Update: "And next on the agenda.....Limiting the U.S. control over the internet."

Here is an AP article to update you on the technology forum in Brazil.

Here is a summary of the decisions made regarding the U.S. control over the Internet:

-None

Thank you and good night....

Anyway, no real action has been made in regulating the Internet, especially the U.S. control of the Internet. The only thing anyone knows right now is: "With no concrete recommendations for action, the only certainty going forward is that any resentment about the American influence will only grow as more users from the developing world come online, changing the face of the global network."

It seems that the Russian representative took charge and requested "'practical steps' for moving Internet governance 'under the control of the international community'" be made. Thanks for the heads up Russia...I thought this was the Brazil forum on introducing new lattes to Starbucks, err....never mind.

Brazil chimed in with the notion to make ICANN independent [of the U.S.] and wanted "more concrete recommendations out of the forum."

So a big day in the tech world. Soon some "practical steps" will be presented as well as some other "concrete recommendations." But as of today....no one has done anything about anything. Way to go ladies and gentlemen.

How can a global community be expected to govern the Internet when this forum can't come up with anything? Basically, they met to say that for next time have some ideas. Sounds like a group of college students doing their final project. Great...

And next on the agenda.....Limiting the U.S. control over the internet.

Article from the Seattle Times.

"The U.S. has too much control over a tool that's used by over 1.4 billion people worldwide." There is basically the gist of this article. Thank you, come again.

Anyway, the U.S., in its never ending "superiority," is not being told they have too much control over the Internet. Tech experts are meeting in Brazil, with this being the topic of interest. Not how to stop e-mail scams, phishing, spamming, hacking, cracking, and all other types of -ing, but instead how to stop the U.S. from having so much power over the Internet. Brazil and China apparently, as well as some other countries, are wishing that the U.S. will shift control to an international body to govern the Internet.

-Initial thoughts about this: How easy will it be to censor the Internet then if a conservative country (and not Republican conservative, but women not allowed to show their faces or ankles conservative, for example) has their representative leading this governing body?

Well apparently, there are quite a few people with the same train of thought.

Some other great information is presented in the article including thoughts on ICANN, but it all takes a backseat to the "Evil Empire" running the Internet....Oh no!

So, who likes the "Do Not Call" list? Have I got something for you...

An article from Out-Law.com about a proposed "do not track" list, much like the "do not call" telephone list that everyone loves so much.

According to the article, "Consumers would be able to sign up to the list so that their online activities would not be monitored by advertisers and used to target adverts to their specific tastes and habits."

The article goes on to explain in detail more about the proposal, and even goes on to discuss one critic's view of the proposal. Randall Rothenberg (he is a chief executive of the IAB) goes on to discuss how anonymous information is good for the overall benefit of better online advertisements.

I tend to agree with his statements. As long as I do not have to deal with pop-ups, and pop-unders, and any other thing popping out at me, then perhaps it is better off. Sometimes online advertising does catch my eye, sometimes it doesn't. Should commercials and such be banned next? I am starting a "do not interrupt me while I am trying to watch the Ultimate Fighter list." Damn commercials...

Alright, so what else needs to be said? The same list for phones, but now directed towards your PC and computing environments. I still get phone calls...

Article: "Web Anonymity is as Destructive as Internet Porn"

A recent article from RealClearPolitics.com discussing the dangers of web anonymity and Internet privacy. It is a good read, and definitely a great discussion piece.

Just a few things about the article to touch on:

A major point made discusses the lack of civilized responses to article and such on the Internet due to being able to keep yourself anonymous, as opposed to writing a letter to the local newspaper, which would have your name and address associated with it. The article goes on to state that anonymity causes the user to act irresponsibly, and that a person, when being anonymous (they used the example of being in a crowd), "tend to act much less morally."

There is a lot more information and examples in the full article. It is a good read, but did not persuade me or convince me to change my views in any way.

I don't understand the connection between anonymity and Internet porn. Porn is not even mentioned in the article after the first few sentences. So because there is an abundance of porn on the Internet, posting anonymous comments is bad?

I also disagree with each being destructive. To who? Conservatives? Devout [insert religion here]? The only destructive thing I see is someone disagreeing with [my] views and suing [me] over it, or something else even more extreme than that. No thanks, I'm good...I will just stick to being anonymous and "destructive."

Destroying a hard drive...

So just because you clean up your hard drive and get rid of it, does it mean you are safe? If you say, "Yes," then....you might want to check some things out and do some research.

This article is about what can be recovered from a hard drive and how much damage you need to inflict to make the HD unrecoverable.

Normal everyday hazards such as dipping it in liquid or dropping it will not make the hard drive unrecoverable, but it will take a professional to get everything back to you.

On the other hand, smashing it and running it over with a car, like the people at the BBC did, may do the job.

So for privacy's sake, if you are getting rid of a computer, do something with the hard drive. Someone can find all your information even if you think the hard drive is erased or destroyed.

The New Frontier for spam...

Interesting article from Canada.com. Yes, Canada...but it also applies to the U.S. so North Americans beware.

So e-mail spamming and tracking services are not enough. Now this company, which will remain nameless unless you read the article, wants to offer free phone service. The catch: They listen to what you have to say and then spam you (SPAM is being used by myself, not the article but...yeah anyway....moving on). They send you things based on your conversation. So if you are a Yankees fan be prepared for e-mails or whatever about "Buy Yankees souvenirs here." Or the example from the article...talking about a new movie gets you a message taking you to see the trailer for it.

The company thinks this is a good idea, but is this a problem for anyone else? This is a huge privacy issue as far as I am concerned. It is difficult enough to protect yourself while surfing the Internet, but now this Internet-based phone is adding a whole new dimension of privacy issues. What if I am placing an order over the phone? Then my information is freely available to whoever, or whatever is listening in. Can they be trusted that all private information stays private? How do I know my credit card number doesn't get picked up by someone listening?

The article discusses how they must follow the country's privacy laws and tell people exactly what information is being used, filtered, etc etc. Being the paranoid person I am, I wouldn't put my faith in the privacy policy. "Oops, we forgot to filter out the phone sex conversation with your wife or the credit card number you used to book the hotel for you next vacation."

Free phone service...just sign here saying: "I forfeit my right to anonymity and privacy but since I get to make free phone calls it is alright by me."

The beginning...

Well, here is the first post for PrivacyView Software's Blog. This is just the beginning, so stay tuned for many more to come.

Google Proposes International Web Privacy Standards

Article taken from Broadbandinfo.com

An interesting article worth taking a quick peek at. To summarize the article in a few words:

On Friday Google will submit a proposal to governments and tech companies to create an international privacy policy. This policy will not be governed by rules and regulations, but more or less self-regulated by companies.

Now, is this a step forward for Google in ensuring privacy is protected all over the world, or merely a ploy to save face after buying DoubleClick? Also, Google was rated last by Privacy International and was considered a threat to privacy.

Google should perhaps put some ideas on paper, so to speak, if they want to look legitimate. This article talks about Google submitting the proposal for other companies to generate a transnational privacy policy. It sounds great in theory, but just proposing the idea and not having any course of action is a little........well, it's stupid.

The Privacy International ratings are still being questioned so assuming that Privacy International's ratings are complete crap (which they could be), then Google still has to contend with the fact that DoubleClick is now part of the Google umbrella.

Good job with the idea and proposal Google, but we may need to see something bigger from you. The leading search engine (and damn near everything else) in the world should definitely be the leader of this pack.