#privacy

The U.S. Government intends to force visitors to submit their digital history and DNA as the price of entry. With this much data AI tools will likely be deployed to unlock details of your life for border and immigration agencies.

The right place to end up is where you’re totally in control of your data. As the power of local devices becomes greater, then the amount of stuff which gets stored locally increases… a lot of the things that people are building out there on the web are local-first, meaning that they’re designed to be able to work without the cloud. They store data either on the web, or they store the data on your local device. The good place to be is that the data is all stored on your local device. The inference is happening in your device, and you’re in control.

The fundamental problem is that in using most modern consumer-oriented applications, we lose control of the data we share with those applications. In creating documents, writing emails, or tracking our exercise or other activities, we share data with an application that’s useful for a particular purpose, but also allow the data live in a database controlled by the application’s owner. With the data outside of our control, it can then be restricted, lost, leaked, sold, resold, and exploited. The groups that control these databases accrue most of the benefits, and we accrue most of the costs.

Consent-O-Matic is a browser extension that recognizes CMP (Consent Management Provider) pop-ups that have become ubiquitous on the web and automatically fills them out based on your preferences – even if you meet a dark pattern design.

Consent-O-Matic is a browser extension that recognizes CMP (Consent Management Provider) pop-ups that have become ubiquitous on the web and automatically fills them out based on your preferences – even if you meet a dark pattern design.

All of this is a long way of saying that I was totally unprepared for today's bombshell revelations describing the NSA's efforts to defeat encryption. Not only does the worst possible hypothetical I discussed appear to be true, but it's true on a scale I couldn't even imagine. I'm no longer the crank. I wasn't even close to cranky enough.

It’s also worth pointing out that we do take certain technical measures to limit the data we collect. We’ve designed Persona so that the identity provider – including the fallback Identity Provider that we run – does not learn your browsing history. We consider that a good security practice, not specifically because of surveillance, but generally because collecting data without a user benefit just creates risk.

Dave asks some great questions about why the people who had power over these networks didn't blow the whistle instead of some anonymous insider having to do it. Here's one possible answer.

At Chase Bank, we recognize the value of online banking—it’s quick, convenient, and available any time you need it. Unfortunately, though, the threats posed by malware and identity theft are very real and all too common nowadays. That’s why, when you’re finished with your online banking session, we recommend three simple steps to protect your personal information: log out of your account, close your web browser, and then charter a seafaring vessel to take you 30 miles out into the open ocean and throw your computer overboard.

At Chase Bank, we recognize the value of online banking—it’s quick, convenient, and available any time you need it. Unfortunately, though, the threats posed by malware and identity theft are very real and all too common nowadays. That’s why, when you’re finished with your online banking session, we recommend three simple steps to protect your personal information: log out of your account, close your web browser, and then charter a seafaring vessel to take you 30 miles out into the open ocean and throw your computer overboard.

If you are unlucky enough to have your computer infected with a RAT, prepare to be sold or traded to the kind of person who enters forums to ask, "Can I get some slaves for my rat please? I got 2 bucks lol I will give it to you :b" At that point, the indignities you will suffer—and the horrific website images you may see—will be limited only by the imagination of that most terrifying person: a 14-year-old boy with an unsupervised Internet connection.

If you are unlucky enough to have your computer infected with a RAT, prepare to be sold or traded to the kind of person who enters forums to ask, "Can I get some slaves for my rat please? I got 2 bucks lol I will give it to you :b" At that point, the indignities you will suffer—and the horrific website images you may see—will be limited only by the imagination of that most terrifying person: a 14-year-old boy with an unsupervised Internet connection.

The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate jokes is a bit of a black box.

The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate jokes is a bit of a black box.

"(The student now) fears that the school could make her give up her passwords at a moment's notice, at any time, for any reason," the lawsuit claims. It also alleges that password prying is standard practice at the Minnewaska Middle School, which the student still attends. "(Officials) have compelled other students to disclose their private information and have accessed students' online accounts on multiple occasions," it states.

Well, no, not really. Because in the past the user only had to decide whether to share something they just read, but now they have to think about every single article before they even read it. If I read this article, then everyone will know I read it, and do I really want people to know I read it?

After all this what you end you with is an LCD monitor that displays a white screen until you put on the glasses. Yes really.

The reason that Incognito is such a great feature for Google to build is that over time it will reduce the cookie deletion rate of web browsers.

Mozilla’s mission is to give users this choice and control over their browsing experience. We won’t turn on Do Not Track by default because then it would be Mozilla making the choice, not the individual. Since this is a choice for the user to make, we cannot send the signal automatically but will empower them with the tools they need to do it.

"personalization framework for the web are discussed, and contrasted with the requirements for a federated digital identity system. A set of design goals for personalization frameworks is developed and discussed. User identification requirements for personalization are isolated and found to be more limited than in the digital identity arena. Privacy implications for personalization frameworks are discussed. Based on all of this an architecture is proposed for detailed design and implementation."

"There’s risk in confusing broadband and Internet. If the National Broadband Plan starts from the premise that the U.S. needs the innovation, increased productivity, new ideas and freedoms of expression that the Internet affords, then the Plan will be shaped around the Internet. If, instead, the Plan is premised on a need for broadband, it fails to address the ARRA’s mandated objectives directly. More importantly, the premise that broadband is the primary goal entertains the remaking of the Internet in ways that could put its benefits at risk. The primary goal of the Plan should be broadband connections to the Internet."

"The Star-Telegram has a report on the tight security surrounding George W. and Laura Bush’s move into their Dallas home. Police officers have been turning away vehicles trying to enter the Preston Hollow neighborhood, “explaining that it is closed to the general public.”"

"Everybody, I guess, needs a mokki."

"The whole package—music, message, meme, media—comes together nicely. Like the best cultural phenomena, this can be enjoyed at several levels of participation—at least one of which involves a dance floor."

"A security researcher has a devised a novel attack on online anonymity systems in which he literally takes a computer's temperature over the internet."

"I have spoken to about a dozen agents, and they all roll their eyes and indicate disgust with the man-years of wasted effort being put into physically examining NSA "leads." "

"For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness."

"It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it."

"Today, it is increasingly easy to monitor ideas. And then track them back to people."

"In the weeks after 9/11, while America and the world were grieving, Bush built a legal rationale for a dictatorship. Then he immediately started using it to avoid the law."

"It is not known exactly how Kennedy became mixed up in a national terrorist database - whether by accident, or as a practical joke, or as a Republican dirty trick to keep him out of Boston during the Democratic National Convention."

"In the brave new future, Big Brother will watch our every move. But that's OK, because we'll be watching him too." Brin beats the transparent society drum again. I, for one, welcome my own personal traffic cam.

Well, they don't *really* know us - which is why it's so scary that they could have the power to deny things to us based on credit reports, health history, etc.

Kinda devious - styling external links with background images, whose URLs pass through a tracker, thereby revealing sites you've visited elsewhere.