This head line explains it all. they’re-in-the-phone dept. the WSJ is reporting that Integrated Media Measurement Inc. is creating a device that will sample peoples environment every 30 seconds for sounds to determine what ‘messages’ and ads they are being exposed to.
Just wait until it isn’t just that they are tracking.
Articles in other Publications
Skype for Business is here
from the ready-for-the-bigtime dept : Skype Announces Skype For Business
“Skype has launched a new offensive to go after small business dollars. From the BusinessWeek article: ‘The company is unveiling Skype for Business, aimed at small companies with fewer than 10 employees, on Mar. 9. Skype for Business will include a new Web site, Skype.biz, as well as a host of features and hardware. While Skype has introduced features appealing to business users one by one for the past six months, the new announcement marks the beginning of a concerted effort.'”
Password Security: What Users Know and What They Actually Do
Password Security: What Users Know and What They Actually Do posted on Bruce Schneier’s blog.
The finding that participants in the current study use such simplistic practices to develop passwords is supported by similar research by Bishop and Klein (1995) and Vu, Bhargav & Proctor (2003) who found that even with the application of password guidelines, users would tend to revert to the simplest possible strategies (Proctor et al., 2002). In the current study, nearly 60% of the respondents reported that they do not vary the complexity of their passwords depending on the nature of the site and 53% indicated that they never change their password if they are not required to do so. These practices are most likely encouraged by the fact that users maintain multiple accounts (average = 8.5) and have difficulty recalling too many unique passwords.
Patriot Act Renewed – BooHoo
From the not-dead-yet dept: Senate Passes Patriot Act Renewal
“The Senate has passed a renewal of the Patriot act, 89-10, after two extensions caused by months of negotiations. The only thing standing in the way of a full renewal is a House vote, expected to pass next week. The renewal comes with some privacy protections attached, however, some worry they are only cosmetic. Some lawmakers who voted for the package acknowledged deep reservations about the power it would grant to any president. “Our support for the Patriot Act does not mean a blank check for the president,” said Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who voted to pass the bill package. Certain lawmakers supported passing the bill even though they were still wary about it – Arlen Specter urged his colleagues to pass it even as he promised to introduce a new measure and hold hearings on how to fix it. Terrorism aside, the bill also includes new legislation that has almost nothing to do with terrorism, like one measure, which would make it harder for illicit labs to obtain ingredients for methamphetamine by requiring pharmacies to sell nonprescription cold medicines only from behind the counter. I know that people like Arlen Specter promise further hearings – but why pass what you know is flawed?”
Net Neutrality Bill put forward – WooHoo!
This was posted on IP Democracy about a Net neutrality Bill.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) unveiled his net neutrality bill today during a media conference call (MP3 here), outlining the bill’s provisions, which include the following:
– Broadband providers will not be allowed to interfere with, block, degrade, alter, modify or change traffic on the Internet;
– Broadband providers will not be allowed to create a priority lane where content providers can buy quicker access to customers, while those who do not pay the fee are left in the slow lane;
– Broadband providers must allow consumers to choose which devices they use to connect to the Internet while they are on the net;
– Consumers should have non-discriminatory access and service; and
– The broadband world should have a transparent system in which consumers, Internet content, and applications companies have access to the rates, terms, and conditions for Internet service.
The bill also has provisions covering a complaint-filing process at the FCC, which aggrieved parties could use in the event of a problem…….
Datamining article in NYTimes
Data mining is already being used in a diverse array of commercial applications — whether by credit card companies detecting and stopping fraud as it happens, or by insurance companies that predict health risks. As a result, millions of Americans have become enmeshed in a vast and growing data web that is constantly being examined by a legion of Internet-era software snoops.
Although Congress abruptly canceled the program in October 2003, the legislation provided a specific exemption for “processing, analysis and collaboration tools for counterterrorism foreign intelligence.”
“The theory is that the automated tool that is conducting the search is not violating the law,” said Mark D. Rasch, the former head of computer-crime investigations for the Justice Department and now the senior vice president of Solutionary, a computer security company. But “anytime a tool or a human is looking at the content of your communication, it invades your privacy.”
Much of the recent work on data mining has been aimed at even more sophisticated applications. The National Security Agency has invested billions in computerized tools for monitoring phone calls around the world — not only logging them, but also determining content — and more recently in trying to design digital vacuum cleaners to sweep up information from the Internet.
[Read more…] about Datamining article in NYTimes
Freeky Identity Stuff in Slashdot this week..
From the would-be-funnier-if-it-wasn’t-true dept: Camera’s in homes
An anonymous reader writes “In one of the most blatant and frightening statements made on privacy, the Associated Press reports that Houston’s police chief wants surveillance cameras in apartment buildings and even private homes. Chief Harold Hurtt wants building permits to require cameras in shopping malls and large apartment complexes. He also wants them in private homes if the homeowner has called the police repeatedly. So, if you’re in Houston, don’t call the cops too much, or they might install a camera the next time they show up. And what does Hurtt have to say about privacy concerns? ‘I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?'”
From the welcome-to-the-brave-new-world dept: Policing Porn Isn’t Part of The Job
Rick Zeman wrote to mention a Washington Post article about an incident at a Bethesda library. Two uniformed men from a Homeland Security detachment made an announcement stating that pornography was not acceptable viewing at the library. They then questioned a patron’s choice of reading material. From the article: “A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library’s work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men. They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County’s Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings — but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.”
From the tricky-part-is-finding-the-right-medium dept: Creating a Backboneless Internet?
Peter Trepan asks: “The Internet is the best thing to happen to the free exchange of ideas since… well… maybe ever. But it can also be used as a tool for media control and universal surveillance, perhaps turning that benefit into a liability. Imagine, for instance, if Senator McCarthy had been able to steam open every letter in the United States. In the age of ubiquitous e-mail and filtering software, budding McCarthys are able and willing to do so. I Am Not A Network Professional, but it seems like all this potential for abuse depends upon bottlenecks at the level of ISPs and backbone providers. Is it possible to create an internet that relies instead on peer-to-peer connectivity? How would the hardware work? How would the information be passed? What would be the incentive for average people to buy into it if it meant they’d have to host someone else’s packets on their hard drive? In short, what would have to be done to ensure that at least one internet remains completely free, anonymous, and democratized?”
WikiPedia's psydo Identity
I came across this article and it highlights wikipedia’s approach to Identity.
Wikipedia tracks unregistered users’ IP addresses — which, with a court order, can usually be traced back to a real-world identity — because it has no other way of telling if a slew of trash articles are coming from a single source. Wikipedia does not track the IP addresses of registered users because their pseudonyms serve the same purpose. So requiring people to log in will make them more anonymous, not less. But it will enable Wikipedia’s reputation system to operate more effectively on new entries. And it will cut down on the ~5,000 new entries created every day, of which about 3,500 are obvious junk (“Asdfasdf” is a particularly popular entry) quickly weeded out by the Wikipedians who patrol the site.
Allowing unregistered users to edit existing articles plays into that reputation system. Says Jimmy: “Why do we allow anonymous users to edit existing articles when we know that the flow of edits from anonymous users is worse than from logged-in users? It implicitly self-selects trolls because we see the IP number but not the login name.”
Jimmy thinks the the mainstream media misunderstood this story because they have a cognitive problem when it comes to anonymity and accountability:
The thing that people always latch onto is that it has to do with anonymity. But it doesn’t have to do with knowing who you are [in the real world] . We care about pseudo-identity, not identity. The fact that a certain user has a persistent pseudo-identity over time allows us to gauge the quality of that user without having any idea of who it really is.
Trying to find out who people really are is a fool’s mission on the Net. You could get a credit card ID but that doesn’t even tell you very much: This is Bob Smith of Missouri. But if an editor identifies himself as Zocky [the handle of a trusted Wikipedian], I know it’s good even though I don’t know who Zocky is [in the real world] because I know Zocky’s history on the site. I know he’s not a spammer, I know he’s not making things up — at least within the value of “know” that’s relevant in this case.
….The media have a cognitive problem with a publisher of knowledge that modestly does not claim perfect reliability, does not back up that claim through a chain of credentialed individuals, and that does not believe the best way to assure the quality of knowledge is by disciplining individuals for their failures. Arrogance, individual heroism, accountability and discipline … those have been the hallmarks of the institutions that propagate knowledge.2
Digital Citizens: BBC declares 2005 to be their year
Jo Twist wrote this article declaring 2005 the year of the Digital Citizen.
Drupal Developer and Business Meetup January 5th in SF
So we finally found a wiki to announce and organize this.
Please go there and RSVP – contribute to the Agenda.
Join us for a good community building meeting, address your technical challenges building in Drupal and connect to others building businesses based on the platform.
Doc just gave me this to read about Drupal (and every open source project including Linux the subject of the article).
This week: Identity powder keg in California
While we will be hanging out at Syndicate this week singing “Kum Bah Ya” about new “standards” for micro content and structured blogging and the announcement about i-tags. There is an impending “identity powder keg” that could go off this week in Califorina (and across the country) with the pending execution of Tookie Williams on Tuesday December 13th.
I googled – “Identity” and “Tookie” some interesting articles came up. They get to the heart of one element of ‘identity’ to have a meaningful place in a socio-cultural context. To be seen by others (afterall identity is what others say about us).
From Black News.com:
In a candid, and revealing moment, Stanley “Tookie” Williams told a visitor at San Quentin prison that he helped found the notorious Crips street gang because he wanted to smash everyone, make a rep, get respect and dignity, and that he wanted his name to be known everywhere. He got his wish in more ways than he ever dreamed of. The demons that drove Williams in his reckless push for identity and prominence also drove him to become the nation’s best known condemned prisoner. He faces execution December 13 for multiple murders.
William’s revelatory glimpse into his thug past tells much about the anger, alienation, and desperation that have turned legions of young black men into social pariahs, and that propel them to wreak murder and mayhem in mostly poor, black communities. But today’s Tookies didn’t crop up from nowhere. The transformation in the early 1970s of the old-line civil rights groups into business, and professional friendly organizations, and black middle-class flight from the inner city neighborhoods, left the black poor, especially young black males, socially fragmented, politically rudderless, and economically destitute. Lacking visible role models of success and achievement, and competitive technical skills and professional training to compete in a rapidly shifting economy, they were shoved even further to the outer margins of American society.
Getting to the Promised Layer
The Internet Identity Workshop just got a promotion on O’Reilly with the publishing of an article I wrote. The Identity 2.0 Gathering: Getting to the Promised Layer (it occurred to me after it was already published that the last word should be Layer instead of Land – oh well).
Here is the opening….
There were many who thought that an identity solution would emerge to support single sign on (SSO) shortly after the Web’s emergence in 1994. An SSO solution has proven very elusive. Solving internet identity management, creating an efficient, reliable ecosystem, is often alluded to as “The Holy Grail.” One of the reasons for this elusiveness is the fact that identity is no small matter. It lies at the core of who we are as social beings. There are many ways to think about what identity is, such as: how we define ourselves (self-assertions), how others see us (facts about us), and what others think about us (our reputation).
When tackling the problem of representing these elements, the first challenge is settling on a protocol used in a system that is flexible and broad enough to encompass the enormously wide range of ways people around the globe use and define identity. Identity protocols are not like TCP/IP–simply just connecting two machines. While reading Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization, I came across this quote that summed up the challenge. “Protocol is synonymous with possibility … Protocol outlines the playing field for what can happen, and where. If one chooses to ignore a certain protocol, then it becomes impossible to communicate on that particular channel. No protocol, no connection.” The edge use cases must be considered carefully so that they are included within the protocol’s possibility landscape. The inherent complexity of this next identity layer of the Net is one of the reasons it has yet to successfully emerge.
Planet 2.0
I just found this link to Planet 2.0. Thought you all might like to know about it.