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Web 2.0: big brother or no big deal?
- Drunken midnight googles & superpokes? Google & Facebook can track & even sell that info. Is that OK? more info
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Camo-Clad Paparazzi Duke It Out With Brad Pitt's Bodyguards
It sounds like a scene from "Fight Club."
French police say camouflaged paparazzi who got on to the grounds of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's chateau in southern France fought with the Hollywood couple's guards.
Police spokeswoman Capt. Olivia Poupot said Friday the two photographers were wearing camouflage clothes. She said police officers took them and the two guards in for questioning after Thursday's bust-up at the Jolie-Pitt family's Miraval estate.
The police captain said both sides filed legal complaints accusing the other of battery and causing injury. She said she believed the injuries were bruises and scratches and "nothing nasty."
Nevertheless, the guards got doctors' notes giving them four days off work; the photographers did not, she said.
Jolie returned to the estate after the July 12 birth of her twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, in the Mediterranean city of Nice, about 60 miles away.
Poupot said she didn't know how long the paparazzi had been on the chateau grounds or further details about the "altercation with the guards."
"One can imagine that if you discover someone in your garden who is taking your photo then you're not necessarily going to politely show them the way out," she said.
Police took everyone downtown to the nearby village of Carces and took statements. A judge will rule on whether the legal complaints should be pursued further, she said.
Poupot said it was the first time the chateau has called on police to intervene since the Jolie-Pitts settled there earlier this year, ahead of the twins' birth.
The police captain said she had no information on the nationalities or the names of the photographers.
"I won't hide for you that this kind of thing is really not the type of problem that interests us," she said. "There are, in my opinion, far more important things than paparazzi taking photos of a glamor couple."
It sounds like a scene from "Fight Club." ... more -
Brad Pitt threatens legal action over family photos
Lawyers for Brad Pitt threatened legal action against anyone publishing recent photographs taken by paparazzi of the actor and his family at their French estate.
Pictures of the Pitt-Jolie family in France were snapped using a powerful telephoto lens and sold to an anonymous buyer. According to Pitt's lawyer, Yael Holtkamp, the taking of the photos was a "malicious violation" of the actor's privacy rights under both French and California law. Several celebrity Web sites that had links to the pictures had removed them by late on Thursday.
Pitt and Jolie have reportedly sold pictures of their newborn twins to a U.S. publication for $11 million. The money is intended to go to charity. Lawyers for Brad Pitt threatened legal action against anyone publishing recent photographs taken by paparazzi of the actor and his fam... more -
Holy Relevancy, Batman
If you’re like the ACLU you believe in privacy, the Fourth Amendment and the fact that Congress just did an unforgivable thing to both by passing the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. And, if you are like me and a few others I know, then you spent last week anticipating then reveling in the release of The Dark Knight. If you’re with me on all of those counts, then you probably found a particular scene in the latest Batman to be as timely as I did.
Spoiler alert!
Towards the end of the film, the Caped Crusader asks one of his trusted confidants to conduct broad and invasive surveillance on the citizens of Gotham by essentially turning every cell phone into a microphone to locate a certain and marvelously played villain. That confidant (played by Morgan Freeman who is pretty much amazing in all he is and does) initially has the correct reaction saying, “It’s not my job to spy on 30 million people.” Wow. Imagine if that happened in real life…
Well, unfortunately, like the telecoms before him, Mr. Freeman’s character reluctantly goes along with the plan saying he’ll resign and terminate the program after “this one time.” <Sigh>
At least he didn’t ask for immunity.
lol, lol, tells it all. If you’re like the ACLU you believe in privacy, the Fourth Amendment and the fact that Congress just did an unforgivable thing to both... more -
Can You Find Me Now?
Today the ACLU sued the Justice Department to force it to reveal its policies for tracking the location of cell phones. As anyone who watches Law & Order: SVU knows, all cell phones double as tracking devices.They send cell phone networks information that provides a pretty accurate idea of where they are physically located. This means that if you go for a walk around town with a cell phone in your pocket, it is possible for your cell phone provider to trace your route.
At least today, your cell phone provider does not have a business reason to keep such close track of you. But the government has plenty of reasons to want to do so. The question is under what circumstances the government is going to be able to access such information.
The ACLU’s position is that people have a reasonable expectation that their movements will not be tracked, especially when they are in private places such as homes, and that the government should have to get a warrant from a court to obtain cell phone location information. The government disagrees. News reports and court decisions (PDF) indicate that the Justice Department has been asking courts to authorize it to get this information without producing evidence sufficient to get a warrant, and sometimes without any court involvement at all.
Sometimes the government wins, sometimes it does not. But the few cases that garner press attention or result in court opinions are likely to be a small subset of the number of times the government engages in such tracking.
The purpose of the lawsuit the ACLU filed today is to get the Justice Department to reveal its policies for when it tracks the location of people’s cell phones. The public has the right to know how widespread such monitoring is, so that they can fairly evaluate the privacy risks of carrying a cell phone. Today the ACLU sued the Justice Department to force it to reveal its policies for tracking the location of cell phones. As anyone who ... more -
Japanese iPhone has setting to protect women from 'upskirt' attacks
The iPhone 3G in Japan has a special feature unique to that country: the camera always makes a conspicuous 'shutter' sound when a picture is taken, even when the phone is set to 'silent' mode.
The loud shutter sound is supposed to deter voyeurs from taking sneaky pictures up women’s’ skirts - or down their tops.
In Japan, upskirt and downblouse shots have become increasingly popular with the advent of high-resolution camera phones.
As a result, all cell phones sold in Japan make a conspicuous shutter sound, or say the word “cheese” when a snap is taken, according to Nobuyuki Hayashi, a tech reporter based in Tokyo. On almost all new cell phones, the camera shutter sound can not be muted, Hayashi says.
“Some manufacturers have even put louder shutter sound,” he reports.
The shutter on the first iPhone sold in Japan could be muted in silent mode; an anomaly that many wondered whether Apple would correct in the iPhone 3G, Hayashi says.
Apple did: The shutter sound cannot be turned off, even in silent mode, Hayashi says.
Is it not a little scary that so-called 'upskirts' are such a phenomenon in Japan (and elsewhere, no doubt) that local phone technology has to find ways to protect women from such abuse?
The iPhone 3G in Japan has a special feature unique to that country: the camera always makes a conspicuous 'shutter' sound when a pict... more -
Interview 2.0 - Employers switching to interrogation tactics
In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, people have the resources available online to present their qualifications and knowledge in the best light. They can learn through experience or research what questions will be asked and how best to answer them. For today’s top executives needing to hire managers and leaders for their organization, it is important to have some questions that cut through the normal responses like a scalpel.
They need to master Interview 2.0 techniques.
It’s okay to get personal
One of the biggest mistakes that employers make is that they do not get personal enough in an interview. There are boundaries depending on the law of the land that define what one can ask — anything that stinks of discrimination has to be avoided. Still, it’s possible to get personal without asking “What church do you attend?”
When starting with personal questions, always precede it with a disclaimer. “The questions I am about to ask you may get personal. If at any time you feel that you do not want to answer, just let us know and we will skip the questions.”
Once the disclaimer is out of the way, find out what you can about the person. What do they like to do when not at work? Do they have a blog? Do they prefer to cook or go out to eat? What did they do last weekend?
These questions may seem frivolous, but it isn’t in these answers that you are judging them. From their responses, you will find something that you can latch onto. It’s the follow-up question that makes the difference.
Say, for example, that they like to play video games when not at work. What is their favorite game? Have them describe the game to you. Ask them how often they play it? Do they play online?
What about cooking? Does someone else cook for them? What is their favorite meal? Favorite restaurant? How do they handle it when their order doesn’t come out properly?
Blogging - do they have one? Many? Do they read blogs? What are some of their favorites? Do they write for any others? Share photos? Are they involved with social media or social network sites? Do they have a Facebook account? LinkedIn? Digg? YouTube?
Now, you’re probably wondering, what’s the point of all of this knowledge? If they’re into solo RPG’s, they’re likely more into strategy and independent. This guy will likely do well with a project that he’s solely responsible for. What if they always eat ready-made meals or have mom do all their cooking? They’ll likely lean on their teammates and be good at some things, but without a supporting team they aren’t going to shine. What does maintaining your own blog say about you? If you have a blog, I want to read it before giving the thumbs up. Bloggers tend to be passionate, team players and want to share, help others and connect.
When you get someone talking about something that is part of their daily lives, you have a better chance of gleaning how they will handle particular situations in their professional lives. Life happens every day. Interviews happen once in a while. Get them out of interview mode and make them talk about something they do normally. The way they react to normal situations is a closer representation of how they will respond in normal work situations.
Unrelate them In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, people have the resources available online to present their qualifications and know... more -
In preda al delirio
Umberto Veronesi su intercettazioni telefoniche, giustizia e magistratura: paura e delirio a Milano ...
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Picture Leak: UK Mobile Operator O2's Attempt At Security
Some O2 customers' private photos taken with their mobile phones are publicly accessible online.
Customers of U.K. mobile network operator O2 may believe that photos taken with their mobile phones and sent via MMS to friends are private. But if the recipient's phone isn't capable of receiving MMS data, as is the case with Apple's iPhone 3G, those pictures may be publicly accessible.
O2's security for this scenario is security through obscurity: It makes pictures sent via MMS viewable on non-MMS devices by posting them online with a URL that's difficult to guess.
But thanks to Google, there's no need to guess the URL. It can be found using the inurl: search query operator with mms2legacy as the argument. Some O2 customers' private photos taken with their mobile phones are publicly accessible online. ... more -
Google and Viacom reach deal over YouTube user data
Google has struck a deal to protect the personal data of millions of YouTube users in the $1bn (£497m) copyright court case brought against the video-sharing website by Viacom.
Under the deal, Google will make user information and internet protocol addresses from its YouTube subsidiary anonymous before handing over the data to Viacom in the US legal case.
Earlier this month a judge in New York ordered Google to pass on the personal data of more than 100 million YouTube users - many of them in the UK - to Viacom.
Viacom, the media company that owns TV channels including MTV and Comedy Central and the Paramount film studio, had demanded the information so it could conduct a detailed examination of the viewing habits of millions of YouTube users around the world.
The agreement that Google has struck also applies to other litigants pursuing YouTube user information over copyright claims in a class action that includes the FA Premier League, the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organisation and the Scottish Premier League.
"We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be providing that information," Google commented in a post on the official YouTube blog in the US overnight.
"In addition, Viacom and the plaintiffs had originally demanded access to users' private videos, our search technology, and our video identification technology. Our lawyers strongly opposed each of those demands and the court sided with us."
(Mark Sweney, The Guardian)
Google has struck a deal to protect the personal data of millions of YouTube users in the $1bn (£497m) copyright court case brought ag... more -
Beware of the thumb drive!
Mr. Nugent had confidential student files on the same thumb-drive with his personal files. We believe that when Mr. Nugent uploaded his personal files to a web site he created, he inadvertently uploaded our student files....
No gold star for Mr. Nugent! This is getting to become too common ( mislaying files/private information) I want to keep my information , Thank you. Mr. Nugent had confidential student files on the same thumb-drive with his personal files. We believe that when Mr. Nugent uploaded hi... more -
Medical marijuana list released
Angry telephone calls started coming in to the state Department of Public Safety almost as soon as the June 27 issue of the Hawai'i Tribune-Herald hit the streets.
Advertisement
A front-page article on medical marijuana mentioned that the department had provided a database with patient names and addresses, the locations of their plants, their certificate numbers, and their prescribing doctors.
The breach of privacy was an inadvertent mistake, and the newspaper did not name any of the patients, but many were alarmed because the information is like providing a roadmap for a stash of legal pot. Angry telephone calls started coming in to the state Department of Public Safety almost as soon as the June 27 issue of the Hawai'i Tr... more -
Embracing Big Brother
CANDACE COHN
Counterpunch
Friday, June 27, 2008
It may be June, but Christmas came early this year for Big Brother and the telecommunications giants. Unfortunately, it is average Americans who will pay--dearly--on three separate counts.
First, precious constitutional and other legal protections against warrantless domestic surveillance have been shattered. The federal government may now secretly and legally eavesdrop on virtually any American's e-mail, cell phone and landline communications--without first getting a court-ordered warrant.
New federal legislation gives the government and phone companies sweeping new domestic surveillance powers. It allows for mass, untargeted, warrantless eavesdropping against ordinary American citizens and political activists. It sets back hard-fought free speech, civil rights and privacy protections that were won by popular pressure following the Vietnam War and Watergate era.
The second price that Americans will pay is by those who have been illegally monitored since 9/11. They will lose billions of dollars from dozens of anti-spying lawsuits pending against the likes of Sprint, AT&T and Verizon. These suits, covering the last seven years, will now be dismissed in a huge giveaway of immunity to the telecommunications lobby and big campaign donors.
The lawsuits arose from the government's secret eavesdropping on American citizens, carried out since September 11 by Verizon, AT&T and others at the behest of the Bush administration, without court-ordered warrants--which until now had been legally required.
Third, Americans will be unable to discover the extent and details of the government's post-9/11 domestic spying operation, which barely came to light three years ago. That domestic eavesdropping campaign will now continue and expand further--with legal sanction--in the dark recesses of total secrecy. The new bill is a huge and blatant cover-up. CANDACE COHN Counterpunch Friday, June 27, 2008 ... more -
Like a free bracelet with that airplane ticket??
Oh, yea, great idea...Have airline passengers wear a bracelet that are controlled by the flight crew.
"By further equipping the bracelet with EMD technology, the bracelets will allow crew members, using radio frequency transmitters, to quickly and effective subdue hijackers," the video explains. "The electro-muscular disruption signal overrides the attacker's central nervous system and will render even the most elite and aggressive terrorist completely immobile for several minutes"
Are will all really this scared to get on a plane? I can't see this happening right now but..??? Oh, yea, great idea...Have airline passengers wear a bracelet that are controlled by the flight crew. ... more -
Mother sues newspapers over Bebo defamation
A mother is suing six national newspapers for defamation and breach of privacy after they ran stories and photos taken from Bebo about a 'drunken party' that turned out to be false, reports the Independent.
On her Bebo page, Jodie Hudson described a riot of sex and wanton damage fuelled by under-age drinking that only ended when the police arrived. Newspapers leapt on the story and published photos from her Bebo site alongside their reports.
But Hudson's lurid description of the party, subsequently carried in a number of national newspapers, turned out to be fantasy. The media stories, and the accompanying pictures taken from Bebo, are now the subject of a landmark legal case that could redraw the boundaries of the use of information published on social networking sites including Bebo, Facebook and MySpace.
Should newspapers be able to access and - if deemed newsworthy enough - publish your photos and writings from social networking sites, without your permission? Surely its a journalist's reponsbility to corroborate stories like this *before* they publish them?
A mother is suing six national newspapers for defamation and breach of privacy after they ran stories and photos taken from Bebo about... more -
This generation's 1984, download it for free
From the book:
Marcus, aka "w1n5t0n" is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works-and howto work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of his networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high schools intrusive but clumsy security systems.
But his whole world changes when, having skipped school, he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison, where they're mercilessly interrogated for days.
When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state, where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: Take down the DHS himself.
Can one teenage hacker take fight back against a government out of control? Maybe, but only if he's really careful... and very, very smart.
"A wonderful, important book... I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year" - Neil Gaiman, author of Sandman and American Gods.
"A worthy younger sibling to Orwell’s 1984, Cory Doctorow’s LITTLE BROTHER is lively, precocious, and most importantly, a little scary." - Brian K Vaughn, author of Y: The Last Man
"Scarily Realistic... Action-packed with tales of courage, technology, and demonstrations of digital disobedience as the technophiles civil protest". - Andrew "Bunnie" Huang, author of Hacking the Xbox
"Read this book. You'll learn a great deal about computer security, surveillance and how to counter it, and the risk of trading off freedom for 'security'. And you'll have fun doing it." - Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media.
This is one of my favorite books if not my favorite book. Everyone in this generation should read it, because we might need it should things go wrong.
From the book: ... more -
The right to peer inside your iPod
The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's claimed - could let customs agents search your laptop or music player for illegally obtained content. The European Parliament is considering a law that would lead to people who illicitly download copyrighted music or video content being thrown off the internet. Virgin Media is writing to hundreds of its customers at the request of the UK record industry to warn them that their connections seem to have been used for illegal downloading. Viacom gets access to all of the usernames and IP addresses of anyone who has ever used YouTube as part of its billion-dollar lawsuit in which it claims the site has been party to "massive intentional copyright infringement".
The heads of the G8 governments, meeting this week, are about to ratify the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (Acta), which - it's c... more -
Big Brother gets the greenlight
FTC says it won't intervene to protect Internet user privacy
WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission indicated Wednesday that it would leave it to data-mining Web companies and Internet marketers to decide how best to protect users' privacy.
"Self-regulation may be the preferable approach for this dynamic marketplace," Lydia Parnes, the director of the commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, told a Senate committee.
The FTC's decision not to step in — even as Microsoft and Google representatives testified that some regulation would be helpful — means that Washington won't address the matter before a new administration and Congress take office in January.
At issue is what privacy rights consumers have when data-mining companies use their Web browsing patterns to target them for ads. It's a gold mine for online advertising and Internet marketing, but consumer and e-privacy groups say it's intrusive.
NebuAd, a media company based in Redwood City, Calif., has been in the hot seat for partnering with Internet service providers to deliver personalized ads to users' computer screens.
The company's chief executive officer, Bob Dykes, told the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that there's no privacy lost in the process.
"NebuAd's systems are designed so that no one, not even the government, can determine the identity of our users," Dykes said.
Leslie Harris, the chief executive for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based civil liberties group, said that NebuAd and other data-miners shouldn't be able to track browsing patterns without advance consent from computer users.
She also fears that privacy will be lost as more companies enter the field and their techniques become more sophisticated.
"Self-regulation is a piece, but self-regulation alone is not enough to protect privacy, and we need to have some baseline legislation in place," Harris said.
Microsoft and Google representatives said they supported a privacy protection scheme that included advance consent, encryption of identities and clear notification of what information was being collected.
Federal regulation would be easier for Internet companies to live by than inconsistent state and local regulations.
"There's just this emerging patchwork of federal and state privacy laws," said Michael Hintze, associate general counsel for Microsoft.
FTC says it won't intervene to protect Internet user privacy ... more -
US v. Arnold - EFF Demands Investigation for Suspicionless Digital Searches at B...
On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to argue that almost every property search at the border is constitutionally acceptable.
EFF filed an amicus brief in the case, arguing that laptop searches are so revealing and invasive that the Fourth Amendment requires agents to have some reasonable suspicion to justify the intrusion. Not only are laptops capable of storing vast amounts of information, the information tends to be of the most personal sort, including letters, finances, diaries, photos, and web surfing histories. Prior border search cases distinguished between "routine" suspicionless searches and invasive "non-routine" searches that require reasonable suspicion. Our amicus brief and the lower court opinion relied on these cases to say that the government must also have some cause to search laptops. The Ninth Circuit panel rejected our argument that the privacy invasion resulting from searching computers is qualitatively different from, and requires higher suspicion than, searching luggage or other physical items.
The opinion is almost certainly wrong to classify laptop searches as no different from other property searches. Fourth Amendment law constrains police from conducting arbitrary searches, implements respect for social privacy norms, and seeks to maintain traditional privacy rights in the face of technological changes. This Arnold opinion fails to protect travelers in these traditional Fourth Amendment ways.
The defendant has time to petition the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case en banc, and the Court might agree to do so. The panel included a District Court judge sitting by designation. Additionally, the opinion sets up Arnold's reliance on cases protecting highly private areas like the home from suspicionless searches as a straw man and then knocks the argument down by pointing out "the simple fact that one cannot live in a laptop". This strained and strange argument suggests that Arnold is not the last word on border searches of laptops. In the meantime, travelers carrying their corporation's trade secrets, personal emails, or health and financial information are at risk of arbitrary and capricious fishing expeditions at the border.
... more -
FRA Leak - American Communications Captured and Stored, Storm Continues
To say that the new FRA law in Sweden is controversial is really an understatement at this point. New reports have surfaced that say how not only MPs of the Swedish government are currently being bombarded by a huge flood of e-mail over the new law, but now an investigation by the Chancellor of Justice has been launched into the leak of a secret document from the internal FRA website - a leak that shows American communications were captured in the system.
We have been following the FRA controversy since just about the first report that said how legislation was tabled. Since that time, it seems as though controversy has been growing just about exponentially. While warrantless wiretapping is, by far, not unique to Sweden, the aftermath alone has made the debates a sight to behold.
Of course, the aftermath expands beyond a few concerned privacy rights advocates. More recently, Swedish news site 'The Local' has been following the developments at least since the controversy over the laws took off and their more recent stories seem particularly noteworthy. The first story discusses how the new surveillance law would 'drive businesses out of the country'.
"Take us, for example. We are a fast-growing internet company offering mobile email services to a global market. Since all our international services pass through a network operations centre in Sweden," writes Roger Grönberg, CEO of Momail, "our customers' communications are now going to be subject to surveillance regardless of the prevailing laws in their home countries."
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While all this is going on, an additional report from the New York Times clearly adds a brand new dimension to the privacy debates in Sweden. From the NYTimes:
The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
The potential agreement, as outlined in an internal report obtained by The New York Times, would represent a diplomatic breakthrough for American counterterrorism officials, who have clashed with the European Union over demands for personal data. Europe generally has more stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer such information. To say that the new FRA law in Sweden is controversial is really an understatement at this point. New reports have surfaced that say h... more -
Social media kids DIY paparazzi
I don't understand why people do this?
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