UK gives US access to incredibly personal information

The US not only wants to extend the amount of time it keeps EU citizen data travelling to the US from 3 to 15 years, it not also only wants to keep information on race, sex lives, credit card numbers and purchases, religion and other incredibly personal biographical data, it also wants to reserve the Read more about UK gives US access to incredibly personal information[…]

US Spying on own citizens at record levels

In all, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed off on 2,176 warrants targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations or spies. The record number is more than twice as many as were issued in 2000, the last full year before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Welcome Read more about US Spying on own citizens at record levels[…]

ID Cards and central databases

There we go. Australia implements a compulsory ID Card Scheme, whilst promising that the data wouldn’t be stored in a central database or be easily accessible and as soon as it’s implemented… WHACK! The police are allowed to search the central database without a warrant! Who’d have thought you couldn’t trust the politicians?

Casino cheats winners

A man wins $102,000 in a slot machine, the casino scratches it’s head, calls it a computer malfunction (as the slot machine wasn’t set to pay out!) and instead gives the man two dinner tickets. Isn’t gambling supposed to be a game of chance? In other words, give the Philadelphia Park Casino a miss.

Big databases open again

Yet again a big database has been compromised – the US Secure Flight Database was accedentally opened up to an organisation that wasn’t supposed to have acces. Why do people insist that this won’t happen or that it’s somehow safe to have huge amounts of personal data in one place?

Academics want to be able to state science

That PC has come to this: Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF) is pissed off with how if academic research stirs controversy for some reason and challenges conventional wisdom, disciplinary action (eg. firing) is being taken against the academic who voiced the research. I thought the whole point of research was to challenge accepted wisdom, otherwise Read more about Academics want to be able to state science[…]

IBM goes open patent

IBM sees flaws in the patent system, which is remarkable considering it’s the largest patent holder in the world. They will post their applications on the web before acceptance, considering that technological advance is preferable to stagnancy and they will oppose any non technological advancing patent. Good stuff IBM!