FTC Cracks Down on Fake Word of Mouth Marketing
The Washington Post reports that the FTC has begun to crack down on false word-of-mouth advertising. This is where a company pays people to tell friends about their products. From the article:
As the practice has taken hold over the past several years, however, some advocacy groups have questioned whether .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Tracking People by RFID in their Shoes
In Schneier's blog today, he writes about a University of Washington study explaining how to track people using their Nike+iPod Sport Kit (which uses RFID).
This is a great demonstration for anyone who is skeptical that RFID chips can be used to track people. It's a good example because the chips have no personal identifying .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Data Breach at UCLA
Hackers have gained access to databases at the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), making off with the personal information of 800,000 current and former students, employees, and faculty.
The data breach is thought to be the largest of its kind at an American college or university. I've always said .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Data Brokering, Identity Theft, SchoolsNintendo to Look into “Remote Destruction”
Gamasutra reports that Nintendo is looking into possible solutions for the accidental destruction of TVs or nearby items/people when players in America get a little too excited when playing and accidentally throw the remote.
The article quotes Ninetendo execs as having considered ways to prevent people from getting so excited .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Gaming, Japan, Nintendo, Oops, WiihavaproblemNIST Recommends that E-voting Machines be De-certified
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending that the 2007 version of the Voluntary Voting Systems Guidelines (VVSG) decertify direct record electronic (DRE) machines.
In the article, they explain how NIST has found that the machines have no paper trail, and that a single programmer could rig an entire election. Uh…hello? This is not .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Diebold, EvotingSenate Banking Committee Member Denounces”No-Swipe” Credit Cards
From the CASPAIN newsletter:
A member of the Senate Banking Committee denounced RFID "no-swipe" credit cards at a press conference Sunday. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said contracts for the cards should have warning boxes disclosing "the known weaknesses of the technology." He cautioned cardholders about their vulnerability to identity .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]DRM in Game Systems
I had to laugh when I read this today at Penny-Arcade:
All of this confusion for paying customers, so that pirates will be detained an additional fifteen minutes before they descend, their scythes awhirl. For those who don't know, Penny-Arcade is a site that has been doing .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Defective by Design, DRM, Gaming, penny arcadeSome US Schools Fingerprint Students Like Criminals
In a recent newsletter, the Electronic Frontier Foundation writes:
Despite complaints from privacy advocates and parents, schools in states across the country are considering using fingerprint scans to track students. Kids at Sandlapper Elementary in Columbia, South Carolina, have their fingerprints scanned to pay for their breakfast and check out .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Universal to Rip off MP3 Player customers
Reuters reports that the recent Microsoft Zune player (the competition portable MP3 player to the iPod) has a built in royalty fee that goes straight to Universal (one of the worlds largest music companies).
Slashdot's coverage quotes Universal Music's Doug Morris as saying the following:
These devices are just repositories for stolen music, .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]IHOP Takes Driver’s Licenses
There was a recent case in Boston where a man was asked for his driver's license before being seated at IHOP. Apparently some gizmo thought it would be a great idea to prevent "dine and dashing". According to the article, the security person already had about 40 IDs on the desk by the time the subject .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Data Brokering, IHOP
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