The Netherlands is now officially moving towards becoming a banana republic. Foreign media hasn’t really seemed to catch on to this, but there’s a very important cabinets crisis happening in the Netherlands at the moment. A translated version for English people: An incredibly stupid law* was stopped in the senate by 3 brave PvdA** senators Read more about The end of Democracy in NL[…]
This site looks at surprisingly few browser attributes to see how unique you are. Currently you are being compared to 37753 other browsers, but as more people check on the site, the representation will be more accurate. It’s pretty scary to see how individual your browser settings are, even with javascript disabled. via Am I Read more about Am I unique? – see how identifiable you are by your browser fingerprint[…]
The fourth reich is inevitable! GOP rep attempted late bid to kill spy bill | TheHill.
Egocentric cameras are being worn by an increasing number of users, among them many security forces worldwide. GoPro cameras already penetrated the mass market, and Google Glass may follow soon. As head-worn cameras do not capture the face and body of the wearer, it may seem that the anonymity of the wearer can be preserved Read more about Identify the maker of a movie by the way the screen shakes[…]
The European Parliament has reached a deal with national ministers to introduce a mandatory “eCall” system for all new cars from April 2018. However, although the system would automatically call the 112 emergency number in the event of a crash, euro lawmakers say that cars will not be continuously tracked. “It will be illegal to Read more about EU Mandates eCall tracking system in your new car from 2018[…]
This site is a huge country and brand directory listing of surveillance cameras that are online and still have the default password or no protection set. It’s bizarre to see how many of them there are. View net surveillance online cameras.
Devuan – the GNU/Linux by Veteran Unix Admins.. From the email: “If systemd had just been an interchangeable init system it wouldn’t be so problematic. It’s the scope creep and mess of poorly-defined interdependencies that are truly shocking. ” “With sysvinit great effort was taken never to break existing configurations, and that appears to have Read more about Debian forks into Devuan over systemd[…]
The addresses and domains you email to, your search terms, how often you use your Mac. And this with a few hours of poking. Apple keeps saying it’s leaving users alone, but really? fix-macosx/yosemite-phone-home · GitHub.
The Dutch province Utrecht has signed a deal with City Wireless that allows people free wireless. They can log in with their Facebook profile, which is then harvested for information for marketing purposes. City Wireless has since changed its’ homepage, removing the grizly details, but the Dutch paper still has the screencaps. Article in Dutch. Read more about NL Provice of Utrecht buys citizen Facebookprofiles for marketing by offering free WiFi.[…]
A recent AP survey of 10 leading voice biometric vendors found that more than 65 million people worldwide have had their voiceprints taken, and that several banks, including Barclays PLC in Britain and Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, are in the process of introducing their customers to the technology. via Banks harvest callers' voiceprints to fight fraud. Read more about Banks harvest callers’ voiceprints without their knowledge[…]
They found that if Friendster had used certain state-of-the-art prediction algorithms, it could have divined sensitive information about non-members, including their sexual orientation. “At the time, it was possible for Friendster to predict the sexual orientation of people who did not have an account on Friendster,” [….] The problem Garcia identifies lies in something called Read more about Not on a Social Network? You’ve Still Got a Privacy Problem[…]
Adobe’s Digital Editions 4 ebook reader software is collecting detailed information about the reading habits of its users – and sending it back to the company in a format that’s easy for others to slurp. An investigation by Nate Hoffelder of The Digital Reader blog showed that ADE 4 was collecting telemetry on which pages Read more about Adobe spies on readers: EVERY page you turn, EVERY book you own leaked back to base[…]
Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage. This isn’t the only thing Read more about Using the Windows 10 Technical Preview? Microsoft might be watching your every move to “help with feedback”[…]
Conservative policy towards the Human Rights Act has serious consequences for privacy and freedom of expressionAccording to most of the broadsheets, if there is a Conservative Government after the next General Election, the European Court of Human Rights will no longer be able to overrule British courts. via Conservative policy towards the Human Rights Act Read more about UK Conservatives want to get rid of pesky EU Human Rights[…]
Australian spies will soon have the power to monitor the entire Australian internet with just one warrant, and journalists and whistleblowers will face up to 10 years’ jail for disclosing classified information. via Terror laws clear Senate, enabling entire Australian web to be monitored and whistleblowers to be jailed.
Ziggo claims: “Unlimited access to WifiSpots” (WifiSpot is a wifi sharing service whereby you can access wifi from all Ziggo subscribers). Also claims: “Internet on multiple devices silmutaneously” and “The whole famile online easily at the same time. Via computer, tablet and mobile”. Unfortunately they only allow access to two devices on Wifispots at the Read more about Internet provider Ziggo promises unlimited acces to internet with all devices. Limits access.[…]
Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept. Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local Read more about US Terrorist-Tracking System tracks many many non-terrorists[…]
A photographer who set up a load of cameras in the wild can’t get pictures of a monkey removed from Wikipedia, as the monkey pressed the shutter. Wikipedia argues that this means that nobody owns the copyright. I wonder what the BBC series Earth has to say about this? Wikipedia refuses to delete photo as Read more about Monkey selfie at heart of copyright controversy[…]
With privacy concerns being raised more and more about the use of cloud storage, tech giants are turning to the age old scare tactic of using child porn as an excuse to burrow through users data. Google Spotted Explicit Images Of A Child In A Man's Email And Tipped Off The Authorities – Business Insider. Read more about Child porn used to justify reading of cloud data by Google, MicroSoft[…]
Twitch TV – a gaming TV channel with billions of watchers – will attempt to detect music playing in the background. If a 10 second spell seems to be copyrighted, they will remove the sound for half an hour. I suppose the rationale is that the music companies and the RIAA think this is a Read more about Twitch TV shows why copyright is ridiculous as it shuts down music in videos[…]
“to ensure users’ rights to privacy of their personal data and personal information, and information security for government agencies and corporate clients” Google Translate.
US State Department database used to process passports and visas still hasn’t recovered from a crash last week — leaving tens of thousands of people stranded overseas. via Passport Database Outage: 'We Regret The Inconvenience' – InformationWeek. Yep, the power of big centralised databases!
Which Creative Commons License is Right for me?.
A Minnesota man and his two sons were asked to leave a Southwest Airlines flight after the man sent a tweet complaining about being treated rudely by a gate agent. […] a tweet that read “RUDEST AGENT IN DENVER. KIMBERLY S. GATE C39. NOT HAPPY @SWA.” […] after he boarded, an announcement came over the Read more about Minnesota man asked to leave Southwest flight after critical tweet[…]
In a court case in which the government (mr Plasterk) was taken to task for using NSA data – private information gotten through illegal means according to Dutch law – the NL courts have ruled that secret services can use this data freely, because “it’s important”. This is a bit like allowing evidence gained under Read more about NL courts allow illegally gotten private info to be used by secret service with no oversight.[…]