Saturday, September 05, 2015

Be careful when using all that cheap gas.
I’m seeing a rash of reports involving card skimmers at gas stations, most of which I’m not posting to this blog. Here are two such reports as examples, though:
Michigan State Police and the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office are investigating reports of fraudulent credit card activity.
There have been at least 12 credit card skimmers found at Michigan gas stations within the past month. Most of them in West Michigan. Read more on WZZM.
And 127 skimmers have already been detected at Florida gas pumps this year:
Skimming devices used to steal credit and debit card data are still being found on pumps at Florida gas stations, including a Chevron station in Riviera Beach where two skimmers were found recently, the Florida Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.
The station at 4128 Blue Heron Blvd. had skimmers at two pumps. Seven other skimmers were found and removed at stations in Brevard, Broward, Lake, Miami-Dade, Seminole, and Washington counties in the last two weeks. Read more on Palm Beach Post.




But will they?
Dan Solove and Woody Hartzog have 5 suggestions for how FTC could use its authority to improve data security:
Here’s how we think the FTC should use its authority to drive important change:
1. Do more proactive enforcement
2. Take on more data security cases
3. Push companies toward improved authentication – moving beyond mere passwords
4. Restrict the use of Social Security numbers for authentication purposes
5. Develop a theory of data stewardship for third parties
Read their article on FierceITSecurity for their explanation and comments.




I agree with Open State. Political speech is largely advertising, “See how smart I am?” We should hold them accountable for “false advertising” and all example of stupid.
Human Rights Watch, Transparency Groups Condemn Twitter's Politwoops Ban
Last month, Twitter revoked access to its API from Politwoops, a network of sites that automatically archived the deleted tweets of politicians.
Twitter's rationale was that deleting tweets is an "expression of the user's voice" and that "no one user is more deserving of that ability than another," the company wrote in a note to Open State Foundation, creator of Politwoops.
Open State Foundation, however, argues that the social media posts of politicians should be part of the public record, whether or not they are later deleted.
Twitter's protest that everyone has the right to expunge a tweet is somewhat disingenuous; because tweets can easily be copied, quoted, and captured by screenshot, nothing posted to Twitter is truly retractable.




Politicians don't recognize parody.
Man arrested for parodying mayor on Twitter gets $125K in civil lawsuit
An Illinois man arrested when his residence was raided for parodying his town's mayor on Twitter is settling a civil rights lawsuit with the city of Peoria for $125,000. The accord spells out that the local authorities are not to prosecute people for parodies or satire.
Plaintiff Jon Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle, was initially accused last year of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law. However, the 30-year-old was never charged. His arrest was kicked off after the local mayor, Jim Ardis, was concerned that the tweets in that account falsely portrayed him as a drug abuser who associates with prostitutes. One tweet Ardis was concerned about said, "Who stole my crackpipe?"
As part of the agreement, (PDF) which includes legal fees, his attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union said Peoria will publish a "directive" to the police department making it clear that Illinois law criminalizing impersonation of a public official does not include parody and satire.
"The directive makes clear that parody should never be the predicate for a criminal investigation and that the action against Mr. Daniel should never be repeated again," Karen Sheley, an ACLU attorney, said in a statement.




No doubt there will be speculation that Amazon (or Alibaba?) will buy Uber.
Uber is just what retailers need to take on Amazon
Uber may have started as a ride-sharing app but it’s trying to morph into a full-blown transportation company, applying its knowhow of moving millions of people around to delivering groceries, clothes, and other packages.
This fall, Uber is planning to announce a partnership with dozens of popular retailers and fashion brands to speedily deliver their goods, reports Recode’s Jason Del Ray.




This is not going away.
Clintons personally paid State Department staffer to maintain server
Hillary Rodham Clinton and her family personally paid a State Department staffer to maintain the private e-mail server she used while heading the agency, according to an official from Clinton’s presidential campaign.
… according to the campaign official, it also ensured that taxpayer dollars were not spent on a private server that was shared by Clinton, her husband and their daughter as well as aides to the former president.
That State Department staffer, Bryan Pagliano, told a congressional committee this week that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination instead of testifying about the setup.
The private employment of Pagliano provides a new example of the ways that Clinton — who occupied a unique role as a Cabinet secretary who was also a former and potentially future presidential candidate — hired staff to work simultaneously for her in public and private capacities.


(Related)
Hillary Clinton's Favorable Rating One of Her Worst
… Currently, 41% of U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of the Democratic front-runner, while 51% hold an unfavorable view.


(Related) I just find the quote amusing.
Clinton: Email system not 'best choice' but she didn't 'stop and think' about it




These are the ones my Business Intelligence students should be tracking.
Here Are the Fastest Growing Social Networks You Need to Join




My geeks will love this. I'll need to look into how I can use it with my non-geek students.
LinkedIn Open-Sources FeatureFu, A Toolkit For Building Machine Learning Models




My industry constantly amuses me.
Hack Education Weekly News
… A law protecting student data has been signed in Delaware – privacy legislation is a “trend,” says Education Week.
… The Department of Education announced it was awarding $25 million in grants to Twin Cities Public Television and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for kids’ TV. [Perhaps they have not heard that kids don't watch TV any longer. Bob]
… The Washington State Supreme Court has just ruled that charter schools are unconstitutional.
… Public school parents do not have a constitutional right to decide where to send their children to school (unless they choose to enroll their child in a private school), the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week.
… “The family of a student at the Fay School in Southboro has filed a lawsuit claiming the school’s strong Wi-Fi signal caused the boy to become ill,” the Worcester Telegram reports.
… “New report finds ongoing iPad and technology problems at L.A. Unified,” reports The LA Times’ Howard Blume. (And according to the LA School Report, there are hints there may be more problems arising from the FBI’s investigation into the Pearson/Apple/LAUSD deal.)
… According to a survey conducted by the University of Phoenix, “K–12 Teachers Use Social Media at Home, But Not in Class.”
Via the School Library Journal: “The State of the School Ebook Market.”


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