Tag: privacy

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 12/14/11

In this edition, we update a couple of topics we’ve looked at recently – the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an alternative to SOPA which troubles many in this country and aboard; and a reminder that our privacy laws are reducing the competitiveness of U.S. companies trying to do business in countries worried about ubiquitous U.S. surveillance of personal information.

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/25/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Computers are getting remarkably good at identifying faces. That can be very cool for automatically tagging the people in the photos you upload to your computer, but maybe not quite as cool when Facebook, Google, and your local police department start doing the same thing.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 7/14/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Smile – you’re on Candid Camera! No, not the TV show, the every day security show that is going on all over the country and all over the world. Going to lower Manhattan? There are a thousand security cameras there per square mile
– and they are being tied together so police can access the images from any of them. Visiting London? You’re image will probably be recorded 300 times in a day. Well, you might say, these cameras help police solve crimes.
Maybe, but they can be used for lots of other things as well. Here are some of them in this show from the Electronic Cottage archives.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/10/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

We’ve heard a lot about the Internet lately with the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. What we haven’t heard so much about are questions about personal information security right here at home. Today we take a brief look at both in this first installment on Internet Security.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/3/11

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Today, let’s catch up on some recent developments in labs and elsewhere that will be affecting our lives sooner or later ranging from storing information in bacteria to letting government agents have access to our reading habits for no particular reason.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 9/2/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

It’s back to school time again so here are some back to school aids foryoung (and not so young) scholars:www.worldpress.org – links to newspapers and magazines in countries all overthe world
www.50states.com/news – listings of almost all newspapers in the U.S.
www.lexicool.com – links to 7500 dictionaries in many dozens of languages.
In addition to the normal questions those going back to school face as a newyear begins, parents in Maine are facing another question, one with lifelongimplications for their children: should they supply their children’s socialsecurity numbers to schools? It’s a very big question: here’s why.

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 8/26/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

If bad uses of technology upset you, maybe you’d better pass this edition by. But if you use an ATM machine or a cell phone or GPS, you may find some of this information not only disturbing but useful as well. And as for the credit and debit card number skimmers that crooks have taken to using of late, check this site out for some pix. Can you tell the difference betweena skimmer and your favorite real ATM?  We can’t.  http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/02/atm-skimmers-part-ii

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 6/10/10

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

The first of a new generation of satellites that will provide more accurate GPS location services has just been a launched. When all 12 of these satellites are in place, GPS accuracy should include from today’s approximately 20 foot accuracy to about 2-3 foot accuracy. This will have big implications for everyday life – some obvious, some not so obvious.Let’s take a look.