TCSOTD 2007-11-29
Tories: Europeans could get access to UK ID database
... can we just get rid of this idiocy now, please?
RIPA used for non-terrorist investigation shock
... not really a shock, now, is it. Sometimes I really hate saying I told you so.
TCSOTD 2007-11-27
Petition to abandon plans to create the Information Sharing Index
Henry Porter: A mass movement is needed to tackle the state’s snoopers
... hint: Open Rights Group is a good place to start
‘Biometrics are not a panacea for data loss’:A letter to the Joint Committee on Human Rights
Innocents fear DNA database errors
... ‘In the past year, more than 100 possible inaccuracies in the documentation of DNA profiles have been discovered, and a further 1,500 administrative mistakes have been logged on the system.’
A Chinese man is suing for divorce after discovering that he is the father of only one of his twins.
Taxpayer may have to pay £170bn for PFI schemes, says Treasury
Miss Mind the Gap sacked
... oh dear, TfL seem to have lost their corporate sense of humour
Coz' the Facebook ain't listening... 2
So, Channel 4 has quizzed facebook about just why they make it so hard to delete an account. For those of you just catching up, facebook allow you to ‘deactivate’ an account very easily but not delete all the data that you have put into their system. In order to fully delete the account, you need to manually delete every single item that you have placed into their care. They have said in the past that this is to make it easy to reactivate your account should you suffer a change of heart.
They make the following point:
Facebook does not use any information from deactivated accounts for advertising purposes.
They have to say this. One of the major value proposition of facebook is that they give you a useful tool to do what you want with in return for making money off your personal data from advertising revenue. I feel that it would be very wrong for them to farm out your data if you are no longer getting some benefit from it.
So, why keep it, and why make it so hard to properly remove yourself from their servers? I really hope the reasons are technical and that the database design has been organically grown or designed such that there is no referential integrity, thus making it harder to traverse down the various content stores working out who owns what.
At the risk of calling down the ire of facebook (and yes, I would be temporarily lost without it) I am seriously beginning to consider whether I want to give my data to this company no matter how granular the access controls are when there are some interesting alternatives (and no, I’m not talking about the excerable myspace).
So, we shall see. This isn’t yet my ‘turn off facebook moment’ but it may well not be far around the corner…
[Edited to add – this is an interesting take as well which makes one wonder – they say they don’t use deactivated information for advertising purposes. However, that answer very effectively excludes the many, many other uses the data has. Worrying.]
TCSOTD 2007-11-21
Ebay sale for two CD’s with some sort of database on them
... Ha ha ha ha ha
B3ta’s reaction to the HMRC data loss here
More serious reactions from ORG
... and Professor Ross Anderson, which is particularly worth reading.
Facebook is causing a different privacy row
... Channel 4 has a take on it too
TCSOTD 2007-11-15
Criminal Profiling – Just Cold Reading Tricks?
The history of Nokia mobile phones
iPhone first night: a flop in the UK
... makes me proud to be British again ;).
... more from Idiot Toys
Government Ignores Personal Medical Security
Ballad of Beatrice Guessie
... sometimes one can’t help but come to the conclusion that we are ‘ruled’ by scum.
TCSOTD 2007-11-14
Growing up in The Universe
... Richard Dawkins’ 1991 Royal Institution Lectures For Children (hat tip to Unity)
St Pancras Eurostar service opens
Ex-Rental puts album online for free
... but feel free to donate to Cancer Research
TCSOTD 2007-11-09
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