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Daily Archives: January 3, 2014

CFPB launches participatory e-gov applications developed by visiting scholars and in-house coders

Via Joseph Marks at NextGov, writing about new iterations in government interactions with consumers: “The eRegulagions site got support from some of the 30 CFPB design and technology fellows participating in a two year program for tech professionals to build tools that help regulated companies comply with the laws CFPB enforces and to use data collected by the agency to help the public. Fellowship participants also produced AskCFPB, a searchable library of more than 1,000 questions and answers about consumer products and services, such as credit cards, student loans and mortgages. In addition to building eRegulations one piece at a time, CFPB developers also open sourced the project from the beginning, posting each new piece to the code sharing site Github. Sites like Github allow outside developers to study Web projects and to adopt or retrofit portions of them for their own use. The U.S. and Indian governments, for example, have open sourced the code for their open data sites, Data.gov and Data.gov.in, so other governments can launch their own open data sites without starting from scratch.

Using Force on Land to Suppress Piracy at Sea: The Legal Landscape of a Largely Untapped Strategy

Using Force on Land to Suppress Piracy at Sea: The Legal Landscape of a Largely Untapped Strategy, Steven R. Obert, Government of the United States of America – U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps. December 31, 2013 “On May 14, 2012, a combat helicopter operated by European Union Naval Forces (EUNAVFOR) struck a pirate base ashore in Somalia,… Continue Reading

NYT – Unemployed in Europe Stymied by Lack of Technology Skills

Liz Alderman: “Week after week, newspapers issue a stream of hopeful headlines: Microsoft, PayPal, Fujitsu and scores of other companies are expanding their investments in Ireland, creating thousands of jobs as unemployment hovers near record highs. There is just one hitch: Not enough people are qualified to fill all the jobs. In some cases, the companies have… Continue Reading

EPIC – Snapchat Data Breach Exposes 4.6 Million Usernames

“A data breach has exposed the usernames and partial phone numbers of 4.6 million users of Snapchat, a popular photo- and video-sharing app. The breach was accomplished by exploiting a flaw that was previously brought to company’s attention by security researchers. Last year, EPIC filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding Snapchat’s deceptive claim that photos would “disappear forever”… Continue Reading