Monday, October 22, 2012

Any clarification is welcome...
The Southern District of Florida Weighs In On Data Breach Lawsuits
October 22, 2012 by admin
A few months ago, I noted a lawsuit by a former Winn-Dixie employee against Purchasing Power. The complaint in Burrows v. Purchasing Power alleged that Winn-Dixie shared employee data with Purchasing Power to administer its employee benefits program, but also sent them data on employees not enrolled in the program. The complaint also alleged that although Purchasing Power became an insider breach in October 2011, Winn-Dixie employees were not notified until January 27, 2012.
Today, Al Saikali writes:
Late last week, another Federal District Court (the Southern District of Florida) weighed in on the circumstances under which a plaintiff may sue a breached entity civilly for damages when the plaintiff’s personally identifiable information (PII) is inappropriately accessed or acquired. The Court allowed the case to proceed with counts for violation of Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and negligence (assuming Plaintiff can clarify the damages he is seeking).


Build your own Drone! (Apparently, they 'printed' an engine too)
In an effort that took four months and $2000, instead of the quarter million dollars and two years they estimate it would have using conventional design methods, a group of University of Virginia engineering students has built and flown an airplane of parts created on a 3-D printer. The plane is 6.5 feet in wingspan, and cruises at 45 mph. I only wish this had been sponsored by Estes or Makerbot rather than the MITRE Corporation; it would be great for every high school or hobbyist group that can scrape together the printing time to have one of these on demand. (HT to Gaël Duval.)


Yes, Microsoft could have an answer here... (Also, it might be an interesting project for students of Contract Law to try drafting “Model Contract Language”)
Outsourcing Privacy in Higher Education
October 22, 2012 by Dissent
Steve Kolowich reports:
After several years of negotiating, a dozen colleges have reached an agreement with Microsoft that could inspire more institutions to outsource their internal communications and data storage systems to the company and its far-flung servers — even when those systems hold sensitive student and research data.
Since 2010 Microsoft had been in talks with a dozen universities about drawing up a standard contract that would address colleges universities’ obligations to federal privacy laws such at the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The idea was to eliminate the tedium and expense of negotiating around these compliance issues with each and every university client.
Read more on Inside Higher Ed.
If Microsoft really adheres to FERPA and HIPAA requirements with the status of “school official,” and agrees not to data mine or use the data for other purposes, what risks, if any, do readers see in this arrangement? While the idea of outsourcing might make people uncomfortable, this might actually improve data security and protection of student records, as the firm presumably invests much more in security than some institutions might.

(Related) ...but I'd be very careful. What they don't have is a great track record.
Thundering silence when Microsoft changes services agreement – do the changes affect privacy?
October 21, 2012 by Dissent
Edward Wyatt and Nick Wingfield report:
Microsoft instituted a policy on Friday that gives the company broad leeway over how it gathers and uses personal information from consumers of its free, Web-based products like e-mail, search and instant messaging.
Almost no one noticed, however, even though Microsoft’s policy changes are much the same as those that Google made to its privacy rules this year.
Read more on New York Times. Does changing the Services Agreement significantly change the Privacy Policy even if that policy is not changed on paper? Microsoft does not see the changes as impact consumer privacy, but it will be interesting to read analyses of the changes by privacy advocates.


Did someone finally get it right?
October 21, 2012
IBM - Smart policies for Smartphones: Acceptable Online Activities During Work Hours
  • "IBM has published a social media policy that I think is exemplary for any organization that wants to pursue the dual goals of encouraging employees to engage in social media and protecting the organization's reputation."


Another good news/bad news kind of thing. Might make for a more interesting debate that a couple of presidential candidates...
October 21, 2012
Pew - Social Media and Political Engagement
Social Media and Political Engagement, by Lee Rainie, Aaron Smith, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, Sidney Verba. Oct 19, 2012
  • "The use of social media is becoming a feature of political and civic engagement for many Americans. Some 60% of American adults use either social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter, and a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project finds that 66% of those social media users—or 39% of all American adults—have done at least one of eight civic or political activities with social media. 66% of social media users have employed the platforms to post their thoughts about civic and political issues, react to others’ postings, press friends to act on issues and vote, follow candidates, ‘like’ and link to others’ content, and belong to groups formed on social networking sites."

(Related) ...but it's for your own good!
"Mother Jones reports on Obama's Digital Gurus, the top-secret team of analytics engineers and scientists led by hipster CTO Harper Reed who work on text analytics, social network/media analysis, web personalization, computational advertising, and online experiments & testing from the campaign's Chicago HQ and satellite offices. For OFA (Obama for America), writes Tim Murphy, there is no such thing as Too Much Information. 'In terms of just the sheer amount of data that political candidates have on you,' says UNC Prof Daniel Kreiss, 'I think everyone finds it creepy.' Still playing catch-up to OFA in its data efforts is Team Romney, which reportedly hired former employees from places like Google Analytics, Apple, Ominture, and Overstock.com in an attempt to reverse engineer the Obama campaign's strategy."


It's probably not just for lawyers... I probably won't get sued for reading these article...
October 21, 2012
New on LLRX - Reference apps for the mobile lawyer
Via LLRX.com - Reference apps for the mobile lawyer - For mobile lawyers, tech savvy attorney Nicole Black recommends a range of topical, go-to reference apps that will save you time and effort while providing reliable, high quality information. Most of the apps are free or very low cost, and include Wolfram Alpha Lawyer’s Professional Assistant, iThesaurus, Recalls app, and the Wikipanion app.

(Related) Tip #1: Make sure your links work...
October 21, 2012
New on LLRX - Internet research tips and tricks for lawyers
Via LLRX.com - Internet research tips and tricks for lawyers - This is attorney Nicole Black's review of The Cybersleuth’s Guide to the Internet, 12th edition, a book that helps lawyers learn how to use the Internet to conduct effective and free investigative and legal research.


Seems line a day for lawyer stuff...
October 21, 2012
JAG - The Operational Law Handbook
"The Operational Law Handbook is a “how to” guide for Judge Advocates practicing operational law. It provides references and describes tactics and techniques for the practice of operational law. The Operational Law Handbook is not a substitute for official references. Like operational law itself, the Handbook is a focused collection of diverse legal and practical information. The handbook is not intended to provide “the school solution” to a particular problem, but to help Judge Advocates recognize, analyze, and resolve problems they will encounter in the operational context. Similarly, the Handbook is not intended to represent official U.S. policy regarding the binding application of varied sources of law, though it may reference source documents which themselves do so. The Handbook was designed and written for Judge Advocates practicing operational law. The size and contents of the Handbook are controlled by this focus. Frequently, the authors were forced to strike a balance between the temptation to include more information and the need to retain the Handbook in its current size and configuration. Simply put, the Handbook is made for the Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Coast Guardsmen of the military Judge Advocate General’s Corps, who serve alongside their clients in the operational context. Accordingly, the Operational Law Handbook is compatible with current joint and combined doctrine."


In addition to encryption, this would allow you to “randomly” switch frequencies to avoid interception, increasing security of communications even more. Besides, thinkof the applications for my Ethical Hackers!
"Over the weekend at the ToorCon hacker conference in San Diego, Michael Ossmann of Great Scott Gadgets revealed a beta version of the HackRF Jawbreaker, the latest model of the wireless Swiss-army knife tools known as 'software-defined radios.' Like any software-defined radio, the HackRF can shift between different frequencies as easily as a computer switches between applications–It can both read and transmit signals from 100 megahertz to 6 gigahertz, intercepting or reproducing frequencies used by everything from FM radios to police communications to garage door openers to WiFi and GSM to next-generation air traffic control system messages. At Ossmann's target price of $300, the versatile, open-source devices would cost less than half as much as currently existing software-defined radios with the same capabilities. And to fund the beta testing phase of HackRF, the Department of Defense research arm known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pitched in $200,000 last February as part of its Cyber Fast Track program."


Worth looking at...
Below are the notes from my workshop at this weekend's THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy, along with a Storify of notes and tweets from the entire unconference.
Created for: THATCamp Hybrid Pedagogy, October 2012
Google Doc: http://bit.ly/publishingoutsideac
Workshop Description: Although many traditional academic presses are struggling to stay afloat, it’s actually easier than ever for academics themselves to publish their work — outside the academy, that is. This workshop will address how and why scholars should write for publications outside “traditional” academic ones. This can include both writing about one’s scholarly research as well as writing about the academy itself. We’ll discuss some of the practicalities of doing so — blogging versus freelancing versus self-publishing, for example — and the technical, financial, rhetorical, political and licensing questions these raise. The workshop will also talk about promoting your work through various social networks (again, academic and otherwise).

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