Sunday, August 10, 2014

The Streisand Effect defined? When attempts to limit the spread of information become widespread news.
R. Robin McDonald reports:
Former customers who are suing Aaron’s Inc. and its franchises claim that when the rental company installed remotely activated secret spyware on its rental computers, company employees had few, if any, concerns about the privacy of the customers whose screen shots, webcam photos and computer keystroke logs they intercepted and recorded. But—in the name of customer privacy—the lawyers defending the suits are seeking to limit public access to the litigation by asking for broad restrictions on the use of discovery in the cases.
In pleadings potential class action suits against Aaron’s and its franchises in federal court in Pennsylvania and in Atlanta, lawyers defending the rental company or its franchises have attempted to dramatically expand protective orders that plaintiffs’ lawyer Andrea Hirsch of Herman Gerel in Atlanta said originally were intended to shield from public scrutiny personal information such as passwords and bank account, credit card and Social Security numbers.
Read more on Daily Report.


Perhaps we could ask Phil back for a Privacy Foundation seminar.
Iain Thomson reports:
A killer combination of rapidly advancing technology and a desire for greater privacy among the public should condemn current surveillance state to an historical anachronism, according to PGP creator Phil Zimmermann.
In an extended talk at Defcon 22 in Las Vegas, Zimmermann said it might seem as though the intelligence agencies have the whip hand at the moment but mankind had faced this situation before. He also said the abolition of slavery and absolute monarchy, and the achievement for civil rights, also once looked unlikely but were achieved.
Read more on The Register.


Amusing. This explains why liberal supporters of politicians who do really dumb things don't seem to care as much as conservative supporters.
Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology – Research
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 9, 2014
“Disputes between those holding differing political views are ubiquitous and deep-seated, and they often follow common,recognizable lines. The supporters of tradition and stability, sometimes referred to as conservatives, do battle with the supporters of innovation and reform, sometimes referred to as liberals. Understanding the correlates of those distinct political orientations is probably a prerequisite for managing political disputes, which are a source of social conflict that can lead to frustration and even bloodshed. A rapidly growing body of empirical evidence documents a multitude of ways in which liberals and conservatives differ from each other in purviews of life with little direct connection to politics, from tastes in art to desire for closure and from disgust sensitivity to the tendency to pursue new information, but the central theme of the differences is a matter of debate. In this article, we argue that one organizing element of the many differences between liberals and conservatives is the nature of their physiological and psychological responses to features of the environment that are negative. Compared with liberals, conservatives tend to register greater physiological responses to such stimuli and also to devote more psychological resources to them. Operating from this point of departure, we suggest approaches for refining understanding of the broad relationship between political views and response to the negative. We conclude with a discussion of normative implications, stressing that identifying differences across ideological groups is not tantamount to declaring one ideology superior to another.”


Perspective Lawyers and the NFL, what do they have in common?
How the Surface Tablet Won the NFL
Earlier this week the NFL announced they were moving to the Surface Pro 3 tablet for some of their most critical field activities related to managing plays and on-field activities
… In talking to a number of people around the NFL deal and in a number of legal offices, where the decision process is similar, I’ve come away with two big reasons why the Surface Pro 3 tablet is kicking the iPad and other tablets off the island. The first is security.
The vast majority of tablets simply won’t run the security packages that have been mandates by a number of industries and governmental agencies. These tablets will have what is basically the most valuable information the various NFL teams have, the information on plays and players. Other teams and those that bet on games would find that information invaluable if they were to get their hands on it.
The other thing that works with these tablets is they run legacy software that the teams have come to depend on. The legal offices I’ve spoken with say similar things. They need something secure, a machine that will run their data management packages – which generally run on Windows and nothing else. And given it is massively difficult to both move a database like this to a new platform and retrain attorneys (often the harder of the two tasks) they find migration to be excessively time consumer, painful, and annoying.


For my Homeland Security students. Don't take this too seriously, you won't be doing everything.
Infographic: A Day in the Life of DHS
by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Aug 9, 2014
Nextgov: “Twelve years ago in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was established and consolidated 22 agencies into one organization. Its goal: prevent and respond to attacks and disasters — manmade or otherwise — and safeguard citizens. All 22 components have unique missions and plenty gets done in one day. Exactly how much is illustrated in DHS’ daily to-do list.”


For all my students.
33 Productivity Tips In 140 Characters or Less

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