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Online privacy: railing against the accepted - Via Network World on Privacy:
A Pew Internet survey shows that more Internet users now accept Big Brother at work and think that information about them on the Internet is accurate.
[...]
I frequently use this column to rail against threats to the privacy of Internet users, both from government and the private sector. (For example, see last week’s column). I just found a survey published late last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that reports that people are coming to support, or at last not object too strongly to, some types of spying. read more »
Consumer (Dis)Comfort With Online Tracking - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
In privacy debates about online advertising, the focus is most often on consumers. Consumers love free content, the advertisers and ad networks say. They say consumers are willing to have their online activities analyzed and categorized, because an ad for a minivan that lands in front of a soccer mom is valuable, and valuable ads are what support the free content consumers love. On the other hand, privacy advocates like CDT say that consumers should be in control. We say consumers should know they’re being tracked, and if they’re uncomfortable with the tracking, they should have a way to avoid it. Even if it means one less minivan ad pitched to a soccer mom.
Today, we have a new window into just how comfortable or uncomfortable consumers may be with online tracking. read more »
Time magazine invents facts to claim that Americans support Bush's domestic spying abuses - Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald:
(updated below)
No matter how corrupt and sloppy the establishment press becomes, they always find a way to go lower. Time Magazine has just published what it purports to be a news article by Massimo Calabresi claiming that "nobody cares" about the countless abuses of spying powers by the Bush administration; that "Americans are ready to trade diminished privacy, and protection from search and seizure, in exchange for the promise of increased protection of their physical security"; and that the case against unchecked government surveillance powers "hasn't convinced the people." Not a single fact -- not one -- is cited to support these sweeping, false opinions.
Worse still -- way worse -- this "news article" decrees the Bush administration to be completely innocent, even well-motivated, even in those instances where technical, irrelevant lawbreaking has been found, as it proclaims: read more »
Desperately Seeking Sunshine - Via ACLU Blog - Civil Liberties News:
This week is Sunshine Week: seven days of events and activities organized by a coalition of advocacy groups to put a spotlight on the need for more openness in government.
Good open government policies, like the 1966 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are fundamental to the ACLU’s work. The FOIA law allows organizations like the ACLU, reporters, and ordinary citizens demand release of government records. On the national security front, among the FOIA requests and FOIA lawsuits we've filed include queries seeking information about the Bush administration's torture of detainees in U.S. custody, the murders of innocent civilians in Iraq, FBI spying on anti-war protestors, the CIA and Defense Department's use of National Security Letters, and the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. Right now, we're pursuing the release of unredacted transcripts of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearings in order to see Guantánamo detainees' first-hand descriptions of their abuse and torture in U.S. custody.
We’ve made good use of the FOIA and we're making sure that everyone else understands this incredibly important tool as well. read more »
Online Consumer Privacy Concerns Growing - Via CDT - PolicyBeta:
Two recent papers published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project highlight the continued growing concern about privacy.
In Privacy Implications of Fast, Mobile Internet Access, Susannah Fox suggests that consumers are reluctant to share personal information when they are given control over disclosure:
More generally, consumers are now expressing a more consistent interest in control over personal information: for, example, 59% of adults have refused to provide information to a business or company because they thought it was not really necessary or was too personal. Still, many people are uploading their work histories to LinkedIn, or their photos to Flickr, or their personal musings MySpace, choosing to connect their online identities with these key pieces of personal information.
John Horrigan’s report on online shopping reinforces this finding: read more »
Google's Research on Malware Distribution - Via Slashdot:
GSGKT writes "Google's Anti-Malware Team has made available some of their research data on malware distribution mechanisms while the research paper[PDF] is under peer review. Among their conclusions are that the majority of malware distribution sites are hosted in China, and that 1.3% of Google searches return at least one link to a malicious site. read more »
Dear Attorney General Mukasey... - Via ACLU Blog:
The ACLU would like to draw your attention to the results of a new national poll, conducted by the Mellman Group, on the destruction of the CIA torture tapes. The poll found:
Mega-D Botnet Overtakes Storm, Accounts for 32% of Spam - Via Slashdot:
Stony Stevenson writes "The new Mega-D Botnet has overtaken the notorious Storm worm botnet as the largest single source of the world's spam according to security vendor Marshal. This botnet currently accounts for 32 percent of all spam, 11 percent more than the Storm botnet which peaked at 21 percent in September 2007. It started about 4 months ago but has been steadily increasing since then. It is also using news headlines to trick victims into opening the spam, a technique synonymous with the Storm worm."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
Digital Photo Frames and Other Gadgets Infected with Malware - Via Threat Level:
The SANS Internet Storm Center has been conducting an informal survey of commercial gadgets that customers bought that contained already loaded malware on them. The list is small but growing as people contribute to it with their own reports of gadgets that may have been infected at some point in the supply chain. read more »
Strong Majority of Voters Oppose Telecom Immunity - Via EFF: Deep Links:
The Melman Group, a national polling organization commissioned by the ACLU, recently published a poll finding that 57 percent of likely voters opposed immunity for the telecommunications carriers who participated in the government's warrantless surveillance program, while only a third supported letting the telecoms off the hook. The poll had a margin of error of +/-3.1%. As shown by the poll: read more »
MPAA’s Error – Oops, College Students Aren’t So Bad After All! - Via EFF: Deep Links:
When the MPAA began their campaign against piracy on college campuses, they waved a study that purported to show that 44% of the film industry’s losses were the direct result of illegal downloading and filesharing by college students on US campuses. The MPAA (and others like IPI and PFF) used that number to ramp up the pressure on Congress to pass legislation that would force colleges to eavesdrop on their networks and crack down on filesharing on campus.
44% is a pretty high number, and many were justifiably skeptical. Now, it seems the MPAA has been forced to admit that its numbers were not exactly, um, accurate. After diligently re-checking its math, it has admitted that the 44% figure was really more like 15%. read more »
Pew Internet: Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency - Via Pew Internet: Digital Footprints :
Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency
Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, few monitor their online presence with great regularity. Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice. read more »
Presidential Candidates and Online Privacy - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
noiseordinance writes
"I'd like to know everyone's opinion about which presidential candidate seems most likely to preserve Internet privacy." read more »
Adults warn kids off social network sites, use them themselves -- Pew Internet report on search and identity - Via Boing Boing:
The excellent Pew and Internet Life project has just released its latest report, "Digital Footprints: Online identity management and search in the age of transparency," filled with meaty data on the way that we're using the net to manage and create our identities. As danah boyd points out, one conclusion really stands out: grownups are much more likely to have a public social networking profile on sites like Facebook than kids are, and are incredibly sanguine about the possibility of having their identities breached through these services. As danah says, "In other words, adults (and presumably there are parents in this group) are telling teens to be careful online and restrict what information they put up there while they themselves are doing little to protect their own data." read more »
How Did (and Will) Your Senator Vote on Spying Bill? - Via Threat Level:
Just after noon on Monday, the Senate voted to close debate on whether to take up a new bill that would legalize the government's formerly secret, warrantless wiretapping program and give immunity to the telecoms that helped with that spying on Americans.
Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut) promised to filibuster the bill, but if more than 60 senators voted to take up the bill, his filibuster threat would have been empty.
The vote came 76-10.
The bill is currently being debated on the Senate floor and amendments to the bill are likely to be proposed tonight or tomorrow. You can watch the proceedings online via CSPAN. read more »
Don't Forget the Falsies!: Do your civic duty -- vote for your favorite Falsies!
At the end of each year, CMD issues the 'Falsies Awards,' to recognize the people and players that take spin and propaganda to new lows. We need you to help identify the worst of the worst hard at work in 2007. We have put together a juicy selection of nominees -- but we need you to vote and tell us who deserves the Falsies this year.
Follow this link to fill out your ballot. Celebrating Thanksgiving? Get your friends and family to vote too! The deadline for entries is 5:00 p.m. CST on Friday, November 30, 2007, so vote today!
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(Read Original Article - Via Center for Media and Democracy - Publishers of PR Watch.)
PC World - Most Consumers Clueless About Online Tracking: Every single move you make online can, and often is, tracked by online marketers and advertising networks that gather and use the information for serving up targeted advertisements.
But the average American consumer is largely unaware that such tracking goes on, the extent to which it is happening or how exactly information is being used. read more »
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