Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Because everyone knows your phone contacts and social media persona will easily identify you as a terrorist. 
Trump administration considers 'extreme vetting' of foreign visitors
Foreigners who want to visit the U.S., even for a short trip, could be forced to disclose contacts on their mobile phones, social-media passwords and financial records, and to answer probing questions about their ideology, according to Trump administration officials conducting a review of vetting procedures.  

(Related).  Well, maybe not everyone knows…
New Bill Would Outlaw Warrantless Phone Searches At The Border
Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul as well as Representatives Jared Polis and Blake Farenthold have introduced legislation that would require law enforcement to first obtain a warrant before they can search our phones when we enter the US.
   In a letter to Homeland Security in February, Sen. Wyden asked the agency's chief, Secretary John Kelly, to reveal how many times Customs and Border Protection personnel had asked for or demanded US citizens disclose their phone, computer, email, and social media passwords in the past several years.  Sen. Wyden also asked Secretary Kelly to explain what legal authority allows the CBP to demand those passwords and how such demands are consistent with the Constitution and federal law.
The Senator asked Secretary Kelly to respond by March 20.  But according to Sen Wyden's office, Homeland Security has not written back.


Why I’m not a lawyer: A New York court has no jurisdiction over a New York DA?  Facebook can’t challenge warrants for any reason unless they are the target?  Targets of warrants must wait until the warrant becomes public to challenge it? 
New York's top court rejects Facebook search warrant challenge
New York state's highest court on Tuesday rejected Facebook Inc's challenge to 381 search warrants to uncover suspected widespread Social Security disability fraud by its customers.
By a 5-1 vote, the Court of Appeals said it lacked jurisdiction to hear Facebook's appeal over warrants obtained by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
   Prosecutors had in July 2013 obtained the warrants ordering Facebook to turn over account information belonging to people suspected of criminal fraud.
   Facebook argued that the warrants were overbroad, and that Vance went too far by prohibiting the Menlo Park, California-based company from telling users that the warrants existed.
   Writing for the appeals court, Judge Leslie Stein said it was up to targets of the warrants, not third parties such as Facebook, to challenge the warrants' validity.


Just in time.  My Spreadsheet class starts today.


My Computer Security class starts on Friday.


An interesting article.
Digital Maturity, Not Digital Transformation
People throw around the term “digital transformation” these days, but there’s not much agreement on what that term means.  Originally, the value in the term was that it conveyed the need to engage in a fundamental shift in the way we think, work, and manage our organizations in response to digital trends in the competitive environment.  While the need for fundamental change remains, the overuse and misuse of this term in recent years has weakened its potency.
   The best understanding of digital transformation is adopting business processes and practices to help the organization compete effectively in an increasingly digital world.
   If managers shift their thinking from a focus on digital transformation to a focus on digital maturity, they may find a number of benefits for organizations seeking to adapt to an increasingly digital competitive environment.  


Perspective.  Being early is not an automatic win.
Ford, GM ranked ahead of Tesla, Waymo, Uber on self-driving tech
Tesla on Monday overtook Ford in market value, but a new independent research report ranks Detroit's big automakers ahead of Silicon Valley upstarts in self-driving technologies.
Navigant ranked Ford, GM, Renault-Nissan Alliance and Daimler at the top of its annual ranking, with Alphabet's Waymo unit and Tesla in the second tier of "contenders."
Uber is ranked in a third tier of so-called "challengers" among the 18 companies studied by Navigant.


Perspective.  (Lit, as in excellent?) 
Google Sponsored Study Finds Kids Think Google Is Lit, Go Figure
If you're not sure whether or not you'd be classified as "cool", a quick way to find out is to open up that wallet and fund your own study.  That's just what Google did with a study titled: "It's Lit: A Guide To What Teens Think Is Cool".  The result were not too surprising.
With the help of a scatter chart highlighting results from Gen-Z kids (post-millennial), we can easily see which brands reign supreme, and which ones fall flat on their faces.  Because "10" is too even a number, Google decided to cap "Most Cool" at 9, with YouTube coming closest to that high mark.  Right behind it: Google, and Netflix.  Again, not too surprising.
   You can view a much larger version of this scatter chart in Google's official PDF (25MB, right-click, save as).


Our favorite con man completely innocent victim of FBI harassment has a new idea.
Kim Dotcom announces Bitcontent, a new Bitcoin venture for content uploaders to earn money
Controversial New Zealand-based internet mogul Kim Dotcom plans to launch a Bitcoin payments system for users to sell files and video streaming as he fights extradition to the United States for criminal copyright charges.
   “You can create a payment for any content that you put on the internet…you can share that with your customers, with the interest community and, boom, you are basically in business and can sell your content,” Dotcom said in the video.
He added that Bitcontent would eventually allow businesses, such as news organizations, to earn money from their entire websites.  He did not provide a launch date.
   A New Zealand court ruled in February that Dotcom could be extradited to the United States to face charges relating to his Megaupload website, which was shutdown in 2012 following an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion, a decision he was appealing.

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