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The Telecom Digest for January 28, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 22 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 00:42:00 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: You don't want your privacy: Disney and the meat space data race
Message-ID: <p06240800cf0ba1d5f411@[172.16.42.4]>
You don't want your privacy: Disney and the meat space data race
by John Foreman, MailChimp
JAN. 18, 2014
SUMMARY:
MailChimp Chief Data Scientist is at Disney World this weekend
wearing his RFID-equipped MagicBand. Here's how he thinks the
practice of digitally tracking consumers in the physical world will
reach everywhere from theme parks to our homes.
http://gigaom.com/2014/01/18/you-dont-want-your-privacy-disney-and-the-meat-space-data-race/
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:59:40 +0000 (UTC)
From: Matt Simpson <usenet@news.jmatt.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Personal Cell Phone Wipe by Employers
Message-ID: <83C1F700-E8BB-4CB3-AFD1-A76E6A0CFC3D%usenet@news.jmatt.net>
When you connect a cell phone to an Exchange system via Active Sync, you give
the Exchange administrator a LOT of control. Aside from wiping your phone, the
admin can also selectively enable/disable many of the phone's capabilities.
Here's an interesting link describing what can be done to a Windows phone.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123484.aspx
Some of these might not work with other phone OS, but a lot of them do. When I
was researching this a while ago, I stumbled onto an Apple forum topic about
camera icons mysteriously disappearing from phones. It turned out an admin had
accidentally checked the "disable camera" checkbox and all the employee's iPhone
cameras stopped working. The camera app just disappeared.
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 08:50:41 +1100
From: David Clayton <dc33box-usenet2@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Personal Cell Phone Wipe by Employers
Message-ID: <pan.2014.01.27.21.50.37.280383@NOSPAM.yahoo.com.au>
On Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:59:40 +0000, Matt Simpson wrote:
> When you connect a cell phone to an Exchange system via Active Sync,
> you give the Exchange administrator a LOT of control. Aside from wiping
> your phone, the admin can also selectively enable/disable many of the
> phone's capabilities. Here's an interesting link describing what can be
> done to a Windows phone.
>
>
> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123484.aspx
>
............
One other thing I noticed on that site was the explanation of the
ActiveSync protocol with its regular Direct Push status check.
This can cause a cost/data quota issue if your phone data plan charges you
a large minimum byte count per discrete data connection as the small
handful of bytes exchanged every 15 minutes will cost you the equivalent
of the minimum charged data block (which may be a MB). This can also
becomes an issue when roaming off your own network (where this data is
included) as then it can add up to a fair amount over a month. The same
issue arises with POP and IMAP when you set the polling interval to a
short period.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 19:58:41 -0800 (PST)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Aereo Update: And the Question is . . .
Message-ID: <586a2d35-9d9e-4123-b31f-07b4c79b91a9@googlegroups.com>
Moderator wrote:
> IANALB ISTM that Aereo's would do better by focusing on the
> root issue: so long as Aereo is not modifying the television
> signal, and is passing the commercials through untouched, I
> don't see why the TV stations have a problem.
>
> Bill
IANAL either, but I think there are two reasons "why the TV
stations have a problem":
[1] COPYRIGHT LAW. As I noted in a previous T-D post, (*) if
a broadcaster buys the rights to a copyrighted work, the
agreement between the broadcaster and the copyright owner can
(and presumably does) stipulate the conditions under which the
copyrighted work can be used. To the extent that Aereo reuses
a copyrighted work above and beyond the stipulations set forth
in the agreement, the copyright owner has reason to assert a
claim of infringement. The same principle applies even if the
broadcaster itself is the copyright owner.
Even though most of the plaintiffs in this case are broadcast
station licensees or their affiliated networks, they brought
the case under copyright law, not communications law.
[2] COMMUNICATIONS LAW. Broadcast station licensees make a
lot of money from retransmission-consent fees paid by MVPDs
for the right to retransmit broadcast signals. Aereo does
not pay retransmission-consent fees; understandably,
broadcasters object. But the broadcasters' real problem
isn't simply the loss of retransmission-consent revenue that
Aereo doesn't pay -- it the potential loss of revenue that
could occur if the Supreme Court upholds Aereo and MVPDs
start doing the same thing.
I think it's worth noting that, except for Comcast (which
owns NBC), most cable TV operators are sitting out this case,
letting the copyright owners fight it out with Aereo. But
if Aereo wins this case, cable TV companies will be able to
do the same thing, thereby avoiding retransmission-consent
fees.
]
] http://tinyurl.com/pmtne5m
[*]
Neal McLain
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 18:16:21 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Aereo Update: And the Question is . . .
Message-ID: <lc67pl$qtp$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
In article <586a2d35-9d9e-4123-b31f-07b4c79b91a9@googlegroups.com>,
Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> wrote:
>[1] COPYRIGHT LAW. As I noted in a previous T-D post, (*) if
>a broadcaster buys the rights to a copyrighted work, the
>agreement between the broadcaster and the copyright owner can
>(and presumably does) stipulate the conditions under which the
>copyrighted work can be used.
Never mind that: the broadcaster owns a compilation copyright on their
broadcast output -- syndicated programs, network programs, local
programs, and commercials integrated into a single product -- and
that would be sufficient to deny Aereo the use of the signals if Aereo
is found to be engaged in "public performance". (I don't know if ABC
actually made a claim for compilation copyright in the lower courts;
if not, they forfeited that particular issue on appeal, but have other
grounds as Neal rightly notes.)
>[2] COMMUNICATIONS LAW. Broadcast station licensees make a
>lot of money from retransmission-consent fees paid by MVPDs
>for the right to retransmit broadcast signals. Aereo does
>not pay retransmission-consent fees; understandably,
>broadcasters object. But the broadcasters' real problem
>isn't simply the loss of retransmission-consent revenue that
>Aereo doesn't pay -- it the potential loss of revenue that
>could occur if the Supreme Court upholds Aereo and MVPDs
>start doing the same thing.
Most MVPDs are not architected to emulate the Aereo model, and they
have contractual relationships with many big broadcast groups thanks
to the non-broadcast programming they carry that could make it
difficult to do so. Satellite in particular has no way they could do
what Aereo does, since it is purely a broadcast medium. Cable
providers in many areas would have difficulty siting Aereo-style
tuner/antenna arrays in sufficient number to serve all of their
customers close enough to the transmitter sites to get usable signals.
Aereo has chosen its initial markets carefully; don't expect them to
build out Rockford or El Paso any time soon.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:48:49 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Modems, wArEz, and ANSI art: Remembering BBS life at 2400bps
Message-ID: <p06240817cf0bbf6be35e@[172.16.42.4]>
Modems, wArEz, and ANSI art: Remembering BBS life at 2400bps
Here's how we geeked out in the era before the World Wide Web came to be.
by Lee Hutchinson
Jan 22 2014
Ars Technica
You've almost certainly never seen the place where I grew up, and you
never will because it's long gone, buried by progress and made
unreachable by technological erosion and the fine grind of time. What
I did and learned there shaped me, but that knowledge is archaic and
useless - who today needs to know the Hayes AT command set, the true
baud rates of most common connection speeds, or the inner secrets of
TheDraw? I am a wizard whose time has passed - a brilliant steam
engine mechanic standing agape in the engine room of the starship
Enterprise.
I am a child of the BBS era. BBSs - that's "Bulletin Board Systems" -
were sort of the precursors to the modern Internet, though that's not
quite accurate, since the Internet evolved separately and in
parallel. It would be more accurate to say that many people in their
30s and older today were introduced to the world of the Internet
either through or because of the interlinked telephone universe of
BBSs. That one experience begat the other.
...
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/modems-warez-and-ansi-art-remembering-bbs-life-at-2400bps/
-or-
http://goo.gl/1PWp2E
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 11:33:26 -0500
From: bill@horneQRM.net (Bill Horne)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Modems, wArEz, and ANSI art: Remembering BBS life at 2400bps
Message-ID: <20140127163326.GA17239@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 02:48:49AM -0500, Monty Solomon wrote:
> Here's how we geeked out in the era before the World Wide Web came to be.
>
> You've almost certainly never seen the place where I grew up, and
> you never will because it's long gone, buried by progress and made
> unreachable by technological erosion and the fine grind of
> time. ... I am a wizard whose time has passed - a brilliant steam
> engine mechanic standing agape in the engine room of the starship
> Enterprise.
>
> I am a child of the BBS era. BBSs - that's "Bulletin Board Systems" -
> were sort of the precursors to the modern Internet, though that's not
> quite accurate, since the Internet evolved separately and in
> parallel. It would be more accurate to say that many people in their
> 30s and older today were introduced to the world of the Internet
> either through or because of the interlinked telephone universe of
> BBSs. That one experience begat the other.
>
>
> http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/modems-warez-and-ansi-art-remembering-bbs-life-at-2400bps/
>
> -or-
>
> http://goo.gl/1PWp2E
>
There's no such thing as a "starship", but steam engines are still
called on to pull Diesel-electric locomotives out of floods.
Everything has a time and place, and newer is not necessarily
better. Harrumph!
I am, admittedly, nostalgic for the BBS era: I used to check into Ward
Christensen's BBS with a Model 35 TWX. (It had one drawback: IITT
WWOOUULLDD OONNLLYY WWOORRKK IINN HHAALLFF--DDUUPPLLEEXX!!).
The first time I dialed in using a 212 modem, Ward interrupted the
greeting and typed "Hey, Speedy!". Those were the good old days.
Be that as it may, BBS systems are going to make a comeback: with the
NSA monitoring all the Internet traffic, and common carriers allowed
to favor content they like, those wanting an added measure of privacy
and transparency are likely to revive the BBS systems - and maybe even
join FidoNet again!
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 01:45:41 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Four reasons to keep that landline at home
Message-ID: <p0624080dcf0bb0d77870@[172.16.42.4]>
Four reasons to keep that landline at home
>From improved sound to big savings, cordless phones still have purpose
CONSUMER REPORTS
JANUARY 26, 2014
Given that you have a cell or smartphone to stay in touch with the
world, is there any reason to have a landline? The short answer is
yes.
Consumer Reports' recent tests of more than 80 cordless phones (with
and without built-in answering machines) found that they provide
better voice quality than their mobile counterparts, so you can enjoy
conversations more. They have other advantages, too.
Here's the 411:
...
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/01/26/four-reasons-you-might-need-cordless-phone/dbkC9w12sMfJc46sknwMRN/story.html
-or-
http://goo.gl/fWwvyg
***** Moderator's Note *****
If voice quality is (really) important to you, switch to ISDN. It
provides standing-next-to-me fidelity equivalent to that available
from the best PBX systems.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 18:20:28 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Four reasons to keep that landline at home
Message-ID: <lc681c$qtp$2@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
To article <p0624080dcf0bb0d77870@[172.16.42.4]>, Bill Horne appended:
>If voice quality is (really) important to you, switch to ISDN. It
>provides standing-next-to-me fidelity equivalent to that available
>from the best PBX systems.
ISDN is not available for new installation in a growing number of
places, and in most parts of the US where it was available, the tariff
was uneconomical for residential use. It was popular for remote radio
broadcasts and home studios, but most of these have had to switch to
HD Voice or audio over 4G due to the high cost and difficulty
(impossibility or untimeliness) getting new installs. Telcos have
mostly relieved themselves of the technicians who knew the technology.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:59:12 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Starbucks iOS app leaves user data in the clear
Message-ID: <p0624081acf0bc213829d@[172.16.42.4]>
Starbucks iOS app leaves user data in the clear
Usernames, e-mail addresses, passwords, and location data among exposed data.
by Jason Inofuentes
Jan 16 2014
Ars Technica
The most popular mobile payment systems in the US may also be among
the leakiest. Security researcher Daniel Wood went public with his
research Tuesday, revealing that the Starbucks iOS app exposes
customers' usernames, e-mail addresses, passwords, and certain
location data.
The problem doesn't arise directly from the Starbucks app. Rather, it
stems from the cleartext logs maintained by the app's crash analytics
software. The software, known as Crashlytics, allows developers to
log application data for subsequent analysis in the event of an
error. Crashlytics advises its partners to not log sensitive data,
such as usernames and passwords. In this instance, the Starbucks app
is passing user data along to the session.clslog file without any
efforts to conceal it.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/starbucks-ios-app-leaves-user-data-in-the-clear/
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:51:51 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Apple.com does more to protect your password, study of top 100 sites finds
Message-ID: <p06240818cf0bc04315e1@[172.16.42.4]>
Apple.com does more to protect your password, study of top 100 sites finds
Which sites allow "123456"? Study names/shames the best/worst
password policies.
by Dan Goodin
Jan 24 2014
Ars Technica
Apple, Microsoft, Chegg, Newegg, and Target do the best job of
safeguarding customer passwords, according to a comprehensive study
of the top 100 e-commerce websites that also ranked Major League
Baseball, Karmaloop, Dick's Sporting Goods, Toys R Us, and
Aeropostale as performing the worst.
Apple.com was the only site to receive a perfect score of 100, which
was based on 24 criteria, such as whether the site accepts "123456"
and other extremely weak passwords and whether it sends passwords in
plaintext by e-mail. Microsoft and academic supplier Chegg tied for
second place with 65, while Newegg and Target came in third with 60.
By contrast, MLB received a score of -75, Karmaloop a -70, Dick's
Sporting Goods a -65, and Aeropostale and Toys R US each got a -60.
Each site was awarded or deducted points based on each criterion,
leading to a possible score from -100 and 100. The study was
conducted by researchers from password manager Dashlane based on the
password policies in effect on the top 100 e-commerce sites from
January 17 through January 22.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/apple-com-does-more-to-protect-your-password-study-of-top-100-sites-finds/
-or-
http://goo.gl/lTlGQN
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 02:55:57 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: How Google Calendar can tip off your boss that you want a raise
Message-ID: <p06240819cf0bc151553c@[172.16.42.4]>
How Google Calendar can tip off your boss that you want a raise
Potential privacy leak "feature" continues to take some users by surprise.
by Dan Goodin
Jan 23 2014
Ars Technica
It's a feature that has bitten Google Calendar users in the past, but
it's worth a reminder: in some cases, the widely used service may
unexpectedly leak sensitive information to bosses, spouses, or just
about anyone else.
The inadvertent leakage stems from Google Calendar's quick add
feature, which is designed to automatically add the who, what, and
where to events without requiring a user to manually enter those
details. Typing "Brunch with Mom at Java 11am Sunday" is intended to
schedule the event for the following Sunday morning at 11 and list
the place as "Java." Participants can be added by listing their
e-mail addresses, and in many cases, Google will respond by
automatically adding an entry to the participants' calendar as well.
Google heavily promoted this time-saving feature during the rollout
of its mail and calendar services. But as documented as early as
2010, the behavior can also result in the leakage of private
information for people who are unaware of it. Alas, almost four years
later, it's still catching some people by surprise. Blogger Terence
Eden explained how an entry his wife put in her personal Google
Calendar made its way to her boss. It read: "e-mail [boss's address]
to discuss pay rise" and included a date a few months in the future.
The boss quickly received the reminder as an entry in her own Google
Calender.
...
http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/how-google-calendar-can-tip-off-your-boss-you-want-a-raise/
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 22:50:41 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Person Cell Phone Wipe by Employers
Message-ID: <lc79ej$m47$1@dont-email.me>
On 1/22/2014 6:12 PM, Andrew Kaser wrote:
> BYOD? Leaving a Job Can Mean Losing Pictures of Grandma
>
> As more companies allow, and even encourage, employees to use their
> own devices for work activities, a troubling consequence has arisen
> for some workers who have seen their entire device wiped clean. WSJ's
> Lauren Weber joins digits. Photo: Andrew St. Clair for The Wall Street
> Journal.
You know, I think this is a great illustration of the way the hardware
and software curves have crossed: the hardware is within the reach of
ordinary people, but the data on it is valuable enough to blur the line
between "private" and "company" property.
Oh, well: I guess that's what happens when workers capitalize their
employer's IT system.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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