Group items tagged

An article debating security/surveillance vs. privacy post-Snowden leaks, written fall 2014 for Stanford Lawyer Magazine

Discusses some of the points we brought up in class and provides statistics, but data is from 2013 and could potentially show the effects of events in the past two years when combined with Abbey's post

There are already in place many automatic license plate readers on things such as road signs and bridges. This has purposes for helping track vehicles known to be owned by criminals, but simultaneously the tracking information is stored for millions of innocent people as well.

This article, though very clearly biased, describes the ways in which the movements of citizens are being tracked by both technology and the police. The video/information slides are obviously carried out with bias, but the information is still there. The end of the article has some interesting (helpful?) information about what the judicial system is ruling on cases involving location tracking without warrants.

Interesting that ~35% of 1000 surveyed have upped the strength of their passwords, but only 6% turned on two-factor ID, which was a major cause of the iCloud hacks going undetected for so long.

It seems that two-factor authentication would not have prevented those iCloud hacks (according to this piece: http://www.tuaw.com/2014/09/02/think-iclouds-two-factor-authentication-protects-your-privacy/), but since Apple has now changed the triggers for two-factor to include things like iCloud access, two-factor will be more helpful going forward. So it is a little surprising that more people haven't enabled it.

I'm also reminded of the ACLU's Chris Soghoian's point (https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty/lessons-celebrity-icloud-photo-breach) that one reason people have crappy Apple passwords is that Apple makes you use your password so darn often. I know I get frustrated when I have to enter my (crazy long) Apple password on my iPhone just to download a free app.

Focusing on the consequences of the Patriot Act and how the US government upped the security on civilians after 9/11, this is a really nice graphic that gives a scary visual on the expanded powers of the national government in the name of security. It's from the ACLU, so this gives a pretty good perspective of, specifically, curbed liberties.

This article discusses the use of RFIDs to track students, and the benefits of this practice, especially with small children.

You are still being watched, and your data being collected, so be careful what you send and to where you send it too. Innocent messages sent out of the country can easily make you become a person of interest for no reason.