Technology and Privacy
Guerrilla Wi-Fi ?
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 4:04 pm | 0 Comment
Although "guerrilla" wi-fi solutions -- mostly low-powered and tough to setup -- have been around for some time now,? they are now going commercial.? A company called Raysat is introducing a new product at this week's Consumer Electronics Show which turns any vehicle into a personal wi-fi zone. The SpeedRay 3000 by RaySat is a round and relatively thin antenna designed more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , TechnoActivism , Technology and Art , Technology and Privacy
Sony’s Spyware
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 2:29 pm | 0 Comment
Florida's Attorney General has begun an investigation of Sony's Digital Rights Managment (DRM) software on its commercial music Compact Discs.?? The DRM software installs itself without on the user's computer without informing the user, spies on the user's actions (apparently reporting back to Sony when a live internet connection is detected), and can't be readily more...
Blog , Datamining , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
Blogging without getting burned….
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 2:10 pm | 0 Comment
See advice by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on blogging anonymously, in order to avoid some of the perils (and reprisals) experienced by some bloggers,? especially those who have used their blogs to share information about their workplace or profession that was considered by employers to be privileged or confidential information:?? Electronic Frontier Foundation more...
Blog , TechnoActivism , Technology and Art , Technology and Privacy
We are cell phone addicts
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 1:53 pm | 0 Comment
The worldwide number of mobile cell phone users is estimated at 1,6 billion people in 2004 (from 1,3 billion in 2003). 320 million of these users can be found in China. The global number will rise to 2,1 billion in 2009 (source: Ovum, July 2004). Close to 30% of all tweens (age 6-15) in Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and Singapore own a cell phone. This number is 50% for more...
Blog , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Art , Technology and Privacy
RFID, Privacy, and Jammers
By cdharris at January 4, 2006 | 1:44 pm | 0 Comment
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an item-tagging technology with profound societal implications. Used improperly, RFID has the potential to jeopardize consumer privacy, reduce or eliminate purchasing anonymity, and threaten civil liberties. RFID tags are tiny computer chips connected to miniature antennae that can be affixed to physical objects. In the most more...
Blog , Datamining , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
Anti-spyware software may be spyware after all — DRATS — just as we suspected!
By cdharris at January 3, 2006 | 11:15 pm | 0 Comment
Be careful whenever you download software -- even if it promises to be the good guys and solve all your problems.?? As it turns out,? some opportunistic companies are disguising themselves as "anit-spyware solutions" but are really spyware in disguise.? Your basic Trojan horse.?? Not the fun kind, either. Mark Russinovich recently noted that:? "Last week when I was more...
Blog , Datamining , Emerging Science and Technology , Media and Markets , TechnoActivism , Technology and Privacy
Virtual Product Placement
By cdharris at January 3, 2006 | 8:18 pm | 0 Comment
Actually having a physical product or package for actors to handle is so over. Paid product placement on TV shows is now utilizing advanced digital bluescreen or "greenscreen" capabilities, similar to high-end animated films,? and virtually inserting an image of the product into the mise en scene. In a recent episode of the CBS show "Yes, Dear", a package of more...
Blog , Datamining , Emerging Science and Technology , Media and Markets
Mapping Companies asking users to contribute data
By cdharris at December 30, 2005 | 12:39 pm | 0 Comment
Online mapping is extremely competitive and popular with users. Nielsen/NetRatings recorded a 28% rise in visitors this year, with one-third of Web users visiting at least one mapping site in November 2005. Microsoft, Yahoo, MapQuest and Google Inc. get their primary data from only two companies, Navteq Corp. and Tele Atlas NV.? These companies are typically paid for more...
Blog , Data Visualization , Datamining , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
NSA has been datamining telecommunications
By cdharris at December 24, 2005 | 12:38 am | 0 Comment
The New York Times reported today that the NSA?"mined a vast Data Trove" of private citizen's communications since 2001.? The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants,was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries. The NSA gained the cooperation more...
Google as a means of attack
By cdharris at December 23, 2005 | 11:18 pm | 0 Comment
The UK's The Register reported recently that hackers "appear to have been abusing Google to attack Web servers, switches and routers in a novel way, by crafting search terms to include known exploits. Such a search will occasionally yield active Web pages used by administrators. On top of that, a number of them have already been cached. It's more...
Microsoft Online Ads To Offer Demographic Filtering in 2006
By cdharris at November 18, 2005 | 1:22 pm | 0 Comment
Microsoft announced in March 2005 it planned to release a technology that neither Google nor Yahoo can yet offer: the ability for advertisers to precisely filter the people exposed to their search ads by demographic information.? For example,? advertisers will be able to target one ad to men, another to women, and use additional information such as age and geographic more...
Blog , Datamining , Media and Markets , Technology and Privacy
Cookie Wars
By cdharris at November 7, 2005 | 1:16 pm | 0 Comment
The technology company United Virtualities has escalated the war between marketers, who want to know how their ads effect Web surfers, and consumers, who want to keep information to themselves. The company proclaimed it has developed a new technology to bypass cookie deletions by consumers. The new method, dubbed the "persistent identification element," or PIE, more...
Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems for Federal Surveillance
By cdharris at October 25, 2005 | 1:57 pm | 0 Comment
The New York Times reported on October 23rd that the federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. The action, which the more...
Data yearns to be shared
By cdharris at October 10, 2005 | 4:24 pm | 0 Comment
The marketing industry can't live without data, the "continuous marketing intelligence" stream that has become a necessity to predict and interpret market performance, consumer response, and just about every other function in marketing/advertising/communications relies on datamining. Everyone participates in the production of information culture, every time we more...
Camphones seen as a security risk
By cdharris at September 15, 2005 | 4:13 pm | 0 Comment
Camera and video-camera phones already pose a security risk. Phones which run an OS and are essentially small computers escalate that risk. Recently, while visiting the Giza plateau outside Cairo, a device scanner somewhere in the vicinity of the guard booths detected my Treo, identified it as a mini-computer (distinct from the many cellphones in pockets all around me) , more...
Blog , Emerging Science and Technology , Geolocation and Psychogeography , Technology and Privacy
