyright on postal codes and thus no infringement (PDF)."
Isn't this more than a bit
disingenuous? If you didn't invest with Bernie Madoff, you wouldn't
have lost money...
U.S.
says MegaUpload's hosting service is no innocent bystander
… During a hearing yesterday in
U.S. District Court about what should become of MegaUpload's user
data, Carpathia's lawyer told the judge that the U.S. government
should pick up the tab for storing the information instead of his
client. Since January, when the U.S. Department of Justice filed
criminal copyright charges against MegaUpload, one of the world's
most popular cyberlocker services, the private firm that hosted
MegaUpload's
servers has preserved user data on its own dime.
Jay Prabhu, the lawyer representing the
U.S. Attorney's office, said Carpathia's problems
were not caused by the government. His message to the
court was that if the cost of doing business with MegaUpload has gone
up, Carpathia's added expenses shouldn't be thrust onto taxpayers.
Later, Prabhu made comments about Carpathia and for the first time in
the case it was suggested that someone other than MegaUpload's
managers may bear some responsibility for the piracy that allegedly
occurred at the site.
… Prabhu disputed the notion that
the hosting service is just an innocent third party left holding the
bag. He attacked the company's claims that managers were caught
unaware by the charges leveled against MegaUpload.
Prabhu outlined how Carpathia had
received subpoenas regarding MegaUpload's alleged copyright
violations from the government as well those from civil complaints
filed against MegaUpload. He told the judge that servicing
MegaUpload helped Carpathia generate $35 million. The attorney also
said he had reason to believe that Carpathia may be a target for
civil litigation.
He did not accuse Carpathia of
violating any criminal laws and did not identify where a civil
complaint might originate.
Quite a few limitations, but I'll wager
they are counting on expanding their scope soon.
April 14, 2012
EFF:
Miami-Dade PD Releases Information about Its Drone Program
News
release: "EFF recently received records from the Miami-Dade
Police Department in response to a Public Records request for
information on its drone program. These records provide additional
insight into domestic
drone use in the United States, and they reinforce the importance
of public access to information on who is authorized to fly drones
inside US borders. The records the Miami-Dade PD released include
the Federal Aviation
Administration-issued Certificate
of Authorization (COA) to fly the MDPD drones. This
appears to be the first time a law enforcement agency has made its
COA available to the public without redactions. The COA
and the other records EFF received show that Miami-Dade’s drone
program is quite limited in scope. The two small drones the MDPD is
flying—Honeywell T-Hawks—are
able to fly up to 10,000 feet high, can record video or still images
in daylight or infrared, and can “Hover
and stare; [and] follow and zoom,” (pdf) according to the
manufacturer. However, the COA
limits their use to flights below 300 feet. The drones also must
remain within visual line of sight of both a pilot and an observer
and can only be flown during the day."
This is an interesting problem. If
their terms of service had used the phrase “bringing disruption”
would there have even been a question? One has to assume the
'stalker' covers his track by switching IP and email addresses so
frequently that they can't be blocked.
"Rachel Marone has been a
victim of cyberstalking for over 10 years. In 2011, she had a
project on Kickstarter shut down because of the high volume of spam
posted by the stalker in the comment section of the project.
Recently, Marone's manager spoke to Kickstarter again to see how she
could avoid having a new project banned if the cyberstalker showed up
again. They replied, 'If there is any chance that Rachel will
receive spam from a stalker on her project, she should not create
one. We simply cannot allow a project to become a forum for rampant
spam, as her past project became. If this happens again, we will
need to discard the project and permanently suspend Rachel's
account.' On her website, Marone sums up the situation thus: 'I
am being told that I cannot crowdfund because I am a stalking victim.
... With so many women being stalking targets this does not seem
reasonable to me.'"
Free is good, but cheaper is almost as
good...
Republic
Wireless Launching Large-Scale Beta Testing This Summer
The
unlimited-mobile-wireless-everything-for-$19-a-month
dream is a step closer to reality. Republic
Wireless announced in a blog
post that a new, large-scale round of beta testing will launch
this summer, and if you were one of the thousands who signed up for
the Republic Wireless email list, you’ll have the chance to
participate.
In about a week, the company will
organize everyone on the list in a “beta waves” according to
letters of the alphabet, and over the course of the summer, each
group in turn will be given the chance to jump in on the beta. Those
who signed up the earliest will be in the first waves
… We have a healthy amount of
skepticism for anything that sounds too good to be true, but Republic
Wireless’ approach--relying heavily on WiFi handoff to
offload traffic from 3G and 4G networks--is one being
taken by plenty of other companies these days, so
it’s reasonable to assume that the company has a shot.
Looking at the prospect of paying $19 a month for unlimited phone
service, messaging, and mobile Internet, we’re rooting for them.
Wow! A math paper my students might
actually read!
"Here's a practical application
for your physics education: using
math to successfully beat a traffic ticket in court. Dmitri
Krioukov, a physicist based at the University of California San
Diego, did just that to avoid paying a fee for (purportedly) running
a stop sign. Krioukov not only proved his innocence, but he also
posted a paper
detailing his argument online (PDF) on the arXiv server."
Might be handy...
While researching a topic, you may go
through Wikipedia, Twitter, and various other websites for news,
articles, videos, and images. But jumping from one site to another
can easily become a time-consuming process. Here to help you by
providing all the necessary search items under a single dashboard is
a web service called RTBot.
- Does not require any registration.
- Provides various search items under a single dashboard.
- Neatly sorts search results into proper categories.
This must be the flip side
of “Online classes suck” Bad reporting? Students have to earn a
state license or teachers do?
Virginia’s
new high school graduation requirement: One online course
Gov. Robert F. McDonnell
signed into law Thursday a bill that will require Virginia high
school students to take at least one virtual course to graduate with
a standard or advanced diploma.
… Virginia joins
several other states, including Idaho and Florida, that have adopted
online-course graduation requirements in recent years.
The new law also requires candidates
for a standard diploma to earn a credential
in career and technical education, such as an industry certification
or state license.
When I'm not teaching Math
(prep for the number two job) I teach budding software engineers.
That's what a “Technical” university does...
And
the best job in America is software engineer
… I am grateful to the Huffington
Post for revealing the existence of CareerCast's
2012 Jobs Rated Report. For it is full of edification.
Well, I think they're
funny (and likely to catch the eye of my students)
I’m here to put you on to a list of
Google Search pages that change the color scheme and design of your
Google homepage.
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