The privacy advocates and civil libertarians at the 13th annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference sometimes seem dwarfed by the enormity of the projects they oppose -- larger-than-life enterprises worthy of a James Bond villain. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness project, . . . . The privacy advocates and civil libertarians at the 13th annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference sometimes seem dwarfed by the enormity of the projects they oppose -- larger-than-life enterprises worthy of a James Bond villain. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness project, if successful, would combine every government and private sector database into a massive data mining system capable of picking out aberrant behavior in the actions of seemingly-ordinary citizens. The Department of Homeland Security's CAPPS II program aims to run automatic background checks on every airline passenger in the U.S. But the day before CFP 2003 began, a smaller invitation-only group of technologists and policy wonks met at the conference site to discuss a matter that some say is just as important to Internet privacy as any of the monolithic omniscient supercomputers being hatched in Washington... The humble Web server log. Or more to the point, the countless thousands of logs routinely kept by servers throughout the Internet, each marking every visit to a given website, identifying what pages were viewed, what transactions made, and the Internet IP address of the visitor. Recent laws have made it easier for government agencies to get their hands on server log entries, and civil litigators are increasingly finding logs a valuable target for subpoenas. At the same time, the art of wringing every ounce of useful information out of such logs is advancing, as is the ease of tracking down a user's identity from their IP address by correlating data from different sources. The link for this article located at SecurityFocus is no longer available. . Explore the strategies privacy defenders employ to confront new threatsposed by surveillance technologies, alongside the significance of server logs in protecting individual freedoms.. Privacy Advocacy, Internet Surveillance, Data Protection, Freedom Conference. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Set-top boxes can tell corporate HQ what you watched last night and even what you bought online. And now the interactive TV industry wants to sell that data to advertisers. Touted as a possible replacement for both PC and analogue television . . . . Set-top boxes can tell corporate HQ what you watched last night and even what you bought online. And now the interactive TV industry wants to sell that data to advertisers. Touted as a possible replacement for both PC and analogue television the set-top box that is slowly finding a place in UK homes might look harmless enough. But once you are safely tucked up in bed, the thing switches itself back on, goes online, dials up corporate HQ and reports back every programme you watched and every online purchase made that day. The link for this article located at The Guardian is no longer available. . Streaming devices monitor your entertainment preferences and shopping behavior, creating issues of confidentiality as marketers capitalize on this data.. Data Privacy, User Tracking, Surveillance Risks, Streaming Devices, Advertising Trends. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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