Google's Gmail scanning unclear to users, judge finds | ITworld

“Google has cited no case that stands for the proposition that users who send emails impliedly consent to interceptions and use of their communications by third parties other than the intended recipient of the email,” Koh wrote. Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit consumer advocate group based in Washington, D.C., called Koh’s ruling a “tremendous victory for online privacy.” http://www.itworld.com/it-management/375066/googles-gmail-scanning-unclear-users-judge-finds

Downloading Is Mean! Content Industry Drafts Anti-Piracy Curriculum for Elementary Schools | Electronic Frontier Foundation

“This thinly disguised corporate propaganda is inaccurate and inappropriate,” says Mitch Stoltz, an intellectual property attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who reviewed the material at WIRED’s request. “It suggests, falsely, that ideas are property and that building on others’ ideas always requires permission,” Stoltz says. “The overriding message of this curriculum is that students’ time should be consumed not in creating but in worrying about their impact on corporate profits.

BlackBerry says BBM for Android and iOS won’t relaunch this week as blocking leaked app ‘will take some time’ - The Next Web

The team is now focused on adjusting the system to completely block this unreleased version of the Android app when we go live with the official BBM for Android app. We are also making sure that the system is reinforced to handle this kind of scenario in the future. While this may sound like a simple task – it’s not. This will take some time and I do not anticipate launching this week.

Is the Cloud ready for mission critical apps? | The Next Web

No it isn’t. I’ve consulted for companies that try to rely on third parties, and their false promises of redundancy and reliability bite them every time. Even those reliant on Amazon EC2 now simply accept that they must pay double or even triple the monthly rate to run copies of their virtual machines in 3 different Amazon data centers. Such a joke. thenextweb.com/insider/2013/09/18/is-the-cloud-ready-for-mission-critical-apps/

Smart Scopes to anonymize images before landing in the user's Dash (privacy oriented) | Iloveubuntu: Ubuntu blog

As seen in the demo URL, the Canonical severs are anonymizing directly the URL with the probable behavior: typing a word in the Dash, pushes the word against (along with the locally-installed scopes) the Canonical servers, the Canonical servers decide the best results, the results are then anonymized and finally landed in the Dash. This isn’t enough. Anonymity means that no one, not Amazon, not Canonical, receives your personal information.

Al Franken questions privacy of iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner | CNET News

“Passwords are secret and dynamic; fingerprints are public and permanent,” Franken wrote. “If you don’t tell anyone your password, no one will know what it is. If someone hacks your password, you can change it – as many times as you want. You can’t change your fingerprints. You have only ten of them. And you leave them on everything you touch; they are definitely not a secret. What’s more, a password doesn’t uniquely identify its owner – a fingerprint does.

Google Chrome is Spyware.

On its first run, Google Chrome silently imports your browser history from Firefox and Internet Explorer. This combined with its incessant prompting to sign into your Google Account guarantees quite a bit of unauthorized data collection on their part, considering this history data will then be synchronized, unencrypted, with them. It is the only piece of software I know which: logs your keystrokes logs your browser history logs your affiliations lists your installed software sends all this information to unnamed third parties All known traits of spyware programs, which would be removed swiftly and decisively by users if found.

Great New Features in GNOME 3.8

I’m quite enjoying GNOME 3.8 so far. Despite my initial objections to the GNOME 3 environment (Linus Torvalds had the same objections), I’ve found that much of the UI decision making involved in the desktop environment has been more than sensible, and lent a natural feel to it (Linus feels the same way!). The latest version of GNOME even requires one to switch their init system from SysV init to SystemD, if their distribution of choice has not yet done so (looking at you, Gentoo).

Think Your Office Is Soulless? Check Out This Amazon Fulfillment Center | Co.Design

“When you buy something from an independent retailer, you might pay more than Amazon, but that extra bit is an investment,” Roberts explains. “When you pay it, you’re investing in the quality of not only your own life but the life of the community around you.” I don’t buy things from Amazon because shopping requires a human touch. As do we all. Read more: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672939/think-your-office-is-soulless-check-out-this-amazon-fulfillment-center?fullsite#1