Isotropic is …
... my personal blog.
Unless otherwise indicated, anything I write here is simply my personal, probably ill-formed, opinion and does not represent the views, beliefs, positions, or opinions of any other person or entity.
Tag Archives: privacy
19 Feb 2010
I C U
This is why I keep a PostIt over the lens of built-in cameras. Cory Doctorow says: According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators, who [...]
26 Jun 2009
Gimme your passwords!
Wow! Would you really want to work for these people? The city government in Bozeman, Montana, isn’t content to cyberstalk its potential employees—they’re now asking applicants for their login information for any social networking sites. –John Timmer, City to job applicants: Facebook, MySpace log-ins please, Ars Technica, 2009-06-18 According to the article, a waiver form [...]
08 Mar 2009
EyeBorg
Rob Spence is going to make the eye-camera a reality (if some obscure TLA agency hasn’t already). The implications for privacy and security have long been a part of science fiction, but this project should garner it wider attention in the general public’s eye (sorry). Take a one eyed film maker, an unemployed engineer, and [...]
08 Feb 2009
Who wants in your genes?
While I’m not all that fascinated with my genetic makeup (maybe I’m just too old to care?), many are. If you’re among those, check out Daniel MacArthur’s blog, Genetic Future, where he writes “about the genetic and evolutionary basis of human variation, and the companies trying to sell you information about your genome.” In an [...]
04 Feb 2009
Just say “Cheese!”
Here’s an interesting mix of articles about public imaging. It’s not enough that you have to watch out for your camera-phone-armed friends and enemies who may catch you in a moment of indiscretion (check with Mr. Phelps), the rabid paparazzi who are continually hounding your trail, or the proliferating surveillance cameras — now you need [...]
29 Sep 2008
It’s MY Laptop
It’s funny, but oh so true: But yesterday, as a guest sat on my couch and — without asking permission — suddenly grabbed my laptop to check his email, I realized I had one major complex: I hate it when people use my computers without permission. – John Brownlee, My face goes white, …, Boing [...]
03 Aug 2008
Information Seizure
Ultimately, if you are allowed to travel at all, it will be in a pod, naked and sedated. Regulations already prohibit starting out with a variety of innocuous materials (shampoo), over-zealous policy enforcement prohibits “inappropriate” dress (Transformer t-shirts) , and economic pressure is exerted to limit the amount of luggage you carry. If you carry [...]
08 Jul 2008
Name Scrapers
The Slashdot headline “How to Fight Name Scraping Scammers?” caught my eye, and I had to follow it up. Curt Monash discovered his name on a dating site, but he’d never registered there. It appears that the site paired up first and last names at random and then presented them as being registered users. Monash [...]
26 May 2008
Pot Luck
According to this BBC News article, “An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan’s Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.”. Against regulations, an agent hid the training sample in a real passenger’s bag rather than a training bag. Apparently he has been doing this regularly. Imagine the scenario [...]
18 May 2008
Who’s got your number?
Shops secretly track customers via mobile phone (Jonathan Richards, Times Online). Using receivers deployed throughout a building. the system tracks handsets via triangulation. It’s accurate to within a few feet, enough to tell which individual stores are visited, and for how long. The system tracks phones by the unique IMEI code, so technically[1] no personal [...]
