Tristan Louis has provided an excellent summary of Google's growing product suite and how it matches up to their main competitors (MSN, Yahoo, AOL), while wondering if Google is really all that innovative or whether they are just trying to…
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Anti-iPod Movement
An article in the Globe and Mail discusses the growing anti-iPod movement:If we can draw a lesson from Yegor Sak's adventure, it's never to underestimate the public's desire to watch an iPod be destroyed.We know this, because Sak, a 19-year-old…
More Cellphone Surveillance
Examples of surveillance and tracking via cellphone are emerging at a rapid pace lately. Business Week reports on several cell-phone tracking services available in Korea. According to the article, more than four million Koreans have signed up for services that…
Data Retention in Europe
The European ministers of Justice and the European Commission want to keep all telephone and internet traffic data of all 450 million Europeans. If you are concerned about this plan, please sign the petition.What’s wrong with data retention? The proposal…
Your Google Searches as Evidence?
Prosecutors claim a man on trial in connection with the killing of his wife did a Google search for the words: "neck snap break" and "hold" before she was killed. Apparently the case doesn't hinge only on the defendant's search…
AdAge: Search Engine Ad Technologies Raise Privacy Concerns
Advertising Age is reporting[registration req'd] on a recent industry panel disucssion on the privacy concerns with personalized search and targeted advertising. As Yahoo and Microsoft roll out more sophisticated search-advertising services relying on heavier use of personal data, they are…
Read More AdAge: Search Engine Ad Technologies Raise Privacy Concerns
MIT Tracks Students’ Movements Via Network Connections
MIT seems to like to experiment with ways of tracking its students. LawMeme reports that MIT has granted students access to information about its network traffic perviously available only to network administrator's. Students can now log in and view the…
Read More MIT Tracks Students’ Movements Via Network Connections
Privacy-Protecting Design of RFID
IBM is demonstrating some new technologies to protect consumers who buy RFID-tagged products, but who want to avoid some of the privacy risks. In this case, the technology would let consumers easily decrease the range that an RFID chip broadcasts,…
NYU’s Department of Culture and Communication: We Take Risks
The Department of Culture & Communication at New York University, where I'm earning my PhD, has re-vamped its website. In it, you can find program descriptions, faculty and PhD student bios, course listings [.doc], faculty searches, and the like. I'd…
Read More NYU’s Department of Culture and Communication: We Take Risks
Concerns Over the Corporate Nature of Google
Peter Rock-Lacroix questions whether we should place faith in Google to "do no evil" when it comes to protecting copyrights (an argument I think can also be extended to their role in the protection of the privacy of its users):Google's…
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