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.: Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents - 23rd Nov 2004
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"Next time you make a printout from your color laser printer, shine an LED flashlight beam on it and examine it closely with a magnifying glass. You might be able to see the small, scattered yellow dots printer there that could be used to trace the document back to you.
According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters..."
[PCWorld] |
.: With Data Recorders, Big Brother is Riding Shotgun - 21st Nov 2004
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"Someday it'll happen, probably when you least expect it. Just as you countersteer while drifting out of a tight corner or after you punch the brakes hard, you'll hear the mechanically animated female voice emanating from your car's audio system: "Collision detected. Calling OnStar."
You need not be anywhere close to a collision, really. During one road test this summer, it was just a matter of running a routine slalom in a Chevrolet Malibu Maxx without so much as hitting a rubber cone when OnStar called to check..."
[cars] |
.: Caught in a phishing trap - 17th Nov 2004
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"For Steve Krabill, a 33-year-old Oklahoma engineer, the answer to phishing scams is simple: Trust nobody. Faced with an online test that presents him with 10 different e-mails, some of which are examples of phishing scams, his answer is to label every single one a fake. Three turn out to be the genuine article--but in the engineer's mind, he's passed the test either way.
"Companies I do business with online don't send me e-mails looking for my personal information, it's that easy..."
[news.com] |
.: Ad network to monitor Web habits - 15th Nov 2004
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"At the height of the dot-com boom, DoubleClick made itself the object of scorn among privacy advocates by trying to track Web users individually and show them advertisements related to their surfing habits. Now advertisers are circling back to the idea, but in a way that, they contend, will spare them the privacy-related outcry.
Tacoda, an online marketing company based in New York, was to announce on Monday the creation of a network of 60 Web sites, including USAToday.com and the Web site of The Tampa Tribune, that allow its members to display advertisements based on how people surf through the network. The difference from DoubleClick is that Tacoda's service, called AudienceMatch, will not know who those surfers are, just where they visit..."
[IHT] |
.: A Chip in Your Shoulder - 15th Nov 2004
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"Last month, the FDA approved an implantable, rice-grain-sized microchip for use in humans. The tiny subcutaneous RFID chip, made by a company called VeriChip, is being marketed as a lifesaving device. If you're brought to an emergency room unconscious, a scanner in the hospital doorway will read your chip's unique ID. That will unlock your medical records from a database, allowing doctors to learn about your penicillin allergy or your pacemaker.
That all sounds great, but could chip implants be used for something more sinister? Scott Silverman, the CEO of VeriChip's parent corporation, acknowledges that RFID injections aren't an easy sell. In fact, the company's own research reveals that 9 out of 10 people find the whole thing creepy..."
[Slate] |
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