Group items tagged

Not really about digital publishing, but incredibly important for anyone who uses a Google product and cares about their privacy.

If you care about your online privacy and you use Google services, you should watch this video.

A must-read series on online privacy by the Wall Street Journal.  If you browse the web, if you write email, if you have an ISP you should know about this  

I know we've discussed in class how Google (and other entities) seems to know so much about us, but isn't it a bit naive to assume the opposite? We expose a piece of our private lives in every way: credit cards for example track where we go, where we eat, what we buy, and the like. Even if paying cash at places, we're signing up for list servs, blogs, campaigns, donating to charities that require contact information, filling out surveys. Given this, is it all that surprising that we are being "watched"? I don't think it's possible to function in today's society without exposing much of ourselves (when you want to pay cash somewhere, the bank knows when, where, what time of day you withdrew money), unless we change our names or deliver false information.

The issues of privacy, free speech and a feral press divided the panel at the Index on Censorship debate at the London School of Economics on Tuesday evening. Chaired by Index on Censorship editor Jo Glanville (right), the event celebrated the launch of the new issue of Index on Censorship magazine, Privacy is dead!

"Back in October, the startup tech firm Silent Circle ruffled governments' feathers with a "surveillance-proof" smartphone app to allow people to make secure phone calls and send texts easily. Now, the company is pushing things even further-with a groundbreaking encrypted data transfer app that will enable people to send files securely from a smartphone or tablet at the touch of a button. (For now, it's just being released for iPhones and iPads, though Android versions should come soon.) That means photographs, videos, spreadsheets, you name it-sent scrambled from one person to another in a matter of seconds." In an age where we can pretty much assume we're being monitored 24/7, is this a good thing? Or is this another tool for some really terrible people to do some really terrible things, but now with an added layer of privacy?

Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill that will extend privacy protections currently in place for library records to book purchases, including e-books. The Reader Privacy Act of 2011 will require government agencies to obtain a court order before they access customer records from book stores or online retailers.

Can Google continue to "Not be evil" and dominate the global market for search and user-generated content (YouTube, Blogger). Discussed how Google balances among free speech and privacy, the censorship demands of governments and its financial interests.

The place where all the Facebook controversy started

Analysis of Google's policy on privacy.

Insuring that cloud computing doesn' lead to a loss of privacy and the ability to innovate.

New e-textbooks give educators an unprecedented level of insight into student reading habits, and the results have some students and experts wondering if the product compromises personal privacy.

Get ready for the coming battles over cloud computing and privacy and security

Intersection of privacy law and copyright law (esp. fair use and library/archival uses) -- is it ethical to reproduce signed cease-and-desist letters?

Interesting project for Internet archiving...wonder about some of the (eventual) privacy issues that might be involved, though. As the article quotes the archivist: "'Whoever is going to be president in 2048, she's in high school now, and she may have a Web site, and we probably have it.'" How many political opponents would love to seize on this hypothetical person if her teenage rants (e.g., "OMG my mom is so horrible, she won't let me go to Kasey's party on Saturday! Isn't there some kind of law against child abuse?") came to light when she's 53 and in a position of power? Is/Will it be considered fair game to judge a middle-aged woman by what the adolescent says now?

Why SOPA is dangerous legislation.