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The Telecom Digest for September 12, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 193 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 01:18:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Americans Go to Great Lengths to Mask Web Travels, Survey Finds
Message-ID: <p06240860ce51b79080b6@[10.0.1.11]>
Americans Go to Great Lengths to Mask Web Travels, Survey Finds
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
Most Americans say they believe the law is inadequate in protecting
their privacy online. The e-mail or social media accounts of one in
five have been broken into. And most American consumers take great
efforts to mask their identities online.
These findings are part of a survey by the Pew Internet Center that
was released Thursday. They come amid a cascade of widely publicized
revelations about the depth of United States government surveillance
on the electronic communications of its citizens. And they challenge
the conventional wisdom advanced in support of both commercial
tracking and official monitoring of Web services: "If you've got
nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear."
Apparently, most Americans do have something to hide - at least from
complete strangers trying to profit from knowing what they do online.
The Pew survey found that 86 percent of Americans were trying to
scrub their digital footprints by doing a variety of things, like
clearing browsing histories, deleting certain social media posts,
using virtual networks to conceal their Internet Protocol addresses,
and even, for a few, using encryption tools.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/americans-go-to-great-lengths-to-mask-their-web-travels-survey-finds/
Anonymity, Privacy, and Security Online
by Lee Rainie, Sara Kiesler, Ruogu Kang, Mary Madden
Sep 5, 2013
Pew Research Center's Internet Project
86% of adult internet users have taken steps from time to time to
avoid surveillance by other people or organizations when they were
using the internet. Despite their precautions, 21% of online adults
have had an email or social media account hijacked and 11% have had
vital information like Social Security numbers, bank account data, or
credit cards stolen-and growing numbers worry about the amount of
personal information about them that is available online.
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Anonymity-online.aspx
http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Anonymity-online/Summary-of-Findings.aspx
http://pewinternet.org/~/media/
/Files/Reports/2013/PIP_AnonymityOnline_090513.pdf
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 16:10:01 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Acxiom Lets Consumers See Data It Collects
Message-ID: <p06240858ce513848ab9f@[10.0.1.11]>
Acxiom Lets Consumers See Data It Collects
By NATASHA SINGER
September 4, 2013
Aboutthedata.com, a Web site introduced on Wednesday by a leading
marketing technology firm called the Acxiom Corporation, is offering
individual consumers a glimpse of some of the details the company has
collected about them.
Visitors who log in to the site may review many seemingly innocuous
facts, such as whether someone in their household owns a dog or a
cat, or is interested in jogging or biking.
Aboutthedata.com delivers a soothing message about Acxiom, a data
broker that collects, stores, analyzes and sells billions of pieces
of information about consumers with the aim of helping corporate
clients like banks, insurers and retailers aim marketing pitches at
specific audience segments.
"We have come to expect companies will make their interactions with
us personal," the site says. "We no longer want to receive mass
marketing - getting bombarded with ads that have no relevancy to our
lives."
Yet critics say the new consumer site omits so many details about
Acxiom's data-gathering and analysis practices that it sanitizes the
data mining behind data-driven marketing.
Aboutthedata.com, at least in its initial incarnation, leaves out
many data elements that Acxiom markets to its corporate clients -
intimate details like whether a person is a "potential inheritor" or
an "adult with senior parent," or whether a household has a "diabetic
focus" or "senior needs." Without a more complete picture of industry
practices, privacy advocates say, consumers cannot make informed
decisions about whether to share personal information with companies.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/technology/acxiom-lets-consumers-see-data-it-collects.html
Daily Report: Acxiom Draws Aside (a Bit) the Veil of Data Gathering
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013
Aboutthedata.com, a Web site introduced on Wednesday by a leading
marketing technology firm called the Acxiom Corporation, is offering
individual consumers a glimpse of some of the details the company has
collected about them, Natasha Singer reports.
Visitors who log in to the site may review many seemingly innocuous
facts, such as whether someone in their household owns a dog or a
cat, or is interested in jogging or biking.
Aboutthedata.com delivers a soothing message about Acxiom, a data
broker that collects, stores, analyzes and sells billions of pieces
of information about consumers with the aim of helping corporate
clients like banks, insurers and retailers aim marketing pitches at
specific audience segments.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/daily-report-acxiom-draws-aside-a-bit-the-veil-of-data-gathering/
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 14:59:21 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A Bloody Ballmer and Stalled Discussions on the Long Road to a Nokia Deal
Message-ID: <p06240855ce5127d7d141@[10.0.1.11]>
A Bloody Ballmer and Stalled Discussions on the Long Road to a Nokia Deal
By NICK WINGFIELD
SEPTEMBER 4, 2013
SEATTLE - "We are on different planets."
That was the response of Risto Siilasmaa, the chairman of Nokia's
board of directors to Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive,
after a team from Microsoft presented an acquisition proposal to
Nokia in late April. The morning presentation, led by Mr. Ballmer,
took place at the offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in
New York City.
After Microsoft's pitch, which took about 45 minutes, Nokia's side
huddled in another conference room to consider the proposal. They
weren't satisfied. The price Microsoft was offering for Nokia was a
major sticking point, but there were many other ways in which Nokia
and Microsoft weren't seeing eye-to-eye, including who would retain
ownership of Nokia's mapping service.
So went one of several pivotal meetings in Microsoft's long,
on-and-off courtship of Nokia, which finally ended this week with the
software giant's $7.2 billion agreement to purchase the Finnish
company's mobile phone and services business. The following account
is drawn from people with intimate knowledge of the negotiations, who
declined to be identified because the discussions were confidential.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/the-long-road-to-nokia-deal-a-bloody-ballmer-stalled-discussions/
Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2013 01:10:03 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Facebook privacy and kids: Don't post photos of your kids online.
Message-ID: <p0624085ece51b69e4819@[10.0.1.11]>
We Post Nothing About Our Daughter Online
Nothing. It's the only way to defend her against facial recognition,
Facebook profiling, and corporate data mining.
By Amy Webb
Sept. 4, 2013
I vividly remember the Facebook post. It was my friend's 5-year-old
daughter "Kate," (a pseudonym) standing outside of her house in a
bright yellow bikini, the street address clearly visible behind her
on the front door. A caption read "Leaving for our annual Labor Day
weekend at the beach," and beneath it were more than 50 likes and
comments from friends-including many "friends" that Kate's mom barely
knew.
The picture had been uploaded to a Facebook album, and there were 114
shots just of Kate: freshly cleaned and swaddled on the day of her
birth ? giving her Labradoodle a kiss ? playing on a swing set. But
there were also photos of her in a bathtub and an awkward moment
posing in her mother's lacy pink bra.
I completely understood her parents' desire to capture Kate's
everyday moments, because early childhood is so ephemeral. I also
knew how those posts would affect Kate as an adult, and the broader
impact of creating a generation of kids born into original digital
sin.
Last week, Facebook updated its privacy policy again. It reads in
part: "We are able to suggest that your friend tag you in a picture
by scanning and comparing your friend's pictures to information we've
put together from your profile pictures and the other photos in which
you've been tagged." Essentially, this means that with each photo
upload, Kate's parents are, unwittingly, helping Facebook to merge
her digital and real worlds. Algorithms will analyze the people
around Kate, the references made to them in posts, and over time will
determine Kate's most likely inner circle.
The problem is that Facebook is only one site. With every status
update, YouTube video, and birthday blog post, Kate's parents are
preventing her from any hope of future anonymity.
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/data_mine_1/2013/09/facebook_privacy_and_kids_don_t_post_photos_of_your_kids_online.html
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2013 16:04:09 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: What Exactly Are the NSA's 'Groundbreaking Cryptanalytic Capabilities'?
Message-ID: <p06240857ce51360924f7@[10.0.1.11]>
What Exactly Are the NSA's 'Groundbreaking Cryptanalytic Capabilities'?
BY BRUCE SCHNEIER
09.04.13
The latest Snowden document is the US intelligence "black budget."
There's a lot of information in the few pages the Washington Post
decided to publish, including an introduction by Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper. In it, he drops a tantalizing hint:
"Also, we are investing in groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities
to defeat adversarial cryptography and exploit internet traffic."
Honestly, I'm skeptical. Whatever the NSA has up its top-secret
sleeves, the mathematics of cryptography will still be the most
secure part of any encryption system. I worry a lot more about poorly
designed cryptographic products, software bugs, bad passwords,
companies that collaborate with the NSA to leak all or part of the
keys, and insecure computers and networks.
Those are where the real vulnerabilities are, and where the NSA
spends the bulk of its efforts.
...
http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/09/black-budget-what-exactly-are-the-nsas-cryptanalytic-capabilities/
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