Amazon’s Orwellian Visit

Amazon has been trying hard to try to change the way people read books with the release of its electronic book reader Kindle.    Trying to convince people to switch from that cozy paperpack just got alot harder after Amazon’s Orwellian home invasion.   Amazon “recalled” Orwell’s novel “1984″ and deleted the contents from owner’s Kindle devices in the middle of the night.  There were no reported signs of forced entry.  The Kindle apparently has a wireless synchronization feature that  “phones home” back to Amazon.   Amazon used this feature to delete the novel from Kindle devices because allegedly the distributor of the novel didn’t own the rights to it.    Creepy.

From the NY Times.

Sears used Spyware on their customers

Via: Sans Institute:

Sears Settles FTC Complaint Regarding Customer Internet Data Collection (June 4, 2009)

Sears has settled charges brought by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regarding the company’s failure to accurately describe the amount of information gathered by tracking software. Sears offered the customers US $10 to participate in “My SHC Community;” those who agreed were asked to download software that they were told would gather information about their “online browsing.” The FTC charges allege that the software also monitored secure sessions, such as online banking, e-shopping cart contents, drug prescription information and information about web-based email the users sent. Under the terms of the settlement, Sears would cease collecting data with the software and would destroy all the data it has already collected. The settlement also calls for Sears to “clearly and prominently disclose the types of data (their software) will monitor, record, or transmit.”
-http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/06/sears.shtm
-http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&arti
cleId=9133965

How to track Website privacy changes

Websites frequently change their terms of service.   How can you keep track of these changes?

TOS (terms of service) Tracker now does that for you.   Link here

Hat Tip: Thoughts of a Technocrat

National Data Privacy Day–mark your calendars

Tomorrow, Jan 28th, has been designated National Privacy Day.   Is there a Hallmark Card yet to give to loved ones?   What is it?

H.Res. 31 – Expressing support for designation of January 28, 2009, as “National Data Privacy Day” (Price, D-NC)

Order of Business:  The resolution is scheduled to be considered on January 26, 2009 under a motion to suspend the rules and pass the resolution.

Summary:  H.Res. 31 would express the sense that the House of Representatives:

• “Supports the designation of a National Data Privacy Day;
• “Encourages State and local governments to observe the day with appropriate activities that promote awareness of data privacy;
• “Encourages privacy professionals and educators to discuss data privacy and protection issues with teens in high schools across the United States; and
• “Encourages individuals across the Nation to be aware of data privacy concerns and to take steps to protect their personal information online.”

The resolution lists a number of finding including:

• “The Internet and the capabilities of modern technology cause data privacy issues to figure prominently in the lives of many people in the United States at work, in their interaction with government and public authorities, in the health field, in e-commerce transactions, and online generally;
• “Many individuals are unaware of data protection and privacy laws generally and of specific steps that can be taken to help protect the privacy of personal information online;
• “National Data Privacy Day constitutes an international collaboration and a nationwide and statewide effort to raise awareness about data privacy and the protection of personal information on the Internet;
• “Government officials from the United States and Europe, privacy professionals, academics, legal scholars, representatives of international businesses, and others with an interest in data privacy issues are working together on this date to further the discussion about data privacy and protection;
• “Privacy professionals and educators are being encouraged to take the time to discuss data privacy and protection issues with teens in high schools across the country;
• “The recognition of “National Data Privacy Day” will encourage more people nationwide to be aware of data privacy concerns and to take steps to protect their personal information online; and
• “January 28, 2009, would be an appropriate day to designate as `National Data Privacy Day.”

Committee Action:  H.Res. 31 was introduced on January 7, 2009, and referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which took no official action.

Administration Position:  No Statement of Administration Policy (SAP) is available.

Cost to Taxpayers:  The resolution would not authorize any additional expenditures.

Does the Bill Expand the Size and Scope of the Federal Government?:  No.

Does the Bill Contain Any New State-Government, Local-Government, or Private-Sector Mandates?:   No.

Does the Bill Comply with House Rules Regarding Earmarks/Limited Tax Benefits/Limited Tariff Benefits?:  Though the bill contains no earmarks, and there’s no accompanying committee report, the earmarks rule (House Rule XXI, Clause 9(a)) does not apply, by definition, to legislation considered under suspension of the rules.

RSC Staff Contact:  Brad Watson, brad.watson@mail.house.gov, (202) 226-9719

Link here.

Tracking Surveillance

ACLU has put up a new website to track the surveillance efforts of Government.   Here. It’s relatively weak now with some “worst case” examples of abuses sprinkled in but it might be worth watching.    You really have no implied right to privacy out in public so I doubt the trend will stop by sending letters.    But there is nothing to stop commercialization of counter-surveillance.    You can subscribe to traffic cam locations these days and populate the locations in your GPS–to avoid tickets.   I’m sure someone will sell the data showing all camera locations…and people will buy it.

Sometimes cameras are a good thing.  On occasion, when you’re all alone in a parking lot at night, it’s nice to see a security camera overhead.  The only questions are whether the camera actually works and whether anyone ever looks at it.

Plans to track your vehicle?

Oregon is concerned about their infrastructure (roads, bridges, etc.) and how to pay to keep them up to snuff.  Currently they get a good chunk of revenue from gasoline tax.  However, some of the citizenry has the nerve to purchase more fuel efficient cars.   This reduces their need to purchase gas, reducing the tax base.   If this trend continues,  then what?    So Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski proposes taxing people according to the mileage they drive.   A number of additional States are watching this as a possibility for their budget woes.

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski says he’d like the legislature to take the next step.

As part of a transportation-related bill he has filed for the 2009 legislative session, the governor says he plans to recommend “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation.”

What that means is explained on the governor’s website:

“As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system.”

According to the policies he has outlined online, Kulongoski proposes to continue the work of the special task force that came up with and tested the idea of a mileage tax to replace the gas tax.

The governor wants the task force “to partner with auto manufacturers to refine technology that would enable Oregonians to pay for the transportation system based on how many miles they drive.”
In order to pull this off they propose adding a GPS unit to each vehicle and then track the miles each vehicle is driven.  But privacy issues have been raised already.     Are they only interested in the mileage?

What about:

1. I want to drive across the country to New York.   Why should I pay mileage while outside Oregon?  Will I be able to turn off my unit?

2. In California I pay quite a hefty fee to ride the tollroads.   If I already am paying to ride a tollroad (does Oregon have alot of tolls?), then how do I turn off the unit while on the tollroad? Surely I can’t pay “twice” to ride the same road can I?

3. To auto circumvent 1 and 2 above, you’d have to imbed geo-fencing on mileage areas and track each vehicle accordingly.

4. And finally, how will Oregon charge visitors?   Will they?   Maybe not a visiting car but what about out of state trucks on the freeways?   I would argue they chew up the freeways over time more than other vehicles.

Beware of your Privacy in the Cloud

As cloud computing becomes more pervasive,  I wonder what the privacy aspects are long-term.    Personally, I like the ease of use and free aspect of Google services.  But have you noticed that if you are reading a gmail message you’ll see targeted ads displayed that contain key words from your email?    I’m not sure how deep the packet inspection goes in order to read your messages.  At the very least Google is reading your titles and headers.  There is nothing to stop them from reading the entire contents of all your messages.   Of course machines are reading the contents but they are saving this info forever.

Writing for O’Reilly Radar, Nat Torkington summed up his presentation on Cloud Privacy in this slide show found here.

He notes the important difference between Constitutional and Statutory law as they relate to Cloud Computing.    Essentially, Statutory law protects you less than Constitutional does, and the Cloud is under statutory rules.

Data Mining proves useful for Democratic Campaign

Howard Dean noted that by using private citizens’ credit card data, they could predict with 85% accuracy who you were likely to vote for.

Dean and Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan were speakers at a luncheon at the National Press Club Nov. 5, where both reflected on what went right and wrong with their efforts during the 2008 election cycle.

Dean revealed his party used credit card data to predict voting outcomes. However, Democrats and the media have been highly critical of credit card companies that provide that data.

“We now can do what they can do,” Dean said. “We have your credit card data like they do. They’ve been for years doing something that we, until 2006, weren’t able to do. We can predict with 85 percent accuracy how you’re going to vote based on your credit card data without bothering to see what party you’re in – the Secretary of State’s office.”…

But while Congress has repeatedly slapped the hands of DHS for data mining for potential terrorists, the same methods are being used to garner votes.   Seems a bit odd doesn’t it?

There are concerns.  Danger Room’s “Barack Obama’s Privacy Challenge” sums up a number of them.

Bots, Artificial Intelligence, and Privacy

Soob’s blog yesterday links to Daniel Suarez’s presentation regarding web bots and their impact on privacy.  Suarez discusses the problems of a small group of people who design these bots for their own purposes, and then sometimes move on to other endeavors, while their bots continue to survive in the Internet.  Machine to Machine communications will soon surpass Human communications on the Net.

The full video, 1 hour 20 minutes is below.   It’s an interesting picture of the growth of machine to machine communications and artificial intelligence.

VIDEO: Daniel Suarez: Daemon-Bot Mediated Reality

No Place to Hide

In Robert O’Harrow’s book, No Place to Hide (copyright 2005), he outlines the new surveillance society and does a pretty good job of showing how information is used and potentially abused.   ABC news did a show based on the content from the book and it runs about 40 minutes long.   It’s a few years old but still worth watching.

No Place to Hide ABC Part 1 of 4

No Place to Hide ABC Part 2 of 4

No Place to Hide ABC Part 3 of 4

No Place to Hide ABC Part 4 of 4