Something
to grab the attention of my Intro to Computer Security class.
Glyn
Moody writes:
Three years ago, Techdirt wrote
about how German politician Malte Spitz obtained six months’ worth
of basic geolocation data for his mobile phone. He then gave this to
the German newspaper Die Zeit, which produced a
great visualization of his travels during this time. That showed
clearly how much was revealed from such basic data. Since then, of
course, metadata has assumed an even greater importance, as it has
emerged that the NSA routinely gathers huge
quantities of it about innocent citizens. More chillingly, we
also know that people are killed
purely because of their metadata. But what exactly does
metadata show about us? We now have a better idea thanks to the
generosity of Ton Siedsma from Holland. He has allowed
researchers to access not just the geolocation data of his mobile
phone, but all of its metadata:
Read
more on TechDirt.
I
admit I did not anticipate this argument. If Big Brother is not
watching you, you may not feel his love?
The
Rise of Data Poverty in America
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Sep 12, 2014
“Data-driven
innovations offer enormous opportunities to advance important
societal goals. However, to take advantage of these opportunities,
individuals must have access to high-quality data about themselves
and their communities. If
certain groups routinely do not have data collected about them, their
problems may be overlooked and their communities held back
in spite of progress elsewhere. Given this risk, policymakers should
begin a concerted effort to address the “data divide”—the
social and economic inequalities that may result from a lack of
collection or use of data about individuals or communities.”
Sort
of a “Heads up” from a Supreme. We should probably listen.
Lily
Hay Newman reports:
Justice Sonia Sotomayor told law students and faculty at Oklahoma
City University on Thursday that Americans should be feeling very
concerned about the potential for drones to compromise personal
privacy.
According to the Wall
Street Journal, she said she thinks that as drones become
more ubiquitous, they will encroach on physical spaces that have
traditionally been respected as private. And she emphasized that
citizens should channel their concern into more active involvement in
privacy debates nationwide.
Read
more on Slate.
(Related)
A
new article by Joel Reidenberg is available on SSRN: “Privacy in
Public.”
Abstract:
As
government and private companies rapidly expand the infrastructure of
surveillance from cameras on every street corner to facial
recognition for photographs on social media sites, privacy doctrines
built on seclusion are at odds with technological advances. This
essay addresses a key conceptual problem in US privacy law identified
by Justice Sotomayor in U.S. v. Jones and by Justice Scalia in Kyllo
v. U.S.; namely that technological
capabilities undermine the meaning of the third-party doctrine and
the 4th Amendment’s ‘reasonable expectation of privacy’
standard.
The essay argues that the conceptual problem derives from the
evolution of three stages of development in the public nature of
personal information culminating in the ubiquitous transparency of
citizens. This ubiquitous transparency destroys any “reasonable
expectation of privacy.” The essay then argues that transparency
without privacy protection challenges the democratic values of public
safety and fair governance. To restore the balance and relocate
privacy away from the no longer workable “reasonable expectation”
standard, the essay argues for a new normative approach to privacy
that would protect observable activity where such activity is not
“governance related,” but rather “private regarding.” The
essay concludes by showing that this distinction is consistent with
the First Amendment and draws on established doctrines in tort law
and First Amendment jurisprudence.
You
can download the article here.
Something
for Student Privacy Day?
Tanya
Roscorla reports:
As the legislative session wraps up, student data privacy bills are
headed to the books in 20 states.
State policymakers introduced
110 bills on student data privacy in 36 states this session, with
30 of them passing both houses and 24 being signed into law,
according
to an analysis by the Data Quality Campaign. Four companion
bills were not signed into law because they did the same thing that
their counterparts did in the other house, and two
bills in California are still on the governor’s desk for
review.
Read
more on Government
Technology.
Social
is increasing in importance and Microsoft is becoming a real tool for
business. Who knew?
Gartner
names Microsoft a leader in social software in the workplace
Gartner
is a technology research firm and one of their evaluation techniques
are "Magic Quadrants." In a study evaluating Enterprise
Social Software, they named Microsoft
as a 'Leader.' You can see their quadrant for this study below.
…
Gartner favors Microsoft because of their integration of components
of Office 365 and easy access to features of Exchange, SharePoint,
Yammer, and Lync. Microsoft has also shown off a road map for
products such as Office 365 which show deeper integration and
enhancements. Lastly, viability - the interest and adoption of
Microsoft products, such as Office 365, is very high.
Some
cautions Gartner has about Microsoft is the change in architecture,
which involve unanticipated migrations; a faster pace of innovation
than some customers find easy to keep up with; and lastly, a
complexity of product bundles that create confusion in choice.
Other
leaders in the quadrant include IBM, Jive, Salesforce, and Tibco
Software. However, Microsoft is no doubt pleased that they are the
most upper-right in the quadrant.
You
can read the full study here.
An
interesting summary
The
Dark Side of Big Data
…
GE declares in an online video that the Industrial Internet,
a.k.a. the Internet of Things, will bring us “a faster, safer,
cleaner, more productive world.
…
The immediate concern is that there simply are not enough
experts—engineers, Big Data analysts and computer scientists — to
cope with the huge amount of data that is rapidly accumulating.
…
Much of the historic government data that exists, he pointed out, is
inconsistent and incompatible with current databases. “Most of
these systems were never designed to release data external to
government,” he said, “so you need a bridge between the legacy
environment and the data environment.”
[The
conference report:
http://d1c25a6gwz7q5e.cloudfront.net/reports/2014-09-12-Sustainability-in-the-Age-of-Big-Data.pdf
Think
this will ever happen here?
Libraries
may digitize books without permission, EU top court rules
by
Sabrina I.
Pacifici on Sep 12, 2014
Loek
Essers - PC World: “European
libraries may digitize books and make them available at electronic
reading points without first gaining consent of the copyright holder,
the highest European Union court ruled Thursday. The Court of
Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in a case in which the
Technical University of Darmstadt digitized a book published by
German publishing house Eugen Ulmer in order to make it available at
its electronic reading posts, but refused to license the publisher’s
electronic textbooks. Eugen Ulmer sought to prevent the university
from digitizing the book and also wanted to prevent users of the
library from printing out the book or copying it to a USB stick for
use outside the library, the CJEU said
in a news release.”
A
small percentage of a really big number...
Apple
to get 0.15 percent cut of purchase value for every payment made with
Apple Pay
…
According to The
Financial Times, the company is eligible to get a 0.15 percent
cut of the purchase value every time a customer uses Apple Pay.
“Bank
chief executives fawned about the ‘exceptional customer experience’
and the ‘exciting move’.” The Financial Times reports. “They
are also paying hard cash for the privilege of being involved
…
That is an unprecedented deal, giving Apple a share of the payments’
economics that rivals such as Google do not get for their services.”
…
Click
here for a list of merchants and apps that have signed up for
Apple Pay.
(Related)
Posturing for a better deal. They would never turn down payment.
Walmart
says it will not join Apple Pay system; rallies behind CurrentC
method instead
…
Walmart - which has a massive customer base - has decided to rally
behind the CurrentC mobile payment method instead.
…
Though Walmart representatives have not offered any explanation
behind the retailer's decision to support CurrentC mobile payment
system rather than Apple Pay, the move is apparently rooted in the
fact that the financial incentive to join Current C may be higher
than that for Apple Pay.
Moreover,
if the testing of CurrentC is successful and the system is widely
accepted, it could bring about a fundamental change in the credit and
debit card mechanism. The system will essentially allow customers to
either load cash into the app or allow the app to withdraw funds
directly out of a checking or savings account; without any link to a
credit card. As such,
Walmart and other CurrentC partners will not have to pay 'swipe'
charges to banks.
Technology.
Tiny
ant-sized radio developed by Stanford engineers
A
tiny, ant-sized radio has been developed by engineers at Stanford
University, which is small enough and cheap enough that it could be
used for a wide variety of applications, specifically "Internet
of Things".
…
All the energy required to power the chip is harvested from
background electromagnetic fields, so there's
no need for a battery or other power source. That said,
if a single AAA battery were connected to provide power, the chip
would be able to function for more than 100 years.
For
my business majors: I didn't think they were all that good 10 years
ago.
The
real Italian debate on salting pasta water—not if, but when
It
took a 300-page
hedge fund report to tell Olive Garden that
they had a big problem—there’s no salt in the pasta.
…
The report, which was filed by activist hedge fund Starboard, says
the chain made a business decision to stop salting its pasta.
(Apparently, it enabled them to get an extended warranty on pots.)
“The
first step in any pasta recipe is to put water in a big pot and salt
it,” wrote Starboard analysts in their report.
For
my iPhone toting students. (I select a couple)
Free
Apps
MyScript
Smart Note ($7.99, now free)
It’s
a note-taking app with a focus on handwriting, jotting down notes,
equations, drawings and more.
This
Is Not A Test: Survival RPG Comic ($1.99, now free)
This
Is Not A Test is a survival challenge like no other. If you enjoyed
any of the Fallout games, The Walking Dead comics or pen-and-paper
RPGs you might want to check ths out.
I
can't believe this is free every week.
…
Via
The LA Times, “L.A.
Unified Supt. John
Deasy has filed a public records request seeking emails and other
documents involving school board members and nearly two dozen
companies including those at the center of the controversial iPad
project.”
…
Meanwhile, the LAUSD
Board has voted
to destroy its emails after 1 year. Nothing to see here. Move
along…
…
edX
launches classes (and
college counseling) for high school students. Most
of the classes are AP
ones, which will be offered for free, but there’s a fee for
certificates.
…
Almost 12% of Harvard
students are enrolled in “Introduction to Computer Science 1”
this semester – a
record-breaking number.
…
“Twenty percent of NCAA
athletes admit to participating in fantasy
sports leagues with
entry fees and cash prizes, according to a survey conducted last year
by the NCAA.” That’s
against the rules.
…
The OECD has released its 2014 report “Education
at a Glance” – where 570
pages equals “glance.”
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