War for Total Control. It’s an old cliché to say that technology in itself is neither good nor bad, but that all depends on how you use it. In the case of Information and Communications Technologies, and their out-of-control problem child, the internet, that has so revolutionised the world, today we seem to be at a key crossroads where all seems to hang on which path mankind finally treads. Like a sharp two-edged sword, the internet and the very rapidly evolving technologies surrounding it, are poised to either usher in a new era of intellectual, cultural and spiritual enlightenment, material well-being and true cooperation amongst nations bent on resolving common global problems; or we may be about to fall into a black abyss of absolute totalitarian control; intellectual, physical and spiritual violence; and mass slavery on an unprecedented scale.
How to resolve this dilemma? Today’s challenge, however, is far greater because Hostis – the common enemy – is no longer easy to identify. What road will you take? Google tracks consumers across products, users can’t opt out. Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users.
Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices. The move will help Google better tailor its ads to people’s tastes. If someone watches an NBA clip online and lives in Washington, the firm could advertise Washington Wizards tickets in that person’s Gmail account.
Consumers could also benefit, the company said. When someone is searching for the word “jaguar,” Google would have a better idea of whether the person was interested in the animal or the car. But consumer advocates say the new policy might upset people who never expected their information would be shared across so many different Web sites. Added Rep. » Soros Mouthpiece Calls On Google To Police “Conspiracy Theories” Alex Jones. Stanford scholar wants search engines to flag global warming, vaccine skepticism as thought crimes Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Former fellow of George Soros’ Open Society and current Stanford University scholar Evgeny Morozov has called on Google and other search engines to become thought crime enforcers, by providing warnings about websites that contain “conspiracy theories” such as the belief, held by a majority of Americans, that global warming is not primarily man-made.
Morozov, whose biography confirms him as a well-connected insider, decries in a Slate piece how the Internet is a useful tool for “People who deny global warming” as well as “the anti-vaccination movement,” calling on Google to provide a “socially responsible curated treatment” that would marginalize such beliefs by amending search results. Morozov describes the potential that such a move will be judged as Google “shilling for Big Pharma or for Al Gore” as “a risk worth taking”.
Historic! Anti-vaccine activists, 9/11 deniers, and Google’s social search. Photograph by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images. In its early days, the Web was often imagined as a global clearinghouse—a new type of library, with the sum total of human knowledge always at our fingertips. That much has happened—but with a twist: In addition to borrowing existing items from its vast collections, we, the patrons, could also deposit our own books, pamphlets and other scribbles—with no or little quality control. Such democratization of information-gathering—when accompanied by smart institutional and technological arrangements—has been tremendously useful, giving us Wikipedia and Twitter. But it has also spawned thousands of sites that undermine scientific consensus, overturn well-established facts, and promote conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the move toward social search may further insulate regular visitors to such sites; discovering even more links found by their equally paranoid friends will hardly enlighten them.
Is it time for some kind of a quality control system? Copyright Industry Calls For Broad Search Engine Censorship. At a behind-closed-doors meeting facilitated by the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, copyright holders have handed out a list of demands to Google, Bing and Yahoo. To curb the growing piracy problem, Hollywood and the major music labels want the search engines to de-list popular filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, and give higher ranking to authorized sites.
It’s no secret that the entertainment industries believe search engines are not delivering enough when it comes to protecting copyright works. Just last month, the RIAA and IFPI accused Google of massively profiting from piracy, while putting up barriers to make life difficult for rightsholders. If the copyright industry had their way, Google and other search engines would no longer link to sites such as The Pirate Bay and isoHunt. In a detailed proposal handed out during a meeting with Google, Yahoo and Bing, various copyright holders made their demands clear.
The proposals. Google Privacy Changes Raise Major Concerns, Possible Antitrust Complaint. Yesterday afternoon, Alma Whitten, Google's Director of Privacy, posted a blog entry stating that the company is preparing a major overhaul and simplification of its various privacy policies. According to the entry, Google is planning to condense the current crop of 70 separate policies into a single, easy-to-read agreement.
In and of itself, this is a Good Thing, but her following statements raise serious concerns. "Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you’re signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience. " She continues: "We can make search better—figuring out what you really mean when you type in Apple, Jaguar or Pink. The following video explains the change, relevant information starts at ~30s.
Policy vs. This is more a change of practice than policy. Google says privacy change won't affect government users. News January 26, 2012 05:02 PM ET Computerworld - Google today dismissed concerns by a former senior federal IT official that the company's controversial new privacy policy would create problems for customers of Google Apps for Government (GAFG). In a statement, Google said the new policy will not change existing contracts that define how it handles and stores data belonging to government users of its cloud services. "Enterprise customers using Google Apps for Government, Business or Education have individual contracts that define how we handle and store their data," Amit Singh, vice president of Google Enterprise said in a statement.
"As always, Google will maintain our enterprise customers' data in compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to their domain," he said. According to Singh, Googles contractual agreements have always superseded its privacy policy for enterprise customers. Is it all downhill for Torrific? - Blackhat SEO Esrun. September 30, 2011 on 7:12 am | 10 Comments Update: Torrific ceased operations (scroll to bottom for full update). Let me start by explaining what Torrific is, for those who aren’t familiar with the service.
Usually you’d use a bittorrent client like Transmission or uTorrent to download torrents. Torrific takes away the hassle and problems associated with downloading torrents and does the download for you and then gives you a regular HTTP download through your browser. So not only are you saving yourself from the risk of being kicked off your ISP (if you’re downloading a dodgy torrent) but you’re also maximizing your connection speed with a nice clean HTTP download. Torrific will cache popular torrents so they’re available for download over HTTP immediately. If they don’t have the torrent cached already then they’ll email you once they’ve downloaded it and created a local HTTP copy for you. Sounds amazing right? Update: 28-Jan-2012 Torrific has shutdown with immediate effect. Is RapidShare Next on The Piracy Chopping Block? – Tech Thursday - Q 103 - Albany's #1 Rock Station. Just a little more than 24 hours after the sound thumping that the SOPA and PIPA bills got online and the subsequent tabling of them in Congress, file locker website MegaUpload was shutdown by the U.S.
Department of Justice for alleged piracy of movies and music. The accusers, the same people that helped Congress write the SOPA and PIPA bills, the RIAA and the MPAA. Now RapidShare is thought to be the next take down. RapidShare is a lot like MegaUpload in what they offer. They offer users the ability to upload their files to a remote server, and then access them from anywhere in the world from another computer. You can even share files with other people. But Daniel is also saying that if RapidShare goes down, then the likes of The Box, Dropbox, and even Apple, Google and Amazon are at risk as well. The main point is that there is still legitimate use for these sites, and the RIAA and MPAA are looking for anything and everything to keep propping up their failed old business models. RapidShare Attorney: If We're Shut Down Like Megaupload, Then YouTube, Dropbox, Apple's iCloud Are Next. There's been near nuclear fallout from federal prosecutors shuttering of Megaupload, the file-sharing service accused of costing the entertainment industry $500 million in lost revenues.
It's estimated that shutting down Megaupload's family of websites, which are accused of hosting massive amounts of copyrighted files, affected 1% of all Internet traffic. The feds are seeking the forfeiture of $175 million from Megaupload's flamboyant founder, Kim Dotcom; sympathetic hacker coalition Anonymous has since launched online attacks against the RIAA, MPAA, and Justice Department; and file-sharing and cloud services from FileSonic to Dropbox are wondering what this could mean for the industry.
On Tuesday, we caught up with RapidShare attorney and spokesman Daniel Raimer. RapidShare is one of the world's most popular file-hosting sites, and many have wondered whether the site could be next on the feds' list of targets. FAST COMPANY: Do you think Megaupload was fairly or unfairly targeted? Yes. Dutch ISPs Refuse To Block The Pirate Bay. Two large ISPs in the Netherlands have said they will not be blocking subscriber access to The Pirate Bay, as demanded by the Hollywood supported anti-piracy outfit BREIN.
T-Mobile and KPN argue that blocking websites is a threat to the open Internet, and suggest that the entertainment industry focuses on new business models instead. BREIN is now expected to take the ISPs to court. Two weeks ago, the Court of The Hague ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL have to block access to The Pirate Bay. The ruling was the first to bring broad censorship to the Netherlands and in a response XS4ALL said they were “bitterly disappointed”, noting that fundamental rights had been traded for “commercial interests.” For BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group that started the court case, the verdict wasn’t quite enough. After internal discussions two large ISPs – KPN and T-Mobile – are now on record stating they will not honor BREIN’s request.
Europe Weighs a Tough Law on Online Privacy and User Data. Tomasz Gzell/European Pressphoto Agency “Companies must be transparent about what they are doing,” said Viviane Reding, the European Commission's vice president for justice. Michael Löwa for The New York Times Malte Spitz, a German advocate for strict data protection. The proposed data protection regulation from the , a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, could have significant consequences for all Internet companies that trade in personal data, whether it is pictures that people post on social networks or what they buy on retail sites or look for on a search engine. The regulation would compel Web sites to tell consumers why their data is being collected and retain it for only as long as necessary. “Companies must be transparent about what they are doing, clear about which data is being used for what,” the European Commission’s vice president for justice, Viviane Reding, said in a recent telephone interview.
Ms. “Individuals are getting more rights. Thailand Tries Twitter Censorship | ASEAN Beat. Twitter’s recent announcement that it will allow local censorship, a move embraced by Thailand, is troubling. By Joshua Kurlantzick for The Diplomat February 02, 2012 Facebook0 Twitter0 Google+4 LinkedIn0 As the Guardian reports, the Thai government has become the first nation in the world to publicly endorse Twitter’s choice to censor certain types of messages in certain countries. In this case, that would mean censoring messages that fall afoul of the kingdom’s draconian lèse-majesté laws, which have been used increasingly harshly in recent years – most recently, against an underage college student and an elderly man with cancer. The decision isn’t a major shock for Thailand; the governments of both the previous Democrat party and even the current Puea Thai party have been pouring ever-more resources into hunting for online content supposedly defaming the king.
But it’s a very worrisome move from Twitter. Twitter Boycott Planned To Protest Twitter's Censorship Plan. Twitter news: US bars friends over Twitter joke. Lawmakers accuse Facebook of ducking questions on its privacy practices. Facebook Gives Politico Deep Access to Users' Political Sentiments - Liz Gannes - Social. ACLU criticizes Facebook 'election sentiment' tool. Facebook locks down 45,000 accounts to stop 'worm' spreading. Facebook Timeline mandatory for all users - with just 7 days to 'clean up' Tweeting the word 'drill' could mean your Twitter account is read by government spies. 5 Things You Should Know About the FBI's Massive New Biometric Database | Civil Liberties.
FCC’s Genachowski proposes broadband reform - Post Tech. Leaked Memo Says Apple Provides Backdoor To Governments. Alex Jones: US government spies on everybody. FBI seeking social media monitoring tool. FBI Wants New App to Wiretap the Internet. FDA staffers sue agency over surveillance of personal e-mail. Peoria police sergeant's photo prompts Secret Service probe. 'Piracy' student Richard O'Dwyer loses extradition case over TVShack website. Homeland Security Is Monitoring The Drudge Report, The New York Times. How to Disappear Completely (From the Internet) Judge: Americans can be forced to decrypt their laptops | Privacy Inc.
Hawaii may keep track of all Web sites visited | Privacy Inc. Homeland Security Is Reading and Recording Every Keystroke. Here's a list of words Homeland Security searches for when they're monitoring the Internet. Hello, DHS. : conspiracy.