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Posts Tagged ‘EFF’

Traitorware!

December 28th, 2010
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regular person: targetThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) offers a great commentary by Eva Galperin that describes traitorware: “devices that act behind your back to betray your privacy.” Basically, she’s describing nearly every digital tool that we use and carry, from printers to cell phones and CDs. Somebody is collecting all kinds of information about you in non-volunteered ways. This information includes your location and movements, device identity codes, all of the very intimate details of your life and activities. This term acts as a wake up call: the technology is only going to evolve to detect and discover more details about our selves and our environment.

Coaching moment: The alarming thing about this post, and why I’m happy that EFF is watching developments in this area, is that surreptitious tracking is non-voluntary. We do not know when we purchase our devices what kind of information is being collected and sent back to various hidden interests. The collection of details includes information that we may not wish to share with unknown sources, for unknown purposes about our location, our social network, or personal health, or any other details about our existence. Do we have a choice? More now than we will if we do nothing until later. Write a letter to your congressperson. Talk with your friends. Turn off Fox. Hey, if you’d like to thank EFF for their work in this area, here’s one way.

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Getting to know you

August 20th, 2009
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National ID cards and programs are problematic at best, and an ongoing nightmare for citizens and visitors alike when the programs are poorly designed. The U.S. government has made earlier attempts at developing such a program, which have failed. However, the dream lives on in the minds of certain government officials and representatives.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been following these efforts for years. EFF’s Richard Esguerra has a post, PASS ID: REAL ID Reanimated that offers an informed look at the latest effort to create the next version of a national identity card.

The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID — that requiring various “identity documents” (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers’ licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security.

An ID card is only a small part of the picture. The government program that supports the card is where the devils live. I recommend to you Bruce Schneier’s testimony to the Senate on why this whole idea is seriously flawed.

Coaching moment: Have you ever filled out a form for a new service, at a web site or store, where the form asked for information that they might not have needed for the transaction you were seeking? Long forms that ask a lot of questions about you, your preferences, your income, and other personal information, are unnecessary. If you’re just buying something, why might the vendor need your income, your birthdate, or any information about other family members?

The fact is that they often don’t need it. They’re collecting information about you because they can, and because you might volunteer it. Even when certain information is marked as “required,” it might be in your best interest to think twice about doing business with companies that would be so invasive and demanding.

Treat your personal information on a “need to know” basis. What that means is don’t give out more information about yourself than you think the companies need to know in order to carry out the transaction. If the company or form require more information than you’re comfortable giving, think hard about your future well-being as a trade-off for today’s discount. Your mindfulness is a low-cost insurance on your future.

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