Category Archives: surveillance
The Public/Private Database Industry
On multiple fronts, the U.S. government is pumping up the database industry with large sums of public money. The notion that “public” government-surveillance and “private” corporate-surveillance are some how different is a useless distinction – they’re two sides of the same state-surveillance coin. First, from The Hill: This week, without much fanfare, the House is [...]
Also posted in governance, informationalism Tagged Database Industry, DMCA, DOJ, GAO, PACER, Yahoo 2 Comments
The Eco-governmentality of Surveillance
The NY Times reports on China’s new surveillance policy requiring citizens to log into news sites with their “real identities” before posting comments. After pointing out that the comments posted to these news sites were already heavily censored and traceable via a commenter’s IP address, the article notes the fallibility of this new layer of [...]
Also posted in governance, identity, informationalism, privacy, security Tagged China, ecogovernmentality, governmentality Leave a comment
Grinch Alert: Robert Iger
According to PaidContent.org, Robert Iger (CEO of Walt Disney Co.) recently stated: Our product is extremely valuable … and if we are offering it on another platform or in another location for the consumer to access it, I believe that’s more value we are delivering [to a distributor or consumer] and we should get paid [...]
iPhones of Mass Destruction and the Code War
According to Apple, jailbreaking your iPhone violates Apple’s license agreement, constitutes copyright infringement – and – is a threat to national security. Meet the new weapon of mass destruction: the hacked iPhone. Just like Saddam Hussein’s WMDs, the iPhone of Mass Destruction is more red herring than reality. In a nation obsessed with security, particularly [...]
Also posted in censorship, participation, privacy, property, security Tagged Apple, DMCA, EFF, hacking, iphone, piracy 3 Comments
Amazon gets Orwellian with Orwell
On 07.17.09 Amazon got a bit Orwellian by remotely deleting copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from people’s Kindles — copies that were legitimately purchased from Amazon (the original purchase was credited to people’s accounts). The Kindle is a small, portable and proprietary e-book reader — in many ways, Kindle is an iPod [...]
Goldman Sachs and the war on (loose) code
Loose nukes code is fast becoming an object of national security. Like their industrial cold war predecessors, code has been framed as the informational equivalent of a loose nuke — potentially capable of obliterating markets and governments if obtained by a rogue state hacker. This growing meme has been furthered most recently by the news [...]
Also posted in informationalism, property, security, work Tagged automation, code, Goldman Sachs 1 Comment
Cookie Monsters published in CYE
Cindi Katz and I just published an article in a special issue of Children, Youth and Environments that focuses on Children and Technological Environments. CYE is an open access journal so you can read our article for free through their website (FYI – they ask you to create an account before providing access to the [...]
Also posted in censorship, commodification, education, informationalism, participation, play, property, security, youth Tagged AriX, article, hacking, iphone, OLPC Leave a comment
ACLU: YouAreBeingWatched.US
You ARE being watched, US. Since 9/11 Homeland Security has pumped an enormous amount of money into public surveillance technologies (online and off). Yet, as most recent studies are showing, the presence of this surveillance does nothing to reduce crime or make people more safe. So, what is this surveillance being funded for? To help [...]
good riddance COPA
F I N A L L Y. Via Daily Tech: After losing an appeals court challenge last July, proponents of 1998’s Child Online Protection Act received a final blow to their cause – this time from the United States Supreme Court, who quietly declined to review the law without comment. COPA – not to be [...]
Whose Privacy?