As sensors become more pervasive, what control do people have over sensors installed in their every day life, by manufacturers and government. | It’s the new front in the UK’s nanny state - microchips placed in rubbish bins to monitor how much people throw away.
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A pro-privacy group warns in a new report that more than 2.6 million of the chips have been surreptitiously installed in what is seen as a first step toward charging those who toss too much.
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The advocacy group Big Brother Watch found through a series of Freedom of Information requests that many local councils are installing the microchips in rubbish bins distributed to households, but in most cases have not yet activated them - in part because officials know the move would be unpopular.
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Microchips were first fitted into some British rubbish bins eight years ago, and the debate over whether the state has the right to weigh or otherwise analyse residents’ refuse has surfaced periodically since.
Read more at www.stuff.co.nz |
Aussie web censorship ‘a smokescreen’
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| One of Australia’s top communications experts says the Australian government’s internet censorship trials were designed to succeed from the outset, presented no new information and are now being used by the government to further its political agenda.
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Separately, a report into the scope of content that will be caught up in the net filters concluded that the government’s policy might lead to a wide range of innocuous material disappearing from Australians’ computer screens.
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Commentators in Australia and overseas have interpreted Senator Conroy’s policy as pushing the country towards being like repressive regimes such as China and Iran.
Read more at www.stuff.co.nz |
Game changer: Open Government Directive puts new onus on agencies |
White House lays out new data transparancy mandates—with deadlines |
| The
Open Government Directive
that the Obama administration released today lays out several deadlines for agencies, all centered on making government data easy to access and use.
Within 45 days, agencies must make a minimum of three high-value data sets available to the public, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said today during a Web chat announcing the new directive. |
Apple actions seem inexplicable — unless you understand how the company views the world |
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All big companies have their critics. But what’s interesting about Apple’s detractors is universal surprise. Their disappointment often stems from finding out that Apple isn’t the company they thought it was. So I’m going to do all you would-be critics a favor, and explain some fundamental aspects of Apple’s culture. Next time, you won’t be blindsided and confused. |
Will NZ ISPs have to filter all Internet traffic to comply with court suppression orders? ISPs may have to remove suppression order data
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| InternetNZ has questioned a recommendation by the Law Commission that internet providers should stop customers accessing information that breaches court suppression orders.
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InternetNZ deputy executive director Jordan Carter says it would be less of a concern if the commission was proposing that website-hosting companies should remove illegal information from customer sites, but quite a different thing if ISPs were asked to censor content on the internet wherever it might be. “That is not something we would ever support.” Read more at www.stuff.co.nz |
Increase in fraud by senior managers |
New Zealand was ranked eighth highest for rate of fraud out of
the 54 countries surveyed in the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers
Global Economic Crime Survey.
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In 2007, 75% of fraud was carried out by junior staff. In 2009,
that figure had dropped by almost 20%. |
Business fraud committed by middle and senior management
increased by almost 20% over the past year. |
“This shift is a cause for concern, as senior staff have the
ability to override internal controls and can potentially cause
greater financial loss to organisations,” Eric Lucas, a forensic
services partner, said. Read more at tvnz.co.nz |
This brings new meaning to “you’ll never work in this town again”. It would not seem part of natural justice to only make it available to public servants. Contractor database hit from both sides |
Did the federal acquisition councils go too far or not far enough in designing a new database for contractors’ past performance and legal compliance? That depends on whom you ask. |
| The acquisition councils recently outlined a plan for the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System. |
The database will contain data on past performance and contractors’ involvement in criminal, civil and administrative proceedings with alleged violations of federal, state and local laws or contracts. It will be viewed only by federal officials. |
“The public has a right to know,” said Neil Gordon, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, urging that the database be accessible to the public. Read more at fcw.com |
Has your security policy been updated to cover minimum security requirements for use of third-party services such as Twitter? Telstra’s Twitter account hijacked
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| Australian telco Telstra’s ambitious foray into social media has backfired after its Twitter account was hacked and used to spread malicious links.
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The messages said “hey, look at this” and included a link to a page that appeared to be an official “videos.twitter.com” link, but was actually a link to a phishing site designed to steal people’s Twitter user names and passwords. |
This report suggests to me that it is a tactical decision to get businesses onto broadband, either copper or fiber - (moving faster) but it is still a strategic decision to invest in fiber infrastructure (what method has greatest future potential). | “Our estimates show that all these productivity gains can be attributed to adoption of slow relative to no broadband, with no discernible additional effect arising from a shift from slow to fast broadband.” |
| The report’s authors, which include NZ Reserve Bank chair Dr Arthur Grimes, wrote that despite well-articulated pleas for upgraded internet access, reference to rigorous research that quantifies benefits actually accruing from network upgrades is generally absent in supporting materials. Read more at computerworld.co.nz |
Digital rights groups are becoming increasingly concerned about the ACTA treaty negotiations because of the lack of detail being provided. Potentially it could change the legal status quo of ISPs/subscribers. ACTA talks hone in on ISP liability and downloads |
ISPs around the world may be forced to snoop on their subscribers and cut them off if they are found to have shared copyright-protected music on the internet, under the ACTA international agreement being promoted by the US. |
Under existing laws in the US, the EU and elsewhere, ISPs are granted immunity from prosecution for illegal activities carried out by subscribers across their networks. This new global trade agreement appears to contradict the legal status quo, said Michael Geist, a law professor at Ottawa University, Canada. |
“It is unprecedented for an IP treaty that impacts literally millions of people to be negotiated in such secrecy,” he said, adding that the US negotiating stance “runs counter to the Obama Administration’s commitment to transparency.” Read more at computerworld.co.nz |
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Microchips in rubbish bins distributed to households
