privacy

Privacy versus Security

January 25, 2012

"Concerned about privacy? Maybe you should be concerned about the economy instead. That was the subtext of a keynote speech by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, at a technology conference in the heart of Europe." [Benton]

Not to get political, but privacy is a ship that has sailed. Google, Facebook and other sites track online activities. Credit card companies and Paypal can track both offline and online activities.

Posted in economy, outage, politics, privacy, security, technology

Lots of News (I Can't Cover in Detail)

December 5, 2011

Dag Peak explains the difference between BroadTouch and BroadCloud by BSFT.

That Carrier IQ key logging software has Sprint and AT&T caught in lawsuits. This privacy issue reminds me of the cigarette suits -- keep suing and when you win one, you crack the whole thing open and huge sweeping change must follow. So lawyers start your engines and get out those lawsuits! (Like I have to tell you to.)

Obama names new FCC nominees for Senate approval. Copps is term limited and Meredith Baker left for a lucrative job at Comcast! (No conflict of interest there, just part of the revolving door in DC.)

CenturyLink adds broadband caps to compete better with Cox, who does too.

I'm still working on my blog post about this: FCC Releases Connect America Fund Order, Reforms USF/ICC for Broadband

It's a week where SAP feels like Ron Paul, because its cloud acquisition got about 90 seconds of space.

Posted in FCC, broadband, broadsoft, politics, privacy

Cell Phones Offer No Privacy

November 30, 2011

Beyond the fact that radio frequencies can be listened to with Radio Shack parts - I'm not even talking NSA spycraft here - two reports out this week show that malware is present and accounted for on cell phones. Awesome, right? I mean, how long did that even take?

One article details how the IEEE has found that as many as 2000 free smartphone apps carry malware. Who says free is good?

Smartphones are a gateway to corporate information, email, data on applications, passwords and more.This is one more issue that corporate IT has to deal with.

Last week, an Android developer named Trevor Eckhart revealed that Carrier IQ had installed a rootkit on smartphones that logs user keystrokes. "The new video Eckhart released, however, shows that the software also reports the content of text messages and even logs encrypted web searches," reports TJS.

Posted in apps, cellular, privacy, technology, wireless

FCC's Small Biz Cyber Planner

November 18, 2011

There is a whole lot of truth to this statement from the FCC: "American small businesses are key drivers of innovation, economic growth and job creation. Small businesses employ more than HALF of all private sector workers, and they have generated about two-thirds of net new jobs over the past 15 years. Small businesses drive innovation, producing 13 times more patents per employee than large firms."

The FCC goes on to explain that "Broadband and information technology is increasingly important to the success of our economy, to jobs and to the future of small business. Broadband connectivity and online business tools are powerful factors in small businesses reaching new markets, increasing productivity and efficiency, and generating economic growth.

Posted in Internet, broadband, privacy, security

3 Bills That ISP's Need to Be Aware of

November 18, 2011

In DC, there are bills moving through Congress that will affect the ISP business.

The Protect IP Act and the companion Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and H.R. 1981, the ISP Data-Retention Bill.

The ISP Data-Retention bill would require Internet Service Providers such as Comcast or AT&T to retain the personal information of its users for up to 18 months. PC Mag has a nice write up here. It passed House committee in July.

All of these bills come with the propaganda that it is to stop child porn and for national security. Actually, it is to help out the MPAA and RIAA, who want help to stop piracy.

Posted in Internet, privacy

It's Monday So Lots Happened

October 17, 2011

Polycom bought Vivu, a video collaboration company, to help Polycom push it's Presence gear. Video, video, video. Yet I never have video calls or video call requests. To me, I wish you would work on the phone part.

Posted in FCC, Marketing, PBX, broadband, broadsoft, cellular, conferencing, expo, hosted uc, privacy, sip trunking, unified communications, video, voip, wimax, wireless

It's Getting Out of Hand

April 29, 2011

There was a big bruha over Apple's iPhone spying on its users. Now Tom Tom discloses that it provides data for public works, supposedly for traffic, but also about your speed. Nice. Buy a Tom Tom and they rat you out to the po-po. Privacy is long dead, but we have reached a new level of invasion. In an always connected, GPS and location-based service world, Corporate America is going to be collecting info on you and selling it. Period. It's worse than Big Brother or Skynet. George Orwell would even be shocked.

Posted in apps, privacy

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