Group items tagged

I thought that freedom of expressions, access to information and political and social participation are universal rights, but, maybe, it is just fantasy for some conturies

International network, local lawsuit and regulation. The Australian Government is asked to justify the business deal with Google for it's privacy issue. Since google revealed to mistakenly capture private information from it's street scanning.

In Mexico and other Latin American countries there have been some questions raised on how kidnappers can get precise information of potential victims and their spending power: friends, lifestyle, travels. If social networks like Facebook are a potential tool for criminals, should they be regulated by the government? Is it the media or the government's fault if such a use is being made? I am looking for references in English regarding this problem. 

Big discussion about the permanent storage of personal data in Germany at the moment. Google and its inter-connected services is just one part of it. The government talks about the "Gläserne Bürger" (vitreous citizen) but still they seem to like it somehow - at least they haven't come to an agreement yet. Also see http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,682129,00.html @Google street view: The campus of Sydney University cannot be visited via this service. Why?

"..the impact of digital information and networking provokes a reconsideration of the model of medium theory. Every time it is written or stated that digital convergent technology has re-shaped the use and effects of media forms, then some form of medium theory is being employed." Good analysis of the strenths and weaknesses of both technological determinism and social shaping for understanding internet issues, with a look at the hybrid solutions like ActorNetwork Theory. Excellent background paper for understanding critical theories of technology.

Article from PC World dated 19/3/2010 Talks about the the enduring legal battle between Viacom and Google over intellectual property rights which have been (arguably) 'violated' by the Video sharing website, Youtube. This is another prime example of the indefinable nature of the digital medium and the problems inherent in resolving issues of ownership and distribution of information in the context of the internet. The inability to fully implement control in free flowing information forums again raises the question who can really be made responsible for copyright infringements?

Informative and sometimes humorous tips for Australians who want to protest against the Government's proposed ISP filtering, including links to local members of parliament, senators etc. Note all the paid advertising from Optus on the site - taking a political position?

The Mexican government approved a law that creates a national registry of mobile phone users, forcing people to provide their private information to associate mobile numbers with a registrated customer. More than 30m citizens are facing the possibility of service disruption if they don't comply with the forced registration.

Glad I am here!

Self-googling will not sound as vain or egotistic as it may seem if it means that an individual can be aware of what information the internet holds about him or her. To me, it's a form of "damage control". 

Digital Due Process is the name of a new coalition composed among other companies by Google, Microsoft and AT&T advocationg for a new legislation to strenght online privacy laws to prevent government access to private digital information in the US

Great Larvatus Prodeo post over the weekend, written for Electronic Frontiers Australia about the internet filter. Quite long, but here is a key quote: "The Internet ... is part of that secular movement towards the democratisation of social relations; and of knowledge. It's precisely because the Internet affords so much promise for those who wish to decide their destinies in common, to learn, to form an informed judgement and habit of thought that its freedom from state interference is so important at the level of principle." http://larvatusprodeo.net/2010/04/16/left-reasons-to-oppose-the-net-filter-nocleanfeed/

The University of Sydney's IT Alumni Association will next week bring together IT experts in networking, industry, law, child welfare and ethics to discuss the Federal Government's plans to introduce compulsory internet filtering by Internet Service Providers. Forum details When 6.30pm for a 7pm start, Wednesday 28 April 2010 Where Boardroom (Room 124), School of IT Building, 1 Cleveland Street, The University of Sydney How Entry is free and open to the public but online registration by 23 April is essential. For more information http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/alumni/discussion_forum.shtml

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is convinced that big Web players like Google or Facebook are collecting too much personal information of their users. Users could barely choose privacy, a FTC representative stated. They insist that the current privacy regime is not efficient.

Apple announced that it will be now possible to run different apps on the iPhone at the same time and keep them constantly running in the background. This means for application providers that they coud now constantly get information on the whereabouts of their users instead of the sporadic data they got so far. Exciting new opportunities for Apple's new "iAd" that offers targeted advertising. At the same time there are privacy concerns on several fronts.

The cybersecurity threat in India is demonstrated in Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report that outlined the latest threat for computers which involves the Trojan viruses sending confidential data to a host server. This information is then used by cyber mafia to carry out financial transactions in various countries resulting in identity theft.

google revealed information about government agencies' requests for removing searched contents from google, Australia is the ninth.

Google has released the extent to which intruders broke into their system in January. It targeted their password system which controls access to users worldwide. This brings up the debate about the security and privacy of systems like Google that centralize personal information. However, the real issue behind this attack was that it was traced to two computers in China which then started the whole 'Google to change its policy toward China'.

This looks at the new atmosphere of sharing all the mundane details about our lives, facilitated by sites such as Blippy, which broadcasts details about shopping habits, and Foursquare, that uses GPS to alert contacts to your location. A fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union said, "People are not necessarily thinking about how long this information will stick around, or how it could be used and exploited by marketers." Concerns are also raised about potential identity theft and whether accessing every scrap of data left behind by users is actually valuable.

A survey which was released as part of the Pacific-wide Privacy Week (last week) shows that people in New Zealand are very concerned about their Internet privacy.It is of main concern how social networks use personal information and how search engines and websites are tracking online behaviour for targeted advertising.

I found this recent pamphlet about "MicroPublicPlaces" from situatedtechnologies.net while hunting down Latour's Dingpolitik. Arendt's theory of acting (as opposed to Heidegger's thinking) in "The Human Condition" foreshadows Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action, in my opinion, and is seen here as operating in parallel with Latour's object-oriented democracry. Beginning with a critique of the current state of the public realm, they follow two trajectories: one through Hannah Arendt's "vita activa" and Bruno Latour's "dingpolitiks", and another through the history of information and computation technologies. Through the former they establish an understanding of the "public" as a space of difference that is held in common, while through the latter they formulate an infrastructure that could support such a contestable space. This leads them argue for a new public realm built on specific architectural programs (water purification plants, zoos, kindergartens, repair shops, chapels) and adaptive learning environments that initiate collaborative relations between people and machines. Their goal is to foster a manifold public through the participatory structures of MicroPublicPlaces.