Information theory, privacy, East Asia…
admin
(0 comments, 15 posts)
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Posts by admin
Patriot App for the I Phone
01 year ago
by admin
in Surveillance
In case you’re wondering, the above is a real product developed by a Florida company called Citizen Concepts. It’s designed to facilitate the flow of information from citizens out in public to institutions entrusted with protecting our safety. Although the video covers the full range of security threats from fires, to tainted food, to suspicious individuals the focus appears to be the latter. The app fits right in with the new “see something, say something campaign” designed to use the citizen public as an extension of the domestic intelligence system.
USA Today poll suggests privacy is still important
01 year ago
by admin
in Surveillance
Nine of 10 poll respondents say they pay little if any attention to the ads they see on websites. Still, 61% say they have noticed ads that “seemed to be directed specifically” at them and that are related to websites they’ve previously visited. Two-thirds don’t believe Internet advertisers should be able to tailor pitches by collecting data that show where they’ve been prowling around in cyberspace.
What’s more, 61% of those surveyed don’t believe that the methods used in targeting ads are justified just to keep costs down so that people can visit websites for free.
Full story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/advertising/2010-12-14-donottrackpoll14_ST_N.htm
EFF: FBI Arbitrarily Covers Up Evidence of Misconduct
01 year ago
by admin
in Surveillance
EFF recently received documents in response to one of our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that demonstrate a disturbing trend: the FBI’s arbitrary application of FOIA exemptions to hide, or in some instances, reveal, its unlawful activities.
Through a careful comparison of thousands of pages of documents we received from this FOIA request with the same documents we received from an earlier FOIA request, we found that redactions in many of these duplicated documents were strikingly different. In several cases, the FBI redacted more information in later-produced documents than it did in earlier-produced documents. In other cases, the FBI redacted differing amounts of information when it produced two copies of the same report in response to the same FOIA request. Sometimes the agency blocked out whole paragraphs, while at other times it blocked out only the key words that explain the details of its acts. What is interesting is that the FBI claimed the same FOIA exemptions in each version; it just applied them differently.
Anonymous aims the ion cannon
01 year ago
by admin
in Surveillance
This year has seen military and security experts often warn about the prospects of “cyberwarfare”. Few expected the most prominent assaults against large companies to come from a scattered group of anarchists and idealists with no identifiable leader, membership or nationality.
– From FT: Anonymous cyberwarriors stun experts
So this year, anonymous becomes its own character, operating a “low orbit ion cannon” trained on Mastercard, Paypal, and Amazon. Although the individuals who participate in these mass denial of service attacks are likely not nearly as anonymous as they think they are, the effect is the same. The group is emboldened by belief in their untouchability.
Silicon Nanophotonic: future of chip design?
01 year ago
by admin
in Technology
Interesting story over at ZDNet’s Tech Broiler on new IBM tech that seems likely to upend Moore’s Law in a direction most tech analysts haven’t foreseen, to much faster processor speed growth.
