Willie
Sutton robbed banks because “That's where the money's at.” Would
any government ignore the wealth of data Google holds?
Governments
Requesting More Private Data From Google
Governments around the world,
especially the U.S. government, are continuing to request more
private data from Google. The search
giant released a fresh transparency report this morning,
revealing that the U.S. leads the world in information requests about
users (8,438 requests for information from about 14,868 users).
Google isn’t a fan of how governments force them to hand over data
and freak out privacy-happy users, so the regular transparency report
has been their (very) clever way of heightening public pressure on
issues of government surveillance. [But if not one
reads the report, can it have any impact? Bob]
Remember,
your MAC (Media Access Control) address is unique to
your phone.
"Call it Google Analytics for
physical storefronts: if you've got a phone with wi-fi, stores can
detect
your MAC address and track your comings and goings, determining
which aisles you go to and whether you're a repeat customer. The
creator of one of the most popular tracking software packages says
that the
addresses are hashed and not personally identifiable, but it
might make you think twice about leaving your phone on when you head
to the mall."
Perspective
(several versions) I have not heard “better smartphones look more
and more like desktop computers” before. Somehow I'm not
convinced.
Google
Ad Bleeding Slows as Larry Page Dismisses Mobile
Fears
Investors like what they’re hearing
from Google, despite a sickly-sounding Larry Page. The Google CEO
argued on Tuesday’s earnings call that mobile won’t hinder his
company’s core ad business because distinctions
between devices are becoming moot.
… Money poured into Google’s core
advertising business as holiday shoppers hunted for gifts. Google
Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora said Google’s top 25
advertisers are spending an average of $150 million per year.
Election spending on Google quintupled in 2012 compared to four years
earlier, Arora said during the call, adding that in 9
of 11 “top Senate races … the candidate who spent more with
Google was elected.” [How to control congress: “Discounts for
Democrats” and “Rebates for Rebublicans” Bob] He
also said that Psy, whose “Gagnam Style” video topped 1 billion
views on YouTube, made $8 million on YouTube advertising alone.
… Analysts have blamed the
steep plunge in the value of Google’s ads, paradoxically, on
the company’s success at driving the smartphone revolution. Mobile
ads simply aren’t worth as much on smartphones, since
users just don’t respond to them as much. Android, the world’s
most popular smartphone operating system, puts Google’s
ad-supported ecosystem into more hands, but at the same time that
spread is diluting those ads’ value.
… As for Page, he said he believes
that dollars for mobile ads could as likely as not top the spending
on desktop. He pointed to handsets like Google’s own Nexus 4 and
other “modern” smartphones that he said render the distinctions
among platforms and form factors irrelevant.
This
one really twists my brain. Some day I'm sure one of my lawyers
friends will show me the logic of this ruling... Maybe.
An individual who
inadvertently exposes the contents of his computer over an unsecured
wireless network still has a reasonable expectation of privacy
against a search of those contents by the police, a federal judge in
Oregon ruled last week.
The ruling
involves John Henry Ahrndt, a previously convicted sex offender who
was sentenced to 120 months in prison for possession of child
pornography on his computer.
Read more on Computerworld.
[From the article:
In analyzing the case, Judge King noted
that there was nothing to show that Ahrndt was using or had intended
to use iTunes or other file-sharing software to share the files in
question, with others. "The invasive action at review here is a
remote search of computer data transmitted on an unsecured wireless
network," he noted.
King conceded that the deputy did not
violate Ahrndt's Fourth Amendment protections by merely looking at
the list of files on his computer because the list
had had already been pulled up by JH. [If she had already pulled up
images, would they also be admissible? Bob]
However, the deputy's subsequent action
in asking JH to open one of the files did violate reasonable
expectations of privacy, particularly since Ahrndt had not intended
for the contents of his PC to be shared.
King rejected the
government's argument that the highly suggestive file names alone
were enough reason for probable cause. In his ruling, the
judge said it was unlikely the government could have obtained a
search warrant based purely on the deputy's recollection of the file
names on Ahrndt's collection. In fact, if the deputy had not seen
the image, there would have been no probable cause to ask for a
search warrant against Ahrndt, he said.
"The mere act of accessing a
network does not in itself extinguish privacy expectations, nor does
the fact that others may have occasional access to the computer,"
the judge said, quoting from a previous case involving a similar
issue.
Interesting
concept.
Newest
Forum for Military’s Ethics Debate: Twitter
There are two major venues for an
uncomfortable internal debate about professional ethics currently
roiling the U.S. military. One is the Pentagon, where the chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is reviewing leadership training after a
spate of embarrassing incidents suggested the military’s moral
fibers have frayed. The other is Twitter.
While Rebecca Johnson, an associate
professor at the Marine Corps University’s Command and Staff
College, prepared to teach her ethics elective to a group of
mid-career Marine officers, she decided she’d like to get all of
Twitter involved. So she put together a syllabus corresponding to
the one she teaches Marines, blogged
about it, and started the hashtag #METC — for Military Ethics
Twitter Course — for anyone who wants to discuss thorny questions
of military ethics for the next five weeks. Essentially, Twitter
users are auditing Johnson’s course.
Perspective Another industry or two
done in by the digital age?
Keep
your Blu-rays and DVDs, Hollywood -- I've gone digital
Buying
physical copies of movies seems to make little sense these days, even
if they provide digital versions with the purchase, given the
frustration involved.
This should keep me busy for several
days!
Freebook Sifter finds
Kindle freebies
E-books are all kinds of awesome.
E-book prices? Not so much.
That's why I'm always on the lookout
for freebies, relying on sites like Hundred
Zeros to help me find gratis reading for my Kindle.
Lately I've been exploring another
source: Freebook Sifter, a
new site that lists over 35,000 no-cost books available from
Amazon. It's not the prettiest site I've ever seen -- all links and
text, no cover art or images -- but it definitely delivers on its
promise.
Perspective Maybe I should video and
then compile some of the answers my studnts give me...
I’m sure a lot of people out there
have YouTube accounts, but a lot of people may not realize that if
your channel generates enough page views YouTube will often allow you
to monetize your videos. The video monetization typically has to do
with placing a commercial in front of the video you want to watch
that you have to view for at least a few seconds before you can skip
it. If you listen to a radio station that plays any popular music,
you’ve undoubtedly heard Psy belt out his barely understandable
song Gangnam Style.
… The
video is the most watched ever to hit YouTube with more than 1
billion views. That 1 billion views has earned $8 million revenue on
YouTube alone.
My students will read if their life
depends on it... Only 18 textbooks so far, but the idea is
interesting and risky (lawsuits)
Free,
Open-Source Digital Textbook Provider, Boundless, Releases Its
Content Under Creative Commons
Since first emerging early last year,
Boston-based startup Boundless
has been on a mission to give students a free alternative to the
financial and physical costs of bulky backpacks brimming with pricey
hard-copy textbooks.
… Boundless has been fighting the
Powers That Be by offering a free, digital alternative culled from
existing, open educational resources.
… Boundless
offers an entire section on its website devoted to explaining how
it uses open educational resources and describes best practices for
users, but users of its free textbooks will find that, at the end of
each chapter, sources are cited as a list of links
where students can locate the original material.
… To monetize, Boundless will
likely turn this into a freemium model, adding optional preemium
features on its own platform and in its textbooks, which will help
students study more effectively (get smarter, etc etc.)
and will be available for a cost.
Diaz also says that the company will
now offer additional features (as seen above), like flashcards,
quizzes and study guides, for example, that will include Creative
Commons-licensed material and will be available within its textbooks.
In this way, Boundless wants to go beyond what the traditional
textbook offers, pushing the space ahead, along with startups like
Inkling and Kno.
To take advantage of
those, students will have to create a user account,
however, access to its textbooks will remain free, Diaz says.
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