The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley

...not to mention really poorly thought out “plans”

Spammers Using Shortened .gov URLs

"Cyber-scammers have started using '1.usa.gov' links in their spam campaigns in a bid to fool gullible users into thinking that the links they see on a website or have received in their mail or newsletter are legitimate U.S. Government websites. Spammers have created these shortened URLs through a loophole in the URL shortening service provided by bit.ly. USA.gov and bit.ly have collaborated, enabling anyone to shorten a .gov or .mil URL into a 'trustworthy' 1.usa.gov URL. Further, according to an explanation provided by HowTo.gov, creating these usa.gov short URLs does not require a login."

Which might not be a big deal, except that the service lets through URLs with embedded redirects, and it is to these redirected addresses that scammers are luring their victims.

Another reason not to be blabbing on your phone as you walk along the streets of (any city?)

Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever

"The Associated Press reports that smartphone robberies now account for nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco, as well as an impressive 40 percent here in New York City. And the numbers aren't just high, they're getting higher fast. In Los Angeles, smartphone robberies are up 27 percent from last year, with no signs of slowing down. The thefts come in all varieties as well. Victims have reported having their phones—iPhones in particular (surprise!)—yanked out of their hands while talking, snatched just as public transit reaches a stop, or even taken at gunpoint."

When I was relieved at gunpoint of my (very, very dumb) phone a few years ago in Philadelphia (very, very dumb), it made for a lousy evening. Have you been robbed (or accosted) like this? If so, where?

Should read, “undercover car page” but who thinks anymore... Still, an interesting response, if true.

Facebook Won't Take Down Undercover Cop Page In Australia

"Facebook has refused a request from Australian police to take down a page with details of undercover police vehicles saying it cannot stop people taking photos in public places. The original story is paywalled and it doesn't give a link to the relevant page which seems to be here . This page for the state of Victoria has 12000 likes but a similar page for the state of Queensland has over 34000, and there are other Australian pages too."

Subject for a future seminar?

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=31148

The fundamental privacy challenges in biometrics

October 20, 2012 by Dissent

Steven Wilson writes:

The EPIC privacy tweet chat of October 16 included “the Privacy Perils of Biometric Security”. Consumers and privacy advocates are often wary of this technology, sometimes fearing a hidden agenda. To be fair, function creep and unauthorised sharing of biometric data are issues that are anticipated by standard data protection regulations and can be well managed by judicious design in line with privacy law.

However, there is a host of deeper privacy problems in biometrics that are not often aired.

Read more on LockStep.

[From the article:

And finally, there is something of a cultural gap between privacy and technology that causes blind spots amongst biometrics developers. Too many times, biometrics advocates misapprehend what information privacy is all about. It's been said more than once that "faces are not private" and there is "no expectation or privacy" with regards to one's face in public. Even if they were true, these judgement calls are moot, for information privacy laws are concerned with any data about identifiable individuals. So when facial recognition technology takes anonymous imagery from CCTV or photo albums and attaches names to it, Personal Information is being collected, and the law applies. It is this type of crucial technicality that Facebook has smacked into headlong in Germany.

Another subject for a future seminar. Especially since academics are always looking for Research tools

http://www.pogowasright.org/?p=31142

Thoughts on Privacy and the Use of Facebook to Recruit Research Subjects

October 20, 2012 by Dissent

Michael Zimmer writes:

Recently, I was approached by a team of researchers concerned with the research ethics issues related to using Facebook to recruit human subjects. Specifically, the team was planning to use Facebook advertisements in order to target certain users for a research study evaluating the effectiveness of a particular educational strategy aimed at decreasing the occurrence of a particular high risk behavior. The researchers were also considering creating a Facebook page in order to manage communication with potential (and perhaps even actual) subjects in the study.

Here’s my initial assessment of the privacy concerns, with some information changed to keep the researchers and the project confidential.

Read more on Michael’s blog.

For my CJ students?

INFOGRAPHIC: Solving Crime With Social Media

… social media is being increasingly used by law enforcement agencies to hunt down criminals, gather evidence, assess tips, and build cases. Look at it this way – how many idiots have committed a crime then gone on YouTube to brag about it? How many smartphone owners have filmed crimes in progress or photographed them, then uploaded it to the Internet? It seems that these days, when someone has evidence of a crime, their first port of call isn’t to dial the emergency services, but to go online and find their five minutes of fame.