Embarrassing
and probably expensive. That's why we recommend testing before
installing software “upgrades.”
Can't
pay a bill or activate your phone on Verizon? It's not you, it's them
(update: fixed!)
Verizon
Wireless acknowledged
today that its billing system is having issues for customers across
much of the US. According to subscribers tweeting on the
#VerizonOutage
hashtag, issues have extended over
the last two days, preventing them from doing simple
things like activating a new phone or paying their bill. In tweets
and a message on its news page, Verizon said the issue is affecting
customers in the Northeast, Midwest and Southern regions, but has yet
to offer an ETA for a fix. It doesn't appear to be affecting things
like phone calls or connecting to the internet, but if your bill is
due right about now, this could be a problem.
I
can't help feeling that I'm missing more than a few breach notices.
Who is cutting these deals and why do they seem so inconsistent?
Triple-S
Salud (TSS) is a licensee of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Puerto Rico
and handles managed care for Medicare enrollees. In February, the
company was fined
$6.8M for a breach involving the exposure of over 13,000
insureds’ information in a mailing error. They were also barred
from signing up more beneficiaries for their Platino line until they
presented a corrective plan to avoid such HIPAA violations. TSS
presented the plan, and the sanctions were lifted. TSS is currently
fighting the monetary penalty in court.
[Lots
omitted Bob]
So
where is the newest breach? And why do their reports of fines seem
to leave out a few zeros (e.g., $100 instead of $100,000 and $6,778
instead of $6,778,000)? Were
the media
reports
on the fines wrong, or has TSS misrepresented the fines in its stock
filings?
And
when will OCR conclude its own investigation? Is protected health
information being adequately secured? Should Blue Cross Blue Shield
yank TSS’s license? Should the FTC investigate and enforce data
security? What needs to happen here to protect PHI?
Ethical
issues? Why would today be any different for Facebook? (For their
next experiment: How much extra bad news does it take to
significantly alter the suicide rate among teenagers?)
Facebook
has been experimenting on you
…
What sounds like something from a work of fiction is something real
you can read in a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, which explains how and why Facebook used nearly 700,000
news feeds and manipulated them in the name of research to study
"emotional contagion through social networks." (LINK:
http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full.pdf)
It
only takes a quick search, not science, to hypothesize how this
revelation is making people feel: Used.
What
exactly did the researchers do to upset so many people? They
tweaked the algorithm that surfaces content into the News Feed to
change the amount of positive and negative content. Then they tested
whether those changes would result in changes to what users posted.
So did seeing more or less happy or sad content ultimately change
your sharing habits and your mood?
The
content they were seeing was still content from their friends, so
they likely would never have noticed they were being fed a certain
type of content, whether happy, neutral or sad.
Brilliant?
Perhaps.
Ethical?
Up for debate.
Legal?
Certainly seems that way.
According
to the terms of service you agree to and probably don't read: "in
addition to helping people see and find things that you do and share,
we may use the information we receive about you ... for internal
operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing,
research and
service improvement."
When
might it be smart to fly your own drones? When you are sponsoring
any event where people gather?
Jordan
Pearson reports:
The main fear associated with the government use of drones in the
United States has been one of privacy invasion when police use them.
But at least one guy in California has turned that idea on its head
and has begun using drones to film police conduct, instead.
Read
more on Motherboard
I
have a few targets subjects in mind...
–
Get a perfect profile pic for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any
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photo. Photolamus is a unique service that lets users order 100%
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prices. The Photolamus community has some of the best caricature
artists in the world.
Still
find this amusing.
…
“The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary
Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, will
lead a national public relations drive to support a series of
lawsuits aimed at challenging tenure,
seniority and other job protections that teachers unions have
defended ferociously,” says
Politico.
…
With
a tearful apology, Arizona’s school
superintendent John Huppenthal says he’s sorry for writing
anonymous blog posts calling welfare recipients “lazy pigs.” But
he won’t resign.
…
Racial profiling in Arizona strikes again. ASU
Professor Ersula Ore was violently arrested by campus police for
walking in the middle of the street on campus, so as to avoid
construction. “ASU authorities have reviewed the circumstances
surrounding the arrest and have found no evidence of inappropriate
actions by the ASUPD.”
…
A victory for privacy. The US Supreme Court
has ruled
that police may not search cellphones without a warrant. (Curious:
how will this impact schools that say they’re free
to search
students’ cellphones?)
…
The University of California has ended
its ban on investing in companies that were created from research
done at the university.
…
Robert Morris University-Illinois will include
video
game playing its varsity sports program. Yes,
there will be scholarships.
…
In news that is probably not a surprise to anyone in education in
NYC, a study has found that the city’s teachers
did not really use the district-created Achievement Reporting and
Innovation System (ARIS) Connect system, designed
for them to share resources and information.
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