A few weeks ago we mentioned the amorous pairing of Charter Communications and NebuAd who were going to use your ISP deep packet traffic to serve ads.
Now after the backlash, they’ve decided that they were better off as friends after the loud opposition of privacy advocates everywhere. Apparently however NebuAd gets around, because it’s working on deals with atleast two other ISP’s including Embarq Corp and CenturyTel Inc.
A month ago it was made public that Charter was working with NebuAd to track its users browsing habits to provide more accurate targeted advertising, a move that brings about significant privacy concerns. After pressure from Public Knowledge and Free Press, two digital rights groups, Charter suspended its pilot program with NebuAd…
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Google and Microsoft have gotten together and decided how they’re going to handle your health records. That’s nice of them. Click here for their proposed privacy framework.
It’s pretty clear that there’s a lot of upside from having peoples’ health records online — less redundancy, fewer missing tests, no more faxing records from one doctor to another. But privacy is a big concern; a recent article in the NEJM pointed out that tech shops such as Google and Microsoft don’t have to abide by HIPAA, the federal law that covers patient privacy.
I had an excellent lunch-time conversation with a few mates from here at TrustMe Security as well as Derek Hatchard from ArdentDev. So good was the conversation that I thought I’d bring the underlying question (in my mind) to the web and try to get some feedback.
At issue were the fundamentally different styles of tagging that we use. Although the differences in the end result of our methodologies is minimal, I think I can learn by understanding them. My main motivation is to find the best possible tagging methodology for myself while making my tags relevant for others to find the content.
So my questions are:
- How do you tag your content?
- What, if any, questions do you ask yourself when determining tags for your content?
- Do these questions differ based on the tag provider? (e.g. is your methodology fundamentally different when tagging for digg, delicious, you own blog, etc.?).
For example, when I tag for del.icio.us I sometimes pretend I’m telling somebody about the site I am tagging and use tags based on how I’d describe it to them. I think I am likely to use those words/phrases again when searching for this bookmark in the future. Until recently I didn’t really understand any other way of doing it. See? I need some feedback!
An interesting article about the infamous Chaos Computer Club, who are probably best known for hacking into NASA in the late 1980’s and turning data over to the Soviet era KGB. Most recently their efforts have been to sound the alarm over German data privacy.
“The KGB hack was an absolute transgression. That was another era. There were very few networks, people wanted to try things out. They wanted to see what was possible. Today, more and more people have their own personal computers. Our role has changed accordingly.”
The CCC’s volunteers now apply their considerable energies to the cause of private data protection. Their Berlin office, which has all the scruffy charm of a student common room, is manned 24/7. There, club members work away feverishly trying to detect security loopholes in everything from electronic voting systems to debit cards. The empty crates of mate in the corner testify to long, sleepless nights.
In a no doubt contentious decision a US court has ruled that the fourth amendment applies to personal data, even if the device used to send it and the account belongs to a business. Effectively this means that your employer can not read your emails and text even if they are sent from a company mobile device.
Read more about the courts decision.
A new bill that will come into effect in January 2009 will give the Swedish intelligence agency, which has the unfortunately uncool sounding name of National Defence Radio Establishment, the right to scan all international communications at will.
Apparently the Swedes aren’t all in agreement over the new powers. Check out the full SC Magazine article.
Google’s global privacy counsel has also weighed in. Peter Fleischer said: “By introducing these measures, the Swedish government is following the examples set by governments ranging from China and Saudi Arabia to the US government’s widely criticised eavesdropping programme.”
Supporters of the bill say it is necessary to help counter the growing threat of terrorism.
The law was passed by a slim 143-138 majority, with some last minute amendments made to appease opposing ministers.
India has a booming Phishing economy. India ranked 14th worldwide in hosts Phishing websites. The most popular cities were Mumbai (38%), New Delhi (29%), and Bangalore and Chennai both with 12%. Check out this article for an interesting interview with Vishal Dhupar of Symantec India.
Masahble writer Paul Glazowski has a post up about Social Media an ad network that uses your friends information, gleaned from social network profiles, to try and sell you products.
…these graphics allow SocialMedia and its partners the ability to include registered users of social services within advertisements shown to users’ friends when those contacts use an application associated with SocialMedia and its advertising partners. Whether it be your name or your photograph, SocialMedia is looking to give banner advertisements somewhat of a more personal, trustworthy appeal through custom automated design and thus enhance ad engagement.
Ask.com is capitalizing on the press being generated by critics of Google’s privacy policy placement by announcing that they will be implementing new and more visible privacy practices.
As previously reported, a letter sent to Google in early June by a privacy coalition that includes the Electronic Privacy Center and the Electronic Frontier Foundation contends that “Google’s reluctance to post a link to its privacy [policy] on its home page is alarming.”
Now, in an open letter to the Web Community and Ask.com users, partly in response to advocacy groups’ sharp criticisms of Google’s treatment of privacy policies, Ask.com officials are saying they agree with the coalition’s argument that making Web links to privacy policies more accessible and conspicuous represents “a commitment by a commercial Web site to inform users about the company’s privacy practices.”
If you’re a phone company customer and you take advantage of a cheap promotion from a cable competitor, the cable company has to call the phone company to initiate the transfer of your phone number from your phone company to the cable company.
Verizon, a phone company, decided to use the information to target customers who were leaving with sweet promotions to try and keep them. Verizon says acceptable practice, the FCC could be poised to decide that behavior is illegal and explotivie of its customer’s information.
Check out the article in USA Today.
The dispute stems from the fact that a cable company that wrests a phone customer from Verizon must contact the carrier to transfer the customer’s phone number. During the several days when the transfers take place, Verizon has illegally used information about the switch to persuade customers to stay by offering discounts and other perks, the cable companies say.
But Verizon says it’s simply offering consumers more choice. “Cable rates keep going up, and consumers want choice,” says Tom Tauke, a Verizon executive vice president. “It’s hard to believe a majority of the FCC believes consumers have real choice if people only get information from the cable company.”
