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via David Strreitfeld and Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times Facebook may have quelled a full-scale rebellion by quickly dumping the contentious new terms of use for Instagram, its photo-sharing service. But even as the social network furiously backpedaled, some users said Friday they were carrying through on plans to leave. Ryan Cox, a 29-year-old … Continue reading
via Declan McCullagh, CNET News Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing … Continue reading
via Todd Wasserman, Mashable The next time you shop, take a close look at the mannequins in the store. They may be taking a close look at you, too. So far, Benetton is one of the few places you’ll see $5,000 bionic mannequins from Italy’s Almax. The dummies, called EyeSee, has a camera installed with … Continue reading
via John Constine, TechCrunch When you’re dealing with 1 billion people’s personal info, security is critical. But Facebook didn’t want to sacrifice speed. That’s why it spent the last two years making infrastructure improvements so that its transition of all its users to HTTPS which starts this week will “slow down connections only slightly.” People … Continue reading
via Steve Friess, Politico Microsoft has enjoyed months of great press for its promise to make Do Not Track the default setting on its forthcoming iteration of Internet Explorer, but it has left out one important detail: Users will still be tracked. That also goes for users of Chrome, whose parent Google announced last week … Continue reading
via Somini Sengupta and Kevin J. O’Brien, The New York Times Facebook on Friday confronted a new obstacle over what to do with one of its most vital assets — pictures. The company promised European regulators that it would forgo using facial recognition software and delete the data used to identify Facebook users by their … Continue reading
via Ken Dilanian and Salvador Rodriguez, L.A. Times A hacker group’s claim that it obtained from an FBI laptop a file with more than 12 million identification numbers for Apple iPhones, iPads and other devices has set off widespread speculation about why a federal agency would possess such information. But the FBI disputed the allegation … Continue reading
via Charles P. Pierce, Esquire The remarks of Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin, and Akin’s stubborn refusal to defenestrate himself to placate the party’s leaders who want him gone for saying things that they all agree should never be said out loud, has occasioned much guffawing and posturing — and, very probably, fundraising — … Continue reading
via Fox Van Allen, Tecca Did you know that what you say on Facebook can be used against you in a court of law? If you’re sharing something with your friends, you may as well be sharing directly with the judge and jury: A recent ruling in a U.S. federal court says that if you post … Continue reading
via Dino Grandoni, The Huffington Post Facebook has finally forgotten about that drunken night in college when you vomited on that one friend who never talked to you again. Any deleted photo from that episode, or any photo deleted by users for whatever reason, has finally been removed from the social network’s servers, it appears. … Continue reading
via Damien Cave, The New York Times The agricultural output of Uruguay includes rice, soybeans and wheat. Soon, though, the government may get its hands dirty with a far more complicated crop — marijuana — as part of a rising movement in this region to create alternatives to the United States-led war on drugs. Uruguay’s … Continue reading
via Josh Constine, Tech Crunch Over the next few months, anyone still refusing to voluntarily switch to the Timeline profile redesign will be automatically migrated, Facebook tells me. Users could choose to adopt the redesign starting in January, but there have been some hold-outs who didn’t want their whole life becoming easier to access, or … Continue reading
via Editorial Board, The New York Times Cellphones, e-mail, and online social networking have come to rule daily life, but Congress has done nothing to update federal privacy laws to better protect digital communication. That inattention carries a heavy price. Striking new data from wireless carriers collected by Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and … Continue reading
via Mary Long, Media Bistro The City of New York sent a subpoena to Twitter in February demanding it release all of Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris’ tweets between September 15 and December 31 2011, as well as his email address and any other user information associated with his account. Well, after a lot … Continue reading
via David Talbot, MIT’s Technology Review Your voice can be a biometric identifier, like your fingerprint. Does Apple really have to store it on its own servers? Even in an age of vanishing privacy, people using Apple’s digital assistant Siri share a distinct concern. Recordings of their actual voices, asking questions that might be personal, … Continue reading
via Jason McLure, The Huffington Post Rhode Island’s governor is expected to sign into law the first “Homeless Bill of Rights” in the United States as early as next week, formally banning discrimination against homeless people and affirming their equal access to jobs, housing and services. The legislation, which won final approval by the state … Continue reading
via Jessica Hopper, NBC Rock Center When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide 19 months ago, he did not leave a note. If it had been 20 years ago, the Stassens might have looked through diaries, letters or other personal items in an attempt to find clues as to why he decided … Continue reading
via Marcus Wohlsen, The Huffington Post A watchful eye has arrived on San Francisco’s bar scene, but not to keep you in check. It just wants to check you out. A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. … Continue reading
via Will Doig, Salon Cities as technologically precise as a Formula One race car are being built now. Do we really want to live in them? Formula One car racing is the most viewed sport in the world. On any given race day, half a billion people — one-fourteenth of the globe — are watching … Continue reading
via John Naughton, The Guardian: The Observer Earlier this year, American legal scholar Tim Wu published a sobering book: The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. In it, he surveyed the history of the great communications technologies of the 20th century – the telephone, movies, broadcast radio and TV. And in the … Continue reading
via Peter Ha, TechCrunch Earlier today Google released the full report of the FCC’s investigation into the collection of “payload data” from open Wi-Fi networks — aka passwords, email and search history from open networks — that its fleet of Street View cars obtained between 2008 and April 2010. An earlier and heavily redacted version … Continue reading
via Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next. Hey Mashable, what’s CISPA? CISPA’s designed to let private business share information about … Continue reading
[Editress’ Note: It’s important to be well-informed. Read the full CISPA bill here.] via Donna Cassata, AP, MSNBC The Obama administration on Wednesday threatened to veto a House bill designed to defend critical U.S. industries and corporate networks from electronic attacks by foreign governments, cybercriminals and terrorist groups, arguing the measure falls short in protecting … Continue reading
via Dave Jamieson, The Huffington Post In a victory for privacy hawks and worker advocates, Maryland legislators passed a bill Wednesday that would ban employers from asking job candidates or current employees for their passwords to social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter. If the bill is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and becomes law, … Continue reading
[Editress’ Note: Today marks the 40th anniversary of the day Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, which guarantees equal protection under the law regardless of sex, but today it is still not included in our Constitution. Today we are facing a War on Women. We must fight back. The ERA must be ratified … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 