“Few people have heard of ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but the provisions in the agreement appear quite similar to – and more expansive than – anything we saw in SOPA. Worse, the agreement spans virtually all of the countries in the developed world, including all of the EU, the United States, Switzerland and Japan.” – If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA – Forbes. Continue reading
Tag Archives: online privacy
From Facebook Wall to Mug Shot
Facebook’s half billion active users disseminate over 30 billion pieces of content. But even though Facebook users have privacy options to control who sees what content, From Facebook to Mug Shot: How the Dearth of Social Networking Privacy Rights Revolutionized Online Government Surveillance by Junichi P. Semitsu, University of San Diego School of Law, concludes that every single one of Facebook’s 133 million active users in the United States lack a reasonable expectation of privacy from government surveillance of virtually all of their online activity.
Based on Facebook’s own interpretations of federal privacy laws, a warrant is only necessary to compel disclosure of inbox and outbox messages less than 181 days old. Everything else can be obtained with subpoenas that do not even require reasonable suspicion. Accordingly, over the last six years, government agents have worked the beat by mining the treasure trove of personal and confidential information on Facebook.
The Article concludes with an urgent proposal to revise the ECPA and reinterpret Katz before the Facebook generation accepts the Hobson’s choice it currently faces: either live life off the grid or accept that using modern communications technologies means the possibility of unwarranted government surveillance.
Note: The Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in US v. Katz – finding that privacy attaches to a person, not a place – has yet to be extended to electronic communications.
In 2011, The New York Times published “1986 Privacy Law Is Outrun by the Web,” highlighting that:
Last year, for example, the Justice Department argued in court that cellphone users had given up the expectation of privacy about their location by voluntarily giving that information to carriers. In April, it argued in a federal court in Colorado that it ought to have access to some e-mails without a search warrant. And federal law enforcement officials, citing technology advances, plan to ask for new regulations that would smooth their ability to perform legal wiretaps of various Internet communications.
The analysis went on to discuss how Google, Facebook, Verizon, Twitter and other companies are in the middle between users and governments. This is worth watching > Does what happens in the Facebook stay in the Facebook?
EFF recently launched a campaign calling on companies to stand with their users when the government comes looking for data. (If you haven’t done so, they are requesting you to sign their petition urging companies to provide better transparency and privacy.) Click to see how the companies are doing.
Related posts found in this blog:
Facebook Connections and Reputation Management
Social Networks Siphon Personal Info
Clicking with Caution videos for kids by kids
Clicking with Caution is a series of educational videos by kids and for kids, and aimed at to raising awareness of internet risks and teaching preventive measures. Topics included are : Maintaining Anonymity, Cyber Bullying, Online Sexual Predators and Online Gaming.
These days, many kids draw little distinction between real life and online life. They may use social Web sites designed for children such as Webkinz or Club Penguin, or social Web sites designed for adults such as Windows Live Spaces, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and others. Twitter is less secure than Facebook because by default all posts are public and will be broadcast in a publicly search-able time-line by anyone with a connection to the internet. Unfortunately, some of the information kids tweet and post on their pages can also make them vulnerable to a wide variety of security threats, malware attacks, phishing scams, cyberbullying, and internet predators. Many social networking sites children frequent do not have parental control tools that will help to keep your children safe. –
Back to School Online Security Tips
The Clicking with Caution series was made in collaboration with the NYC Dept of Education’s Office of Instructional (now Educational) Technology and the Mayor’s office in partnership with Reel Works Teen Filmmaking and Microsoft. Watch Clicking with Caution here.
What’s your response to the video? Do you think this series of videos will be more effective because they are made by kids, rather than being made by adults?
Resources and references – The Cyberbullying Research Center is dedicated to providing up-to-date information about the nature, extent, causes, and consequences of cyberbullying among adolescents.
Related posts found in this blog:
Social Security Numbers and Identity Theft
California outlaws online impersonation
