Saturday, February 03, 2018

One more Thing on the Internet of Things. Did you take your court ordered medication? Is there an App to tell me what medication you are taking? (Could my students create one?)
David M. Perry writes:
There’s a new psychiatric medication on the market called Abilify MyCite. On its own, the drug Abilify is a partial dopamine agonist that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration since 2013 as an anti-psychotic medication. It’s generally prescribed to people with conditions such as such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, though questions remain about its effectiveness and the severity of its side effects. The “MyCite” pill, approved just last year, does something new. It contains a digital sensor that tracks whether a patient has ingested the drug, then shares that information with doctors, family, or whoever is programmed to receive it.
The use of Web technology to track medication has been emerging over the past decade or so. The technology has arrived with the usual benefits and risks of the Internet of Things: timely reminders, cool gadgets, vulnerability to hacking, loss of control over one’s data, state surveillance. When it comes to a pill like MyCite, America’s history of coercive psychiatric medication intensifies the risks. If the medical technology is simply used to help people remember to voluntarily take their pills, so much the better. Alas, that’s unlikely to be the case.
Read more on Pacific Standard.




Will I be allowed to encrypt my car’s data? Do I have any lecerage in that contract negotiation?
Cyrus Farivar reports that autonomous vehicles (AVs) have changed our threat model.
In order for AVs to work, they have to snag all kinds of data about the world around them: where precisely other objects are at any given moment and how fast they are moving. That data can seemingly be kept forever.
Under current law, all of that data can be obtained relatively easily by federal law enforcement. In other words, if you’re a privacy-minded citizen, your threat model just changed.
“Because of all of the sensors and data that is being captured—[AVs] are giant recording things,” Jaeger said. “Even if they’re not involved in an incident directly, they captured some of it. Maybe infrared data or something.”
This is profoundly different from older cars that lack such sensors and do not gather up such vast quantities of stored data. As such, Tesla’s terms and conditions—like those of other non-automotive tech companies, including Apple, Google, and more—say that the company will hand over data to law enforcement when legally compelled to do so. Waymo did not respond to Ars’ multiple queries for clarification its position, so how far that assistance will go is anyone’s guess.
Read more on Ars Technica about an important case that may significantly impact law enforcement’s too-ready access to your data.




A new record is not a good thing.
This Week In Credit Card News: A Record Number Of Data Breaches; Starbucks Enters Credit Card Market
The Identity Theft Resource Center reports the number of U.S. data breaches reached an all-time high in 2017. Data breaches totaled 1,579, up 45% from 2016. 55% hit the business sector; 24% hit the medical/healthcare industry. Of the 179 million records exposed last year, nearly 158 million were Social Security numbers, accounting for 88% of all exposed records. Nearly 20% of breaches resulted in information on debit and credit cards being exposed.




Are you the kind of crazy we insure? Are you too crazy to insure? Is this just a way to reduce insurance costs?
Andy Marso reports:
Susan Eyman, a psychologist in Lawrence, Kansas, told a patient last year that the patient’s insurance company had requested her notes from their therapy sessions as part of an audit of her billings.
Eyman said the patient was shocked. The notes included intensely personal things about trauma he had told her in strict confidence. He asked if she could assure the confidentiality of the notes once Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas had them.
“And I said, ‘No, of course not,’ ” Eyman said. “Of course I can’t. If you send this information out there, it’s out there.”
Eyman said she refused to turn over the notes and was forced to pay back thousands in BCBS Kansas reimbursements.
Read more on The Seattle Times.
I recently experienced this same issue myself, but with a different insurer. A long-term care patient’s insurer suddenly started asking me for therapy notes. I was appalled, because psychotherapy notes are among the most sensitive notes anywhere. I think asking for therapy goals and some measure of progress is appropriate and acceptable, but actual therapy notes? I’ll see what, if anything, we can negotiate, I guess, and then decide what to do.




...but is it criminal?
A ‘Dirty and Open Secret’: Can Social Media Curb Fake Followers?
Social media users, advertisers and regulators were aghast this past week over revelations in a report by The New York Times of a thriving cottage industry that creates fake followers on Twitter, Facebook or other channels for anybody willing to pay for them. Called “bots,” these fake accounts are available in the thousands to those that want to boost their popularity with tweets or retweets on Twitter, or Facebook likes or shares.
Although Twitter and Facebook officially frown on users buying followers and regularly take down fake accounts, they have a vested interest in the popularity scores of their users because advertisers use those metrics. The political will also may not be readily available to legislate against buying followers, experts say, pointing out that some of President Trump’s appointees also bought followers, in addition to others such as computer billionaire Michael Dell and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s actress wife Louise Linton.
“This is a dirty and open secret of social media,” said Kartik Hosanagar, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions. “This has been going on for a while, and The New York Times article finally puts the spotlight on this shadow economy. Overall, social media is a complete mess right now in terms of the sanctity of information circulating on it.”




Tools for my “Flipped Classroom” world.
7 Ways to Create Screencasts on Chromebooks - Updated for 2018


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