Recommendations to Improve PC Security and Privacy
The Great American Privacy Makeover: “An exclusive PC World survey reveals that even savvy Web users can do more to safeguard their privacy and data.”
Sen. Coleman Online Today to Discuss File Sharing Controversy
From today’s Washington Post:
GAO Report on Electronic Rulemaking
Electronic Rulemaking: Efforts to Facilitate Public Participation Can Be Improved. GAO-03-901, September 17. Highlights. This report reviews whether agency websites are efficient at serving the public by providing access to proposed rules, permitting comments on those rules, access to related materials, and to the comments of others.
Annual Survey on First Amendment Released
The First Amendment Center has released their current State of the First Amendment survey (44 pages, pdf), released every year since 1997. “In 2003, Americans support for their First Amendment freedoms shaken by the events of Sept. 11, 2001 appears to be returning to pre-9/11 levels.”
Advocacy Group Releases White Paper on Free Trade
“International civil liberties group IP Justice published a report today entitled “FTAA: A Threat to Freedom and Free Trade,” that analyzes key sections of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Treaty. The FTAA Treaty will govern the lives of 800 million Americans in the Western Hemisphere in 2005. Similar to the North American …
New MS Office Includes Self Destructing E-Mail Feature
The BBC reports that Microsoft Office 2003, available tomorrow, will include new e-mail privacy and security features, including the ability to designate specific readers, prevent message forwarding and printing, and a “time-stamp” which results in email deletion on a specified date. For more product details, see also Inside Office 2003, from PCWorld.com
Advanced Search Feature Added for Ask Jeeves
From Ask.com, the newly available Ask Jeeves Advanced Search Options providers users with features to focus search requests by indicating the requirement of an exact phrase, inclusion/exclusion or words/phrases, the location of words/phrases in a document, the document language, geographic region, date/date range the page was modified. See also this Help page for more information.
National Geographic Explores the Good and Bad Aspects of Increased Surveillance
From National Geographic, an excerpt of this article, Watching You, The World of High-Tech Surveillance, from the November 2003 issue: “In our high-tech world, machines track personal records, see through walls, and screen facial features. Will electronic surveillance mean better security, or an end to privacy?”
Strategies to Improve the Navigation of Portals, Websites and KM Apps
Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them, by Chiara Fox: “Sitemaps and site indexes are forms of supplemental navigation. They give users a way to navigate a site without having to use the global navigation. By providing a way to visualize and understand the layout and structure of the …
Perspectives on File Sharing
This article from OpenP2P.com, by Preston Gralla, offers advice to those who continue to download music files: “But if you do decide to continue sharing files despite the potential legal problems, there are some things you can do to make it unlikely that the RIAA will target you. In this article, we’ll look at ways …
Microsoft and USPS Partner on Postmark App
From the USPS: “Just click the USPS EPM icon in the Microsoft Word toolbar, apply a USPS EPM to your document (contract, letter, agreement), and sign. This gives your document tamper protection against fraud and the ability to verify document authenticity with a click of the USPS EPM signature block.” Free for individual users who …
RIAA Prepares New Round of Lawsuits
In a change of tactics, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has contacted 204 alleged file swappers by letter in an effort to negotiate settlements prior to filing lawsuits. See also this EFF press release which comments on the RIAA “litigation crusade” and provides a link to an EFF video which addresses the file …