Author archives

Increased Suveillance By U.S. Gov't

This New York Times article, New Tools for Domestic Spying, and Qualms, provides important perspective on the increasingly contentious issues associated with domestic surveillance and civil liberties in the post 9/11 world. Data on citizens who use public services such as libraries, and a range of commercial services, such as flight training schools and scuba …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Patriot Act, Privacy

Feds Launch Science.gov

From the press release: “Fourteen scientific and technical information organizations from 10 major science agencies have collaborated to create Science.gov, the “FirstGov for Science” web site. Science.gov is the gateway to reliable information about science and technology from across Federal government organizations.”

Subjects: Government Documents

Liability on the Internet Goes Global

The High Court of Australia issued a ruling on December 10 in the Internet defamation case Dow Jones and Company v. Gutnick. The case may have global implications for the increasingly wired publishing world. It stipulates that Web publishers of any description (be they huge corporate entities or individual weblogers) can be sued anywhere in …

Subjects: Free Speech, Internet

Web Filters Block Health-Care Sites

The Kaiser Family Foundation issued a study, See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information. The focus of the study was how the choice of the ‘least’, ‘intermediate’ or ‘most’ restrictive web filtering options available through six high profile systems (8e6, CyberPatrol, N2H2, Smartfilter, Symantec and Websense), impacted access to …

Subjects: Censorship, Freedom of Information, Libraries

Online Banking Report

According to this new Pew Internet Project report, Online Banking: A Pew Internet Project Data Memo, there has been huge surge in consumer adoption of online banking, with a “164% increase…since early 2000.” Approximately 37 million Americans currently perform their banking transactions online.

Subjects: E-Commerce

The Future of the Internet

Thought I would mention what looks to be an interesting conference in London on February 5., 2003: The Politics of Code: Shaping the Future of the Next Internet. Speakers, including Larry Lessig and Esther Dyson will address issues such as privacy, open source, digital rights, id theft, other legal-tech topics.

Subjects: ID Theft, Internet

Employees View E-Mail As Part of Their Jobs

E-mail is a ubiquitous and well accepted part of the daily work routines of most Americans according to this new report, Email at work, published on December 8, 2002 by the Pew Internet Project. An astounding 98% of employees (57 million Americans) with on-the-job Net access indicate that e-mail is a part of their daily …

Subjects: E-Mail, Internet

Internet Banner Ads Lawsuit

Bonzi.com is the focus of a recent class action suit that charges the company with directing traffic to the company’s web site via the use of deceptive Web banner ads. Examples of these ads are available in this press release on the case here, and the complaint, filed in the Washington State Superior Court, Spokane …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Internet