We need a “DO NOT TRACK” option for smart-phones!

smartphones tracking users

Hey Apple, Google, when are you going to have a DO NOT TRACK option on your smartphones’ operating systems?
This is another idea, maybe RIM engineers can come up with a feature like that to give the BlackBerrys a fighting chance.

The fact that most of us carry (voluntarily) a tracking device should not be news for anybody. I guess the news-worthy part is that somebody expossed what Apple and Google where doing. I am not sure it is illegal, have you checked the small font bits of the contract you signed? Me neither.
Believe me, that Apple and Google know where you are and where you have been is not the biggest of our problems with privacy as discussed in here.

Related:

• A good reference to understand privacy.
• We know where you are, and there is nothing you can do about it.

(h/t) Raymond who sent this link

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2011 at its Prime

The fact that 2011 is a prime number didn’t escape the mathematical inclined minds. Moreover, as tweeted @mathematicsprof 2011 can be expressed as the sum of the 11 consecutive primes 157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211.

This already sets the stage for a year that, I will dare to predict, will not be easily forgotten. A confluence of processes already in motion may result in drastic changes for the world and in particular the Internet. To wit:

• Cyber-attacks can get ‘physical’ as the stuxnet virus proved,
• There is a struggle to control the internet at all levels,
• Privacy and mobile computers have compatiblility issues,
• All this against the backdrop of economical and political turmoil.

 

As the Chinese say “May you live in interesting times” ….

 

del.icio.us Tags: in the news,Security,networks,technology,Mathematics,Hacking,wi-fi,InSecurity

Google provides a giggle

Google spinsters could become handy next time you are “mistankenly collecting” wi-fi traffic form your neighbours.  😉

 

del.icio.us Tags: google,insecurity,cryptoblog,hacking,wi-fi,humor

UPDATE

The Canadian government concluded today that Google’s collection of fragments of Wi-Fi transmissions violated the law, but also said that the recording was the “result of a careless error” and was not intentional.

Read the whole thing at Cnet

The Random Matchmaker : Phone Company’s new by product.

A network glitch(?) that logs AT&T users into other people facebook accounts at random was reported today.

Who knows, in the future many kids could attribute their existence to a programming error. If so should we call it the Destiny_2.0 bug?

del.icio.us Tags: Facebook,authentication,security,networks,wi-fi

Dark Fiber and White Space

Two underused resources, “Dark Fiber” and “White Space” are to be taken advantage of to increase the power of the network.

 

One application seeks to use optic fiber that has being laid but not being used to enable the establishment of secure keys using quantum technology http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/23317/page1/

The other is a wireless network in which the information is carried in the unused interstices of the TV spectrum. http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/23781/

del.icio.us Tags: quantum cryptography,wi-fi,networks,dark fiber,white space,QKD