Already, the web sites you visit reshape themselves before you like a carnivorous school of fish, and this is only the beginning. Right now, a huge chunk of what you’ve ever looked at on the Internet is sitting in databases all across the world. The line separating all that it might say about you, good or bad, is as thin as the letters of your name. If and when that wall breaks down, the numbers may overwhelm the name. The unconsciously created profile may mean more than the examined self I’ve sought to build.
Most privacy debates have been couched in technical. We read about how Google bypassed Safari’s privacy settings, whatever those were. Or we read the details about how Facebook tracks you with those friendly Like buttons. Behind the details, however, are a tangle of philosophical issues that are at the heart of the struggle between privacy advocates and online advertising companies: What is anonymity? What is identity? How similar are humans and machines? This essay is an attempt to think through those questions.
I’m Being Followed: How Google—and 104 Other Companies—Are Tracking Me on the Web – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic
2 MarShould Corporations Have More Leeway to Kill Than People Do? – NYTimes.com
26 FebIn Citizens United the Supreme Court held that corporations had rights heretofor restricted to humans. Now they are being asked to decide whether or not they have resposibilities.
The story behind the Kiobel case is compelling: The plaintiffs are members of the Ogoni people in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, where Royal Dutch Shell had extensive oil operations in the 1990s through contracts with the brutal military dictatorship that held power at the time. The region is widely considered a zone of calamity, in terms of both environmental and human rights. In the suit, Royal Dutch Shell was accused of assisting the Nigerian government in torturing and, through sham trials, executing Ogoni activists who had threatened to disrupt Shell’s operations because of the devastating health and environmental effects of unregulated drilling practices. The plaintiffs are either victims of torture themselves or had relatives who were executed. Esther Kiobel, the plaintiff after whom the suit is named, is the widow of a victim.
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Royal Dutch Shell and against the plaintiffs, multinational corporations — particularly in mining and other extractive industries — could draw the lesson that it is now safer to forge alliances with autocratic regimes that have poor human rights records because they will not be judged culpable in the way individuals can be. …
A decision affirming that Shell should go unpunished in the Niger Delta case would leave us with a Supreme Court that seems of two minds: in the words of Justice John Paul Stevens’s dissent from Citizens United, it threatens “to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation” by treating corporations as people to let them make unlimited political contributions, even as it treats corporations as if they are not people to immunize them from prosecution for the most grievous human rights violations.
via Should Corporations Have More Leeway to Kill Than People Do? – NYTimes.com.
5 Reasons You Should Never Agree to a Police Search (Even if You Have Nothing to Hide) | Civil Liberties | AlterNet
23 FebWhen something as stupid as stopping people from possessing marijuana came to be considered a critical law enforcement function, innocence ceased to protect people against police harassment. From the streets of the Bronx to the suburbs of the Nation’s Capital, you never have to look hard to find victims of the bias, incompetence, andcorruption that the drug war delivers on a daily basis.
Whether or not you ever break the law, you should be prepared to protect yourself and your property just in case police become suspicious of you. Let’s take a look at one of the most commonly misunderstood legal situations a citizen can encounter: a police officer asking to search your belongings. Most people automatically give consent when police ask to perform a search. However, I recommend saying “no” to police searches, and here are some reasons why:
1. It’s your constitutional right.
The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures. Unless police have strong evidence (probable cause) to believe you’re involved in criminal activity, they need your permission to perform a search of you or your property….
2. Refusing a search protects you if you end up in court. …
3. Saying “no” can prevent a search altogether. …
4. Searches can waste your time and damage your property. …
Google tracks you. We don’t. An illustrated guide.
20 FebGoogle tracks you. We don’t. An illustrated guide..
A simple illustrated article about how your online search behavior helps advertisers target you with ads.
McDonald’s Will Phase Out Gestation Crates – NYTimes.com
14 FebOn Monday, after years of internal and external pressure, the company announced a laudable course of action regarding the sows (female pigs) in their supply chain: McDonald’s is requiring, by May, that its suppliers of pork provide plans for phasing out gestation crates. Once those plans are delivered, says Bob Langert, the company’s vice president of sustainability, McDonald’s will create a timetable to end the use of gestation crates in its supply chain. “Considering that 90 percent [of the pregnant sows] in the United States are in gestation stalls, this is a huge issue,” he says, and he’s right.
MacDonald’s is so large that this move will force the entire pork industry to improve living conditions for pigs.
via McDonald’s Will Phase Out Gestation Crates – NYTimes.com.
Ten Fun Facts About Drones – Forbes
13 FebDrones are coming to America in force! (Thanks to Congressional pushing.) So you’d better be ready for them. Here are 10 fun facts about drones from recent news and gleaned from attending a trade organization conference Wednesday. Members of the military spoke to an audience comprised mainly of drone industry folks about how they’re using “weapons that both look and shoot” abroad and how they hope to ease those drones’ transition into U.S. skies.
1. There could be 30,000 drones overhead in the U.S. by 2020, reports the Washington Times. …
6. The Air Force has 65,000 – 70,000 people working to process all of the data and footage it’s currently collecting from drones. Lt. Gen. James says the analysts’ work includes “watching life in Afghanistan and looking for patterns,” and that a Rand review suggested they need 100,000 people devoted to the task. The military hope is that better computer algorithms and software analysis can be developed to combat their drowning in data.
College Life, Enlistment and the ‘Real World’ – NYTimes.com
31 Jan…whatever problems may arise in the transition from civilian to soldier — and, later, soldier to civilian — the lessons I learn in the Army, such as discipline, responsibility, and loyalty, will help me accomplish any goal. I will be able to look back and see photos of myself making a difference, meeting challenges, living my life — which is a lot better than photos of some college kid with half-closed eyes and a red plastic cup in each hand.
I’ll be 20 when I enter basic training, a middle-class independent voter who signed up for an enlisted infantry slot in the Army. I hope to deploy to fight a war I hope ends on time in 2014; perhaps in the name of a Republican president I’d rather not have in the White House. I’ll have to get up early while my civilian friends are sleeping in before their first classes.
About the author: “Jonathan Wertheim lives in Brunswick, Maine, and attended Hampshire College for one year before deciding to join the military. He enlisted in the Army as an infantryman on Dec. 7, 2011, and leaves for basic training in the spring.”
via College Life, Enlistment and the ‘Real World’ – NYTimes.com.
Apple Facts That Will Blow Your Mind (AAPL)
30 JanApple is sitting on an incredible pile of cash. Read these comparisons and think:
Apple now has $97.6 billion in cash. Last year the company increased its cash hoard by nearly $38 billion. That means Apple was adding $1,200 to its cash pile every second.
In GDP terms, Apple’s cash pile alone would make it the 58th largest country. That’s ahead of global hot spots Iraq and Libya while just trailing Qatar, a country with enough economic clout that it was selected to host a World Cup. Maybe we could look forward to a 2026 World Cup in Cupertino?
At its current Forbes valuations, Apple could buy every single NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL team — and still have $31 billion left in the bank.
Of course, the numbers really get crazy if Apple hits expectations and keeps adding to its cash pile in the quarters ahead.
* After next quarter, Apple’s cash hoard will be able to pay the entire total the federal government’s costs for education in a year.
* In two quarters, Apple’s cash hoard will be able to pay for the inflation-adjusted cost of the Marshall Plan ($115 billion).
* By the end of next year, Apple’s cash hoard will be larger than all of the corporate taxes America collected in 2009 ($138 billion)!
FBI Wants New App to Wiretap the Internet | Common Dreams
26 JanBig Brother wants to watch even more:
The FBI’s Strategic Information and Operations Center (SOIC) posted a ‘Request for Information (RFI)’ online last week seeking companies to build a social network monitoring system for the FBI. The 12-page document (.pdf) spells out what the bureau wants from such a system and invites potential contractors to reply by February 10, 2012….
It notes that agents need to “locate bad actors…and analyze their movements, vulnerabilities, limitations, and possible adverse actions”. It also states that the bureau will use social media to create “pattern-of-life matrices” — presumably logs of targets’ daily routines — that will aid law enforcement in planning operations.
via FBI Wants New App to Wiretap the Internet | Common Dreams.
New York Times Staffers Express ‘Profound Dismay’ With Management
3 JanThe open letter … brought to the surface long-simmering tensions. In the past several years, staffers have faced temporary pay cuts, layoffs, and buyouts. They have worked since March without a new contract. Regarding ongoing negotiations, the letter notes that Sulzberger’s “negotiators have demanded a freeze of our pension plan and an end to our independent health insurance.” O’Meara said staffers did not receive a raise this year.
Such compensation and benefit issues are playing out while the Times faces a problem with retention, as executive editor Jill Abramson acknowledged when she landed the paper’s highest-ranking masthead job last June. The Times, which could once keep high-profile reporters and editors from heading to rival newspapers based on the paper’s cachet alone, has recently faced increased competition for top talent from non-traditional outlets, such as Bloomberg News, ESPN, and The Huffington Post.
via New York Times Staffers Express ‘Profound Dismay’ With Management.
Truth and Traditions 