rye - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Please don't think of the children. (Score 1) 1092

by rye on Tuesday June 02, 2009 @01:17AM (#28177977) Attached to: Making a Child Locating System

First it was tracking consumers. Look at the location histories that public transit agencies store (EZ-Pass, Metro Card, etc), not to mention credit card and cell companies that track and analyze consumer location info for the company's benefit. Money is the greatest motivator.

After these systems are set up, police realize that they can gain access and use them to track suspects or "terrorists." Once the capabilities are well-publicized, parents get interested and companies spew out spinoff consumer-friendly tracking tools... such as Verizon's Chaperone, which more average people buy... which LE will subsequently take advantage of...

Every new advance in location tracking technology is an exploitative cycle between the market forces, Big Brother and normal human attachments.

Submission + - Doctors Scan Photo ID for Treatment (philosecurity.org)

Submitted by

Sherri Davidoff

on Thursday May 28, 2009 @05:47PM

Sherri Davidoff writes: "Spurred by the FTC's "Red Flags Rule," more health care clinics are requiring photo identification and storing high-resolution copies in their computer systems. Ironically, this probably puts patients at greater risk of identity theft, not less. From the article: "Walking into the doctor's office, I was surprised to see a new sign which read: 'Red Flag Identity Theft Rule: We are now required by law to ask for a Photo ID at the time of each visit. Please have your Photo ID ready for the receptionist to scan.' As an avid bicyclist, I wasn't carrying a driver's license. 'I'm sorry, we'll have to reschedule you,' said the receptionist.

"Everyone should have access to medical care- not just people who have registered with the government and obtained a photo ID. Furthermore, patients should have the right to health care without being forced to give up control of our personal information. As a patient, I don't really want a copy of my Photo ID stored on a crappy unpatched Windows box at my doctor's office. Today's patients do not even have the right to know how well doctor's offices and hospitals are secured, even in the face of constant reports of medical data breaches. That's sick.""

Submission + - Interview with an Adware Author (philosecurity.org)

Submitted by rye on Tuesday January 13, 2009 @03:48PM

rye writes: Sherri Davidoff conducts a fascinating interview with Matt Knox, a talented Ruby instructor and coder, who 'talks about his early days designing and writing adware for Direct Revenue. (Direct Revenue was sued by Eliot Spitzer in 2006 for allegedly surreptitiously installing adware on millions of computers.)'

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