http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57348727-93/google-under-fire-for-travel-search-placement/
Archive for 2011/12/27
A movie studio has obtained a court order forcing India’s ISPs to block some of the world’s largest file-sharing sites
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Blocking, Education / Awareness, Enforcement, Illegal File Sharing, JurisprudenceAll websites like Megaupload and Filesonic are located out of India and such sites rampantly promote online piracy. In fact, steps such as the John Doe order are the only step that we copyright owners are left with,” said Reliance spokesman Sanjay Tandon.
More:
http://torrentfreak.com/court-order-blocks-bittorrent-megaupload-and-more-111227/
Professor Mireille Hildebrandt: ‘Perhaps the Googles of this world have to go and find another business model’
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsProfessor of Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law Mireille Hildebrandt feels that:
- companies such as Google and Facebook should not keep their algorithms secret;
- companies such as Google and Facebook should disclose how they are using the information they collect about internet users;
- applications should be introduced that will allow internet users to check just how data about them is being collected, what type of data it involves and how that data is being put to use.
“Picture a business woman, who frequently books flights via a website. After a while her ‘internet profile’ indicates that money is no object to her. The consequence: the search engine of the ticket site will opt NOT to show the cheapest flights any longer, while the business woman has no clue about that. That’s not illegal in the Netherlands. But what if a woman is applying for a job and because of her ‘internet profile’ she’s not being hired, because there is a fairly big chance that she will become pregnant soon? That IS an illegal act of discrimination and currently we cannot check whether these things are actually happening.”
Dutch language news articles:
http://www.security.nl/artikel/39662/1/Wat_weten_Facebook_en_Google_over_je%3F.html
http://www.ru.nl/wetenschapsagenda/@832480/burger-greep-krijgen/
English language information:
http://works.bepress.com/mireille_hildebrandt/
Previously:
http://vrritti.com/?s=algorithm
Why Google Continues to Fund Firefox
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Google, New Business Models, Online advertisingBitTorrent Zeitgeist: What People Searched For in 2011
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, File Sharing, Illegal File Sharing, Stats / reportsInterestingly, the most searched for terms are not targeted at specific content, but used to discover files instead. “Ita,” “French” and “2011″ make up the top three and are used to find media in Italian, French and from 2011 respectively. The same is true for “DVDrip” and “720p” which are also listed in the top 10.
The first search term related to a specific title is “Thor” in 9th place, a title that also ended up in the most pirated movies list of this year. Movie related searches are clearly the most popular among users of the site as we also find “Harry Potter,” “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “Green Lantern” and “Transformers 3″ in the top 20.
Much more:
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-zeitgeist-what-people-searched-for-in-2011-111227/
Allot Communications Ltd. Sold Deep Packet Inspection Technology ‘NetEnforcer’ To Iran
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Public PolicyIsrael-based Allot’s equipment for monitoring Internet traffic was sold to Iran via a distributor in Denmark. The Jewish state bans trade with Iran, which has called for its destruction. A member of Israel’s parliament called for an investigation, and the Ministry of Defense said it’s examining the report
Apple Ignores European Consumer Legislation. Now Has To Pay 900,000 EUR Fine In Italy
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, LegislationConsumers do not actually need a full AppleCare Protection Plan. The law already obligates Apple to provide such a service to consumers for at least 2 years. This situation applies to many EU territories
Dutch language news article:
http://www.powned.tv/nieuws/tech/2011/12/apple_misleidt_klanten.html
These are 10,257 of 22,640 (45%) passwords from the list of STRATFOR customer accounts cracked with dictionary attack using wordlist from UNIQPASS
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data ProtectionThe complete list of leaked accounts can be found at http://dazzlepod.com/stratfor/
Cellphone users in Europe and the rest of the world may be just as vulnerable as the actor Hugh Grant and other celebrities to having their personal voice mail hacked – or worse – because of outdated mobile network security
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Privacy / Data Protection, Stats / reportsIn a study of 31 mobile operators in Europe, Morocco and Thailand, Karsten Nohl, a Berlin hacker and mobile security expert, found that many operators provided poor or weak defenses to protect consumers from illicit surveillance and identity theft.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/26iht-hack26.html
A Dispute Over Who Owns a Twitter Account Goes to Court
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, LitigationWhile at the company, Mr. Kravitz, 38, began writing on Twitter under the name Phonedog_Noah, and over time, had amassed 17,000 followers. When he left, he said, PhoneDog told him he could keep his Twitter account in exchange for posting occasionally.
The company asked him to “tweet on their behalf from time to time and I said sure, as we were parting on good terms,” Mr. Kravitz said by telephone.
And so he began writing as NoahKravitz, keeping all his followers under that new handle. But eight months after Mr. Kravitz left the company, PhoneDog sued, saying the Twitter list was a customer list, and seeking damages of $2.50 a month per follower for eight months, for a total of $340,000.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/lawsuit-may-determine-who-owns-a-twitter-account.html
Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has emerged as one of the Wikileaks founder’s core supporters
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / AwarenessLudlam has returned from a mission to Europe where he sought to secure some surety over Assange’s human rights, if he is extradited to Sweden
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/26/assange_championed_by_greens/
U.S. House Of Representatives Harbors BitTorrent Pirates
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, Illegal File Sharing, Public PolicyIn total we found more than 800 IP-addresses assigned to the U.S. House of Representatives from where content has been shared on BitTorrent. After a closer inspection it quickly became clear the House isn’t just using it for legitimate downloads either, quite the opposite.
http://torrentfreak.com/while-drafting-sopa-us-house-harbors-bittorrent-pirates-111226/
BlackBerry music service launched in the Netherlands
Posted: 2011/12/27 in Education / Awareness, New Business ModelsWith BBM Music, BlackBerry users can listen to music online and offline and share the music with (BlackBerry) friends. Users can choose from a collection of 50 songs from millions of songs available
