Category: Notes From The Electronic Cottage

A weekly feature on electronic technology as it affects everyday life with Jim Campbell. Broadcast on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, ME every Thursday at 7:30 AM.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/30/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Recently, we’ve seen headlines like “US Congress Votes to Let Broadband ISPs Sell Your Browser Histories.” Could this be true? Yup, it sure is so it becomes more important than ever for anyone who cares about personal privacy to take steps to preserve their privacy online themselves. In theory, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have agreed to abide by a set of ISP Privacy Principles. A copy of those principles is available here: https://prodnet.www.neca.org/publicationsdocs/wwpdf/12717ctia.pdf. And most ISPs are supposed to provide a way for customers to choose not to have their personal information sold to others. Each ISP is supposed to have a way to opt out of tracking of their Internet activity. The link for Time Warner Cable, now Spectrum, is here: https://pc2.mypreferences.com/charter/privacy.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/23/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about electronic surveillance of Americans, and the capabilities that government agencies like the NSA and CIA have to monitor us citizens. But what does all this information means, and how might it affect our day-to-day lives? Here are some thoughts on that subject.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/16/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Amidst the huffing and puffing that passes for government these days, you may be forgiven if you haven’t heard that the very important Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire at the end of 2017 unless Congress renews it. This is a part of FISA that attempts to control, albeit to a less than optimum degree, what the NSA can and cannot do within the borders of the United States. It is a really important law that could stand improvement.

For background info:
https://theregister.co.uk/2017/02/15/section_702_mass_surveillance
https://aclu.org/search/section 702

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/9/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The “Right to Be Forgotten” is now enshrined in European Union law. What the heck is the “Right to Be Forgotten” and is it a good idea or, from a US point of view, a violation of our First Amendment?

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 3/2/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Some estimates suggest that there could be 50 billion connected devices in the world by 2020 making up a huge web that many refer to as the Internet of Things (IoT). From interconnected devices in our cars to our homes to our children’s toys and beyond, we humans are going to be interacting regularly with often artificially intelligent sensors and electronic devices. Are we ready to handle them all? A recent report from the Community Computing Consortium raises some pretty important questions. If you’d like to see the whole report yourself, take a look at http://cra.org/ccc/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/02/Safety-Security-and-Privacy-Threats-in-IoT.pdf.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/23/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It seems like tech White Hats are always trying harder to devise more secure ways to protect our computers and information, and Black Hats are trying just as hard to break those protection systems. Now there is a technology developing that may either make secure encryption effectively impossible – or just maybe make it unbreakable. It’s called Quantum Computing and it promises computing power beyond anything available today.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/16/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Think self-driving cars are examples of amazing technology? They are but there even more amazing examples of human-machine interaction on the horizon which suggest that we are entering a time when machines and people are going to interact more and more directly and deeply. What kind of world are we creating? Here are some early glimpses.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/9/17

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The prospects for science and technology in this country do not seem particularly bright at the moment judging by the words and actions coming out of Washington recently. But there are still amazing things going on in labs all over the world, especially at the intersection of health science and digital technology. Here are a few that could have a big impact on our everyday world before too long.