Ontario Government Considers Facebook Consultation

from the may-want-to-unblock-it-first dept

The Ontario Premier says he wants to engage young people in dialogue on Facebook (via Michael Geist) over protests against proposed restrictions on young drivers. The strict, zero-tolerance proposals have caused many young people to speak out on Facebook, and one protest group now has over 140,000 members. The Premier has responded publicly, "I think we need to find a way to get on Facebook... I think we need to find a way to engage in a dialogue in a social network where they are," noting that most young people won't come to the traditional legislative meetings. There's one snag though -- government computers currently block Facebook.

This isn't the first time a Facebook group has caught the attention of Canadian politicians (it's also not the first time this Ontario government has proposed controversial driving laws). Over the past year, a Facebook group, created by Geist, protesting proposed copyright legislation, was mentioned repeatedly by the opposition in federal parliament. This time, the government itself is bringing an online protest to attention. The idea of Facebook consultations drew some criticism in the comments on Geist's post -- why should the government conduct its business on a proprietary, privately owned silo? But Geist isn't suggesting that the government rely on Facebook or any one service, just that they could make use of services that people are already using. Facebook is especially relevant for legislation affecting young voters. In an earlier column, Geist notes that it takes more than just an "if you build it, they will come" approach. Governments could broaden their online consultation strategies to include a presence on social networks where active dialogue is already taking place. In this particular case, it's still a bit too early to tell if this is just talk or if the government is serious about experimenting. A good first step might be to reconsider that Facebook ban.

Filed Under: government, ontario, social networks
Companies: facebook

Gov't Computers Used To Dig Up Info On Joe The Plumber

from the and-so-it-goes dept

We have pointed out in the past that people need to realize that any government database of info will be abused. It's almost impossible for it not to be abused. People use it to look up info on ex-girlfriends or friends or relatives. The data is there, and if someone has access to it, it's simply too tempting not to look up some info, no matter what "safety precautions" are in place.

Over on Slashdot there's yet another example of this happening, as apparently three separate people accessed various databases to look up info on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as "Joe the Plumber," right after the third Presidential debate, in which Joe was a central part of the discussion. It's not entirely clear what the nature of those database lookups were, though it wouldn't surprise me if it was just individuals who knew they had access to the government databases, and were just curious and couldn't resist looking. But, what's more interesting is that no one caught this database snooping until the Columbus Dispatch asked for log information.

Filed Under: databases, government, joe the plumber, privacy

US Government Admits: Data Mining For Terrorists Doesn't Work

from the oops dept

Over the last few years, you probably have noticed multiple attempts by state and federal government agencies to collect more data on people and to share that data more widely. This is troubling for a variety of reasons, often having to do with privacy and questions concerning the quality of data, but those concerns are almost always pushed aside by claims that this data is necessary for fighting terrorism. There's this myth out there that if we just had more data, somehow we'd be able to stop terrorists. The problem is that this is untrue. More data often makes it even harder to find the important data, and now a detailed government report has basically confirmed that data mining doesn't help in finding terrorists.

The report was put together by a bunch of well-respected academics, industry insiders and law enforcement officials on behalf of the National Research Council, and finds that the idea of plugging all this data into a machine and popping out terrorist identities is a myth. The report then lists out a variety of recommendations, concerning the use of any data mining systems, and how to make sure that individual privacy is protected. One key finding that will never be implemented: when using any such system, systematic reviews should be done to see if the systems are actually effective. If there's one thing we've seen with government programs over the years, such attempts to actually review something they've put in place to see if it actually worked are almost never done.

Filed Under: data mining, government, research, terrorism

EFF Sues The Gov't Twice In One Day: Over Surveillance And ACTA

from the busy,-busy,-busy dept

The EFF sure has been busy today. First it filed a lawsuit against the US Trade Representative for keeping info on the ACTA negotiations secret, and then it sued the NSA, President Bush and Vice President Cheney over the warrantless wiretapping issue. Must be a busy day at the EFF office. In both cases, it seems likely that the lawsuits may draw some additional attention to the issues, but it seems unlikely to have much of an impact on actual government policies.

Filed Under: acta, eff, government, lawsuits, nsa, surveillance, wiretapping
Companies: eff

We're The US Government, So We Can Ignore Pesky Things Like The DMCA

from the isn't-that-nice? dept

While the federal government of the US has dumped on us dreadful laws like the DMCA, when it comes time for it to follow those laws itself, it takes a pass. Why be inconvenienced like the rest of us? We've talked about how the US government likes to ignore patent law using either "state secrets" or "sovereign immunity" claims, and now it appears they're using that for copyright law as well. CAFC (Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) has allowed the Air Force to dismiss a DMCA lawsuit lodged against them by claiming "sovereign immunity."

The details of the case are pretty straightforward. A guy in the Air Force, in his spare time, developed some useful software that the Air Force started using, without any sort of contractual relationship established (and, apparently, unlike most companies, it didn't have any agreement with him that automatically gave them ownership of the software). He kept the source code secret, but the Air Force rewarded him with a promotion. But, then, the Air Force got worried that it was so dependent on this one guy, so it demanded the source code to the software. The guy refused, and received a pay cut and a demotion. The Air Force then hired another company to reverse engineer the software, and to get around the DRM that the guy had put on his original software.

No matter how silly the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision is, this would seem like a textbook case where it was violated. Except that the Air Force basically said "we're the gov't, so that doesn't apply to us" and the court agreed. It must be fun to be the government, where you get to pass laws and then can ignore them at will.

Filed Under: air force, copyright, dmca, government, software, sovereign immunity

EFF, ACLU Sue To Find Out Details Of Gov't Use Of Mobile Phone Data To Track People

from the it's-like-your-own-personal-beacon dept

Back in November, the news broke on the Friday after Thanksgiving that the federal government routinely asked for and received information from mobile phone operators about the location of various mobile phones (effectively tracking their owners) without bothering to show any sort of probable cause. This should raise plenty of concern (especially combined with the warrantless wiretapping program), as it effectively would mean that if you own a mobile phone, you've given the gov't the freedom to figure out where you are at any moment in time with no probable cause.

The EFF and the ACLU filed Freedom of Information Act requests to find out details of the program, which were (not surprisingly) denied by the Justice Department. The two organizations have now sued the government to find out more about these programs. Given the government's reaction to similar lawsuits on wiretapping, don't expect much info to come out of this lawsuit -- and do expect a vigorous attempt to get the case dismissed with various bogus claims of "state secrets" and "national security." It all comes down to the same basic thing, though. The government seems to think it's above the law.

Filed Under: freedom of information, government, mobile phones, tracking
Companies: aclu, eff

UK Gov't Throws Open Data For Mashups; Offers Prize Money For Best Results

from the about-time dept

We were just complaining about the fact that governments should be exposing APIs on certain government data so that people can create more useful services out of them -- and it appears that someone in the UK was having similar thoughts. The government is now opening up a bunch of data to whoever wants to play with it. Not only is the gov't encouraging people to make mash-ups with the data, it's actually offering cash prizes to those who come up with the best results. Nice to see a government doing something smart.

Filed Under: apis, data, government, mashups, uk

Where Are The APIs For Government Data?

from the open-'em-up dept

It shouldn't be a huge surprise that the government isn't always the fastest to embrace what the internet lets it do (even if it did basically fund the creation of the internet). However, a new report out of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy is suggesting that it's about time that the government make its data more widely accessible for a web 2.0 world. Basically, the government has put up websites, but it hasn't done much to make it so that it's easy to access the data available in those websites or (even more important) let other applications and services do something with that data and actually make it useful to the citizens that data is supposed to help. Given the pace of government activity in this arena, maybe we can expect some sort of movement in this direction by about 2016 or so. But wouldn't it be nice if we could actually easily pull government data and make it useful?

Filed Under: api, data, government, government data

Are People In China Happy With The Great Firewall?

from the some-of-them-appear-to-be dept

We've heard this argument plenty of times in the past, but a recent study suggests that 85% of people surveyed in China are perfectly fine with the Great Firewall, saying that they believe the government has a responsibility to "protect" them from dangerous content. Of course, this is always how the government has positioned the filter: not as "blocking" content it doesn't like, but as protecting citizens from "dangerous" content. Before people act surprised about this, take a step back and recognize that if you did the same study in the US, asking if the government should be protecting children from "bad stuff" online, many Americans would naturally say yes. That doesn't necessarily mean that either is okay -- but does suggest how different the answers are based on how the question is positioned.

Filed Under: china, contentment, government, great firewall, protection, regulation

National Intelligence Director Wants Access To All Internet Communications

from the you-have-no-privacy-anywhere dept

Now, there are those who claim the government already has the ability to monitor all internet communications, but it looks like it's about to become official. National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told a reporter from The New Yorker that he's prepared a "cyber security policy" that would grant the federal government the right to monitor all internet communications. The report also notes that President Bush hasn't yet announced this policy. The reporter from the New Yorker states: "it may be the only way to protect transportation, security, and other critical systems that rely on the Internet." That is a bizarre statement that seems totally unsupportable. It almost goes without saying, but the old (supposedly) Ben Franklin quote applies: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." It's also not clear from this report whether this is just a policy or an actual system for monitoring internet content -- as that makes quite a big difference. Either way, expect to see more people become a lot more interested in encrypting their communications soon.

Filed Under: government, internet, mike mcconnell, privacy