VoiceOfDoom - Slashdot User

Submission + - Smartphone surveillance tech used to target anti-abortion ads at pregnant women

Submitted by VoiceOfDoom on Thursday May 26, 2016 @04:47PM

VoiceOfDoom writes: From Rewire
Last year, an enterprising advertising executive based in Boston, Massachusetts, had an idea: Instead of using his sophisticated mobile surveillance techniques to figure out which consumers might be interested in buying shoes, cars, or any of the other products typically advertised online, what if he used the same technology to figure out which women were potentially contemplating abortion, and send them ads on behalf of anti-choice organizations?

Regardless of one's personal stance on the pro-choice/anti-abortion debate, the unfettered use of tracking and ad-targeting technology which makes this kind of application possible is surely a cause for concern. In Europe, Canada and many other parts of the world, the use of a person's data in this way would be illegal thanks to strict privacy laws. Is it time for the US to consider a similar approach to protect its citizens?

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: How to turn an email stash into knowledge for my successor

Submitted by VoiceOfDoom on Tuesday June 09, 2015 @07:43AM

VoiceOfDoom writes: I'm leaving my current position in a few weeks and it looks unlikely that a replacement will be found in time. My job is very specialised and I'm the only person in the organisation who is qualified or experienced in how to do it. I'd like to share as much of my accumulated knowledge with my successor as possible but at the moment, it mostly exists in my email archive which will be deleted after I've been gone for 90 days.
The organisation doesn't have any knowledge management systems so the only way it seems I can pass on this information is by copying all the info into a series of documents, which isn't much fun to do in Outlook. Unless my fellow Slashdotters can suggest a better approach? By the way, there's quite a lot of confidential stuff in there that my successor needs to know but which cannot leave the organisation's existing systems.

Submission + - Charity promotes covert surveillance app for suicide prevention

Submitted by VoiceOfDoom on Thursday October 30, 2014 @05:34PM

VoiceOfDoom writes: Major UK charity The Samaritans have launched an app titled "Samaritans Radar", in an attempt to help Twitter users identify when their friends [sic] are in crisis and in need of support. Unfortunately the privacy implications appear not to have been thought through — installing the app allows it to monitor the Twitter feeds of all of your followers, searching for particular phrases or words which might indicate they are in distress. The app then sends you an email suggesting you contact your follower to offer your help. Opportunities for misuse by online harassers are at the forefront of the concerns that have been raised, but in addition; there is strong evidence to suggest that this use of personal information is in fact illegal; being in contravention of UK Data Protection law.

Submission + - CCTV Catwoman hunted on Facebook (bbc.co.uk) 3

Submitted by VoiceOfDoom on Wednesday August 25, 2010 @04:38AM

VoiceOfDoom writes: A woman caught on CCTV dumping a cat into a wheelie bin where it was trapped for 15 hours was hunted — and found — on Facebook last night after the owners of Lola the cat posted the footage on a page titled "Help Find The Woman Who Put My Cat In The Bin". Mary Bale, of Coventry, was recognised and is now under police protection after threats of violence were posted on the group's wall. The group has now been closed, but many others have sprung up hosting a variety of troll posts and disproportionate reactions.

Submission + - Kiddie porn as a weapon (google.com)

Submitted by VoiceOfDoom on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:46AM

VoiceOfDoom writes: Want to get rid of your boss and move up to his position? Put kiddy porn on his computer then call the cops! This was the cunning plan envisaged by handyman Neil Weiner of east London after falling out with caretaker Edward Thompson too many times. Thankfully, Weiner didn't cover his tracks quite well enough to avoid being found out — boasting about his plan to friends at a BBQ provided the police with enough evidence to arrest him for trying to pervert the course of justice. Frighteningly however, between being charged with possession of indecent images and being exonerated, innocent (if self-confessed "grumpy") Thompson was abused and ostracised for eight months by neighbours and colleagues. With computer forensics for police work either being performed by "point 'n click"-trained nearly-retired coppers or languishing in a 6-month queue for private sector firms to attend to it; the uncomfortable question is raised: How easily might this trick have succeeded if Weiner had been a little more intelligent about it?

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