Saturday, August 10, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
PRISM and the big companies that suddenly disapprove now...
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/18/the-full-prism-letter-google-yahoo-apple-facebook-and-microsoft-are-sending-congress/
This blog post is in response to this article above. The TL:DR of it, is that a bunch of fancy companies are asking congress for a favor. Big deal.
Once we're positioned the conversation to be about politely asking the government for transparency instead of designing our web applications and data storage with full encryption and privacy, we've already lost.
Welcome to the future folks, where companies have to politely ask the government to be able to talk to their customers, where companies don't design their products with your security or privacy in mind, and only decide to confront the government when they feel enough public pressure to do so.
This blog post is in response to this article above. The TL:DR of it, is that a bunch of fancy companies are asking congress for a favor. Big deal.
Once we're positioned the conversation to be about politely asking the government for transparency instead of designing our web applications and data storage with full encryption and privacy, we've already lost.
Welcome to the future folks, where companies have to politely ask the government to be able to talk to their customers, where companies don't design their products with your security or privacy in mind, and only decide to confront the government when they feel enough public pressure to do so.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Info Security
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/06/19/theres-a-billion-reasons-not-to-give-stores-your-zip-code-ever/
Never give a store your zip code. Ever.
Never give a store your zip code. Ever.
Info Security
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/06/20/project-chess-how-u-s-snoops-on-your-skype/
Microsoft downloads all of your Skype calls and messages.
Microsoft downloads all of your Skype calls and messages.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
People are corporations, my friends.
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/03/ipo-man/
Fascinating article about the idea of selling yourself on the open market. It shows the fundamental problem with offering up shares of a company or a person via IPO and how that drastically and horribly alters the path a company or individual takes. Decisions are no longer meaningful beyond "how much money will that make me". What kind of human would do that to themselves? It's not cool, it's not interesting, and it's not funny. Removing free will from your decisions voluntarily for the sake of money is already something professionals do in America, yet this story goes one step further than that. Allowing shareholders access to the romantic life, planning a family, or even political stance. Having a five year relationship destroyed because of your little experiment is horrible.
I have a fundamental disconnect to a world in which we give up our own selves for that of profit or play. At what cost to your own human dignity is this? Would you sell your political soul out for a dollar? I guess we all do up to a point. We work at companies whose policies we disagree with, who's politics we disagree with, and provide money to a government that makes decisions we do not like. It's not much different than that, yet this example serves as a very poignant display of that entire discussion. It's too bad that WIRED magazine won't publish a more meaningful humanistic perspective on this article.
What can this article be used for? An example of how a corporation is not a person, and when we start treating people like corporations, humanity suffers as a whole. Mitt Romney, the Supreme Court, and the rest of the business world who champion corporations role as if they were people are all wrong.
Fascinating article about the idea of selling yourself on the open market. It shows the fundamental problem with offering up shares of a company or a person via IPO and how that drastically and horribly alters the path a company or individual takes. Decisions are no longer meaningful beyond "how much money will that make me". What kind of human would do that to themselves? It's not cool, it's not interesting, and it's not funny. Removing free will from your decisions voluntarily for the sake of money is already something professionals do in America, yet this story goes one step further than that. Allowing shareholders access to the romantic life, planning a family, or even political stance. Having a five year relationship destroyed because of your little experiment is horrible.
I have a fundamental disconnect to a world in which we give up our own selves for that of profit or play. At what cost to your own human dignity is this? Would you sell your political soul out for a dollar? I guess we all do up to a point. We work at companies whose policies we disagree with, who's politics we disagree with, and provide money to a government that makes decisions we do not like. It's not much different than that, yet this example serves as a very poignant display of that entire discussion. It's too bad that WIRED magazine won't publish a more meaningful humanistic perspective on this article.
What can this article be used for? An example of how a corporation is not a person, and when we start treating people like corporations, humanity suffers as a whole. Mitt Romney, the Supreme Court, and the rest of the business world who champion corporations role as if they were people are all wrong.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Microsoft Transparency Report
http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/reporting/transparency/
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