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Privacy

Out of Business, Clear May Sell Customer Data 77

Posted by kdawson from the but-don't-worry-it's-perfectly-safe dept.
narramissic writes "Earlier this week, the Clear airport security screening service ceased operations, leaving many to wonder what would become of the personal information, including credit card numbers, fingerprints, and iris scans, of Clear's customers. And now we know. The information could be sold to the provider of a similar service. Until then, Clear has erased PC hard drives at its airport screening kiosks and is wiping employee computers, but the information is retained on its central databases (managed by Lockheed Martin). Clear customer David Maynor, who is CTO with Errata Security in Atlanta, wants Clear to delete his information but that isn't happening, the company said in a note posted to its Web site Thursday. 'They had your social security information, credit information, where you lived, employment history, fingerprint information,' said Maynor. 'They should be the only ones who have access to that information.'"
Robotics

Robot Soldiers Are Already Being Deployed 258

Posted by timothy from the from-my-cold-dead-solenoids dept.
destinyland writes "As a Rutgers philosopher discusses robot war scenarios, one science magazine counts the ways robots are already being used in warfare, including YouTube videos of six military robots in action. There are up to 12,000 'robotic units' on the ground in Iraq, some dismantling landmines and roadside bombs, but 'a new generation of bots are designed to be fighting machines.' One bot can operate an M-16 rifle, a machine gun, and a rocket launcher — and 250 people have already been killed by unmanned drones in Pakistan. He also tells the story of a berserk robot explosives gun that killed nine people in South Africa due to a 'software glitch.'"
Nintendo

Nintendo Penalizing Homebrew Users? 95

Posted by Soulskill from the thanks-so-much dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Bricked your Wii? Not only will Nintendo charge you for the repair, they will now add an additional fee if they detect any homebrew software. 'Should Nintendo have to pay to repair hacked Wiis under warranty? Maybe not, but they have no (moral) right to gouge customers out of spite for having the HBC installed. This actually poses a technical dilemma for us with BootMii. As currently designed, BootMii looks for an SD card when you boot your Wii, and if it finds the card and the right file, it will execute that file. Otherwise, there's no way to tell it's installed.'"
Linux Business

Linux Flourishes In 200-Year-Old Gold Markets 195

Posted by timothy from the neal-stephenson-themes-everyhere dept.
tbarkerload writes "H-Online [a spin off of a major German daily] reports on a gold trader managing over 15 tonnes of gold, worth $660m, with a platform built on open source tech. BullionVault operates a 24-7 electronic market in gold bullion open to both retail and professional traders. Their systems handle thousands of daily transactions from both human traders and bots operating through their API. If Linux has reached the world of hundred year old assaying firms, and Swiss vaults buried in mountains, can final world domination be too far away?"

Comment Blown out of proportion.....again (Score 2, Informative) 857

by Selivanow (#26929711) Attached to: Bill Would Require ISPs, Wi-Fi Users To Keep Logs

Ok, so everyone thinks that this is going to be a big deal. How many of you have actually read Title 18 section 2703 (you should also read chapters 119 and 121 in their entirety as the include definitions)?

from Title 18, Chapter 121, Section 2711:

(2) the term "remote computing service" means the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communications system;

now, I don't know about you, but my WiFi router is not for the PUBLIC. Of course IANAL, but it appears that I do not operate a "remote computing service" nor am I a provider of an "electronic communication service". I provide no service to anyone outside of my family.

So, I fail to see the trouble here. They want ISPs, and WiFi hotspots (ie: Restaurants, Coffee Shops, etc.) to retain records. Note how it does not say you must OBTAIN information from your customers, just retain what information you have.

One other thing that I have not seen mentioned yet. MAC addresses are not guaranteed to be unique, only unique on a particular LAN. There is no guarantee that no two wireless devices that ever connect to your WiFi will not have the same MAC address. This coupled with the fact that there is no way to track a MAC address to a particular person....

Really, why do we even bother.

Comment Re:Bad lawyers (Score 1) 125

by Selivanow (#26871059) Attached to: Canon Tries To Shut Down "Fake" Canon Blog

You're absolutely correct. It's too bad that large companies hire poor Law Firms. Just because you have a lot of money to through around doesn't mean that you should. Maybe Canon should dump L&L and hire a firm that would have acted responsibly and then take the extra cash and put into Q&A or maybe hire someone to actually read the complaints from consumers.

Sadly for Canon, now I know about their poor Customer Service and dedication to quality. They won't be on my list.
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Home Grown Multi-Touch Input Device (medallia.com)

Submitted by
Daniel Spiewak
Daniel Spiewak writes: "Erling Ellingsen has found a way to whip up one of those cool, multi-touch input devices using nothing more than some dye, a plastic-bag and an iSight. From his blog: "I guess most of the people reading this will have seen some of the multi-touch demos by Jeff Han, Apple and Tactiva. I wanted to play around with some ideas that required a multi-touch pad, but there aren't any devices available (Tactiva aren't shipping...) Long story short, I made a simple one from a plastic bag, some dye and a camera." Video of the "device" in action included in the entry."
Intel

Submission + - Intel To Rebrand Processors In 2008 (techarp.com) 1

Submitted by DJ
DJ writes: We just heard from an anonymous source that Intel will be rebranding their processors in 2008. From the Centrino mobile platform to the Itanium 2 server processors, Intel will revamp and consolidate their product lines under these new brands. These new brand names will come into effect on the first day of 2008. Intel hopes that these new brands will not only leverage the strong Core 2 brand but also make it less confusing for the consumer.

At the moment, the Intel Centrino mobile platform has five different logos with brands like Centrino, Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro. Starting from January 1, 2008, Intel will consolidate the Centrino Duo and Centrino brands under the Intel Centrino brand, and rename the Centrino Pro as Intel Centrino with vPro Technology.
Privacy

Submission + - Edible RFID Tags

Submitted by giampy
giampy writes: New Scientist is reporting that Kodak has filed a patent for edible RFID tags. "The tags would be covered with soft gelatin that takes a while to dissolve in the stomach. After swallowing a tag a patient need only sit next to a radio source and receiver". They claim that these tags could be embedded in pills and used to monitor a person digestive system, among other things.

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