You know, I love Google’s offerings. I use alot of them. I have a gmail account. I use Google Docs, analytics, customized search pages. Google IS my home page.

I’ve always felt that the sign of a good education was not what you know as much as how good you are at being able to “ferret out” any information you need on any topic. I thought this before the invention of Google, and I think that Google has enabled the masses to be more “educated” by my own definition.

Google is how I work and play without having to store an inordinate amount of detailed information in my head — I know how to find it… on Google. But there have been a few people (myself included) lately, that have become a bit concerned with the sheer mass of information Google now possesses about individuals.

(more…)

I have a few ideas for your consideration:

• What would you say if, suddenly, you could no longer access the sites you like to visit? What if you were automatically redirected to a “similar” site without your knowledge or permission?
• What if your own site was no longer visible on the web or if it took MUCH longer to load your site than to load others?
• What if every search query typed in for real estate your area came back with a single franchise — the competition’s and you had no way to change that because they had an exclusive agreement with the ISP/Host/Search Engine providers in your area?

Sound impossible? It’s not….I’ve just returned from Memphis, the host city for the 3rd National Conference on Media Reform. I must say that about 17 years ago, I would have attended this (and probably the two prior conferences) from a completely different perspective — one of a journalist.

This year, I attended for one reason only — I wanted to learn more about the organizations and the individuals dedicated to helping insure that everyone who wants to define, pipeline, shunt and stifle the Internet is stopped. I went with one issue “Keep your grubby paws off my Internet!”

(more…)

I’ll bet that, by now, you wish you had come to the conference. If you would like the “next best thing to being there” you may want to consider “tuning in” for streaming video…

If you are interested in seeing the evening’s conference event via streaming video, go here.

In addition you can get more information about the events, view photos and voice recordings by vising the main site: http://www.freepress.net/conference/.

You can also peek at a slew of photos from everyone at the conference posted at Flickr.

Enjoy! I’m headed to the conference center now to watch in person!

technorati tags: NCMR2007, , streaming+video, National, Conference, on, Media, Reform

It’s a new year, and I’ve just rebuilt my computer. Running a Tablet PC as a primary machine is an exercise in restraint. I don’t want to have anything that isn’t absolutely necessary, but, one of the things that IS necessary is security. Why? I’m so glad you asked!

Because “stuff” happens. Think it won’t happen to you? Tell that to my clients who have experienced:

• Virus attacks that have wiped out the business machine.
• Worm/back door trojan that unleashed delete sequences on their main hard drive.
• A pipe that broke in the ceiling over a desk and literally flooded and shorted out the machine.
• Hard drive failure (mechanical) – replaced by the computer manufacturer, but that didn’t help with the data.
• Fire that did enough smoke damage to render the computer useless.
• Power surge that wiped out a computer with all the data it contained.
• A laptop stolen when on a business trip.

And you also have the possibility of major disasters that are weather-related, floods, fires, etc.

When you are looking at your own computer security and data security, you should ensure:

• A user that uses a strong password (letters AND numbers).
• A computer that doesn’t run an administrator account as a default.
• A business machine that isn’t used by other members of the family (in particular teenagers, IMHO).
• An anti-virus that works flawlessly.
• A firewall that protects you from the outside without making you crazy when you are networking inside.
• A selection of spyware detection/removal tools that work well together.

Be sure that your maintenance is done on a regular basis and that you also do a weekly backup (at a minimum). You should also secure your critical data (no less often than once a month) on a removable drive and store it offsite. Then, if something happens to your home office or your computer, you will still be able to serve your clients!

I got my first glimpse of the new voting machines this year. My son had already seen them (he’s 16 and not old enough to vote, but saw them at school when they were setting up for Election Day). The good people at the polling place gave me a quick tour of the new machines — which are going to be replacing the old “stand up” models I’ve grown to love over the years. Apparently, in this particular arena, I’m pretty old school. If you are interested in learning a bit more about the voting process here in America, you may want to watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/v/TtPiGIqSljE

I discussed with the poll workers that I was looking forward to being able to vote ONLINE rather than having to get out and run to a polling place. But, they assured me, that it wasn’t safe to do that… then I watched “Hacking Democracy” (part one above) and read this…There’s a known issue with the new little voting boxes. It has been described to poll workers who are troubleshooting the machines (or those that bother to read the manual). Hmmmm…and I was told that voting online wasn’t safe…. Haruummphhh!

Want to watch the rest of the videos that comprise this HBO special? See below for parts 2-9. (A couple of the sections are “skippy” but the bulk of the show is here. It’s no longer available on Google’s Video search, it’s been removed.)

http://www.youtube.com/v/nwBGgoLcTuU
http://www.youtube.com/v/ilq-KoQUMRw
http://www.youtube.com/v/nPFUNYtvg5M
http://www.youtube.com/v/-az3g0jgNqM
http://www.youtube.com/v/T3BtLxH5ACk
http://www.youtube.com/v/qUVfovXfw4o
http://www.youtube.com/v/Z6Juvpik8ks
http://www.youtube.com/v/70bR4eRwL8s

When surfing around the Internet this evening, I found the following video clip that rings really close to home on my privacy paranoia…

(… and request a “Full Monty” under the guise of protecting youth)

You gotta love it… the Bush administration is making another full frontal attack (pun intended) on American’s privacy — this time under the guise of protecting children from porn. The “federal government is trying to force Google to reveal all searches conducted in a one-week period, as well as records for 1 million Web addresses” according to an article released today by MediaPost.com.In a Search Engine Watch blog article, Google was the only one in the big four (AOL, Yahoo! and MSN) that said NO! The other search engines agreed to hand over the information. (more…)

Ok, I have a “big brother” and his name is George W. Bush. Until recently, I was under the mistaken impression that my sister and I were the only siblings in our family.

Obviously, I was wrong:

When are the legislators in this country going to put a stop to this crap? I know my rights are continuing to erode by the nanosecond… and I know just who to blame.

It makes me ashamed to be a registered, active voter. It makes me ashamed of my president. It makes me ashamed of my country.

And, the real kicker? Paying taxes that foot the bill to smother my rights and invade my privacy. It’s bad enough to endure my rights being abused, while my president (yes, in lower case) defends his rights to abolish mine, but it’s worse to be billed for the service.

Ok, I’ve had it with the hurry up and wait that is caused by several sloppy programs on my computer. Yeah, I have programs that are resource hogs. It’s a fact. But, they aren’t all going to survive my fall housekeeping spree. There are some that are cool enough that I may tolerate the inconvenience, but others will be replaced by better performing and better behaved models.

One that’s destined to go (with several months still left on the product before the renewal date) is Norton AntiVirus. I’ve had it with waiting for forever to launch my computer, I’ve had it with watching my system resources make like molasses in January — slow and thick and sticky as heck.

Since I’m probably not the only one that feels this way, I did a bit of research for my readers to show you some of the results of tests and to give you a bit of information from feedback offered by other users of alternative antivirus programs and protections. (more…)

As many of my regular readers know, privacy is a big issue for me. As such, I wanted to send you a bit of info about the RFID chips and cards that are quickly being adopted as a “marketing” technique and as an “inventory” technique. Currently touted as an “improved bar code” these little gems aren’t at all like bar codes. They aren’t the same for every identical item as barcodes are, and they transmit (electromagnetically) information about themselves, and YOU, also unlike traditional barcodes.

To learn a bit more about these invasive things…Visit: http://www.spychips.com/what-is-rfid.html. And you may want to follow a few of the links on this thorough site to learn more about what your grocery “saver club” cards and other newer technologies are really doing to your privacy.

Makes me glad I’ve gone “organic” to avoid most of the tracking and privacy destroying tactics of these so-called marketing experts. Marketing should not be confused with these tactics.

Ethics should be observed before monetary gain, IMHO. Call me old fashioned. (It’s ok, I don’t mind.)

Oh, isn’t THAT charming?!?! Someone spoofed my email address. In under two minutes, I had 127 bounced deliveries arrive in my inbox. All apparently originating from my own account, but they didn’t come from me. And, judging from some of the headers, they never would (I don’t make THOSE kinds of offers to people I know, much less a few hundred strangers, nor do I sell products to improve their … ahem… private — errrr, “activities” … but I digress).

I live by email. My business depends on it. I’m also a person that freaks if I have more than 25 emails in my inbox at any time, and more than three at any moment that aren’t sorted and/or handled properly.

The sheer volume of that delivery put my machine on its little knees. It was begging for mercy and refusing to let me run other programs, unless I wanted them to run at the speed of a tiny ant, crossing a sea of warm honey. (more…)

While developers are busy with a chip in your cell phone which will permit you to leave your credit card behind (it’s in there), your keys at home (an electronic key’s in there) and all your personal data, contacts, files, music, movies, books (it’s all in there too with products like the Treo 650) — a new product launch in Japan uses the veins in your hands as an electronic “house key.”

So you use what you carry naturally to verify your identity before allowing condo access. More accurate than fingerprinting and iris scanning, this marks the first residential use of this type of technology.

This new device is a “touch free” model for germaphobes, is difficult to dupe (vein structure is subdermal, so it’s hard to fake) and has an incredible success rate (less than .0008% false acceptance rate and .01% false rejection rate).

Due to be used in a new residential condominium scheduled for construction completion in early 2006, Fujitsu’s security tool has already been used in financial institutions, hospitals and universities in Japan.

To read “all about it” visit www.Japancorp.net.

Personally, scanning body parts has always given me the wiggins. I have even declined to be fingerprinted when my kids were born and I won’t bank in any location that requires such things. I love technology, but I like my privacy more.

For those of you unfettered with such hangups — its a “Brave New World” out there! ;O)

I am deeply concerned about the recent decision of the Supreme Court (Kelo v. New London).

I want to see a law pass that will restate the eminent domain and the current interpretation by the Supreme Court such that private lands may not be obtained by governments for re-distribution to corporate interests simply if such distribution will mean more taxes for local interests. This interpretation should be limited to use for public infrastructure such as roads and bridges and only those items that are of direct benefit to the citizens of that area. And, I believe that even this purpose should be extremely limited. If an improved tax base is the primary reason for land-grabbing by the government, who will protect our not-for-profit organizations? Our churches? Our other valuable, but not currently taxed, land-use? (more…)

Let’s see, what shall we do when sci-fi movies become reality TV?

A bit of fiction to entertain you: Let’s set the stage, shall we? Imagine a USA where the government is all-powerful. Not much of a stretch so far.

Now imagine that all the citizens are calm and behave themselves. They don’t cause any fuss, they don’t advertise their personal feelings, they don’t write their feelings down, they don’t complain to their elected officials (after all they didn’t really GET the leaders they elected). Everything is peaceful and quiet.

Why are these citizens so lamb-like?

Because if they become restless, they are imprisoned, have their homes taken from them, or get fired and can’t feed their family.

Why imprisoned? Because they are speaking out against the government and thus are a threat to national security. Think Patriot Act and Son of Patriot.

Why have their homes taken? Because if the Government’s corporate arm wants the land, they have that right. (That’ll keep them quiet!) Read up on Kelo vs. New London.

Why get fired? Because they work for the government, a subsidiary company with government interests, or a company with ties to the government. Learn more about government official’s links to corporate America and how lobbyists really operate.

Hmmm. And how does this omnipotent government keep tabs on this feeble citizenry? They become omniscient. They scan emails, listen to phone calls, install cameras and watch every move. Sounding a bit too familiar? Feeling uncomfortable yet?

Hmmm. And suddenly we recall some of the sci fi reading we did in our high school English class … and start thinking terms like “big brother” and “1984″ don’t we? Humph. Isn’t it interesting how something so far fetched and fictional becomes so near to the reality in a few short years. Funny, I say, in the sense of extremely odd, not the entertaining “ha-ha” belly-laugh variety.

So, how long will it be until we aren’t even permitted the “illusion” of land ownership and personal freedom? How long before we aren’t allowed to work for ourselves or be “self sufficient?” How long before we become merely the drones, the worker bees for the hive of the government machine? Not long, I’d say. Not long.

Ok, I’m mad. The most recent Supreme Court decision that corporate America has more right to my property than I do makes me, well, pissy. And, trust me when I say this is the “g-rated” version of how I feel. My language and content have been watered down to the point you can see through them. What’s not crystall clear, in fact what’s murky as hell, is how this type of thing can be done.

Quoting from the fifth amendment:

No person shall be… deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Uh-huh, but the Supreme Court disagrees: (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/) – see the “recent decisions” section on “Kelo vs. New London” for the June 23rd decision. Now, it seems, if there is a better use for any land (meaning it makes more money for the government through increased taxes) they can take it. Period.

Our rights are being eroded. I’ve blogged about my concerns about privacy and our right to it in the past. Now, it’s not just our privacy and the right to bear arms (which I support, although I don’t get all self-righteous about it — yet.)

The social security number issue and the fact that it IS our national ID number makes me crazy. The amount of our personal information that flows out the cracks of corporate America and the government itself, makes me nuts. And now this! What ever happened to personal freedom and small “essentials only” forms of government? Why do we support a land-snatching tyrant?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always felt that the beauty of the farm was more than I deserved, and that I could never really “own” it – but considered myself more of a caretaker. But this philosophy is between me and my God – it should not be between me and “my” government.

And now, after all the work I’ve done, the sacrifices I’ve made to carve out my own little piece of heaven on the farm — I find out that if a “better” use for it can be determined — a corporate use — then my farm can be taken by the government and handed over to a developer, and there’s nothing I can do? If another use of MY land can contribute more to the government’s pockets via taxes, then I don’t have a right to it anymore?

This is OK?

Ohhhhh noooooo. It most certainly is NOT. This is BS. I’d like to blog and rant some more about this, but I need to go write my public officials — you remember them, the people we elect to take care of our best interests? Well I hope you remember them, because obviously they don’t remember us.

They have done a FINE job thusfar, Ehhh?

I’m off to write letters now. I advise any of you who own land now, or ever plan to own land in the future, do the same.

Where is your personal information now, do you know? Lately, there has been quite a bit of press about computer systems have been hacked or security has been breached. The Choice Point situation where the information was sold to an identity theft ring. There was also the Lexus-Nexus case, Ralph Lauren, and a handful of others recently in the news. [more]The scary part is that much of the data that’s taken isn’t used immediately; perhaps the data will be used in a few months, once the victims have lowered their guard and the fraud alerts expire. This is the case, according to representatives of the Privacy Rights Clearing House.

Identity theft is one of the quickest growing crimes in history, according to a Berkeley Police website, which quotes that “The government statistics are staggering. The largest credit bureaus report millions in losses every year and the crime has risen 1400% since 1997. In 1998 the U.S. Office of General Accounting released a report detailing the damage this crime had caused. They reported 750,000,000 in losses in 1997 alone. The Federal Trade Commission reports that one in four will fall victim of the crime.”

And, although the companies are required to tell people when their information has been accessed, that’s something that happens AFTER the fact.

If you want to know how to protect yourself, do a quick search on “protection from identity theft” on the web and dig a little. In the meantime, don’t carry your social security card, use a PO Box or a locked mail box, don’t print your driver’s license number or your social security number on your checks and be sure any credit card receipts or slips are shredded at home, not disposed of in a public area.

So, I may be paranoid, but I think it might just pay off for me. The seemingly endless battles to NOT divulge my social security number may be actually saving me time in the long-run. How secure is your personal information?

I got a letter last week from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights. This was in response to the privacy complaint I made after I got the lady’s personal id information, health information and social security number.

The letter asked my permission to give MY personal information to the company against which I had waged the complaint. Yup, and I wonder why privacy is a lost art (more…)

I just received a note from my registrar, explaining that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has revoked the ability to have a private .US registration. Anyone owning a private registration must forfeit their privacy or their domain within 10 months.

There was no hearing, there was no citizen input, it was just “decreed” by this federal agency, an arm of the US Commerce Department. Charming. (more…)

I spoke with a client yesterday who is still reeling from an identity theft situation. He was alerted that a credit card (something he never uses) was taken out in his name, and then an immediate change of address was requested. He knows that particular card is now closed, but worries about others. He said his brother had a similar situation, and that the authorities, despite considerable information that his brother collected on the thief, had done nothing to apprehend or prosecute the bandit.

I’m a privacy freak. Downright paranoid, some people say. My husband is in awe that I blog, since I won’t give my bank my social security number for my business account and have been known to raise my voice in protest and quote my legal rights when pushed on such issues.

That said, I was awoken this morning at 5 a.m. by my home phone number ringing — and when I answered it, it was a fax attempt. For the next three hours, it rang every five minutes.

Around 7 a.m., I took the number off my caller ID, did a cross-reference on Google, located the name of the company sending the fax. Did another cross-reference to locate the voice phone number based on company name and physical address (in Texas) and after three attempts at different numbers, I finally got a live person.

The company, from my research was a medical claims approval company of some sort.

Silly me, I assumed that they would not want an errant fax going out. When I talked with the lady, I gave her my home phone number, told her my frustration and ask that she make the fax quit. She said that she had no way of knowing which fax was sending it. I gave her the fax number, and she said “yeah, that’s one of ours, but I don’t know how I’d stop it.” I urged her to try, and told her that I was sure she didn’t want the information coming to me.

The calls continued, and it was driving me batty. I turned the phone off for awhile, but didn’t want to have to deal with the every 5 minute calls once my work day began.

So, I had a brainstorm… the way to make an undeliverable fax stop, if the sender won’t, is to let it be delivered. So, I forwarded the home line to my business 800 number (which automatically accepts faxes) and waited five minutes.

Once I saw a fax delivery on my Internet control panel, I un-forwarded the phone.

Blessed silence…finally.

I wanted to let the sender — the actual person who sent the fax — to know what a headache they had caused, so I opened the fax to get that number.

What I found there was quite interesting, and was enough to make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I had a woman’s name, her birth date, her social security number, the name of her physician, her pharmacist and the drug that had been prescribed. The fax was supposed to go to the local Kroger Pharmacy — but never quite made it.

Having worked for a cancer program and a regional medical center for many years, I was appalled that this information would be sent to the wrong number and that no attempts were made to stop it once the company had been alerted to the problem.

I called the company back, getting a different “live” person this time. I told her I’d called nearly an hour before and had given my phone number and a summary of the situation to whomever answered the phone there. I explained the situation and she said she was sorry for the inconvenience, but she didn’t know how they could stop it since all that stuff was computerized. She was sorry no one had helped me with my problem. I told her I’d fixed MY own problem, by accepting the fax to make it stop redialing.

I said that she, and her company, could deal with THEIR problem once my official complaint had been filed.

I told her that typing in the number I had given the first lady should have been enough to pull up the send order, I also told her that I was sorry that they had not been able to stop the fax, but that I had. I told her I’d gone to a great deal of trouble to back-track the number, research the company on the internet and try multiple numbers before finding a live person to request that the faxing cease. I also told her that I felt that the authorities, especially HIPAA, would probably be interested in the fact that I now had a lady’s full name, her social security number, her birth date, her prescription information, her doctor’s name, and her pharmacy’s name.

Suddenly, she was ready to help me. If I would just give her my name and my phone number, she would see what she could do. She asked if I wanted to send her the fax and she would look into my problem. She was so helpful at that point!

She seemed upset. Go figure.

I declined her help at that time, told her if she wanted my number she could check with whomever was on duty an hour ago when I left that information with the person answering the same number she just did. She said the night shift had left already.

Hmmm. One would think there would be a note left, or a mention made about something like this, wouldn’t one??

I told her that I’d gone to a great deal of trouble to prevent this delivery, and that it didn’t bother me if they had to dig some to locate the problem, or they could wait for the official report.

And THIS is why I protect my own information. THIS is why I hesitate to give out any information even to known sources that is more than they are legally permitted to require. THIS is why I take an interest in privacy issues both on and offline. And the real kicker?? The lady is local, her number (with her physical address) is in the phonebook I keep on my desk. So, if I were a “bandit” instead of a privacy advocate – I’d have everything I needed right about now to make this woman’s life unbearable for months, maybe even years to come.

Just FYI… the number to make a formal complain to the HHS on medical privacy issues is 866-627-7748, if anyone else out there is getting frustrated with the way that personal information flies about in the age of identity theft. Web address is: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacyhowtofile.htm.

Personally, I have to go make a phone call now. I’m going to file a complaint, then contact the doctor and the pharmacy to let them know what has happened. As far as the individual is concerned- I’m not sure this lady would understand the impact of what might have happened, and she might just think me a prank caller.

Personally, I’d want to know, but I’m not sure others would want their little world rocked. I’ve consulted with my mother on the issue (the lady is near my mother’s age) and she said that most people don’t want to know such things; it would only be unnecessarily upsetting.

So, I’ll do the “official” route, under her advisement. But, if it were me, I’d want to know.

For everyone else out there – don’t give out any more info than you must, protect your privacy and ensure that the companies you do business with respect and protect your privacy too.

Well the mobile masses are quickly discovering that security is even more vital when your files are stored on tiny devices that are easily misplaced, lost or stolen.

And the corporate types are discovering that their personal/company use of flashdrives and PDAs that are left without strong encryption is being discouraged, even forbidden.

And now… there’s even a mobile-specific virus that’s heating up the media… introducing Cabir — the first infection designed for your phone!

Can life get any better than this?… and what are your options?…
You can get a program to lock down your flash drive, or you can get a hard-ware based one for about… hmmm about TEN TIMES the price of a standard thumb-drive (on sale of course).

You can even get thumb-print-scanning security drives — requiring a thumbprint to use your thumbdrive.

The way I see it, I’ve managed to have three kids and travel in and out of the country and pass several security checks for jobs without being fingerprinted… I’ll be darned if my thumbdrive (or laptop, or any other device) is going to use it to identify me.

Yeah, I know, I’m weird.

Some companies are reportedly WELDING closed the USB ports on employee computers! Others are instituting policies against using personal USBs in a corporate environment. But, flash drives are so convenient, that even the big boys know it’s a losing battle.

I have found a nice option for my Treo that I really like — and recommend. It’s a picturepassword. It works like this… I have my logo on my treo face (and can change that to other pictures at any time) and there is one pixel that, if tapped, my PDA opens. If, however, the wrong pixel is tapped — you are required to type in my QUITE lengthy secure password with upper and lowercase letters and numbers.

I used the free download for quite awhile before changing over to the paid version. It’s a good product, causes no crashes and leaves me feeling much more secure.

My next purchase for the Treo is a program which permits a user-set number of password attempts and if there is a PW failure after that number is reached, there is a bit wipe of all or selected data on the PDA. I’ve not tried either of these two programs… yet. It’s created by PDA Defense (www.PDADefense.com)

I’ve even heard some scuttle-butt about a program that allows you to dial the cell and remotely wipe the entire memory (not including the FLASH card expansion, of course). This means, if (goodness forbid) you ever lose your little “brain” — it’s protected from hacking attempts through the memory wiped. If anyone has heard of this beyond the Urban Legends, drop me line.

Another article I’ve read talks about an exploding chip for future use in mobile device security. Nothing like a little “boom” to keep the thieves at bay, eh?

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_498292.html?menu=news.technology

And as far as the Mobile Virus goes – it’s a bunch of hype. You can only get it through mobile devices with Bluetooth which means I won’t be at risk until I upgrade to the Treo 650.

And, you also have to be gullible enough to actually agree to download and launch the infected file. Now, I’m sure there are those out there who will do exactly that (hence the spreading of the thing)- but I’m not one of them, are you?

According to computerworld.com:

To be infected by Cabir, mobile phones must be running Symbian OS with the Series 60 software and have the Bluetooth wireless feature in “discoverable” mode, making them open to new connections, according to Hyppnen. In addition, the owner of the phone would have to press a key to dismiss a security warning about installing software of unknown origin, and then another to agree to install the file being transmitted.

If you ask me, to be infected with this particular virus at this particular point in the game requires that there be a LOT of stupid going on. :O)

For now, the infections are limited and the biggest thing about this (other than the promise that a new age of security concerns) is the media hype.