Legal, Privacy & Security
06 March 2013
Google services should not require real names- Vint Cerf Reuters
In the face of increasing government-led crackdowns on social media, Google Inc should not force Internet users to reveal their real names for some services, including its Google social network, said Vint Cerf, a senior Google executive known as a "father of the Internet."
Web-connected cars bring privacy concerns Washington Post
Cars will soon be so linked into wireless networks they will be like giant rolling smartphones -- with calling systems, streaming video, cameras and apps capable of harnessing the unprecedented trove of data vehicles will produce about themselves and the humans who drive them.
05 March 2013
Web Privacy Becomes a Business Imperative New York Times
Privacy is no longer just a regulatory headache. Increasingly, Internet companies are pushing each other to prove to consumers that their data is safe and in their control.
Browsers Standing Up For User Privacy Threat Post
Mozilla chief privacy officer Alex Fowler relayed a vivid anecdote last week during RSA Conference 2013 that illustrates the lengths third parties such as advertisers, data brokers and others who traffic in users' online behavior will go to track you once you land on a website.
Australia signs on to international cybercrime treaty Attorney-General
Australia has now formally joined 38 other nations as a party to the world's first international treaty on crimes committed via the Internet.
01 March 2013
China claims most cyber-attacks on its military websites have US origin The Guardian
Two Chinese military websites were subject to about 144,000 hacking attacks a month last year, almost two-thirds of which came from the US, China's defence ministry has said.
Europe to summon Google over data grab 'excesses' The Guardian
Google representatives are to be summoned to appear before European data protection officials over concerns about the way it collects data on web users.
Figuring out the future of online privacy CNN
What level of privacy will we have online in the future? Will people share their personal data freely in exchange for more customized service? Or will they become fiercely protective of private information, using tools and browsers that protect their identity from advertisers and other third parties?
28 February 2013
"We Need a Plan B for the Internet," Warns Internet Pioneer Danny Hillis All Things D
Danny Hillis has been an Internet user since the earliest of days. He registered the third domain name ever. He still has a book, a couple of inches thick, with the names and info for every person in the world with an email address in 1982. Today such a thing probably would be 25 miles thick.
27 February 2013
US Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Surveillance Law New York Times
In a 5-to-4 decision that broke along ideological lines, the Supreme Court on Tuesday turned back a challenge to a federal law that authorized intercepting international communications involving Americans.
UK attorney general takes legal action over online pictures of James Bulger killers The Guardian
A number of individuals could face fines or even imprisonment for posting photographs purporting to be one of James Bulger's killers online, after the attorney general said he planned to launch contempt proceedings.
Researchers say Stuxnet was deployed against Iran in 2007 Reuters
Researchers at Symantec Corp have uncovered a version of the Stuxnet computer virus that was used to attack Iran's nuclear program in November 2007, two years earlier than previously thought.
Why Does Privacy Matter? One Scholar's Answer The Atlantic
Our privacy is now at risk in unprecedented ways, but, sadly, the legal system is lagging behind the pace of innovation. Indeed, the last major privacy law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, was passed in 1986! While an update to the law -- spurred on by the General Petraeus scandal -- is in the works, it only aims to add some more protection to electronic communication like emails. This still does not shield our privacy from other, possibly nefarious, ways that our data can be collected and put to use. Some legislators would much rather not have legal restrictions that could, as Rep. Marsha Blackburn stated in an op-ed, "threaten the lifeblood of the Internet: data." Consider Rep. Blackburn's remarks during an April 2010 Congressional hearing: "[A]nd what happens when you follow the European privacy model and take information out of the information economy? ... Revenues fall, innovation stalls and you lose out to innovators who choose to work elsewhere."
26 February 2013
Google raises privacy fears as personal details are released to app developers The Guardian
Google could face a third privacy row in a two years, after a leading campaigner called for the US government to investigate the fact that the names, geographic region and email addresses of people who buy apps from its Play store are passed on to the app developers without users' explicit permission.
25 February 2013
A New Cold War, in Cyberspace, Tests U.S. New York Times
When the Obama administration circulated to the nation's Internet providers last week a lengthy confidential list of computer addresses linked to a hacking group that has stolen terabytes of data from American corporations, it left out one crucial fact: that nearly every one of the digital addresses could be traced to the neighborhood in Shanghai that is headquarters to the Chinese military's cybercommand.
The cyber age demands new rules of war: A system to check covert violence is needed, writes Zbigniew Brzezinski Financial Times
The two centuries since the Congress of Vienna have seen the gradual codification by the international community of the "rules of the game" for guiding interstate relations, even between unfriendly countries. Their basic premise has been the formula "don't do to me what you don't want me to do to you". However, technological advances mean that today those rules are being dangerously undermined. The international system is at risk.
French Tax Proposal Zeroes In on Web Giants' Data Harvest New York Times
When it comes to taxes, the French are pioneers. In 1954, they introduced the world's first value-added tax. Since then, they have proposed or championed duties on all manner of other things, like online advertising, pollution, financial transactions and vacation homes.
24 February 2013
China's cyber-hacking: If China wants respect abroad, it must rein in its hackers The Economist
Foreign governments and companies have long suspected that the Chinese hackers besieging their networks have links to the country's armed forces. On February 19th Mandiant, an American security company, offered evidence that this is indeed so. A report, the fruit of six years of investigations, tracks individual members of one Chinese hacker group, with aliases such as Ugly Gorilla and SuperHard, to a nondescript district in residential Shanghai that is home to Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army. China has condemned the Mandiant report. On February 20th America announced plans to combat the theft of trade secrets.
Corporate espionage: Old-fashioned theft is still the biggest problem for foreign companies in China The Economist
On January 5th, in a night raid, a gang of criminals broke into a factory near Shanghai owned by Mercury Cable, an American manufacturer of high-voltage equipment. The thieves took not only raw materials but machinery from production lines as well.
China, the US and cybersecurity: is Mandiant promoting a Cold War mentality? Internet Governance blog
The release of the Mandiant report on "Advanced Persistent Threat 1" (APT1) marked a watershed in US-China relations on cybersecurity. We are glad the security company released the report: it is good that we are now discussing specific allegations backed with specific items of evidence instead of vague accusations about "Chinese hackers" and pro forma denials by the Chinese government.
Protecting privacy online: Is the market for protected personal information about to take off? The Economist
Embarrassing pictures on Facebook show you dancing the hula naked at a frat party. A convicted bank robber in Texas has the same name as you -- as every Google search makes all too clear. Such embarrassments would surely never befall you, dear reader. But they are common enough to spawn an entire business devoted to protecting and polishing people's image online. Reputation.com, a Silicon Valley technology firm, is hoping that this year the market will finally fulfil its potential.
23 February 2013
Evidence is mounting that China's government is sponsoring the cybertheft of Western corporate secrets. What should America do to stop it? The Economist
For years, intelligence agencies and private security experts have warned that Chinese hackers are trying to steal Western corporate secrets. The cries have grown ever louder as the attacks have become bolder and signs of government involvement have surfaced. In a forthcoming book, Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, reportedly brands China "the most sophisticated and prolific" hacker of foreign companies.
22 February 2013
U.S. Ups Ante for Spying on Firms - China, Others Are Threatened With New Penalties Wall Street Journal
The White House threatened China and other countries with trade and diplomatic action over corporate espionage as it cataloged more than a dozen cases of cyberattacks and commercial thefts at some of the U.S.'s biggest companies.
Some Victims of Online Hacking Edge Into the Light New York Times
Hackers have hit thousands of American corporations in the last few years, but few companies ever publicly admit it. Most treat online attacks as a dirty secret best kept from customers, shareholders and competitors, lest the disclosure sink their stock price and tarnish them as hapless.
21 February 2013
Online Profiling and Invasion of Privacy: The Myth of Anonymization by Eric K. Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School Huffington Post
We have been conditioned to accept that privacy is dead. We have been conditioned to accept privacy abuses as the price of using the Internet. These abuses generally involve having our search engine send us "better" ads, which most of us believe cannot be too dangerous. They are "only" ads, and they are "anonymous."
