The ethics of surveillance? What a
concept to ponder!
An
Eye Without an 'I': Justice and the Rise of Automated Surveillance
Over the past decade, video
surveillance has
exploded. In many cities, we might as well have drones hovering
overhead, given how closely we're being watched, perpetually, by the
thousands of cameras perched on buildings. So far, people's
inability to watch the millions of hours of video had limited its
uses. But video is data and computers are being set to work mining
that information on behalf of governments and anyone else who can
afford the software. And this kind of automated surveillance is only
going to get more sophisticated as a result of new technologies like
iris scanners and gait
analysis.
Yet little thought has been given to
the ethics of perpetually recording vast swaths of the world. What,
exactly, are we getting ourselves into?
… In a new paper called The
Unblinking Eye: The Ethics of Automating Surveillance,
philosopher Kevin Macnish argues that the political and cultural
costs of excessive surveillance could be so great that we ought to be
as hesitant about using it as as we are about warfare. That is to
say, we ought to limit automated surveillance to those circumstances
where we know it to be extremely effective.
Not convinced the FBI has been totally
incompetent so far or that this new unit will suddenly solve all
their problems. So what is really going on here?
With
FBI snooping on social media, how to protect privacy
To say that the FBI had its work cut
out for it after 9/11 is an understatement. As part of its
anti-terrorism efforts, the agency cozied up to telecom companies,
like Verizon and AT&T. The relationship was so tight that some
telecom employees actually had offices at the FBI.
This convenient arrangement paved the
way for FBI agents to ultimately hand post-it notes with phone
numbers to their telecom pals to find out if those accounts were
worth investigating. It's the sort of stuff that makes privacy
advocates shudder. And it's what Jennifer Lynch, staff attorney at
the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says we don't want to see
repeated now that the FBI has created a new surveillance unit.
The recently established Domestic
Communications Assistance Center (DCAC) will develop new ways to
eavesdrop on our communications.
… Right now, Lynch and her
colleagues at EFF are finding there's a scant amount of information
about this new department of the FBI. Learn what action EFF plans to
take in my report above
Google does the same. Connecting your
Facebook account to your smartphone my allow more data gathering. Or
it may be a way to introduce the new Facebook Fone...
Facebook
wants users' cell numbers in bid to bolster security
The social network has begun adding a
message at the top of every member's news feed that suggests they
"Stay in control of your account by following these simple
security tips." The message includes a link to Facebook's
security page, where users are tutored on how to identify a scam
and choose a unique password, and are asked to
provide a cell phone number where replacement passwords can be sent.
Quotes from Field of Legal Dreams
“If you build it, they will sue.”
Apple
Must Face Privacy Class Action, Judge Rules
June 14, 2012 by Dissent
Chris Marshall reports:
Apple may be
liable for sending unauthorized iPhone user information to the third
parties behind applications, but the application developers are in
the clear, a federal judge ruled.
The plaintiffs in
the consolidated class action have sufficiently showed that Apple was
responsible for transmitting the personal information of iPhone, iPad
and iPod Touch users to the application companies, U.S. District
Judge Lucy Koh found.
Apple and the
developers faced claims of having violated consumers’ privacy
rights by letting third-party applications that run on Apple devices
collect and profit from users’ personal information without their
knowledge. The class alleges computer fraud,
invasion of privacy, conversion and many other statutory violations.
Read more on Courthouse
News. MediaPost
and Law.com
are also among the many sites covering the lawsuit.
Related: Judge Koh’s opinion
(44 pp.)
Another in the never ending string of
incomprehensible political decisions.
9-Year-Old
Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians
For the past two months, one of my
favorite reads has been Never
Seconds, a blog started by 9-year-old Martha Payne of western
Scotland to document the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches she was
being served in her public primary school. Payne, whose mother is a
doctor and father has a small farming property, started blogging in
early May and went viral in days. She had a million viewers within a
few weeks and 2 million this morning; was written up in Time,
the Telegraph,
the Daily
Mail, and a number of food blogs; and got
support from TV cheflebrity Jamie Oliver, whose series “Jamie’s
School Dinners” kicked off school-food reform in England.
Well, goodbye to all that.
This afternoon, Martha
(who goes by “Veg” on the blog) posted that she will have to
shut down her blog, because she has been forbidden to take a camera
into school.
I make no claim for the quality of the
book, but you IP lawyers might find the video amusing...
Book
Excerpt: Aliens Go Crazy for Rock ‘n’ Roll in Year
Zero
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