I Own All Information

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Insect-Sized Drones as Catalysts of Tough Privacy Law

Frankly, I find the reasoning tenuous. Their thesis is that the appearance of tiny flying vehicles bearing cameras that could peek at you when you are naked in the bathroom will cause enough outrage that tougher privacy laws will be passed.

The Drone as Privacy Catalyst
http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/drone-privacy-catalyst

Could Domestic Surveillance Drones Spur Tougher Privacy Laws?
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/could-domestic-surveillance-drones-spur-tougher-privacy-laws

Typically, there are enough people who want to see information on other people that legislation prohibiting violations of privacy could have a difficult time being passed. "The intent of such surveillance is to catch criminals," they say. It would also be a difficult law to enforce.

Still, what will celebrities do in such a world? When the paparazzi get their pictures from swarms of tiny cameras, what defense will a public figure have? It would seem nearly impossible to hide from all such cameras.

Robots and Swimsuit Models

http://www.botjunkie.com/2010/11/15/robots-and-swimsuit-models/

N.C. Officials Believe Skill Should be Punished

The logic seems very tenuous: Kevin Lacy of North Carolina believes that someone should be prosecuted for practicing engineering without a license, even though no representation was made that would require license credentials.

N.C. Official Sics License Police On Computer Scientist For Too Good a Complaint
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/03/2044211/nc-official-sics-license-police-on-computer-scientist-for-too-good-a-complaint

Citizen Activist Grates on State
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/03/964781/citizen-activist-grates-on-state.html

In other words, Lacy is saying that the creator of the traffic report should be prosecuted because his work was too good.

Stolen Credit Card Markets; Passwords; Usernames

Stolen Credit Cards Go for $3.50 at Amazon-like Online Bazaar
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-20/stolen-credit-cards-go-for-3-50-each-at-online-bazaar-that-mimics-amazon.html

The science of password selection
http://www.troyhunt.com/2011/07/science-of-password-selection.html

How Your Username May Betray You
http://www.technologyreview.com/web/32326/?p1=A4&a=f

RIAA Says "It wasn't us! Somebody hacked our IP address!"

TorrentFreak reports that RIAA is using the same excuse that people it prosecuted used to claim that they didn't download copyrighted movies from Torrent.
https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-someone-else-is-pirating-through-out-ip-addresses-111221/

Previously, TorrentFreak found that Homeland Security, Fox, Sony, and Universal had downloaded material.
http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-and-homeland-security-caught-downloading-torrents-111217/

The irony, hypocrisy, outrage is all clear and obvious. If you would like to check the results yourself, you can always try You Have Downloaded.