(Commons photo courtesy of Mikey G. Ottawa.)

 "Privacy is dead, get over it!"
                       Scott McNealy

From an article in Realtime Community quoting Carnegie- Mellon's Latanya Sweeney:

"My answer is that the privacy problems that I've seen are probably best solved by the person who first created the technology. What we really have to do is train engineers and computer scientists to design and build technologies in the right kind of way from the beginning. Normally, engineers and computers scientists get ideas for technologies on their own and engage in a kind of circular thinking and develop a prototype of their solution and then do some kind of testing. But we are saying we will give them tools that help them see who are the stakeholders and do a risk assessment, and then see what barriers will come up and deal with the riskiest problems and work to solve them in the technology design. I think if we are successful in producing a new breed of engineers and computer scientists, society will really benefit. The whole technology-dialectics thing is really aiming at how you should go about teaching engineers and computer scientists to think about user acceptance and social adoption [and also that they] have to think about barriers to technology [from the beginning]. So the best scenario is that this kind of training takes hold and as new technologies emerge they are less likely to be constantly clashing with accept-or-reject options. " 

Of Recent Note

Afilias Announces New Policy To Make .INFO Even Safer For Internet Users

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New policy leads industry in the effective deterrence of abuses like phishing and spam

DUBLIN, IRELAND – 7 October 2008 – Afilias, a global provider of registry services, today announced a new registration policy that makes the nature of domain name abuses clear for registrants and registrars, and furthers the power of the registry to take quick and appropriate action regarding .INFO domains used for abusive behavior. This policy will go into effect on 6 November 2008.

"This policy is the result of over a year of dedicated work by Afilias to understand and curtail the abusive use of domain names, and to design effective deterrents," said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Afilias. ".INFO's tremendous overall popularity has attracted criminals online, as do many other domains, so we are taking further firm action to protect users by improving detection and enforcement actions."

Under the policy, abusive use has been more clearly defined and includes, but is not limited to: phishing, e-mail spam and other types of spam, the willful distribution of malware, the use of botnets and fast-flux hosting, distribution of child pornography, illegal access to other computers or networks, and other illegal or fraudulent actions. Domains that are being abused will be reported to the sponsoring registrar, and Afilias has the option of removing them from the DNS and reporting the abuser to law enforcement. Afilias is committed to working closely with its registrars, legal authorities, security professionals, and others to rid the Internet of the scourge of domain abuse."

"This is a positive step forward demonstrating how registries can take positive actions to increase protection against security threats such as spam, phishing and malware," said Steven Crocker, Chair of ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee. "We applaud Afilias' efforts to deter such abusive practices."

The full details of the .INFO Anti-Abuse Policy can be found at: http://www.info.info/info/abusive_use_policy.