Year: 2012
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Privacy Threat Model for Mobile
Evaluating privacy vulnerabilities in the mobile space can be a difficult and ad hoc process for developers, publishers, regulators, and researchers. This is due, in significant part, to the absence of a well-developed and widely accepted privacy threat model. With 1 million UDIDs posted on the Internet this past week, there is an urgent need…
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On the Harvard "Cheating" Scandal
The news that Harvard is investigating more than 100 students on charges of unauthorized collaboration on a take-home exam has, predictably, led many commentators to chime in. No matter who you are, a story like this is likely to trigger one of your hot buttons, whether it’s the declining moral standards of kids these days,…
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The Decline of DVD-by-Mail, or Further Thoughts on the Digital Death of Copyright's First Sale Doctrine
Netflix reported a second-quarter profit last week as customer demand continues to drive a transition in the company’s primary delivery model from DVD-by-mail to Internet streaming. According to The New York Times, “he company’s net losses among DVD-by-mail subscriptions outpaced its gains in net streaming subscriptions in the United States, reflecting the continued challenge of…
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Open Internet Advisory Committee kick-off
Last Friday, we had the first meeting of the Open Internet Advisory Committee (OIAC), called for by the FCC in the recent Open Internet Order. The members of the OIAC consist of a mix of folks from venture capital firms, ISPs, governance organizations, community organizations, and academics like myself. The OIAC’s mission is to “track and evaluate…
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Firefox Changes its HTTPS User Interface… Again
A year and a half ago, I wrote about major changes to the way that Firefox indicates whether the connection to a web site is encrypted. I noted that, especially with the emergence of mobile browsers, the traditional “padlock icon” of standard SSL-secured connections and the “green glow” of Extended Validation was being implemented in…
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I Tell the FCC to End In-Home Video Encryption
In my last post, I asked “Who Killed the Open Set-Top-Box?.” There were some great comments on that post, which inspired me to write up my thoughts and send them to the FCC. The FCC has long tried and failed to mandate that cable companies make their systems more interoperable with third-party consumer devices. Nevertheless,…
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Who Killed the Open Set-Top-Box?
A few years ago, I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I subscribed to Comcast cable. With my trusty Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 I enjoyed the ability to watch TV on my desktop computer — even to record it for later viewing or to occasionally edit and re-upload it to YouTube (with critical commentary and within the bounds of…
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Going to the doctor and worrying about cybersecurity
For most people, going to the doctor means thinking about co-pays and when they’ll feel better. For me though, it means thinking about those plus the cyber security of the computer systems being used by the medical professionals. I’ve spent more time than usual visiting doctors recently. I broke my hand – sure I’ll tell…
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What is the 21st Century blackboard?
In the fall I’ll be back from the FTC and teaching again. I want to draw on the wisdom of FtT readers to help me figure out what technology I should be using to present material to students in the classroom. It’s a lecture class, teaching security and privacy to a class of 175 students,…
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Opening Government: On the Limits of FOIA and the Metaphor of Transparency
At a recent symposium (“Piracy and the Politics of Policing: Legislating and Enforcing Copyright Law”) sponsored by the Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal, I was invited to respond to an excellent paper by David Levine on secrecy, national security, and the denial of public access to documents from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiation…