In his disucssion of the rise of everyday surveillance, Oscar Gandy describes systems that enable "panoptic sorting," discriminatory technologies which surveil all information about an individual’s status and behavior to use in the profiling and categorization of a person’s potential…
Category: Internet
John Sexton’s Wikipedia Article
I was quoted in today's Washington Square News about recent edits to NYU President John Sexton's article on Wikipedia. Since the recent labor disupte with the Graduate Student Organizing Committee, various additions were made to Sexton's page that, IMO, violated…
NYT: US Looking for New Ways to Mine Your Data
Today's New York Times features the article "Taking Spying to Higher Level, Agencies Look for More Ways to Mine Data," which focuses on government meetings with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, hoping to find or develop advanced technologies…
Federal Court: Financial Institution Has No Duty To Encrypt Customer Databases
Bruce Schneier reports that a Federal Court has ruled that a financial institution has no duty to encrypt customer databases under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley statute. From the article:In a legal decision that could have broad implications for financial institutions, a court…
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Amateur Data Mining: The Case of the Lost (Stolen) Camera
I've blogged about the concerns with commercial data aggregation, the power of data mining, and about how "security via obscurity" no longer applies when databases are online and searchable. Here's a case showing just how easy it can be for…
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Thoughts on “growing anti-Google sentiment and what is fueling it”
I recently received a request from a journalism graduate student to comment on a story about "growing anti-Google sentiment and what is fueling it" and about "how Google's principles have changed, and how the public is reacting to this switch."…
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Protect Your Regime with iRepress
Mark Fiore's latest cartoon satirizes the activities of US search engine companies contributing to the Great Firewall of China: "Protect Your Regime with iRepress - with Powerful Democracy Filtering!"
Google No Longer Claims Completely Organic Results
Last month, Google changed their censorship policy after launching their censored Google.cn service in China. Now it seems Google has changed its "core principles" regarding providing only organic search results. Previously Google’s Principles included this statement: The order and contents…
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Congress v. IT Companies re: China
Nathan Weinberghas posted some excellent excerpts form today's congressional hearings with various IT companies regarding thier actions in China. Here are some highlights: The Associated Press: Rep. Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, told the company officials…
Does Targeted Marketing (with Personal Data) Work?
One of the key arguements for collecting personal search histories is that a "perfect search engine" will use this personal information to deliver more relevant advertisements. The supposition is that the search engines benefit from selling a more detailed profile…
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