Interview with Krishna Bharat, the Google Principal Scientist who conceived the idea for Google News. Continue Reading
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Monthly Archives: July 2003
Hearing on Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003
Legislative hearing on H.R. 2517, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003, to enhance criminal enforcement of the copyright laws, educate the public about the application of copyright law to the Internet, and clarify the authority to seize unauthorized copyrighted works. Witness List, Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Jana Monroe (FBI), David Trust (Professional Photographers of… Continue Reading
Public Underestimates Website Privacy Standards
Three Things You Don’t Want to Know About Your Personal Information: “Online merchants are frantically sucking up every scrap of information they can get about consumers, but consumers know next to nothing about what happens to that information.” Also see New Annenberg Report Examines Americans’ Understanding of Online Privacy. Yahoo! and Your Personal Information: “Yahoo’s… Continue Reading
Your New Passport Will Have A Digital ID Chip
From FCW.com: “The State Department is developing a passport that contains biometric technology to authenticate the identities of U.S. citizens who travel abroad.” Also see, Vendors boost biometrics for homeland. “In a trusted traveler program, such as one proposed as part of the Transportation Security Administration’s Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS) II, a passenger… Continue Reading
Security Issues and Your Social Security Number
Social Security Numbers: Ensuring the Integrity of the SSN, by Barbara D. Bovbjerg, director, education, workforce, and income security issues, before the Subcommittee on Social Security, House Committee on Ways and Means. GAO-03-941T, July 10. Highlights. Continue Reading
New GAO Report on Surveillance in Nation’s Capitol
Video Surveillance: Information on Law Enforcement’s Use of Closed-Circuit Television to Monitor Selected Federal Property in Washington, D.C. GAO-03-748, June 27. Highlights. Continue Reading
More Multi-Platform RSS Readers
This wiki-weblog has dozens of annotated resources and links to RSS readers, including those for use on PDAs, Linux, Mac and Windows. Continue Reading
Even Shredded Documents Are Not Beyond Reconstructing
Picking Up the Pieces: “People perceive it (the paper shredder) as an almost perfect device,” said Jack Brassil, a researcher for Hewlett-Packard who has worked on making shredded documents traceable. If people put a document through a shredder, “they assume that it’s fundamentally unrecoverable,” he said. “And that’s clearly not true.” For more detailed documentation,… Continue Reading
Critique of Google
From Slate, Digging for Googleholes, ends with the following paragraph: “Were wrong to think of Google as a pure reference source. Its closer to a collectively authored op-ed page filled with bias, polemics, and a skewed sense of proportion than an encyclopedia. Its still the connected worlds most dazzling place to visit, a… Continue Reading
New Study on Use of Web-based Health Information
New Pew Internet Project Report, Internet Health Resources: Health searches and email have become more commonplace, but there is room for improvement in searches and overall Internet access. From the report summary: “Fully 80% of adult Internet users, or about 93 million Americans, have searched for at least one of 16 major health topics online.… Continue Reading
New Bill Seeks Fines and Jail for File Swapping
The Author, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security Act of 2003 (H.R. 2752), introduced on July 16. “The bill carries penalties of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for uploading a copyrighted file to a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, ” according to dcinternet.com. Section-by Section Anaylsis Floor statement of bill sponsor,… Continue Reading
Vulnerabilities of Gov’t Electronic Surveillance Programs
Shooting Ourselves in the Foot – Grandiose Schemes for Electronic Eavesdropping May Hurt More Than They Help, by Robert X. Cringely. Continue Reading
