Slashdot | 2001 Big Brother Awards Announced.

debris.com - a journal - Opt out of web advertisers' tracking cookies. For your anonymous surfing pleasure, here are quick links to opt out of the 3rd-party tracking cookies issued by some of the large banner-ad networks. Some of these links go to an opt-out form, which you must click or submit; others do the opt-out automatically. I have not personally verified that these work, but they are probably worth a try.

Political News from Wired News - Privacy a Tough Sell After Crash. Privacy startups can't find investors. Also: A company offers new privacy audit software.... Republican legislator bashes the European Data Directive.... The possibility of new federal regulations aimed at financial sites.... Declan McCullagh reports from the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Cambridge, Mass.

Business News from Wired News - How to Put a Freeze on Snooping.

Privacy advocates are shifting their attention from government to corporate snoopers. Also: The Bush Administration's thoughts on Carnivore.... and when not to shake hands with the suits, as Declan McCullagh discusses this week's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference.

Listen up: Today's MP3 file is 7:37 min.

Technology News from Wired News - A Faster Way to Call 911.

It occurred to Vicci that the technology already existed to launch a faster 911 service. It was simply a matter of putting it together in one package. Little did she realize then the technical and political obstacles that awaited her.

Vicci came up with global positioning system technology for location, cell-phone chips for wireless connection and a geographic information system, or GIS, server that can translate location coordinates into plain language.

Add a microphone to record sounds at the scene, connect all the elements to a microprocessor, incorporate it into a pendant or lanyard, and you get a proactive solution to potentially serious problems.

[ ... ]

A stumbling block with this is the dispatcher's willingness to take the call: Many states have a law prohibiting individuals from placing automated 911 calls.

"More than 10 (states) ... enforce this law," said Norm Forshee, executive officer of National Emergency Number Association.

[ ... ]

Constant tracking often raises a red flag to privacy advocates. Whenever GPS location technology is mentioned, privacy issues are usually just around the corner.

But David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center(EPIC), doesn't think it would be an issue with this device. "It sounds as if the capability to locate is in the control of the user -- and this is what we need to focus on when looking at this technology.

"There are obvious benefits from GPS and location technology so long as the user has control over it."

CNET NEWS.COM - Firm defends "snooper bowl" technology. To privacy experts, Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Fla., wasn't just a game--it was the "snooper bowl."

The event--where law enforcement captured the images of everyone entering gates of the Raymond James Stadium and compared them with a database of criminals' faces--ushered in the largest union of face recognition and video surveillance, according to civil liberties experts. They say that although the system was designed to ensnare terrorists and other criminals, it ended up nabbing only a handful of pickpockets and ticket scalpers.

"One has to question just how useful this was," said Barry Steinhardt, the associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU), speaking on a panel at the Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference 2001 here.

Privacy watchdogs are pointing to the game as the first massive example of biometrics abuse, warning that it could usher in an era where people's every move is tracked, from visits to the grocery store to auto travel.