AT&T’s New Spying Program
AT&T is a company who needs to be watched having been recently discovered that they built a custom algorithm to: "crunch through tens of millions of long distance phone records a night to draw up what AT&T calls "communities of interest" — i.e., calling circles that show who is talking to whom".
.... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Tags: Big Business, Data BrokeringBlackwater Offered Immunity
Blackwater, a private security firm (read: mercenaries) is in trouble for having shot some people (I apologize for the huge over-simplification).
Anyway, the State Department is offering them immunity. Here's the problem: immunity means that it doesn't matter if they're guilty or innoncent, there will be no consequences for their actions. Even if you were to assume that .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Accountability, Blackwater, State DepartmentNew Trend – Leaking Ad Flyers Online
So here's something new: finding out the prices on an upcoming sale by looking online. This is particularly useful when the ad flyer happens to be for Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving).
This follows another recent story of a Walmart ad being leaked online (which has, of course, been taken down due to a legal threat from .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: RetailersTJX Data Breach Up to 94 Million Victims
If you've been following this breach, the key problem here is two part:
1) TJX is the parent company of several other companies including TJ Maxx. Each of those companies shared data with TJX creating a massive database (and a single target for the hackers).
2) TJX (and others) shouldn't have stored the credit .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Big Business, Data Brokering, Identity Theft, Negligence, TJ Maxx, TJX, WEP, Wireless SecurityRefund for Preinstalled Unwanted Software
A guy in Italy managed to get a refund from HP for Windows XP and Works 8 which were preinstalled on his system. Apparently, the license agreement states that if the customer doesn't accept the agreement, the vendor will refund the money.
This could be the start of a disturbing trend as far as computer retailers are .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Microsoft, Windows, Your RightsSprint Forced to Unlock Phones
In California, Sprint has been forced to unlock their phones to allow their customers to use their phones with other cell services. The main point here being that if someone has been using their cellphone for years wouldn't normally want to switch to another service even if Sprint was terrible since they might like their phone and have .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: Cellphones, Good Stuff, Service Lock, SprintFingerprint Evidence No Longer Allowed in Trials?
So much for CSI.
In actuality, this is only a ruling on partial fingerprint evidence. I'm not sure if I agree that a partial print can't be considered as one piece of the evidence though I do agree that you can't make a case solely on a partial print. In this case, the judge ruled that a partial print .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Tags: FingerprintingHR Firm Loses Laptop
Here we go again. At least this time, it's only on the order of a few hundred thousand people.
Note: it's a little sad to have to say that.
.... [Click here to read the rest of this post]Tags: HP, Identity Theft, Lost LaptopsParents Embarassed or Worse For What their Kids Post Online
Well this is different. I knew that posting online can have severe negative effects on the poster, but I hadn't considered the effect on the parents.
"Whether we're talking about dad's work secrets or problems between mom and dad with their relationship," Sgt. MacDonald said.
We asked him to show us just how easy it .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
Parents Can Get Fired For What their Kids Post Online
Well this is different. I knew that posting online can have severe negative effects on the poster, but I hadn't considered the effect on the parents.
"Whether we're talking about dad's work secrets or problems between mom and dad with their relationship," Sgt. MacDonald said.
We asked him to show us just how easy it .... [Click here to read the rest of this post]
