Clearly I’m not updating this often enough for it to qualify as an active blog.
Please check back in a year to see if the situation has changed.
Time Out
June 29th, 2009Renditions still in the Toolbox
February 1st, 2009Truthdig – Ear to the Ground – Obama Keeps Renditions In the Toolbox
I wish I could say that I’m surprised by the fact that Obama is electing to keep ‘renditions’ as an option. I guess it fits in with escalating the war in Afghanistan and linking that conflict with Pakistan (a nuclear power in a permanent state of tension with India). I feel ever so much more secure. I’m thinking that Blowback should be added to the presidential reading list.
Who should set the global privacy framework?
February 1st, 2009Microsoft, HP, eBay to weigh in on US privacy laws
This article leads with, “A group of U.S. companies, led by technology giants Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and eBay, is set to outline recommendations for new federal data-privacy legislation that could make life easier for consumers and lead to a standard federal breach-notification law.”
The key phrase here is, “…make life easier…”. I applaud the efforts of these organizations to work together to establish a common baseline. That being said the ‘amicable split’ with public interest groups like the CDT is worrisome. If privacy is a right to informational self control, then balancing it against convenience, as articulated in the market and established by a commercial consortium, may lead in the wrong direction.
Micro Persuasion: Is the Google Cookie Tracking Everyone’s Surfing Habits?
February 1st, 2009Micro Persuasion: Is the Google Cookie Tracking Everyone’s Surfing Habits?
This highlights the role of trust in provding privacy. If you trust Google, then their collection of cookies is benign and for the purpose of providing better service. If, however, you do not trust the web site putting cookies on your machine, then you must be concerned as to what back end linkages they are creating and for what purposes. And then, even if you trust the web site’s intent, how do you rate their capability to provide the security for and limited uses of the data that they collect about you?
In the absence of verifiable metrics or demonstrations of trustworthiness, caution must be you watchword.
Budget misses the boat.
January 28th, 2009This is a snapshot of the results of a Globe and Mail poll on their web site earlier today. If confidence is a factor in economic recovery, then clearly Harper needs to go back to school.
Harper budget harpoons confidence.
PMO vs whitehouse.gov
January 23rd, 2009This is just plain embarrassing. First, compare what the Prime Minister’s web site looks like to the U.S. President’s web site (screen prints below). Quite frankly, the PMO looks like a 1998 design, based on the usual “I love me” wall that you find in the offices of insecure or ego maniacal executives. OK, that last part is to be expected. What really hurts is Dave Winer’s critique of whitehouse.gov and his suggestion that it is seriously behind the times. Sigh.
Is anyone from the PMO paying attention? The person who should be listening is Kory Teneycke, Harper’s Director of Communication. His big contributions to date seem to have been a blue sweater and a rabid dog attack on Quebec and culture. Good luck with the whole web/transparency/dialogue thing!
Gaza: The Lies of War
January 23rd, 2009Trite but true, that the first casualty of war is the truth. Tragically, it is not the last casualty:
CD’s Best of the Web / Gaza: The Lies of War
Non-observant Muslims, Christians and other minorities have more religious freedom under Hamas rule than they would have in Saudi Arabia
What the media won’t say about Ontario’s universities
January 23rd, 2009Here is an area where the budget of next week could make a real difference in lifting people out of poverty, and provide real stimulus:
If there is hope…: What the media won’t say about Ontario’s universities
Ontario’s per capita post-secondary education funding is now the lowest in North America, except for Alabama. Ontario students who are paying a hefty sum for their education, as well as those who do the teaching and research at our universities, would be better served by a post-secondary education system that was adequately funded and accessible to all.
An Obama Nightmare by Saul Landau?
January 22nd, 2009At least one voice not on the Obama bandwagon:
Canadian Dimension Blog / An Obama Nightmare by Saul Landau?
Obama has repeatedly pledged to expand the U.S. role in Afghanistan after more than eight years of failure
Security camera captures man’s murder
January 21st, 2009TheStar.com | Crime | Security camera captures man’s murder
“Investigators congregated at a west end auto body shop today after discovering that its security camera recorded the city’s latest homicide.”
In this newspaper account we find that a store security camera captured a murder in front of the store. Last year, also in Toronto, another shooter was caught on video in front of an apartment shooting into the lobby. As it becomes increasingly normal to expect that private video cameras will be focused on public spaces, more and more crimes are likely to be captured on these devices – making them effectively an extension of public video surveillance. The argument for public surveillance has been public security.
The increasing number of cases like this suggest that prior studies about the ineffectiveness of video capture as a preventative measure are being borne out. This leaves the argument that the cameras are useful, after the fact, for identifying, apprehending and arresting suspects. This may or may not be the case, but it is certainly the case that if cameras are only useful for capturing criminals, then they do not provide increased security.
In other words it is not privacy vs. security (a false dichotomy in any event). In fact, it is privacy vs. retribution and is this a trade-off that we should be making in our public spaces?