Eurononsense: Hitchhikers Guide To The End Of Planet WHOIS →
Pending Evidence to the Contrary, the end of Planet WHOIS is slated for 2018/05/25 ostensibly due to nonsensical GPDR legislation, crafted by those Braniacs in Brussels. Better find that copy of Doug Adam's mantra to mankind - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, your towel, and perhaps some stout as it shall be a bumptious ride when traveling with Arthur Dent, Esq. ICANN attempted with amusing futility to fix things rightup, but failed to acquire consensus on WHOIS usage in the Wacky Age of EU Mandated Privacy. Via the outstanding reportage of Kieren McCarthy writing at El Reg. Discombobulated? You and me both, Pal!
The WHOIS Enfeeblement →
Brian Krebs, writing at his eponymous KrebsOnSecurity, reiterates the debacle of the new EU data privacy regulations, and the affect on legitmate utility in the information security space. Today's MustRead.
MoviePass Screws-the-Pooch →
Well - dammit - I was wrong... Early last week I made the error in a post on Monday 2018/03/05, in which I managed to scribble this diatribe: To Wit, "Easily the most egregiously moronic idea I've heard this month (and it's only 5 days in(!)" ...
Well, that declaration has been overshadowed in our highly-read Observed-Stupidity-In-Security-And-Privacy-News-Department by a bottom-of-the-sea-deeply-ignorant statement uttered by MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe regarding his extraordinary pleasure at tracking users within the company's MoviePass iPhone and Android apps (see below).
'The update comes after CEO Mitch Lowe made comments at the Entertainment Finance Forum in Los Angeles last week, claiming that the company was tracking users’ locations. “We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards,” commented Lowe, according to a report from Media Play News. - via Chaim Gartenberg, writing at The Verge
Bravado? Misplaced Confidence? Hairplugs too-tight? Too Much Campari before dinner? I think not, just simple, unmitigated and blatant stupidity...
Perhaps a leadership change is in order, eh MoviePass? At least, the company did manage to (allegedly) remove the tracking-bits from the product and resissue the apps in the apropos app stores. Of course, there is always bad news with this type of mea culpa: In a statement made to Engadget, the company claimed they are still planning to use location data marketing to enhance their revenue stream. Ah, yes, the old Give It To 'Em, Then Take It Away gambit. Oh Joy!
Ubuntu, The Collector →
Martin Brinkmann, writing at gHacks, illuminates the questionable data gathering efforts by Canonical, producers of Ubuntu Linux. Read Martin's concise examination of the issue, of which - most certainly - is Today's Must Read.
Microsoft Corporation, Law Breakers →
Mozilla Foundation To Begin Collecting User Browsing Data
via gHacks author Martin Brinkmann, comes the astonishing tale of deeply flawed user data management at Mozilla Foundation. Along with the Foundation' Firefox browser Resource and Web Extension data leakage woes, now comes a highly user antagonistic decision to commence collecting user browsing data in an opt-out decision tree. Truly this weeks evidence that Blatant Stupidity still exists in the browser world.
"Mozilla's Georg Fritzsche published information on the plan to collect additional data yesterday on the Mozilla Governance group. In it, he describes the issue that Mozilla engineers face currently. While Firefox may collect the data when users opt-in, Mozilla believes that the data is biased and that only data collecting with opt-out would provide unbiased data that the engineers can work with. Questions that this data may help answer include "which top sites are users visiting", "which sites using Flash does a user encounter", and "which sites does a user see heavy Jank on" according to Fritzsche." excerpt via Martin Brinkmann writing at gHacks
Suit of Bose →
News of an interesting privacy related lawsuit, via Fortune writer Jeff John Roberts, is now swirling around personal electronics manufacturer Bose Corporation. Apparently, collecting data (and a viloation of the so-called Wire Tap Act (Codified in 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2522)) - through a companion app to the company's best-in-class noise canceling headphones, and the misuse thereof, is the gist... Stay Tuned. Hat Tip
"The complaint accuses Boston-based Bose of violating the WireTap Act and a variety of state privacy laws, adding that a person's audio history can include a window into a person's life and views. "Indeed, one’s personal audio selections – including music, radio broadcast, Podcast, and lecture choices – provide an incredible amount of insight into his or her personality, behavior, political views, and personal identity," says the complaint, noting a person's audio history may contain files like LGBT podcasts or Muslim call-to-prayer recordings." - via Fortune writer Jeff John Roberts
US Congress Sells Out
Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys: Behold the list of both United States Senators and United States House of Representatives that voted to sell out your personal information while online (i.e., your precious online privacy) for monetary gain.
Each surname noted below, possesses a link to that Senator or Representative's contact page, to make it super-easy to let them know what you think. Oh, and for you parents/grandparents, gaurdians this includes all data requests coming from your home, i.e., your children's' data will also be swept up in this nightmare maelstrom example of the surveillance state. Enjoy
Senate of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA
YEA -- 50
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 115th Congress - 1st Session
Question: On the Joint Resolution (S.J. Res. 34 )
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Shelby (R-AL)
Strange (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
YEA -- 215
Abraham (R-LA)
Aderholt (R-AL)
Allen (R-GA)
Amodei (R-NV)
Arrington (R-TX)
Babin (R-TX)
Bacon (R-NE)
Banks (R-IN)
Barletta (R-PA)
Barr (R-KY)
Barton (R-TX)
Bergman (R-MI)
Biggs (R-AZ)
Bilirakis (R-FL)
Bishop (R-MI)
Bishop (R-UT)
Black (R-TN)
Blackburn (R-KY)
Blum (R-IA)
Bost (R-IL)
Brady (R-TX)
Brat (R-VA)
Bridenstine (R-OK)
Brooks (R-IN)
Buchanan (R-FL)
Buck (R-CO)
Bucshon (R-IN)
Budd (R-NC)
Burgess (R-TX)
Byrne (R-AL)
Calvert (R-CA)
Carter (R-GA)
Carter (R-TX)
Chabot (R-OH)
Chaffetz (R-UT)
Cheney (R-WY)
Cole (R-OK)
Collins (R-GA)
Collins (R-NY)
Comer (R-KY)
Comstock (R-VA)
Conaway (R-TX)
Cook (R-CA)
Costello (R-PA)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crawford (R-AR)
Culberson (R-TX)
Curbelo (R-FL)
Davis (R-IL)
Denham (R-CA)
Dent (R-PA)
DeSantis (R-FL)
DesJarlais (R-TN)
Diaz-Balart (R-FL)
Donovan (R-NY)
Duncan (R-SC)
Dunn (R-FL)
Emmer (R-MN)
Farenthold (R-TX)
Ferguson (R-GA)
Fitzpatrick (R-PA)
Fleischmann (R-TN)
Flores (R-TX)
Fortenberry (R-NE)
Foxx (R-NC)
Franks (R-AZ)
Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)
Gaetz (R-FL)
Gallagher (R-WI)
Garrett (R-VA)
Gibbs (R-OH)
Gohmert (R-TX)
Goodlatte (R-VA)
Gosar (R-AZ)
Gowdy (R-SC)
Granger (R-TX)
Graves (R-GA)
Graves (R-LA)
Graves (R-MO)
Griffith (R-VA)
Grothman (R-WI)
Guthrie (R-KY)
Harper (R-MS)
Harris (R-MD)
Hartzler (R-MO)
Hensarling (R-TX)
Hice (R-GA)
Higgins (R-LA)
Holding (R-NC)
Hollingsworth (R-IN)
Hudson (R-NC)
Huizenga (R-MI)
Hultgren (R-IL)
Hunter (R-CA)
Hurd (R-TX)
Issa (R-CA)
Jenkins (R-KS)
Jenkins (R-WV)
Johnson (R-LA)
Johnson (R-OH)
Johnson (R-TX)
Jordan (R-OH)
Joyce (R-OH)
Katko (R-NY)
Kelly (R-MS)
Kelly (R-PA)
King (R-IA)
King (R-NY)
Kinzinger (R-IL)
Knight (R-CA)
Kustoff (R-TN)
Labrador (R-ID)
LaHood (R-IL)
LaMalfa (R-CA)
Lamborn (R-CO)
Lance (R-NJ)
Latta (R-OH)
Lewis (R-MN)
LoBiondo (R-NJ)
Long (R-MO)
Loudermilk (R-GA)
Love (R-UT)
Lucas (R-OK)
Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
MacArthur (R-NJ)
Marchant (R-TX)
Marshall (R-KA)
Massie (R-KY)
Mast (R-FL)
McCarthy (R-CA)
McCaul (R-TX)
McHenry (R-NC)
McKinley (R-WV)
McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
McSally (R-AZ)
Meadows (R-NC)
Meehan (R-PA)
Messer (R-IN)
Mitchell (R-MI)
Moolenaar (R-MI)
Mooney (R-WV)
Mullin (R-OK)
Murphy (R-PA)
Newhouse (R-WA)
Noem (R-SD)
Nunes (R-CA)
Olson (R-TX)
Palazzo (R-MS)
Palmer (R-AL)
Paulsen (R-MN)
Pearce (R-NM)
Perry (R-PA)
Poe (R-TX)
Poliquin (R-ME)
Posey (R-FL)
Ratcliffe (R-TX)
Reed (R-NY)
Renacci (R-OH)
Rice (R-SC)
Roby (R-AL)
Roe (R-TN)
Rogers (R-AL)
Rogers (R-KY)
Rohrabacher (R-CA)
Rokita (R-IN)
Rooney (R-FL)
Roskam (R-IL)
Ross (R-FL)
Rothfus (R-PA)
Rouzer (R-NC)
Royce (R-CA)
Russell (R-OK)
Rutherford (R-FL)
Scalise (R-LA)
Schweikert (R-AZ)
Scott (R-GA)
Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
Sessions (R-TX)
Shimkus (R-IL)
Shuster (PA-IL)
Smith (R-MO)
Smith (R-NE)
Smith (R-NJ)
Smith (R-TX)
Smucker (R-PA)
Stewart (R-UT)
Stivers (R-OH)
Taylor (R-VA)
Tenney (R-NY)
Thompson (R-PA)
Thornberry (R-TX)
Tiberi (R-OH)
Tipton (R-CO)
Trott (R-MI)
Turner (R-OH)
Upton (R-MI)
Valadao (R-CA)
Wagner (R-MO)
Walberg (R-MI)
Walden (R-OR)
Walker (R-NC)
Walorski (R-IN)
Walters (R-CA)
Weber (R-TX)
Webster (R-FL)
Wenstrup (R-OH)
Westerman (R-AR)
Williams (R-TX)
Wilson (R-SC)
Wittman (R-VA)
Womack (R-AR)
Woodall (R-GA)
Yoho (R-FL)
Young (R-AK)
Young (R-IA)
ACM CFP - CODASPY 2017 →
General Chair for the Organizing Committe of the ACM Conference on Data and Appilication Security and Privacy - Gail-Joon Ahn - has issued a Call for Participation for the Confab. Slated for March 22, 2017 through and inclusive of March 24, 2017. THis is sure to be an outstanding conference, with both two outstanding keynotes (which can be found here: http://www.codaspy.org/keynotes/.
Organizing Committee:
- General Chair: Gail-Joon Ahn, Arizona State University
- Program Co-Chairs: Gabriel Ghinita, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Alexander Pretschner, Technische Universität München
- Industry Track Chair: Elisa Bertino, Purdue University
- Poster Chair: Jaehong Park, University of Alabama in Huntsville
- Panel Chair: Adam Doupe, Arizona State University
- Proceedings Chairs: Martin Ochoa, Singapore University of Tech. and Design and Hongxin Hu, Clemson University
- Publicity and Web Chair: Ram Krishnan, UT San Antonio
- Workshop Chair: Adam Lee, University of Pittsburgh
- Local Chair: Ziming Zhao, Arizona State University
- Organization Chairs: Kristina Nelson, Arizona State University and
- Melissa Pagnozzi, Arizona State University
- Steering Committee: Ravi Sandhu, UT San Antonio (Co-Chair), Elisa Bertino, Purdue University (Co-Chair), Alexander Pretschner, Technische Universität München and Gail-Joon Ahn, Arizona State University
Anon, Maiden Fair... →
via the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), comes this important privacy-and-web-browsing-related press release wordsmithed by John Sullivan of Princeton, with the specific report by Arvind Narayanan, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University, and Sharad Goel, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor at Stanford University, and others.
"Given a history with 30 links originating from Twitter, we can deduce the corresponding Twitter profile more than 50 percent of the time," the researchers note. "All the evidence we have seen piling up over the years showing the strong limits of data anonymization, including this study, really emphasizes the need to rethink our approach to privacy and data protection in the age of big data..." - via Sharad Goel, an Assistant Professor at Stanford University and an Author of the Study.
Pocket Neural Net →
Well crafted piece, via Tom's Hardware writer Lucian Armasu, detailing iOS keyboard application SwiftKey's newly claimed use of on-board neural network facilities, rather than remote server processing; of which can lead to privacy issues, eavesdropping of keystrokes, key rhythm, et cetera. Astonishing.
Google Voice, The Deletion
In which, Andrew Griffin, writing at The Independent, details the permanent deletion of personal messages on Google Voice. Something, heretofore, somewhat problematic...