http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/28/spotify-on-track-first-profit
Archive for 2011/08/28
How Carriers Hamstring Your Smart Phone. By recruiting almost 400 volunteers to run an app on their phones that probes a carrier’s networks, the team discovered that one of the four major U.S. carriers is slowing its network performance by up to 50 percent. They also found carrier policies that drained users’ phone batteries at an accelerated rate, and security vulnerabilities that could leave devices open to complete takeover by hackers
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Bandwidth Management, Education / Awareness, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsDespite the new age of smarter, undeletable cookies, behavioral advertising, deep packet inspection, clickstream sales and search result hijacking, there still aren’t modern consumer protection regulations in place to protect consumers from privacy abuses. Given the combined lobbying cash of the telecom, content and marketing industries — there aren’t going to be any, either
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public PolicyGoogle’s Eric Schmidt: “Listen to the entrepreneurs, not the lawyers, if you want to revitalise your business” , “Let me state very clearly upfront: we respect copyright” and “If YouTube had to pre-vet every new video – 48 hours every minute – it simply couldn’t exist”
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Google, New Business Models, Public Policy- Of course, while I’m optimistic that computer science and the Internet are forces for good, I’m not naive. As JFK put it, “I’m an idealist without illusions”. There are many challenges we’re still grappling to address. For instance: how do we make the world more open while still respecting privacy? How do we empower people without provoking anarchy? How do we ensure technology enriches rather than devalues relationships and culture?
- Online, through a combination of algorithms and editorial nudges, suggestions could be individually crafted to suit your interests and needs. The more you watch and share, the more chances the system has to learn, and the better its predictions get. Taken to the ultimate, it would be like the perfect TV channel: always exciting, always relevant – sometimes serendipitous – always worth your time.
- Google – and others – are investing in research to better understand how viewers are consuming TV and the web across multiple platforms.
- Google’s survival strategy is to place big bets on technology trends. Placing big bets might sound risky but given the pace of change, we think it’s the only logical approach. Not every bet will succeed, but it’s safer to aim too high than too low; to strive for game changing progress than to fiddle at the margins. It’s better to launch and iterate; to fail fast and learn from your mistakes, than to spend years in planning and end up miles off the pace.
- Unfortunately, one of the downsides of this approach is it can be disruptive. At times we’ve inadvertently made things worse, by sharing our delight in innovations without appreciating other’s discomfort. For that I apologise. I don’t think we’ll ever stop ruffling feathers – that’s an occupational hazard of innovation. But I do hope we’re now sufficiently engaged in industry conversations to be sensitive and responsive to concerns.
- To be clear, I’m not suggesting a completely laissez faire approach is appropriate. Alongside the Internet’s benefits, there is content and behaviour none of us want to encourage. From copyright infringement to phishing scams to sexual abuse imagery – none of this is good. But when legislators try to figure out how to minimise the harm of online content, technology solutions rather than laws should be their first thought.
- Stifling the Internet – whether by filtering or blocking or just plain turning the ‘off’ switch - appeals to policy makers the world over. I don’t blame them for wanting to apply what seems, in theory, the simplest solution. The problem is things are far more complicated in practice. For every ISP filter there’s a work-around. For every blacklist there’s a proxy server. And for every well-meaning attempt to limit the bad stuff there is good stuff that gets knocked out too.
- Instead, policy makers should work with the grain of the Internet rather than against it. Harness the huge levels of user engagement we have online to find solutions. Encourage online innovators to find new ways for parents to protect their kids. A good example is YouTube’s Community Guidelines, setting rules for YouTube content that go further than the law and enable users themselves to identify content that’s inappropriate and have it taken down. Working with the grain of the Internet rather than against it. Allowing the sharing of online data. And ensuring laws allow innovation to flourish. Three big principles that – I think – could help the UK’s Television industry to succeed globally.
Microsoft’s SmartScreen spam filter technology started to block messages from the company, Holomaxx, after the Redmond company found their contents to be “harassing” and “otherwise objectionable”
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, JurisprudenceMicrosoft said it was within its rights under the Communications Decency Act.
http://www.geekwire.com/2011/judge-tosses-antitrust-claims-microsoft-yahoo-spam-filters
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to prevent Internet users from using technology that would allow them to privately browse the Internet.
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, Privacy / Data Protection, Public PolicyThe American Civil Liberties Union has launched a new campaign to force schools to give students access to internet pornography
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Filtering, LitigationSo far seven school districts have been legally threatened by ACLU with an ultimatum that they either disable their filters or face a federal civil rights lawsuit.
The speed of the Internet coupled with its global connectivity and inextricable links to critical infrastructure assets render signaling just as important in cyberspace, especially as nation states and other actors are investing in cyber operations capabilities
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Cybercrime, Education / Awareness, Public PolicyWhen one nation was perceived to overstep its bounds, the other would signal its discontent by moving aircraft carrier groups, conducting military exercises, pursuing diplomatic actions or enforcing embargoes. These clear, but nuanced, signals may well have averted nuclear exchanges.
We can’t communicate without consulting our god***n iPhones, we can’t listen to music without iTunes maximum-prophet interface, we buy into Fb’s “friends” or +’s “circles” – and since when in the past million years have we quantified or classified our friends (well maybe in grade school)
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Education / Awareness, Tech EvolutionGo back and read Sartre on seriality and authenticity – my complaint is nothing new here, but what surprises me is how we accept all of this along with Wired mag’s hyperbole, etc. etc.
The FBI is investigating a Dutch woman, who worked at the US embassy in The Hague. The woman is believed to have visited anti-American websites according to messages by US diplomats revealed by WikiLeaks
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Education / Awareness, EnforcementThe investigation began following a tip from a colleague about her internet use
http://www.rnw.nl/africa/bulletin/fbi-investigates-dutch-embassy-worker
The five largest English language websites dedicated to swapping files are all related to centralized file-hosting services, also known as cyberlockers. The Pirate Bay and Torrentz are the only BitTorrent sites that managed to secure a spot in the top 10
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reports| Ranking | Website | Category | Unique monthly visitors | Monthly pageviews |
| 1 | 4shared | Cyberlocker | 55,000,000 | 2,500,000,000 |
| 2 | Megaupload | Cyberlocker | 37,000,000 | 400,000,000 |
| 3 | Mediafire | Cyberlocker | 34,000,000 | 330,000,000 |
| 4 | Filestube | Meta-search | 34,000,000 | 280,000,000 |
| 5 | Rapidshare | Cyberlocker | 23,000,000 | 280,000,000 |
| 6 | The Pirate Bay | Torrent index | 23,000,000 | 650,000,000 |
| 7 | Fileserve | Cyberlocker | 19,000,000 | 190,000,000 |
| 8 | Hotfile | Cyberlocker | 16,000,000 | 110,000,000 |
| 9 | Torrentz.eu | Meta-search | 15,000,000 | 340,000,000 |
| 10 | Depositfiles | Cyberlocker | 14,000,000 | 110,000,000 |
http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-largest-file-sharing-sites-110828/
The court in Haarlem in the Netherlands condemned a man for copyright infringement for uploading digital editions of educational books. Tim Kuik, director of BREIN, is pleased with this ruling. According to Kuik the ruling states that linking to illegal documents is unlawful, even when they link to documents at filehosters
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, JurisprudenceBesides uploading answers to his website, Van A. also placed links to illegal documents available on fileshostingsites, such as Megaupload and Rapidshare. BREIN, the Dutch foundation for the entertainment industry, supported Noordhoff and ThiemenMeulenhoff in the proceeding on the merit.
Fact that Eugene Kaspersky used to work for the KGB is no problem for the Dutch Minister of Defense Hans Hillen
Posted: 2011/08/28 in Education / Awareness, Network Security, Privacy / Data Protection, Public PolicyKaspersky is now securing the networks of one of the NATO countries. Dutch Members of Parliament asked questions about that.
Dutch language news article:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/38269/1/Hillen%3A_KGB-verleden_Kaspersky_geen_probleem.html
