#Skype is underwhelming

I use skype. It was recently bought by #Microsoft for $8.5 billion. As such it has a valuation based on the size of its user base and to increase the user base even more, Facebook made Skype the engine for chatting and talking to other people using Facebook.

In the meantime there are patents by both Microsoft and Facebook describing technology that allows for tracking, spying and consequently it is not only governments that spy, track, stalk. Using Skype as a technology that is so obviously used as a platform of spyware, trackware and stalkware.

One of the great things of patents is that they are intended to exclude. With patents claimed by a Microsoft or Facebook other companies do have an incentive not to use such technology. As governments are likely to be the beneficiary of such spyware trackware and stalkware functionality as well, it will be interesting to learn if other companies have to pay for the use of such technology or if governements will strong arm the patent holders to make this technology for free.

Anyway, Skype is underwhelming because why trust it when it is patently clear that it will not provide you with the privacy that the law at least suggests you should be able to expect from the plain old telephone system.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Where have you been lately

#Privacy is elusive. When you use a mobile phone and some cars it is obvious where your car or phone has been. Both can make their position known to a service provider. By triangulation the positions can be and often are recorded.

There is a lot to do about the registration of positions on Apple mobiles. Because of this registration all kinds of applications are enabled that rely on localisation.

This data is now openly available as it is located on the “User Data Partition”. This data used to be available hidden in the Apple Property List format..

The relevancy is that governmental organisations increasingly claim the right to investigate computers and mobile phones without a warrant. As this data is now easily and obviously observable in sqlite3 there is not much stopping Big Brother from being a big nuisance.
Thanks,
       GerardM

Finally some good news about #Facebook

Facebook is one of those "must have" things at the moment. But from a privacy point of view it is getting from bad to worse. It is good to realise that providing real privacy controls is not in the interest of Facebook. Facebook makes its money by selling you out.

To make matters worse, there are all these websites that inform Facebook about your actions. This is done by the Facebook connect.

The good news is that there is an extension for Google Chrome called Facebook disconnect that prevents such data to be send. Currently it is only available for Chrome at the moment, a version for Firefox is expected.
Thanks,
     GerardM

About openness and transparancy

CafePress.co.uk

It is annoying when other people tell you what to do. It is even worse when they do not listen to the arguments why things became in a certain way.

My communications to the Language committee are not open for public scrutiny. That is not that special as there are many WMF communications that are confidential.

One conversation with a person subscribed to the internal-l told me: "it is common practice to post on foundation-l when the subject does not need to be confidential and, that it should be posted to foundation-l as well".

This practice is flawed because of a number of people who refuse to enlist to the foundation-l. The consequences are twofold. First of all things do not get posted to foundation-l and secondly, their contributions are kept secret without a reason.

To me it is obvious that nothing will change. But the people who are on internal and not on the foundation list and bitch can buy me the t-shirt.. I prefer one in the XXL size.
Thanks,
       GerardM

The #wardriving of #Google in perspective

Google is involved in another storm in a glass of water; it is privacy again. What Google wants to know is where you are connecting from. This allows them to better target their ads.

Their cars drive by, as they drive by, they record WIFI traffic. In this way they get plenty of data to extract the IP numbers from the WIFI routers. The conversations they record are too small for anything meaningful.. Remember, it is a car driving by for crying out loud !!

If you are worried about people listening in to your WIFI traffic, use appropriate settings on your router or use an ethernet cable. Do not blame Google for what can be heard in the street by anyone anyway, that is just a red herring.
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Wardriving, #Google vs the Wire

Wardriving is: "the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person in a moving vehicle, using a portable computer or PDA." The best known objective is to find an available Wi-Fi network to connect to the Internet.

Another objective is to geo-tag Wi-Fi networks. This has been done on numerous occasions and it resulted in maps that include overlays to Google maps like this map of Seattle.

There are use cases for such maps; for the purpose of law enforcement, it shows where a person is connected to the Internet and for advertisement, it shows where a person is connected to the Internet. On its own, it is a little thing. When you look at it in the context of what has been so brilliantly documented in the Wire, it is part of a technological fight against crime and when you look at it in the context of Google, it is part of the increasingly sophisticated way of serving locally relevant adverts.

Slowly but surely personal privacy becomes less private. People, organisations and organisations can address you because they know where you are. The weather is fine, I may take my bike and without a mobile, you may think I am at home because my laptop will be left turned on... I hope nobody cares, will miss me as a result and get annoyed ...
Thanks,
      GerardM

#Feedjit Recent visitors

Recently Google translate was added as a function to this blog. Since then I have seen a growth in the number of visitors to my blog.

The Feedjit recent visitors show a sliding window of visitors and, as more Asian visitors show up, I see fewer American visitors. It is obvious from this map that Europe is "my" heartland.

The business model of Feedjit is one where they inform about traffic on your website. Lately, they ask people to identify themselves as a guest to my blog with a facebook, twitter or other account.

I am not sure what to think of it.. On the one hand it is nice to know when my ma or my sister have visited, but it is also the kind of information I do not need to know, and I do not want it to be aggregated for my blog and up for sale.
Thanks,
      GerardM

Privacy

Internet privacy is something to get over with; it does not exist we have been repeatedly told. This means that whatever you do on the Internet should be considered as if it is done in the full view of the world. Today I was surprised when my mother told me that she had googled me; she told me that she had enjoyed my blog entry about swimming in Maiori.

When you write on the Internet, it is your mother that may read you. When whatever you write is sane / safe enough for your mother to read it, you have a proper idea of your Internet privacy and Internet dealings.

This lack of privacy does not give any excuse to those people that want to snoop beyond what is available. I am staying with Sabine at the moment and am staying in the privacy of her home, her family. When I comment publicly, I have to ensure that I show proper respect, I have to be aware of Sabine's privacy and I want to find myself as friendly a welcome a next time.
Thanks,
GerardM