👓 Analysis: Why Google has become a threat to sovereign law | Privacy Surgeon

Read Analysis: Why Google has become a threat to sovereign law » The Privacy Surgeon by Simon Davies (privacysurgeon.org)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lashed out at Google, accusing the advertising giant of collusion with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the US State Department.

Assange believes that Google has entered into a partnership with the US Administration in which the company acts as a foreign policy enabler, influencing overseas governments and helping the White House achieve its global policy objectives. In the process Google has formed strong operational and policy bonds with America’s secretive three-letter agencies that go well beyond those of other companies.

What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border? | Ars Technica

Read What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border? (Ars Technica)
DHS says agents are in the right to ask for passwords, decryption help.
Continue reading What could happen if you refuse to unlock your phone at the US border? | Ars Technica

Go To Hellman: How to check if your library is leaking catalog searches to Amazon

Read How to check if your library is leaking catalog searches to Amazon by Rob Hellman (go-to-hellman.blogspot.com)

I've been writing about privacy in libraries for a while now, and I get a bit down sometimes because progress is so slow. I've come to realize that part of the problem is that the issues are sometimes really complex and  technical; people just don't believe that the web works the way it does, violating user privacy at every opportunity.Content embedded in websites is a a huge source of privacy leakage in library services. Cover images can be particularly problematic. I've written before that, without meaning to, many libraries send data to Amazon about the books a user is searching for; cover images are almost always the culprit. I've been reporting this issue to the library automation companies that enable this, but a year and a half later, nothing has changed. (I understand that "discovery" services such as Primo/Summon even include config checkboxes that make this easy to do; the companies say this is what their customers want.)

EFF’s full-page Wired ad: Dear tech, delete your logs before it’s too late | Boing Boing

Read EFF's full-page Wired ad: Dear tech, delete your logs before it's too late by Cory Doctorow (Boing Boing)

EFF has run a full-page ad in this month's Wired, addressed to the technology industry, under the banner "Your threat model just changed," warning them that the incoming administration has vowed to spy on and deport millions of their fellow Americans on the basis of religion and race, and that they are in grave risk of having their services conscripted to help with this effort. (Trump is also an avowed opponent of net neutrality)

It’s time to unite in defense of users. [EFF]

Tom Wheeler Resigns From the FCC—So Long, Net Neutrality | WIRED

Read Tom Wheeler Resigns From the FCC—So Long, Net Neutrality by Klint Finley (WIRED)
The man who saved net neutrality is stepping aside.
This is not a good sign for the open web.

Chris Aldrich is reading “Off-Grid in Alaska: Farewell and Thanks for the Fish!”

Read Off-Grid in Alaska: Farewell and Thanks for the Fish! by Jennie Wardle (jenninewardle.com)
I'd like to share some of our lessons learned to aid anyone dreaming of going entirely off-grid in the wilderness.

Moneyball for Book Publishers: A Detailed Look at How We Read

Read Moneyball for Book Publishers: A Detailed Look at How We Read (The New York Times)
A reader analytics company in London wants to use data on our reading habits to transform how publishers acquire, edit and market books.
likes Moneyball for Book Publishers: A Detailed Look at How We Read – The New York Times

readingdata-1050

2015 Viterbi Lecture: H. Vincent Poor on “Fundamental Limits on Information Security and Privacy”

USC’s Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineeing has announced that H. Vincent Poor will deliver the 2015 Viterbi Lecture

“Fundamental Limits on Information Security and Privacy”

H. Vincent Poor
H. Vincent Poor

H. Vincent Poor, Ph.D.  
Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science
Michael Henry Strater University Professor
Princeton University

Education

  • Ph.D., Princeton University, 1977
  • M.A., in Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, 1976
  • M.S., in Electrical Engineering, Auburn University, 1974
  • B.E.E., with Highest Honor, Auburn University, 1972

Lecture Information

Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Hughes Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) 132
Reception 3:00pm
Lecture 4:00pm

Abstract

As has become quite clear from recent headlines, the ubiquity of technologies such as wireless communications and on-line data repositories has created new challenges in information security and privacy. Information theory provides fundamental limits that can guide the development of methods for addressing these challenges. After a brief historical account of the use of information theory to characterize secrecy, this talk will review two areas to which these ideas have been applied successfully: wireless physical layer security, which examines the ability of the physical properties of the radio channel to provide confidentiality in data transmission; and utility-privacy tradeoffs of data sources, which quantify the balance between the protection of private information contained in such sources and the provision of measurable benefits to legitimate users of them. Several potential applications of these ideas will also be discussed.

Biography

H. Vincent Poor (Ph.D., Princeton 1977) is Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University, where he is also the Michael Henry Strater University Professor. From 1977 until he joined the Princeton faculty in 1990, he was a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has also held visiting appointments at a number of other universities, including most recently at Stanford and Imperial College. His research interests are primarily in the areas of information theory and signal processing, with applications in wireless networks and related fields. Among his publications in these areas is the recent book Principles of Cognitive Radio (Cambridge University Press, 2013). At Princeton he has developed and taught several courses designed to bring technological subject matter to general audiences, including “The Wireless Revolution” (in which Andrew Viterbi was one of the first guest speakers) and “Six Degrees of Separation: Small World Networks in Science, Technology and Society.”

Dr. Poor is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a foreign member of the Royal Society. He is a former President of the IEEE Information Theory Society, and a former Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He currently serves as a director of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives and of the IEEE Foundation, and as a member of the Council of the National Academy of Engineering. Recent recognition of his work includes the 2014 URSI Booker Gold Medal, and honorary doctorates from several universities in Asia and Europe.

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