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4th Amendment Summary by the EFF

Saturday, March 2nd, 2019 (No comments yet)
Can you refuse search or not? It would be good to know your rights.
(Image is in the Public Domain)

You can't use rights you don't know about or don't understand. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has posted a summary of your 4th amendment rights to deny the government permission to search you or your belongings (digital or otherwise).

It's good to know what you can and can't do since you should know that even when you've done nothing wrong, you may still get yourself into a lot of trouble if you are careless with your privacy.

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ACLU and EFF to Cripple RIAA Lawsuits

Wednesday, March 20th, 2019 (No comments yet)
Businesses, Privacy
(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

While I don't support downloading music and movies instead of buying them, I also don't support abusing the legal system to bully people and make money. The RIAA has been doing just that for a long time according to several consumer groups.

In this case, the The American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU and the The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are arguing that when the The RIAA - Who They Are In a Nutshell sues thousands of "infringers", they have to file thousands of separate lawsuits and not just one.

Filing one is cheaper and easier, but makes it harder and is unfair for the victims… er, I mean defendants.

If the court adopts the approach suggested here, the costs of the current anti-P2P litigation strategy could become untenable. If each anonymous defendant requires several hundred dollars in filing fees, individual paperwork, individual subpoenas, and detailed information on their alleged distribution, settling for a mere $1,500 doesn't sound so hot.

Let's hope for the best. Leave people alone and worry about pirating organizations and criminal groups instead.

Source: Ars Technica

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EFF Takes Opportunity to Shut Down All RIAA Lawsuits

Friday, March 29th, 2019 (No comments yet)
Safety, US Goverment
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

In a recent case, the judge has asked for public comment which the Electronic Frontier Foundation was happy to do.

In brief, the EFF is trying to show the judge that the RIAA can't win judgments against people only by showing that someone had a copyrighted song in a share folder. In other words, just because it was "available" for download, doesn't mean a crime occurred. Second, just because MediaSentry (the company paid by the RIAA to find copyrighted material online) downloads the song from someone doesn't suddenly make the providing person a criminal.

Hear, hear.

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Protecting Yourself From Suspicionless Border Searches

Sunday, March 31st, 2019 (No comments yet)
Privacy, Tips and Tricks, US Goverment
Don't tempt pointless attention
(Image is in the Public Domain)

The EFF has an excellent article about how to avoid being searched at the border. Specifically, how to protect your laptop data that courts recently ruled could be searched without warrant.

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EFF Releases Free Software To Detect If Your ISP is Cheating You

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019 (No comments yet)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
(Image used under: Fair Use doctrine)

Because Comcast has been denying the results of an Associated Press study showing they've been blocking certain types of traffic, the The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has done their own study proving that it's true.

Beyond that, they've created software that can be downloaded free that people can use to test it for themselves. Go EFF!

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Top 10 Worst Consumer Privacy Infringers

Wednesday, March 6th, 2019 (No comments yet)
Businesses, Privacy
Companies just can't seem to mind their own business
(Image is in the Public Domain)

This is a damn funny article explaining who is the worst of the worst and why:

America Online

America Online's privacy intrusion efforts are so aggressive and offensive, that the only explanation seems to be that AOL thought its clientele was so naïve they would never catch on to the company's privacy invasions.
and…

Amazon.com

Amazon.com is currently among the world leaders in distributing information about its users to advertisers, and if they continue this practice the recent advancements in data mining by Amazon threaten to make shopping online with any form of anonymity a thing of the past.
and (not surprisingly)…

Microsoft

Perhaps the most insidious method of privacy invasion Microsoft employs is the “Windows Live ID ? (formerly Microsoft .NET Passport). The Windows Live ID collects data from the majority of Microsoft networks including MSN, Hotmail, and Xbox Live, and stores them in a central database.

Most of the others were data-brokering companies like ChoicePoint and Acxiom which have already been in the news for the way they treat consumer information. Some that I didn't expect, but am not surprised about are Yahoo and Google.

Thanks to the EFF newsletter for the link! Tags: , , , , , ,

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Use CC only when necessary and BCC the rest of the time.
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E-mail Tips and Tricks

Using E-Mail Aliases Properly - Be careful about using sensitive data (like your real name) in an e-mail account.
Remember to treat your e-mail account with the security it deserves.
Use a decoy e-mail account to keep your main e-mail account free of spam.
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The American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union - ACLU

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (a.k.a. the EFF) - a nonprofit group of passionate people — lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries — working to protect your digital rights.

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The RIAA - Who They Are In a Nutshell

Oh no! People download stuff!
(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC])

This is probably the best summary of who the RIAA is and what they stand for that I've ever heard:

The RIAA is like the Prohibitionists of old. In their view, the law cannot allow for something completely reasonable such as legal circumvention because it could be abused. Millions of people are thereby punished. Yet this is not how a civil society typically functions. Life is full of potentially dangerous products, services, and ideas. It's up to individuals to take responsibility for their actions, because we all know that catering to the lowest common denominator does not give birth to a free society, let alone an intelligent one. Yet the RIAA will stop at nothing to make sure that you and I never have the chance to make such decisions for ourselves.

By "legal circumvention", he refers to the the practice of circumventing Data Rights Management (DRM) for legal purposes such as making personal backup copies, educational uses, and other Fair Use practices. The RIAA is against it because they know that all it takes is one user with a DRM-free copy to post a song online for it to be shared everywhere in the world.

Related: RIAA Withdraws Case and Refiles It to Get Different Judge

Preventing Spam

Spam is annoying and worthless, but you still see it every single day. Here are some tips for preventing and reducing spam.

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E-mail Viruses

Make sure that viruses don't sneak onto your computer through your e-mails. Read some simple tips to prevent that from happening.

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Phishing

By far the most dangerous thing you'll find in e-mails is a lie. Sending a bogus e-mail to someone is generally called phishing, but can also be referred to as a Nigerian scam (depending on the goal of the e-mail). Learn to recognize and deal with phishing before it's too late.

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Nigerian Scam

Many people have lost thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to the classic Nigerian Scam. Don't fall for it!

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How to Use "CC" Properly

Don't violate people's privacy and invite spam into their accounts by CC'ing all your contacts. Learn the proper way to send mass e-mails first.

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Reply-All

It's easy to embarass yourself or harm your career when you don't know how to use Reply-All appropriately.

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How to Forward E-mails Properly

Don't forward e-mails carelessly or you risk looking foolish as best and violating the privacy of all your contacts at worst.

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Personalize E-mail

Follow this simple rule of e-mail etiquette to help prevent your friends and family from falling for phishing scams.

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Using E-Mail Aliases Properly

It can be hard to find a good name to use in an e-mail account that hasn't been used and doesn't give away too much information about you.

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Protecting E-mail Passwords

Your e-mail account is the most important online account you have. Remember to treat it as such!.

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Using a Decoy E-Mail Account

Why it's very important to use a buffer e-mail account to shield your main account from people and companies that you don't trust.

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The ISP E-mail Trap

Don't fall for the trap of using the free e-mail account provided to you by your Internet service!

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