Apparently, the Time Square Marriott cannot make profit at $ 368/night.

The use technology to infect/inject every web page that you view with altered ads.

Would we put up with this if they took every magazine in the hotel, replaced all the ads and still sold you the magazine?

From JustInsomnia.org:

Marriott is injecting JavaScript into the HTML of every webpage its hotel customers view for the purpose of injecting ads and in the meantime, breaking YouTube. Marriott’s wireless internet service provider is a third-party company called Hotel Internet Services, so it is possible, though unlikely, that Marriott doesn’t know what’s going on. But it’s crazy to me that I’m paying $368 a night for a hotel room, and this is how I get treated.Update: I guess not all press is good press. Ronen Isaac coincidentally of Wlan Mall appears to have taken down the Vimeo video above that did such an excellent job describing how the Revenue eXtraction Gateway worked

via Hotel Wifi JavaScript Injection – Justinsomnia.

Who’s more invasive than State Governments & employers? Colleges.

Yes, the bastions of higher learning and organized sports are also erasing any concept of privacy.  To protect the multi-billion dollar college sports rackets, er, business model, colleges are demanding that “student-athletes” hand over their facebook & twitter logins, friend coaches, etc.

Apparently, The US Constitution and The Bill Of Rights doesn’t exist inside a football stadium or the locker room.

From MSNBC:

Student-athletes in colleges around the country also are finding out they can no longer maintain privacy in Facebook communications because schools are requiring them to “friend” a coach or compliance officer, giving that person access to their “friends-only” posts. Schools are also turning to social media monitoring companies with names like UDilligence and Varsity Monitor for software packages that automate the task. The programs offer a “reputation scoreboard” to coaches and send “threat level” warnings about individual athletes to compliance officers.

via Red Tape – Govt. agencies, colleges demand applicants’ Facebook passwords.

One of the biggest risks in Cloud Computing is when your cloud vendor dies, or kills the product.

In numerous cases, we see small businesses using 4-. 5- or even 10-year old software because it’s what their business relies on.  If you bought the licensed software, and it fits your needs, there’s no reason to upgrade.

If you rely on a cloud vendor however, then all your files, settings, workflow processes, etc can disappear into thin air, at the providers’ discretion.

Apple will close iWork.com and delete user documents on July 31, 2012

By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 03:20 PM EST (12:20 PM PST)

Apple’s new iCloud suite will officially replace iWork.com on July 31, 2012, at which point users will no longer be able to access their documents from the site.

In an e-mail sent to users of the iWork.com public beta on Friday, Apple informed participants that they should begin migrating to iCloud. Apple has recommended that users sign in to iWork.com before July 31 to download all of their documents to their computer.

In addition, Apple has created a support document available on its website, informing users that the iWork.com public beta will be discontinued in July. There, Apple offers a list of instructions on how to download documents from the website.

“Last year, we launched iCloud, a service that stores your music, photos, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all your devices,” Apple’s e-mail reads. “Today, there are over 40 million documents stored on iCloud by millions of iWork customers.”

The iWork.com service launched in beta in early 2009. At the time, it was aimed at making it easier for iWork users on the Mac to collaborate with others using Windows and Microsoft Office.

via Apple will close iWork.com and delete user documents on July 31, 2012.

What Should You Do If Your Employer Asks For Your Facebook Password?

By Dave Copeland / March 12, 2012 8:30 AM / 24 Comments

Why are some employers asking workers and would-be workers for their Facebook passwords?

Because, with U.S. unemployment hovering at 8.3%, they can.

“Unfortunately, in these economic times employers may exercise latitude in asking for the unreasonable,” career coach Sandra Lamb said in an email. “But employees (and applicants) should be steadfast in asserting their rights to their personal life. If your FaceBook or other social media website password is requested (or required) that goes beyond a red flag–it’s a deal breaker.”

Even social media newbies know that you need to check and re-check your privacy settings on Facebook and other social networks at regular intervals to make sure employers don’t see any content you don’t wnat them to see. Or, better yet, don’t post that content in the first place. But employees, job applicants and student athletes are increasingly being asked for their Facebook passwords so their overseers can check to see what content they may be hiding behind their privacy wall.

via What Should You Do If Your Employer Asks For Your Facebook Password?.

Don’t be evil.  That’s Google’s job.

In contravention of Apple’s policies, and their own statements about consumer privacy, Google bypassed Safari’s security settings to store permanent cookies on Apple devices.

From Mashable.com:

Google Caught Tracking Safari Users: What You Need to Know

Google is in a lot of hot water over recent revelations about how it tracks user activity on Apple devices — particularly iPhones and iPads.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, an independent researcher has discovered that Google embeds hidden software on many websites — software designed to circumvent the default settings on a web browser to record a user’s behavior.

via Google Caught Tracking Safari Users: What You Need to Know.

According to the Economist, the German Federal & State intelligence services are stuck in the past.

Rather that focusing on current threats, like a neo-naze group that murdered 10 people, they have been focused on spying on former East German radicals…including those that have been democratically elected, and hold political offices.

We saw this in the US in the 1950s-1970s, where the government spied on it’s political rivals, not actual threats.

This is the biggest long-term threat to privacy from Social Media, Cloud Computing and ubiquitous surveillance.

Like roach motels, once your data checks in, it never checks out. 

Once you’ve been tagged as a threat / problem / terrorist or rabble rouser, the cops, governments and databases will treat you as such for life.

The Occupy Wall Street protestors were the most heavily photographed and video demonstration in the US.  You can bet their names, photos, addresses are in hundreds of threat databases.

From The Economist:

Protection racket

The spooks can’t keep their eyes off the left

Feb 4th 2012 | BERLIN | from the print edition

GERMANY’S intelligence services failed to detect a gang of neo-Nazis who murdered ten people over several years. Never mind. They have a vice-president of the Bundestag in their sights.

Times are awkward for the 17 Offices for the Protection of the Constitution, as the domestic intelligence agencies are known (one at federal level and one for each of the 16 states). The “Zwickau cell” killed with impunity until two of its members shot themselves in November after fleeing a bank robbery. Perhaps that is because the spooks were busy watching the Left Party, the fourth-largest in the Bundestag. The federal office is monitoring 27 of its deputies, including Petra Pau (a Bundestag vice-president) and a member of the committee that oversees the intelligence services. The party, or affiliated groups, are also targets in most states. This constitutes “defamation of the opposition”, complained Jan Korte, a legislator on the watch list.

There are reasons to keep an eye on the Left Party. It is the direct descendant of East Germany’s communists and expanded westward by attracting disgruntled Social Democrats. Although the party espouses “democratic socialism” it harbours some groups that seem unsure about democracy. It has seats in 13 state legislatures and has helped govern, mostly pragmatically, three eastern states. The federal agency has been watching it since 1995.

via Germany’s intelligence services: Protection racket | The Economist.

Do you recall how in The Minority Report, stores were trying to sell Tom Cruise products based on his retina scans?

What would you do if a Retailer knew you were pregnant, and when the due date was before you told your friends and family?

Or they figured out whether you got a bonus or were unemployed without you telling them?

This article in Forbes on Target’s Pregnancy Identifier database is eerily unsettling. Especially the way they created the “random coupons” baby book.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

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So let’s get this straight:

1) Symantec failed to stop the SONY Rootkit because Sony is a well-known multinational

2) Symantec released source code to the Indian Government without adequate protections

3) They’ve known about the breach for over 6 years, but until Anonymous threatened them, Symantec kept quite.

So, which is it?

Do Symantec’s DLP, AV and Security Software work, but Symantec FAILED to use them properly?

Or is their DLP/AV/firewall useless junk?

And will Symantec be compensating clients for lost time, failed security and productivity loss?

Threatened by Anonymous, Symantec tells users to pull pcAnywhere’s plug

Source code leaked [over 6] years ago, but now Anonymous hacking group has software in its sights

By Gregg Keizer

January 26, 2012 06:44 AM ET1

Computerworld – Symantec this week took the highly unusual step of telling users of its pcAnywhere remote access software to disable or uninstall the software while it fixes an unknown number of bugs.Security experts said the move was unprecedented for a company of Symantec’s size.”This is the first time I have seen a company of Symantec’s scale tell their customers to stop using a shipping product, especially one that many users depend on for remote access,” said HD Moore, chief technology officer of Rapid7, and the creator of the popular Metasploit penetration testing toolkit.”It’s certainly a new precedent for a security breach,” added Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. “Talk about dirty laundry getting aired.”Symantec’s recommendation was blunt.”At this time, Symantec recommends disabling the product until we release a final set of software updates that resolve currently known vulnerability risks,” the company in a statement Wednesday.

via Threatened by Anonymous, Symantec tells users to pull pcAnywhere’s plug – Computerworld.

This Is Data Retention.

Would You Give It To Any Future Government?

A new visualization of cellphone location data surfaced on Engadget. While it was hailed as a cool visualization of location, it is something more: it is an insight into the powers taken by European governments by means of the Data Retention Directive.Would you want the Police to be able to see your movements and the movements of all of your friends like this? Would you want the Police under any future government and set of laws to be able to track and correlate how you and your friends move, in real time and in recorded history, like this?

Many people dismiss Data Retention with the “I have nothing to hide” shrug. That is dangerous, careless and ignorant of everything history has to teach us. If the former East European governments had had this kind of visualization on their dissidents, they would still be around. The governments, that is, not necessarily the dissidents.

via This Is Data Retention. Would You Give It To Any Future Government? – Falkvinge on Infopolicy.

Stop the Great Firewall of America

By REBECCA MacKINNON

Published: November 15, 2011

China operates the world’s most elaborate and opaque system of Internet censorship. But Congress, under pressure to take action against the theft of intellectual property, is considering misguided legislation that would strengthen China’s Great Firewall and even bring major features of it to America.

The legislation — the Protect IP Act, which has been introduced in the Senate, and a House version known as the Stop Online Piracy Act — have an impressive array of well-financed backers, including the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the American Federation of Musicians, the Directors Guild of America, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Screen Actors Guild. The bills aim not to censor political or religious speech as China does, but to protect American intellectual property. Alarm at the infringement of creative works through the Internet is justifiable. The solutions offered by the legislation, however, threaten to inflict collateral damage on democratic discourse and dissent both at home and around the world.

The bills would empower the attorney general to create a blacklist of sites to be blocked by Internet service providers, search engines, payment providers and advertising networks, all without a court hearing or a trial. The House version goes further, allowing private companies to sue service providers for even briefly and unknowingly hosting content that infringes on copyright — a sharp change from current law, which protects the service providers from civil liability if they remove the problematic content immediately upon notification. The intention is not the same as China’s Great Firewall, a nationwide system of Web censorship, but the practical effect could be similar.

via Firewall Law Could Infringe on Free Speech – NYTimes.com.