My
tax dollars at work. “We don't have the time or the money to do it
right, so we'll take more time and spend more money to fix it later!”
Tax-Refund
Fraud Soaring, Little IRS Can Do
Tax-refund fraud is expected to soar again this tax season, and hit a
whopping $21 billion by 2016, from just $6.5 billion two years ago,
according to the Internal
Revenue Service.
And the problem—which the agency admits is growing quickly—is
compounded by an outdated fraud-detection system that has trouble
identifying many attempts to trick it.
… The IRS is well-aware of the magnitude of the problem. But
budgetary constraints and legal mandates have created a system where
it is often unable to follow up on the red flags that its system
throws up until after a refund check has been cut and sent.
Privacy
is dead? Let the debate begin!
Or
so Dominic Basulto tries to argue, seemingly ignoring masterful
pieces like Neil Richard’s arguments as to the importance of
privacy for intellectual thought, and oh, a host of other reasons
privacy still is – and will continue to be – important.
You
can read his opinion piece on Washington
Post.
[From
the atricle:
Spend
just a few minutes on today’s Internet, though, and you’ll
realize that this 125-year-old notion of privacy is already an
anachronism. Our accounts are hacked, our photos are uploaded for
all to see, our
medical records are open secrets and our intimate dealings and
e-mails are “proclaimed
from the house-tops.” Instead of wanting to be “let alone,”
we now want to be part of communities and networks. To top it all
off, “pieces
of personal information are not only social currency but also more or
less the basis for the entire world of online commerce.”
I
missed even more...
E.
Michael Power has compiled a roundup of some significant privacy law
cases in Canada last year. A few of them are cases I covered either
on this blog or PHIprivacy.net, but there are some that I never
covered, so do go
read his post. and get caught up. These are all judicial
decisions and not Commissioner’s findings or orders.
I
would expect similar software built into any device you attach to
your system. The software might tell you it detects a problem and
ask permission to send a message to the manufacturer, but there is
nothing to keep them from sending the messages without telling you.
What else could it “report?”
Dell's
tech support will call before trouble strikes your PC, tablet
The
company is launching a new ProSupport Plus support package to monitor
remotely the health of key hardware components and software in a PC
or tablet. If a problem is detected, Dell will call or e-mail to
alert the customer to a possible problem, and offer a remedy or
replacement.
…
Dell will install software called Support Assist on tablets and PCs
that will monitor the health of the hard drive, memory, battery and
other hardware components. If an issue is detected, the software
will issue a support ticket and automatically send it to Dell over
the Internet. Depending on the issue, Dell will call or email the
customer and offer to fix or replace the hardware.
I
even like lists that are in slide format.
Best
of the Web - Winter 2015 - Slides from #OETC15
This
afternoon at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference I presented
my latest version of Best of the Web (and various app stores). This
version contains some of the sites and apps that were in my fall 2014
version of the same slides. Those that have been included again
either released some notable updates or are so good that I think
they're worth including again. This version is also different
because for the first time I included slides to denote sections of
the presentation. Many people asked for the slides so I'm sharing
them below as a Google Slides presentation. You can also click
here to open a copy.
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