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bdaea5d841c32ece242fb672177f0126 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2014/03/30/magical-butter-shoots-for-a-spot-in-the-marijuana-market-it-makes-good-salad-dressing-too/ | Magical Butter Shoots For A Spot In The Marijuana Market (It Makes Good Salad Dressing Too) | Magical Butter Shoots For A Spot In The Marijuana Market (It Makes Good Salad Dressing Too)
As more states decriminalize cannabis, the beginnings of a new market are starting to take shape. The debate over whether marijuana companies are a sound long term bet has perplexed investors and about 60 publicly-traded companies popped up over the past five years claiming to be hemp stocks, often without submitting to IPO scrutiny, as Forbes’ own Nathan Vardi reported last week.
The scramble to get a piece of the burgeoning cannabis space includes smaller-time bootstrapping ‘ganjapreneurs’ as well. Garyn Angel, founder of the Seattle-based Magical Butter, is one of these, and if the sales trajectory of his marijuana-butter appliance maintains, he could be on course to a big payoff either through distribution or acquisition.
When Forbes caught up with Angel he was in Guangzhou, China working with fabrication plants to ramp up production of his products. It’s essential—the company’s been selling out inventory like crazy, shipping 4,500 units per month of the $175 device by latest count, and is now on backorder. “We’ll do probably 70,000 pieces this year,” claims Angel.
The product – which is essentially a temperature-regulating hotpot with a blender function – allows herbs of all kinds to be mixed into compounds with butter, oils or alcohol. The cannabis connection is often tagged to Magical Butter but technically the device can make a mean salad dressing or shea-based skin cream. All that’s required is for ingredients to be placed in the machine. “It’s micro-processor-controlled,” Angel explained. “It controls the temperature, the time, the blending speed, and the blending duration. If the temperatures aren’t even it knows to spin. It automates everything, there’s no work at all.”
Its connection to the controversial herb stems from the fact that marijuana-infused fats have been used in cooking by those who don’t want to hack up a lung taking bong hits or floss stems and leaves from their teeth after smoking a joint. Angel doesn’t shy away from the association. In fact he embraces it. “We’ve gotten this far this quickly because the cannabis community has come together and helped us nonstop.”
Angel, who’d run his own Florida-based money management firm for 15 years, built his first prototype of Magical Butter back in 2010 from Home Depot parts after a close friend with Crohn’s disease admitted that though medicinal cannabis helped with his ailment, asthma kept him from toking his favorite cure. After several redesigns, Angel felt he had something worth selling. “I started to do some research and – looking at the number of searches for cannibutter and pot-butter and pot brownies – I said, ‘wow, there’re a lot of people cooking with cannabis and there’s no equipment to do it with.’”
Garyn Angel in awkward pose with his product.
After going through the laborious process of establishing a relationship with a Chinese manufacturing plant in Guangzhou, Angel set up production for 1,290 units in 2011. He began officially selling in November of 2012 and burned through his first run in 60 days.
So far Angel has placed his life savings into the company. He’s invested $4 million and last year shut down his finance business to work on Magical Butter full time. He’d tried to juggle the two enterprises but gave in when his son, upon seeing his father leave for work on a Saturday, told him that he should stay home. “I said, ‘son, I gotta go work,’ and then I got in my truck and I was balling, I was a disaster,” Angels says. “Growing up, my dad worked like that and I didn’t like it.”
The next iteration of the Magical Butter appliance is on the way. Called the MB3, it is Bluetooth controlled and designed to make things like pasta sauce and other ingredients. Angel envisions collaborating with physicians on creating dietary health recipes for patients and dieters. The 23-person company is also set to open a food truck in Denver, Colorado which Angel claims will be the first of its kind to serve cannabis-infused foods.
Looking forward, Angel would like to take on investment from private equity, venture capital or even private investors in order to spur growth. He has expansion plans on the horizontal which he would not discuss on the record, but all focus on striking while the marijuana market is hot. “I think I have about 24 months right now to build one of the largest cannabis brands in the world before it gets a lot more difficult and a lot more expensive.”
Follow me on Twitter @KarstenStrauss
Gallery: 8 Weird & Unique Products From Startups And Small Business 12 images View gallery
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69e4598f24c23c320d3a45dadc921506 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2014/05/27/how-franchisors-squeeze-money-from-their-franchisees/ | How Franchisors Squeeze Money From Their Franchisees | How Franchisors Squeeze Money From Their Franchisees
Franchises seem simple enough—a company like McDonalds, Anytime Fitness or Supercuts sells the rights to open one of its businesses to an enterprising individual wishing to run one. That individual gets to leverage the franchise’s name-recognition and reputation to attract customers while taking advantage of the predetermined business model. All in exchange for startup payment and a cut of the till (generally between 3% to 10% of gross sales, depending on the franchise).
But getting a slice of sales money is only one of the ways franchisors get paid. A large influx of cash comes from mandating that their franchisees buy certain products to run their business—ingredients for making products, equipment, promotional items, etc. When the small-business owners inevitably buy those things, the franchisor gets a cut of the mark-up either by manufacturing those ‘must-have’ items or negotiating a rebate deal with whatever third party does.
“They don’t have to tell you who the suppliers are that give those rebates to you, they don’t have to tell you how much the markup is. There is no cap on the markup,” says Ron Gardner, a franchisee attorney with Dady & Gardner in Minneapolis. The process is legal so long as the franchisor discloses to franchisees its revenue and that it does accepts vendor rebates.
But this type of model can be used to take advantage of franchisees and one example is popular sandwich shop Quiznos’ controversial 2009 decision to have its many locations give away free food as a promotion, says Sean Kelly, industry watchdog and publisher of UnhappyFramchisee.com. The ploy would have required franchisees to buy ingredients from Quiznos to make free sandwiches for the throngs of hungry patrons. “There were lines out the door,” said Kelly.
Unfortunately for Quiznos, franchisees revolted and many refused to offer the promotion, or offered it in limited fashion. “They put ups signs saying ‘we’re not participating,’” said Kelly. Customers being refused the free sandwich they felt they were entitled felt cheated and angry at the franchisees and the brand in its entirety. It was a disaster.
Gallery: Top 10 Fast-Growing Franchise Chains That Powered Through the Recession 10 images View gallery
Some franchises have ways of squeezing a minute amount of prosperity from locations that are ailing. One of the ways this is done is by having a ‘floor’ payment—an amount of money that their franchisees must pay regardless of how well the business is doing. For a small franchise that’s losing money, even kicking a few hundred dollars back to the home office can be a serious drag, say lawyer Ron Gardner. “If you were a franchise that was struggling you might be paying a much higher percentage of your revenue than a typical franchise because you had to pay this floor amount even if your revenue wasn’t high enough to reach it.”
Another source of revenue for franchisors is add-on fees meant to pay for additional operations cost. These could take the form of an ad-fee, which is collected from each franchisee as part of its monthly payments and used, according to home offices, for national marketing. Some franchises calculate ad-fees as a percentage of sales, so locations that thrive end of paying more for national advertising than those that struggle.
McDonalds, one of the most successful franchises in history, charges its franchisees ad-fees of not less than 4% of sales. On top of that, it charges them rent plus a handful of other small fees associated with systems management, email and technology.
For more on the best and worst franchises, click here.
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5617f03eb44906fd1d03016f316b3fa8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2014/09/23/how-to-get-your-app-noticed-wisdom-from-app-annie/ | How To Get Your App Noticed -- Wisdom From App Annie | How To Get Your App Noticed -- Wisdom From App Annie
Whether you’re a small to mid-size app developer, or among a team coding late into the night in your dorm, in the end of the day you want people to download your product. Aside from creating the darn thing, getting huge numbers of users to notice your app is paramount.
Top app analytics firm, App Annie, has some advice in that arena. The 270-person company tracks data on millions of apps from six different app stores worldwide, plus ad analytics on social media and other platforms. Paid intel is more detailed. Some of its paying customers include Google, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Microsoft, plus a handful of hedge funds and some retailers.
FORBES chatted with Marcos Sanchez, VP of Communications at App Annie, to find out some ways developers can maximize their exposure and sales. Here are some of Sanchez’s key points:
App Store Optimization (ASO)
This is the first crucial step for anyone unleashing a promising app upon the world. Like search engine optimization, it consists of using key words and phrases to direct users to a product. It’s not as simple as it sounds—you have to do your homework, says Sanchez, because Google and Apple don’t explain their search algorithms to anyone. “As you do a search for a given term, what are the apps that are showing up? On the flip side, you want to look at what are the main competitive apps to what you’re doing and look at what those the search terms are – in ranking order – that tend to generate that app popping up in the searches.”
What you come up with in research can determine not only how you describe your product, but maybe even how you name it. When Flappy Birds hit the scene – the wildly popular and mindlessly simple game that supposedly racked up $50,000 a day in ads at its peak – a bunch of apps adopted the word “Flappy” in their names.
Icons & Colors
Aside from the name, the tiny picture that represents your app in the store is your first big chance to grab a user’s eyeballs. People are visual creatures and what you choose to represent your product matters. For a crash course on what users like, take a look at some of the most popular apps in an App Store or Google Play search and take note of how they represent themselves. “Many of their icons have a similar feel to them—that’s for a reason,” says Sanchez. “While I wouldn’t tell people to copy exactly what some of the big guys are doing, the big guys do pay a lot of attention to this type of thing. You’ll want to learn by example from the successful games (or apps) that are out there.”
For instance, in games you will often see a head of a character from the game used as an icon. Productivity or service apps will often use a clear, colorful picture that represents simply what that program gives you—Zoosk is a dating app, so it shows a heart; Slotomania is a casino game, so it shows slot numbers; Swipe keyboard offers swiping abilities for phones, so it shows a finger swiping. Essentially, communication happens within the picture.
Reviews & Exposure
Getting a good review can be a boon to your downloads and sales, and reviews deserve a proactive strategy. Find out whose critique holds weight and go after those analysts or publications. The risk, though, is that you may not get great review, but eliminating that possibility is up to the developer.
Incorporating social components into an app is a good way of upping the chances that your product will go viral. “Engage people, people’s friends—make sure there’s a mechanism within the app itself to get a person to engage their friends either in a light competition or through other types of incentives,” says Sanchez. Connections to Facebook and Twitter also increase visibility.
Foreign Markets
App stores make programs accessible to everyone in the world with a mobile device. That’s a great business opportunity but cranks up the complexity because different countries speak different languages and cultivate different cultures. Gaps between cultures are bigger between Asian and western markets, says Sanchez. “That can span everything from how the game is played to how the game is distributed.”
One example is Candy Crush—though a hugely popular game, it chose to launch in South Korea through the locally ubiquitous Kakau messaging platform. “It created a lot less friction for them to go that route than to try and market it themselves separately as a standalone app.”
In Japan its common practice to advertise mobile apps on television, says Sanchez. “Your costs to market internationally can be wildly different depending on the international market that you’re going after.” In a big market like Brazil – heavily Android-driven – it may be a smart area to use in-app advertising as a source of revenue as opposed to app purchases. The same with India, where mobile device usage is growing but access to money for app purchases is not as available as it is in more affluent nations.
Cost-wise, for a U.S.-based developer it would be quicker move to choose a Latin American market as the first foray outside of North American user-bases. Translating to Spanish is not as complex as translating to Chinese and cultural differences are minimal, says Sanchez.
In Closing
Attracting a user base is not easy, but it’s not rocket science either. All of the tips Sanchez notes – plus the many others out there developers are learning as they market their products – are tools to maximize the possibility of success. The nucleus of it all, for good or ill, is the app itself. Before you think about translation, petitioning reviewers, colorful icons or placing yourself in a search engine, ask yourself if you’ve made a great and sticky app. Well, have you, punk?
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6a050eeefe12e3c5b01e0aadb2c2f80a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/01/21/americas-most-promising-companies-the-top-20-of-2015/ | America's Most Promising Companies: The Top 20 Of 2015 | America's Most Promising Companies: The Top 20 Of 2015
This year’s list of America’s Most Promising Companies has a bevy of new faces, thanks to almost 100 more submissions than we received for 2014. The unexpected influx gave us much to sort through but if there’s one thing we learned as we scoped through the reams of data it’s that each of these firms is doing something right and, in the end, all are winners. Check out the full list of America's Most Promising Companies here
Gallery: America’s Most Promising Companies: The Top 20 Of 2015 20 images View gallery
Carvana (our #5) only launched in 2012, but the growth for the Atlanta, Georgia-based auto-sales platform is profound. After pulling in about $5 million in 2013, the company generated $45 million the following year. Chalk it up to services like financing and straight-to-your-door delivery of vehicles purchased (plus a healthy dose of funding).
RocketDrop is another new company to our list, coming in at #10. The firm is making a fortune shipping and distributing consumer electronics to the Far East and throughout Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Founders Kamal Haddad, Henry Jamijian and Jason Haddad ended 2014 with over $187 million in generated revenue--up almost 158%.
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A face we recognize from last year is Suja Juice, which takes the #2 spot this year. Founders Jeff Church, James Brennan, Annie Lawless and Eric Ethans brought in $42 million this past year. In our 2014 list, the San Diego-based juice mongers placed #3. This year the Suja team got so close to the top spot but Instacart kept the company from reaching the Promised Land. Instacart is everywhere these days, having just snagged a large helping of capital at a whopping $2 billion+ valuation after having grown 10x each year for the past two years.
Methodology
Companies on the list are all private and generating under $300 million annually. Revenue growth plays a big part in choosing the ranking for America’s Most Promising, but that’s not all we take into account. We pay attention to growth rates, growth in employee numbers, how long companies have been doing what it is they do, operating margins, capital raised, product ideas, management and other factors. Placing one company before another is never easy but one thing you can be sure of is that each firm is going places—be it to an IPO, an eventual acquisition by a much larger player or simply on to greater profits.
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e065084b685f66ccc654fe08225ce774 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/01/21/entrepreneurs-balancing-your-work-life-and-personal-life/ | Entrepreneurs: Balancing Your Work-Life And Personal Life | Entrepreneurs: Balancing Your Work-Life And Personal Life
Launching a startup or fighting to grow a small company is a tough slog through any number of different challenges that require your full attention. Finding time to live the rest of your life can be a hardship unto itself.
At Dayton, Ohio-based entrepreneurship accelerator Aileron, Forbes conducted video interviews with three top-notch CEOs that head firms from our 2015 list of America’s Most Promising Companies and asked them how they manage to balance their work and their personal lives as they grow their businesses. Here’s what they had to say:
We spoke with Olga Vidisheva ( shoptiques .com), Oliver Miao ( Pixelberry Studios ) and Michael Votto (Votto Vines Importing, Inc.). Check out their bios below.
Olga Vidisheva—founder and CEO of Shoptiques.com, an online platform that allows small fashion boutiques from all over the world to have an online retail presence. Vidisheva, a Harvard Business School grad, left a job with Goldman Sachs to develop her idea for Shoptiques in Y Combinator. She’s since raised $3 million in venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Benchmark, SV Angel, William Morris Endeavor Agency and Y Combinator. Shoptiques revenue hit $3 million in 2014.
Oliver Miao—Co-founder and CEO of Pixelberry Studios, a mobile game developer who’s had success with his company’s episodic game Surviving High School. Miao is 3-for-3 in launching games into the Top 25 Grossing on iOS platform. Self-funded, his 2 year-old company generated about $8 million this past year.
Michael Votto—CEO and co-founder of Votto Vines Importing, Inc., a wine import company that started out of a delivery car in Connecticut back in 2009. Votto is an attorney and investor who, in 2013, was selected as one of Connecticut’s 40 under 40 future business leaders and in 2014 he was nominated by leading publication Wine Enthusiast as its wine industry “Innovator/Executive of the Year." He is an angel investor and advisor to several technology start-ups, including venture-backed Dash Software.
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abf377ccf45c9daff5153fa5211f26d6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/01/21/what-makes-an-entrepreneur/ | What Makes An Entrepreneur? | What Makes An Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs have a greater capacity for pain and discomfort than most. They can stay up later, work longer hours, stay more focused and, somehow, are able to set so much aside in deference to their dreams and visions. But there’s so much more that sets them apart.
Here at Forbes we conducted video interviews with three CEOs that head firms from our 2015 list of America’s Most Promising Companies and asked them what they feel makes an entrepreneur.
We spoke with Olga Vidisheva ( Shoptiques .com), Oliver Miao ( Pixelberry Studios ) and Michael Votto (Votto Vines Importing, Inc.). Check out their bios below.
Olga Vidisheva—founder and CEO of Shoptiques.com, an online platform that allows small fashion boutiques from all over the world to have an online retail presence. Vidisheva, a Harvard Business School grad, left a job with Goldman Sachs to develop her idea for Shoptiques in Y Combinator. She’s since raised $3 million in venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, Benchmark, SV Angel, William Morris Endeavor Agency and Y Combinator. Shoptiques revenue hit $3 million in 2014.
Oliver Miao—Co-founder and CEO of Pixelberry Studios, a mobile game developer who’s had success with his company’s episodic game Surviving High School. Miao is 3-for-3 in launching games into the Top 25 Grossing on iOS platform. Self-funded, his 2 year-old company generated about $8 million this past year.
Michael Votto—CEO and co-founder of Votto Vines Importing, Inc., a wine import company that started out of a delivery car in Connecticut back in 2009. Votto is an attorney and investor who, in 2013, was selected as one of Connecticut’s 40 under 40 future business leaders and in 2014 he was nominated by leading publication Wine Enthusiast as its wine industry “Innovator/Executive of the Year." He is an angel investor and advisor to several technology start-ups, including venture-backed Dash Software.
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8133fb826135a3385c1673f706894e56 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/03/25/having-created-the-market-for-big-ass-industrial-fans-a-manufacturer-tries-to-go-small-ass/ | Having Created The Market For Big Ass Industrial Fans, A Manufacturer Tries To Go Small Ass | Having Created The Market For Big Ass Industrial Fans, A Manufacturer Tries To Go Small Ass
Within a year of launching the HVLS Fan Co. back in 1999, Carey Smith began the process of changing the company's name to Big Ass Fans . Why? Because that's what his customers were calling it. "We would answer the phone and say, 'This is the HVLS Fan Company,' " remembers Smith, smiling behind his neatly trimmed beard. "They would inevitably pause and say, 'Are you those guys that make the big-ass fans?' "
They do indeed make big-ass fans – their largest is 24 feet in diameter and starts at $4,850 – and today those fans hang from the ceilings of stores like Target and Whole Foods, and factories run by Boeing, Coke and Amazon. "Throughout your day," says Smith, 62, whose business cards proclaim him "Chief Big Ass," "most of the things you touch have been either manufactured or boxed for distribution under our fans."
See Big Ass Fans on FORBES' list of America's Most Promising Companies for 2015
But the industrial and commercial cooling-fan industry isn't the gold mine you might expect. Last year Big Ass, privately held and based in Lexington, Ky., took in $165 million in revenue, up 35% over 2013, and its gross profits were an estimated $74 million--not a huge number for a company that thoroughly dominates its market.
Three years ago, looking for room to grow, Smith decided to attack the residential market, first with smaller, high-end fans and later with long-lasting LED lights. The move necessitated another name change, this time to Big Ass Solutions, and created opportunities for growth, but also some interesting challenges: Could an industrial company make products refined enough for the home? Could it find a sales channel to consumers? And could it maintain its Big Ass margins?
Carey Smith has been in the business of staying cool since 1981, when he and his father founded Sprinkool in Dallas. The company installed sprinkler systems on the roofs of buildings as a means of air-conditioning, a trick Carey had learned as a kid during a scorching summer in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Smith helped pay his way through George Mason University, Hood College and the University of Chicago by working as a shoe salesman and a custodian, and the experience still colors his hiring policy. "We always look for people that worked themselves through college," he says, "because just going to college is not enough to occupy your mind, I don't think." At Big Ass, Employees – 650 of them, at last count – tend to stick around: The company had an 84% retention rate over five years through 2014.
In its first two years Sprinkool generated $100,000 in revenue—and only because Smith was on hand at every installation, sometimes sleeping in the back of his pickup truck on road trips. At the same time, his wife, Nancy, was pursuing a law degree, and the family moved to follow alternately her career and his business from Atlanta to Michigan to Alabama and eventually to Lexington in 1991. At its peak, in 1998, Sprinkool brought in $1.5 million in revenue, but it could never squeeze out much of a profit.
Still, the work paid off. With each visit to a prospective customer's factory, Smith would see tiny fans whirring and employees fighting over the airflow. It occurred to him that the ability to see a fan do its job seemed to have a psychological effect on workers. By contrast, Sprinkool's rooftop water systems were out of sight and out of mind.
Then, in a 1998 ad in a trade magazine, Smith saw a huge fan rotating above a group of masticating dairy cows: "It was like, 'Holy cow, there it is!'?" So in 1999 he joined forces with the company that made the fan in the ad, a small California engineering firm called MSC. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, says CEO Eddie Boyd, who with his father had founded the business, now known as MacroAir: "We didn't know how to sell anything. We were inventors."
That first year, Smith and MSC sold fewer than 150 fans. Two years later production had risen to only 750. "There's a difference between making one or two or five of something and manufacturing," says Smith. Eventually he decided he could do better. He sold his stake in Sprinkool to his father and shelled out $600,000 to MSC for design patents – an option he had earned by hitting sales targets – and he went solo with HVLS Fan Co., employing a local machine shop as his initial manufacturing plant.
Carey Smith's parking space at the company's Lexington, Ky. headquarters (image credit: Stephen... [+] Webster for Forbes)
When he changed the company's name to Big Ass Fans, also adopting a picture of a donkey's backside as his logo, he managed to rub some people the wrong way—namely, he says, "the 5% of people out there that are just dying to be upset about something." That 5% included a post office in Louisville that refused to deliver Big Ass marketing postcards.
Starting with Sprinkool's customers, Smith had reams of data on factories and farms he could sell to. Eventually Big Ass Solutions expanded from its adjacent machine shop to five buildings, all on the northern outskirts of Lexington, where workers assemble, test, store and ship products beneath massive rotating airfoils emblazoned with the donkey logo.
Smith began to offer smaller and quieter commercial products to hang from the ceilings of stores and schools; families with money and space started hanging them in their living rooms. Most residential fans are low-quality and inexpensive, says Smith, who decided Big Ass was not going to lower its standards or its prices.
Subdued compared with its industrial cousins, the Big Ass residential fan is sleek and quiet. Called the Haiku, it sells for between $895 and $1,495, and comes in custom finishes like bamboo, cocoa and premium polished aluminum (an extra $965). The Haiku with SenseME – which houses motion, temperature and humidity sensors – can connect to a Nest thermostat system to regulate temperature more efficiently. A connection to a Jawbone fitness tracker will put the fans into sleep mode whenever their users are in sleep mode.
The LED products, launched last year, were an even bigger departure. Smith has been taking the new product to his established industrial customers, while pushing a garage light to residential buyers. It's a long-term play into a $5 billion U.S. market, he says.
Barely three years in, residential products already represent 17% of Big Ass revenue. The growth has happened largely without the help of big-box retailers--mostly because Smith refuses to let them lop 30% off of his top line and because he doesn't trust them to educate his customers.
Skeptical as he is of big-box retailers, Smith is even more wary of investment bankers and stockholders, sneering at the possibility of one day taking the company public--unless he can maintain control. "I don't mind having stockholders," Smith proclaims, perched at the head of his long boardroom table. "I just don't think they know enough to run a business."
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c65586f40a034873af7c7b92af04811a | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/04/10/fishing-is-bigger-than-you-think-and-this-entrepreneur-built-an-app-for-it/ | Fishing Is Bigger Than You Think (And This Entrepreneur Built An App For It) | Fishing Is Bigger Than You Think (And This Entrepreneur Built An App For It)
Fishing is big business. No, really—fishing is huge! In the United States alone, anglers of all types spent $48 billion annually on bait, gear, transportation and lodging.
That type of industry girth was not lost on Johan Attby, a Swedish developer whose mobile app, FishBrain, has accrued over 700,000 registered users worldwide (and been installed a million times), who connect with one another over the platform.
FishBrain acts as a social network and info resource for sport anglers, who can exchange pictures of themselves with their latest catches, log the size and type of fish they caught and where, as well as access data on the various fishing spots around the globe. The app has just added features like the FishBrain Forecast, which informs anglers of the best time to fish for certain species, and Teams, which allows users to compete with fellow anglers from all over the world.
A PhD dropout from Chalmers University of Technology in Göteberg, Sweden, in 2000 Attby founded software company, Tific, a B2B platform for IT support which he grew in his home Sweden before moving to Silicon Valley. He sold the company to remote IT firm, PlumChoice Inc., in 2011. Though he’d signed on to stay with Tific for 18 months after the acquisition, Attby had already begun pondering his next venture. “I’m an entrepreneur,” he says. “I like building stuff, I like creating stuff.”
What he wanted to create was a deep social network. While leafing through a random newspaper he noticed an article that highlighted fishing as one of the world’s most popular hobbies. Attby, who was raised on a farm and had hunted and fished all his life, knew he had his focus. “It is one of my hobbies,” he says. “Though there are certainly people who are way better fishermen than me.”
Creating a social network for a popular niche is a good way of breaking down barriers between strangers. In the preeminent social hubs of the day – Facebook, Instagram or Path – most content is meant to be shared between friends. But enthusiasts of any given activity – like fishing – are comfortable sharing information with people they don’t know, so long as they have that singular interest in common.
In fishing Attby saw a massively popular pastime with no already dominant mobile app to connect its fans. He thought that if he could own that space he’d be in a powerful strategic position because supplanting a top social network is difficult. “The dynamic, when you do a deep social network – and this is true for every geography – there will be one winner and everybody else will be a loser.”
In addition to just collecting fish species, weight and location; the FishBrain app – through its GPS – can tell wind direction and speed, humidity, air pressure, water temperature, current movements, time of day and year. That intel is logged and can be accessed by users, should they want it. To date the company has logged over 250,000 catches by sport fishermen (and fisherwomen). That type of information can let anglers know when and where they may have a better chance of making a catch or nabbing a certain species of fish.
Attby hasn’t monetized FishBrain yet, saying he’s focused on signing up new members. But when he turns on revenue he will be offering a premium version of the app that will give anglers access to more data, like forecasts, which lures have been most effective in a given area with a given species, etc. Ads will also be added to the user experience, as will a fishing gear store that will let anglers connect to online retail stores where they can buy products. “That’s the plan for 2016,” says Attby.
To date, Attby has raised $3.5 million from investors like Active Venture Partners, Northzone and Almi Invest, plus some angels. He’s still actively seeking new money.
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179802ef5a146f41c4aaac599553c730 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/06/17/is-quiznos-toast/ | Is Quiznos Toast? | Is Quiznos Toast?
Last year, when Joe Lopez decided to buy a few Quiznos restaurants in Michigan, he had one reason for investing in the formerly booming toasted sandwich chain's locations: They were cheap. Lopez bought three in a distress sale for $60,000. "No one is going to sell me a Marriott," Lopez says. "No one is going to sell me a McDonald's. Quiznos was pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole."
Quiznos has been there for a while. Founded in 1981, the privately held company grew to more than 5,000 locations by 2007 but has been flailing ever since. It has waged a constant battle with its franchisees, many of whom accused the chain of selling rights to too many locations and demanding that franchisees buy supplies from the company at prices that made it impossible for them to succeed. Last year Quiznos, based in Denver, closed 439 restaurants in the U.S. and filed for Chapter 11. It is down to 1,500 stores worldwide, with 900 in the U.S.
After emerging from bankruptcy last June, Quiznos underwent a round of layoffs and resignations, brought in a new CEO, began introducing a new menu and retooling its IT, and overhauled its supply chain. "The goal is to plot a new direction and get things turned around," says CEO Doug Pendergast, who took the helm in January and was previously CEO of the Atlanta-based Krystal burger chain. Some franchisees say Pendergast is making the right moves, but in the face of stiff competition from sandwich upstarts Jimmy John's and Firehouse Subs, not to mention industry behemoth Subway , the change of tack may have come too late.
Quiznos was the brainchild of Jimmy Lambatos, a chef, and restaurateur Todd Disner. Lambatos created a popular product: a sub sandwich that ran through a conveyor belt toaster to add a crunch that customers seemed to love. They grew the enterprise to 18 locations by 1991 before selling out to one of the franchisees, Rick Schaden, who along with his father expanded the company spectacularly, selling franchise rights by the thousands.
It was Schaden who required franchisees to purchase all of their supplies--from cold cuts to background-music CDs--from the company at prices they considered inflated. "We've always estimated that Quiznos marked up everything about 30%," says Jehad Majed, who has operated a location in Dearborn Heights, Mich. for a decade.
Things came to a head in 2006, when about 10,000 of the chain's franchisees filed a class action accusing the company of overselling its markets and making its franchisees "captive customers." The combination of crowded markets and high costs, says Justin M. Klein, the lawyer who represented the franchisees, meant that "it was only a matter of time until the franchisees would fail."
Gallery: America's Best And Worst Food Franchises 18 images View gallery
Quiznos settled the suit in 2010, paying the plaintiffs $206 million. Nonetheless, Rick Schaden denies overselling franchises. As for supply costs, he says, "There was no markup. We simply produced food at market prices." Current chairman of the Quiznos board, Doug Benham, sees things differently: "All we know is we had years and years of class action lawsuits, which the company settled for millions of dollars, that was directly on point to that subject."
The settlement came too late for at least one franchise owner, Bhupinder Baber, who had attempted to start an association of California franchisees. In November 2006 Baber took his own life in a Quiznos bathroom. "Someone must do something about what Quiznos is doing to the trapped franchisees," he wrote in the note he left. "Everything they do is in their own self-interest, with utter disregard for the interests of the franchisees, to who they sold the 'dream' and put into business, only to screw them systematically from day one." Of Baber's death, a Quiznos spokesperson says, "We were saddened."
In 2012 creditors led by private equity firm Avenue Capital and hedge fund Fortress Investment Group demanded a restructuring that gave the firms control of the company. (Today the chain's other owners include Oaktree Capital, Michael Dell's MSD Capital and Caspian Capital.) Fortress and Avenue went on to sue the Schadens and other Quiznos managers, accusing them of misrepresenting the company's financial health before the deal. Rick Schaden denies the allegation.
This year, under its new owners, Quiznos finally dismantled its supply arm. Franchisees are now buying from an independent food distributor, Sysco , and prices have fallen significantly. A case of bread, once $30, now goes for $18, and the chain says franchisees, on average, have seen their supply costs fall 3.5% as a percentage of gross sales. The company says it also plans to eliminate unpopular menu items and ingredients. According to CEO Pendergast, a cloud-based point-of-sale system is being implemented to track commerce at North American locations. That network will eventually include a mobile app that customers can use to snag coupons and freebies, as well as to place online orders.
Quiznos has also cut 29% of its full-time staff. Benham, the board chairman, says the layoffs were inevitable given the company's reduced number of locations. "Every position in the company was reviewed and in some cases we consolidated positions," he says. "In other cases we decided that what a person was doing were things we just weren't going to do anymore."
Of the 1,500 Quiznos restaurants still open, the company owns only 6 itself. Each franchisee pays 7% of sales to the home office every week, on top of 4% in marketing fees. Pendergast won't disclose systemwide sales (franchise industry research firm FRANdata estimates it at $285 million for 2014, down from $400 million in 2013, compared to Subway's $13 billion in 2014), though he says the company is profitable. He also won't discuss how many franchisees are in the black, except to say, "Not as many as we would like."
One franchisee not in the black is Jehad Majed, who estimates sales this year at the location he's run for a decade at $340,000. He says he is four months behind on his Michigan state taxes, has $16,000 in credit card debt and owes Quiznos $30,000 in royalties and fees. Majed says he has amassed personal debt of $100,000, and although he's sunk $230,000 into his location, he'd take $50,000 for it--if only he could find a buyer. "It's hard to sell a Quiznos these days."
While he thinks the new ownership and new executive team are taking the right steps, he worries "it might be too little too late." If he can't turn things around in the next year, he says, he'll auction off his equipment and convert the location, which he owns, into something else: "Maybe a pizza place."
Things are looking considerably brighter for Joe Lopez, the franchisee who bought three locations in Grand Rapids and Lansing, Mich. last year for just $60,000. He says he expects them to yield $850,000 in combined sales this year and even turn a profit. But he, too, is watching Quiznos' moves carefully. "If the changes don't work," he says, "we'll all be out of business."
See More from the Best and Worst Franchises to Buy
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132d339baadf6ea5a0b35ee3aa9992f2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2015/08/10/guns-ammo-geo-targeting-how-a-father-son-team-is-bringing-bring-deals-to-weapons-enthusiasts/ | Guns, Ammo & Geo-Targeting: How A Father-Son Team Is Bringing Deals To Weapons Enthusiasts | Guns, Ammo & Geo-Targeting: How A Father-Son Team Is Bringing Deals To Weapons Enthusiasts
Weapon enthusiasts are like any other consumer: they do their research before they buy and they’re always on the lookout for a good deal. At least that’s what Tom and Ryan Gresham are banking on with their latest enterprise; a mobile app they claim can feed shooters news about discounts and sales at gun stores wherever they may be.
Called GunDealio, the iOS and Google app uses geo-targeting to introduce shooters to deals on guns, ammo and accessories at some 2,400 independent and big box locations, including those of retailers like Cabelas and Bass Pro. It went live in June and has been downloaded over 10,000 times.
Here’s how it works: shops and manufacturers report whatever sales or deals they are offering (as well as where they are) to the GunDealio platform. When a customer with the mobile app installed enters the neighborhood of the shop, it notifies the customer about those deals with a push notification. Free to download, the app brings in revenue through ads and sponsorships from manufacturers in the space. “They’re able to not only have their deals and listings at the top of the list, but also they’re able to send their notifications to people when they walk into stores,” says Ryan Gresham, who is a former ad executive for Fox TV in New Orleans.
Firearms manufacturer Kahr – which produces a range of compact handguns, large caliber pistols and the producer of the venerable Tommy Gun – signed on to have information about its wares pushed through the new app. “Through GunDealio, Kahr can share the latest promotions and product reviews of our products before they even reach the gun counter,” says company spokesperson, Sheryl Gallup.
The product is the latest offering from the Greshams, who run the Louisiana-based Gun Talk Media, which produces radio and TV shows that focus on firearms, hunting and personal safety. Under their umbrella is the television show Guns & Gear, which is in its seventh season and airs on the Pursuit Channel, The Sportsman Channel and Wild TV in Canada. The show features both Tom and Ryan discussing what’s new and exciting in the gun industry, as well as product demonstrations and features. Tom Gresham – whose father was outspoken outdoorsman, writer and TV personality, Grits Gresham – also hosts the nationally syndicated radio show, Guntalk, as well as its corresponding Guntalk TV, which also airs on the Pursuit Channel. The entire enterprise generated $2.7 million last year.
The idea for GunDealio sprouted about four years ago, says Ryan, but the concept was a little more complicated and expensive to launch. “We were basically working on creating a digital signage network to put screens into independent retailers across the country and feed those screens content and marketing messages for the folks that were standing there watching it.”
The problem was that independent retailers often didn’t want screens installed at their locations and the idea was set aside until the obvious solution presented itself. Says Ryan: “Everyone’s walking around with a little screen in their pocket that’s hooked into the internet and, even better, has GPS capabilities on them that lets us do some really neat things.”
Once the app reaches critical mass, GunDealio will set about helping independent gun shops target their local customers more effectively by drawing a geo-fence around geographical markets and sending messages to app users in that area. Says Tom Gresham: “Then when they walk into the store they could get a message that’s a follow-up on the initial promotion that went out.”
What with television and radio to produce, and now a marketing app, the Greshams have a lot on their plates, but other app solutions may be on the horizon. Says Ryan: “The joke around here is we always have lots of ideas, just not enough time.”
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1a895074552811a0b26b692881772f85 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/02/04/the-top-20-cities-for-remote-workers/ | The Top 20 Cities For Remote Workers | The Top 20 Cities For Remote Workers
Gallery: The Top 20 Cities For Remote Workers 20 images View gallery
One of the pleasant side effects of technology is that, more and more, you do not have to work where you work anymore. Communication through IM, email and video conferencing make connecting with colleagues simple and convenient. Corporate network systems make it a breeze to ‘plug in’ to the office from anywhere. Need to stay at home to let the plumber in? No problem. Want to head home after lunch to pick up the kids from school? No longer an issue. Accept a programming job in Tulsa but want to live in Tampa. Yes you can!
Over 2.5% of the workforce in the United States operates remotely and that figure is climbing steadily. This past December, job search engine Indeed.com - visited by 180 million users every month - discovered that a growing number of people were searching for remote or telecommuting jobs. They looked at the numbers and found that job-hunters in the cities below, more than any others, were more inclined to search for positions that would allow them to work remotely.
Workers and companies, more and more, are discovering the convenience of using technology to work... [+] remotely. Job-hunters in these 20 cities are more hungry for remote jobs than any others. (image credit: Eduardo Otubo on Flickr)
In order, here are the top 20 cities people want to be, even if their job is elsewhere:
Atlanta, GA Austin, TX Tampa, FL Seattle, WAS San Diego, CA Charlotte, NC Orlando, FL Denver, CO Phoenix, AZ San Jose, CA Dallas, TX Miami, FL San Francisco, CA Washington, DC Minneapolis, MN Las Vegas, NV New York, NY Philadelphia, PA San Antonio, TX Chicago, IL
There’s no doubt that the cities on Indeed’s list are large metropolitan areas that have a lot to offer in terms of culture and opportunity. That might explain why folks would rather work remotely there than move away to follow a job, says Indeed.com Senior Vice President Paul D'Arcy. “We find that there are people who choose where they want to work first and then the job second and many of those are these sorts of cities… these are all hot cities—fast-growing, in-demand places that people are flocking to.”
The team at Indeed tried to disprove their ‘hot city’ theory, but couldn’t find another explanation for the desire for remote work in these metropolis. “We wondered at first if these are places with bad traffic, with people trying to get off the road,” D’Arcy said. “Actually, it doesn’t look like that at all.”
The bigger picture seems to show that remote jobs are more and more in demand, says D’Arcy. “Searches for remote and flexible work have been some of the fastest-growing searches that we’ve seen,” he said. Some of that could be a product of supply seeking demand, in that companies are taking advantage of the fact that technology makes it possible to have employees spread out over a wider geographic region, plugged into the company network from afar, and seeking employees agreeable to such an arrangement.
According to D’Arcy, more workers are fine with that. “We did a survey on what would get people to take a new job and 91% of people said that there was something that would get them (to take a new job). Twenty-nine percent of those people said that the ability to work remotely would be a key thing that would attract them to a new job.”
But those looking for remote work tend to fall into a certain category: highly skilled professionals, largely in corporate fields where technology can be used to connect a workforce and tasks are not face-to-face or directly hands-on. That seems to makes sense: you can’t be a remote cook.
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07b6a3067761507aabfc6a9f352025b3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/03/31/the-best-cities-for-new-college-grads-in-2016/ | The Best Cities For New College Grads In 2016 | The Best Cities For New College Grads In 2016
Gallery: The 10 Best Cities For New College Grads In 2016 11 images View gallery
Folks coming out of college these days have a few more options than they would have had even a couple of years ago. This past January the U.S. unemployment rate hit an 8-year low of 4.9% and the job market – though still competitive – is a little bit easier now and affords young people coming into the workplace more freedom to choose where they want to go.
So where should they want to go? Obviously the answers to that question are as varied as there are new graduates, but there are some cities out there that may be more suited to them others. Online financial evaluation tool, Nerdwallet, analyzed the 100 biggest cities in the United States – taking into account categories like employment, income, education, rent and age – and formulated this list of great places for young people to move after they earn their degrees. (See our slideshow above)
The top spot on the NerdWallet list was claimed by Arlington, Virginia. Among its virtues are its high education credentials—71.5% of Arlington’s 25-and-older population holds at least a bachelor’s degree, the highest percentage on the list. The median annual earnings of workers age 25 and older that have bachelor’s degrees stands at $72,406--up from $64,957 last year. Jobs in management, business, science or the arts represent over 67% of jobs in Arlington.
The downside of Arlington, though, is its high rent. Apparently, the median rent in the city is over 31% of the income of a worker who is older than 25 and holds a bachelor’s degree—that is higher than in San Francisco (#10 on NerdWallet’s list) which stands at 27.8%.
Another high flyer on the list is Madison, Wisconsin (#2 on the list). The Midwestern college city is young—almost 25% of the town is in its 20s. Jobs in management, business, science or the arts represent 52% of employment there and the median earnings for residents 25 and older with a bachelor's degree are $45,176 annually, which isn’t too shabby. About 25% of that, though, will go towards rent.
Methodology:
NerdWallet sourced the data it used its ranking by analyzing the 100 biggest cities in the U.S. The unemployment rates for metropolitan areas are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for December 2015 and those figures represent 20% of the score.
The rest of the score includes data from the 2014 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and was scored as follows:
1. Percentage of the population 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher is 15% of the score.
2. Percentage of the population ages 20 to 29 is 30% of the score.
3. Median earnings of residents 25 years and older with a bachelor’s degree are 10% of the score.
4. Jobs in management, business, science or arts occupations are 10% of the score.
5. Rent as percentage of income is 15% of the score.
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6363c2bc5bea65e8e9086bd53636ea88 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/06/10/the-top-degrees-for-getting-hired-right-out-of-college-energy-industry-jobs-take-a-dive/ | The Top Degrees For Getting Hired Right Out Of College: Energy Industry Jobs Take A Dive | The Top Degrees For Getting Hired Right Out Of College: Energy Industry Jobs Take A Dive
College graduates with certain degrees are more successful finding a job right out of school than... [+] others. A study released this month by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows which recent grads found full-time jobs fast. (Shutterstock)
Finding work after graduation is a concern of almost every student – grad or undergrad or doctoral – in the final year of school. It’s a source of stress and excitement.
It turns out, unsurprisingly, that graduates with certain degrees are more successful finding a job right out of school than others. A study released this month by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, PA non-profit that links college career placement offices with employers, revealed which graduating bachelors degree students in the class of 2015 – by college major – were able to find employment within six months of graduation.
We folded NACE’s results into an easy-to-read gallery. Check it out below!
Gallery: Top 10 College Degrees For Getting Hired Right Out Of School 11 images View gallery
In putting together its study, NACE collected data on 373,807 undergrad students at various colleges throughout the country, with various majors, all graduating in 2015. It turns out that the field of study that led to the highest rate of employment within six months of graduation was computer sciences, with 72% of students majoring in the concentration finding a full-time job.
Those computer science students also reported an average starting salary of just over $69,000 a year—the highest starting salary tracked in NACE’s study. That’s an 11.3% increase in salary over numbers reported last year, according to NACE.
Number two on the list of majors that led to quick full-time employment was Business. NACE reported that 65.7% of the undergrad Business class of 2015 found work within six months, for an average salary of $51,452.
Overall – when looking at 2015 graduates – one of the more notable trends uncovered in this year’s study was the increase to the starting salaries of new grads, says Ed Koc, director of research for NACE. “The average starting salary went up between 4% and 5%,” he said. “That’s significant because salaries have been pretty flat for a number of years. They haven’t really exceeded the inflation rate for any period of time.”
Energy Jobs See Salary Dip
Employment was positive across the board, said Koc, but there were highlights, including STEM majors, who had the best rates of finding work fast. But that area of study is new to the top of the list. Over the past several years – up through the class of 2014 – three majors tended to have the best rate of employment: petroleum Engineering, Geo-sciences and chemistry—all fields of study connected to the oil and gas industry. That has shifted
“This year,” says Koc, “employment in engineering and engineering technology majors dropped. In addition, starting salaries dropped. Petroleum engineering, for the first time in nine years, is not the number one major when it comes to starting salary because the petroleum engineering starting salary for the class of 2015 dropped by 13%.”
Salaries connected to Geo-sciences fell by 25% and those of chemistry by 26%. “Cleary it’s a reflection of the problems that the energy industry is having right now, or had in the last year,” says Koc.
Grads Becoming Entrepreneurial
Also of note in the NACE report is the tendency of some new grads to seek less traditional employment options: freelancing, working contract-based gigs or becoming an entrepreneur. Computer science majors, which had the highest rate of employment this year, also saw a dip in their rate of standard employment by 1.2%. “Some of these individuals chose to be entrepreneurial,” says Koc.
The Humanities See An Upside
Computer sciences and other STEM-type majors may have come away with the highest rates of employment and salary, but the humanities saw some dramatic jumps of their own. The average starting salary for English majors rose 13.6% over last year, for example, and philosophy majors saw a 13.3% hike. History majors experienced a 14.3% salary rise and Language majors’ average salary shot up by 27.3%.
Why the humanities have enjoyed such a boost is still a mystery, says Koc, and more research and data are needed to understand the dynamics at play. “It was an overall better marketplace because salaries increased overall, but they’d been held down for quite some time,” Koc opined. “So it may be just some catching up that’s occurring there.”
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b7663b5a9eb97baec3e73dd506410042 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/07/07/the-best-paying-cities-for-software-engineers-in-2016/ | The Best-Paying Cities For Software Engineers In 2016 | The Best-Paying Cities For Software Engineers In 2016
Seattle tops the list of the best-paying cities for software engineers, according to a recent report... [+] by Glassdoor.com. (image: Shutterstock)
Everyone knows that northern California’s Silicon Valley is the technology capital of the world. With the investor capital and talent the valley has to offer, it would make sense that software engineers and developers would be able to find the best payout from companies there.
But there are well-paying cities all over the United States where tech-minded builders can find work that provides great salary and a fun way of life. This week, jobs and career marketplace site, Glassdoor.com, released a study of which cities in the U.S. offer the best payment for software engineers. The company provides each city’s ‘real adjusted salary’ by the determining the ratio of each city’s local median software engineer base salary to its official cost of living figures from the federal government. We folded the results into a gallery which you can view below.
Gallery: The 25 Best-Paying Cities For Software Engineers In 2016 26 images View gallery
Don’t get me wrong, cities within and around Silicon Valley hold prominent positions on the Glassdoor list—two are in the top three. But other towns and urban areas in the country make strong appearances. A couple of them might surprise you.
Topping the list is Seattle, which is well-known for its tech credibility and is home to such giants as Amazon. The adjusted salary for software engineers there is $105,735, according to Glassdoor, and cost of living is only 7.1% above the national average.
In the second position is San Jose, at the southern section of San Francisco Bay. Real Adjusted Salary? $100,989. The downside of the town is its high cost of living, which is 21.3% higher than the national average—that’s higher than any other city on Glassdoor’s list.
In the second position is San Francisco, the largest metropolis near Silicon Valley. The real adjusted salary for software engineers there is $99,751. That figure started out as a median annual payout of $120,000 but factored down through a cost of living over 20% higher than the national average. Glassdoor counts 2,232 software engineering positions open at the time of the study.
Some of the more unexpected towns on the list of best paying cities for software engineers include Madison, Wisconsin, which comes in at number four. Engineers there enjoy an adjusted annual salary of $97,236, with a cost of living that’s 2.3% below the national average.
Another surprise is Raleigh, North Carolina, at number five, which Glassdoor pegs at $94,142 in annual adjusted salary. Cost of living? 4.4% below the national average.
Omaha, Nebraska, took the 13th spot, offering $88,017 in annual wages with a cost of living 5.7% under the national average. And finally, Huntsville, Alabama -- where NASA has a presence -- which came in 25th, has a cost of living 8.7% below the national average and software engineers there enjoy $83,242 in adjusted annual salary.
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c4465d8bd33bb70c2dc62e6b7daa1256 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/08/30/where-do-workers-feel-most-productive-hint-its-not-in-the-office/ | Where Do Workers Feel Most Productive? (Hint: It's Not In The Office) | Where Do Workers Feel Most Productive? (Hint: It's Not In The Office)
If professionals can work somewhere other than their offices, why shouldn't they? (Image Credit:... [+] Shutterstock)
Professionals these days have options. As technology allows employees to be connected to their companies or clients whenever they want and wherever they are, they begin to ask themselves which location allows them to be most productive.
Recently, jobs and career information site FlexJobs.com conducted a survey of 3,100 professionals between the ages of 20 and 60-plus, asking them their thoughts on flexible hours, working remotely and where they feel they work most effectively.
It turns out that most of the respondents – 65% – felt that they worked better somewhere other than the traditional office. We took the results of FlexJobs’ survey regarding their favorite places to work and folded them into a gallery, which you can view below.
Gallery: Where Do Workers Work Best? 5 images View gallery
When asked why the prospect of working remotely is such an attractive element in a job or prospective position, the answer checked off the most by respondents (76%) was that they would be subject to fewer interruptions from colleagues. Also, 69% cited avoiding meetings as an upside of working from somewhere other than their offices. Avoiding office politics was also considered a plus, and 68% or respondents said as much.
When asked where they would most like to work, 51% of respondents said they would work most effectively at home. To illustrate how important the right to do so is to them, survey results showed that 29% said they would be willing to take a 10% to 20% pay cut for the privilege. Also, 22% said they would be willing to forfeit vacation time and 15% said they would give up employer-matching programs for their retirement contributions.
Employers should take note that 81% of respondents said that the ability to work from home would make them feel more loyal to their employers.
Read More: 6 Things Working Parents Look For In A New Job
When FlexJobs asked respondents to the survey which factors were most important to them when contemplating a new position or job, salary tied for second alongside work-life balance. The number one most chosen element of a prospective job (chosen in 80% of surveys) was work flexibility—the ability to break from the usual time and workday schedule to build a work-life that makes sense to the individual.
If given more work time flexibility, almost all (97%) of the 3,100 respondents felt their quality of life would improve and 87% said it would reduce their overall stress.
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5a3decd054195249db7986e68453a8eb | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/11/11/how-veterans-adjust-to-the-civilian-workforce/ | How Veterans Adjust To The Civilian Workforce | How Veterans Adjust To The Civilian Workforce
YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images
Unemployment for those veterans who have served in the Post 9/11 era is on the decline – it stood at 5.8% in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down 1.4% from the previous year.
But despite declines in unemployment, those transitioning from military service to the U.S. workforce face some challenges.
To get a better understanding of those issues, we looked to a recent survey focusing on veterans searching for jobs conducted by iCIMS, a talent-acquisition firm based in New Jersey. The company’s survey was put together between August 22 and August 29 with help from Wakefield Research and uses responses from 708 Post 9/11 veterans using an email invitation and an online survey distributed by RecruitMilitary, a military-focused jobs recruitment agency.
Watch on Forbes:
Looking For Work
According to veterans in the jobs market, the top two reasons vets have turned down or not pursued some positions as they search for employment has been that they were disappointed by salary and benefits offered, and that they felt they lacked the training or education to handle the work.
Those reasons may seem unremarkable among job-hunters, but they take on a different hue when applied to vets, says Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer and workplace expert at iCIMS. Military personnel, she told FORBES, are used to having benefits like housing, for example, paid for and budgeting for it in civilian life takes some getting used to. “Salary and benefits do impact this community a little bit more specifically than people might have always been out there (in the private sector) and have always had these expenses.”
As far as education and training are concerned, some veterans entered the military without receiving a college degree, which can cause issues when weighing job opportunities that require such qualifications, said Vitale. “Oftentimes these screening questions during a career application process might require some of these things on paper, or electronically, if you will, but in reality we’d question if that’s really necessary.”
Experience accrued in the military, though not a direct equivalent, could supply the types of skills employers feel a college education is necessary to attain, Vitale explained. “They are learning really import skills that are transferable, that oftentimes are the highest on the list of hiring managers; things like leadership and problem-solving skills and the ability to think on your feet, to work together and collaborate.”
Veterans also feel unsure of how to sell themselves in a job interview, and 28% of survey respondents said as much. That fear, it seems, comes from emerging from a military life where such practices are simply not required.
Friction With Hiring Managers
According to iCIMS’s survey, 41% of respondents said that hiring managers simply do not understand what kind of experiences a veteran has earned while in the military and how they transfer to a private sector career. Meanwhile, veterans themselves are not effective at communicating how their experience and skills are applicable. “If the employer is unsure and the exiting military member is unsure,” explains Vitale, “everybody’s sort of left in the dark.”
Additionally, 37% of respondents said they felt that hiring managers “devalue” a veteran’s military experience. That sentiment, says Vitale, could be due in part to employers declining to place their qualifications on par with those who have attended college. Half of those surveyed said they felt their military service would be an impediment to finding a job outside of the armed forces.
Gallery: 10 Job Skills Veterans Are Great For 11 images View gallery
Adjusting To Non-Military Jobs
Of all respondents who found work after leaving the military, 59% said they have fewer advancement opportunities than they’d expected, 58% said the work they do is less meaningful than their jobs in the military and 54% said they felt overqualified for their positions.
Vitale says some of that has to do with the types of jobs vets wind up getting. “Security officers, for example,” she explained. “People just assume that’s a great position for exiting military. Although that might absolutely be true, that might not be what gets somebody who’s exiting the military passionate about the civilian workforce.”
But when veterans do find a job that ignites their passions, they need to figure out how to advance and that requires learning how to form a network of peers and mentors to make that happen. “Oftentimes employees feel like they aren’t given enough career path advice and information,” says Vitale. “People really like that spelled out for them.”
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What Can Employers Do?
Employers need to discover how military experience translates into civilian workforce skills. Says Vitale: “The easiest way we’ve seen this done is to talk with existing military and understand what sorts of qualities are transferable. It shouldn’t be that hard but it truly is hard for people to understand how somebody who was overseas doing ABC is going to be good at doing XYZ here at a private or public sector job.”
For employers willing to reach out to vets, there could be a benefit in the form of tax credits for hiring them, which is a meaningful incentive. “Overall,” says Vitale, “I think we need to make sure we’re speaking this audience’s language, making sure that in their mentorship programs there is a track for vets.”
It also helps to place job ads in places where veterans are looking. That means the usual job boards like CareerBuilder or Indeed.com, as well as government or private sector sites that advertise jobs that specifically target veterans.
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98cebac5c8eed9945200898aec1b81ac | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/11/23/top-degrees-for-getting-hired-in-2017/ | Top Degrees For Getting Hired In 2017 | Top Degrees For Getting Hired In 2017
The workforce is an animal constantly on the move. It changes as the technology and skills needed to succeed in the world of business evolve, slowly and sometimes rapidly, over time.
With that in mind, young people entering college inevitably contemplate how the degree they earn might help them in the jobs market. Do their interests and the majors they gravitate towards provide a higher probability of a job after graduation?
To get a snapshot of which bachelor’s degrees provide a leg up with hiring managers, we looked to a recent report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a Bethlehem, PA non-profit that links college career placement offices with employers. We folded the top ten degrees that employers told NACE they find appealing and expect to hire in the coming year into a neat slideshow, which you can view below.
Gallery: The Top Degrees For Getting Hired In 2017 11 images View gallery
The source of the NACE data comes from a survey conducted this year of 169 NACE employer members – companies like Con Edison, Sears, Pfizer and others – on their hiring plans for the coming year. In it, the respondents declared what types of educational backgrounds were most attractive to them, among other attributes, in potential hires.
Among the top bachelor’s degrees deemed most attractive was business administration and management. Of all responding companies, 86 said they intended to hire graduates with such a degree. The same number of respondents declared they would consider graduates who had earned a degree in accounting attractive job candidates.
As new college graduates enter the workforce in 2017, they will find that certain degrees are deemed... [+] more attractive to employers than others. (image credit: Shutterstock)
The number one most in-demand bachelor’s degree, according to the NACE survey, was that of finance. There were 87 respondents who claimed they would hire candidates who studied the concentration.
Computer science ranked fourth on the list of top degrees, which sees that major fall from the second-place position it held last year.
Of all the companies that responded to NACE’s survey and provided feedback on their upcoming hiring demands, more than 98% said they expected to hire job candidates with a bachelor’s degree in the coming year. Nearly 75.5% or respondents said they would be hiring candidates with Master’s degrees as well.
So which Master’s degrees are most in-demand among employers? NACE has some answers to that question as well. According to the information respondents provided, M.B.As are the most desirable hires in the coming year, with more than 26% or employers stating they intend to bring holders of that master’s degree on board. That was followed by those with Finance degrees (25%) and Accounting degrees (23.6%).
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NACE has found that the demand for business-oriented master’s degree holders has seen an uptick since last year’s survey, in which science, technology, engineering and math-based degrees were most sought-after. For a full rundown of the master’s degrees employers are most attracted to, check out the list below.
MBA: 26.4% will hire
Finance: 25%
Accounting: 23.6%
Computer Science: 22.9%
Information Sciences & Systems: 18.8%
Computer Engineering: 18.1%
Management Information Systems: 15.3%
Marketing: 15.3%
Electrical Engineering: 15.3%
Mechanical Engineering: 15.3%
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9c0c5c155533e092df9fa25f680def04 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2016/12/13/the-best-and-worst-college-towns-in-the-u-s/ | The Best And Worst College Towns In The U.S. | The Best And Worst College Towns In The U.S.
When choosing a college or university, it’s important to think beyond the institutions and look critically at the cities and towns they are in. Sure, the school could be great, but do you really want to live there for four years? What kinds of opportunities are there for work or having fun?
WalletHub, a personal finance and credit report company, annually ranks the best college and university towns in the country based on criteria like social environment, academic and economic opportunities, and “WalletFitness,” which is a proprietary analysis of cost of living.
We took the 10 best and the worst-ranked college towns , according to WalletHub’s list of 415, and folded them into an easy-to-read slideshow, which you can view below.
Gallery: The Best And Worst College Towns In The U.S. 22 images View gallery
In compiling its ranking, WalletHub’s methodology allocates a total of 50 points for the academic and economic opportunity category, 25 points for social environment and another 25 for WalletFitness. For more details on the way the ranking is broken down, visit the company’s methodology page here.
Among the best college towns, according to the ranking, is West Lafayette, Indiana. The area is home to Purdue University and WalletHub gave the school an overall score of 65.25 out of 100, putting it in third place. West Lafayette ranked 10th in WalletFitness, 12th in Social Environment and fourth in Academic and Economic Opportunities.
In second place, with 66.21 points, was East Lansing, Michigan, home to Michigan State University, Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Davenport University, and Lansing Community College. The city ranks 79th in WalletFitness, 22nd in Social Environment and eighth in Academic and Economic Opportunities.
A recent study by WalletHub - a personal finance and credit score company - ranks the best and worst... [+] college towns in the United States. (image credit: Shutterstock)
First place – the best college town – is Oxford, Ohio, with 71.11 points overall. Miami University calls the town home.* The municipality ranked 10th in WalletFitness, 12th in Social Environment and fourth in Academic and Economic Opportunities.
Separating the towns by size, the best large college town was Atlanta, followed by Austin and Pittsburg. Among medium-size cities, Gainesville, Florida; Cincinnati, Ohio and Buffalo, New York top the list. In the small city categories we find our top three overall Oxford, Ohio, followed by East Lansing and West Lafayette.
But what of the bottom of the ranking—those schools that made the poorest showing among the hundreds on the list? The lowest position is held this year by Brookline, Massachusetts, which managed to score 26.6 points out of 100. Home to a handful of schools – including Newbury College, Pine Manor College and parts of Boston University and Boston College – to town ranked 387th in the WalletFitness category, 201st in the Social Environment category and 415th – dead last – in Academic and Economic Opportunities. Lucky for students that go to school there, Boston is just a hop, skip and a jump away.
Keeping Brookline company at the bottom of the list is Kendall, Florida, and East Los Angeles, California—both poor-scoring college towns adjacent to major metropolitan cities, so their low-rankings should be taken with a grain of salt.
*correction: an earlier iteration of this post state that Western College for Women was located in Oxford, Ohio. That school became part of Miami University in 1974. (2/9/17; 13:45 EST)
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b52459b80abd6896cca395e9b20f1510 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/01/04/the-best-and-worst-cities-for-finding-jobs-in-2017/ | The Best And Worst Cities For Finding Jobs In 2017 | The Best And Worst Cities For Finding Jobs In 2017
Shutterstock
Now that 2017 has arrived, many job seekers will have vowed to put extra effort into finding a new and better job. Some of those may even be open to moving to new cities in order to do so.
With that in mind, we took a look at some of the cities that could hold better jobs prospects than others—and some whose opportunities leave much to be desired. We got a snapshot of those dynamics from a recently released report from WalletHub – a personal finance and credit report company – which scores cities by their projected qualities as places to find work. We took the company’s findings and folded them into a slideshow of the 10 top cities for finding work this year, which you can view below.
Gallery: The 10 Best Cities For Jobs In 2017 11 images View gallery
In putting together its study, WalletHub compared 150 of the most populated U.S. cities across 23 key indicators of job-market strength. Sources for the data were the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, Council for Community and Economic Research, Indeed, Center for Neighborhood Technology, ManpowerGroup, Chmura Economics & Analytics, Chegg and WalletHub’s own research.
Metrics like Job Opportunities, Employment Growth, Employment Outlook and Unemployment Rate received the most weight, according to WalletHub. All of the metrics were ranked into two main categories: “job market” and “Socioeconomic Environment.”
For a list of the worst cities for finding jobs in the coming year, see the list below:
The most job opportunities, according to the report, are in Orlando, Salt Lake City and Atlanta, in that order. On the low end, the least opportunity is in Detroit, Fresno and Stockton , California, with Detroit holding the least appeal.
In terms of employment growth, the highest ranking cities were two California cities: Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario. The lowest growth was in Irvine, California, and Cape Coral, Florida.
Austin, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota tied for first place in the category of lowest unemployment rate. The highest rate of unemployment was in Detroit, Fresno and Stockton, California.
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87b781672c2621aef1b00cafb5bd3676 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/01/09/guitar-giant-goes-custom-and-digital-to-please-the-worlds-players/ | Guitar Giant Goes Custom And Digital To Please The World's Players | Guitar Giant Goes Custom And Digital To Please The World's Players
Fender CEO Andy Mooney
When Fender Musical Instruments Corporation hired CEO Andy Mooney in the summer of 2015, he was given a mandate to stoke the company’s core business while launching new digital products.
The stakes are high, given the legacy of the brand. Even those who know little about guitars are familiar with Fender products, whether they realize it or not. Rock and roll God Jimi Hendrix was a committed user of Fender instruments, as have been artists like Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen, among countless others. Last year the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company generated nearly $500 million in revenue—50% of which came from instruments and amplifiers, another 20% from musical accessories. Annual growth clocks in at between 5% and 10%, Mooney claims.
The partly burnt 1965 Fender Stratocaster guitar which the late Jimi Hendrix set alight during a... [+] concert at the London Astoria in 1967, is displayed in London Thursday July 24, 2008. (AP Photo / Max Nash)
In taking on the task of revamping Fender’s offerings, Mooney, who was most recently CEO of surf and snowboard apparel company Quicksilver and previously chaired the Walt Disney Company after spending 20 years at Nike, is refocusing on the wants and needs of experienced musicians as well as students.
Most ambitious, perhaps, is Fender’s plan to launch a subscription-based guitar learning system in late spring which will include 500 hours of theory and guitar practice content for any device, priced at $19.99 per month.* Says Mooney: “When we looked at the overall market, what’s interesting is the lessons side of the business is roughly double the size of the sale of new instrument business. You couple that with the fact that 90% of guitarists abandon the instrument in the first few months, if not the first year at the latest. We felt there was a commercial opportunity to develop the brand in the digital learning space because clearly the trends in learning are heading towards digital, as are many other parts of life.”
Fender is hoping that an organized, branded guitar training regimen will appeal to new guitarists, hopefully more so than the troves of guitar-lesson content made available for free by a slew of online-focused guitarist on channels like YouTube. A free sample of lessons will be available with every guitar and amp sold when the program emerges. “Simply organizing the content in a cogent way with a high quality production, we think, will warrant some percentage of the student universe gravitating toward a subscription model,” says Mooney.
Taking aim at guitarists who already know how to play, Fender launched what it calls its Mod Shop this past June. The shop acts as a customization engine that allows consumers to choose the components that make up their instrument and then order the completed product online. This year the company plans to expand the number of instruments that can be customized and include some amplifier products in the shop as well.
Gallery: Big Money Vintage Guitars 20 images View gallery
Mooney, who estimates his own guitar collection numbers around 50 instruments – many of them Fenders – stepped into the CEO role left vacant by Larry Thomas, a company board member who took on the role following the 2010 retirement of Bill Mendello, a 30-year veteran of the Fender. Following Thomas’s exit in 2014, interim CEO Scott Gilbertson helmed the firm until a replacement could be found.
Looking back at his career, Mooney says Nike provides the closest comparison to his current company of any firm for which he’s worked in that the shoe and sportswear giant maintained an impressive roster of pro endorsers, as does Fender with renowned musicians. Nike, however, was able to parlay that sizzle into larger shares of its markets than Fender does. “My belief,” says Mooney, “is we’ve got tremendous runway for growth and over time we can grow the percentage of artists that are adopting our product and translate that into market share.”
*Correction: Fender has revised its pricing from $99 per year.
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ac45388c4decd0423027742f6675ae31 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/06/28/college-degrees-with-the-highest-and-lowest-starting-salaries-in-2017/ | College Degrees With the Highest (And Lowest) Starting Salaries In 2017 | College Degrees With the Highest (And Lowest) Starting Salaries In 2017
Ever wonder which college degree can get you the best salary the minute they hand you the diploma? The answer lies within the realms of engineering and technology.
Thanks to a report from Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute (CERI), students on their way to college can get a sense of which types of undergraduate degrees they should pursue if earning big money right out of the gate is most important.
We assembled the ten bachelor’s degrees with the highest average annual salaries and wrapped them up into a slideshow, which you can view below. For a look at the average starting salaries for Master’s Degrees, scroll down to the bottom of this article.
Gallery: The 10 College Degrees With the Highest Starting Salaries 11 images View gallery
In putting together its roster of high-paying degrees, CERI connected with companies and recruiters that look to find talent through college and university career services offices. According to the organization, Nearly 200 career service centers in the United States participated in the study and 4,350 employers provided information for the report, which includes data on full-time positions, internships, and co-op jobs.
A report from Michigan State University highlights the size of salaries available to college... [+] graduates in the U.S. (image credit: Shutterstock)
The top-paying bachelor’s degree, by the numbers, is electrical engineering. Though the starting annual salary average is $62,428, a job seeker coming out of school may see a variety of offers when scoping out the jobs market as the salary range for such a degree is between $25,000 and $130,000.
In second place, software design earns new graduates an average $61,466. The salary ranges one might see on the jobs market span from $25,000 to $134,000, depending on a variety of factors like experience and responsibilities involved.
In third place is chemical engineering – which claimed first place last year – which CERI discovered offers an average starting salary of $61,125. The salary range in the chemical engineering arena spans from $31,000 to $125,000.
On the Low End…
But what of the degrees that attract lower starting salaries? CERI has some information on those as well. The bottom section of the list of bachelor’s degrees and their average starting pay looks a little something like this:
Degree & Average Starting Salary
History - $38,361
English - $38,303
Psychology - $38,079
Special education - $38,002
Elementary education - $37,803
Anthropology/sociology - $37,672
Social work - $37,115
Pre-K & kindergarten education - $35,626
Master’s Degrees & MBAs
CERI’s research also touched on the salary prospects for those who go beyond their undergraduate studies and pursue higher degrees, like PhDs and MBAs.
Selected major Average Range Computer science $72,071 $15,000 – $145,000 Engineering $69,729 $20,000 – $200,000 MBA $62,700 $10,000 – $151,000 Physical & biological sciences $59,204 $10,000 – $200,000 Accounting $58,159 $10,000 – $144,000 LIR/HR $58,125 $10,000 – $127,000 Health sciences MS & MSW $53,283 $10,000 – $175,000 Social sciences MA & MS $48,697 $10,000 – $150,000
PhD and Professional Degrees
Starting Salaries — PhD & Professional Selected major Average Range Pharmacy $89,725 $20,000 – $146,000 Engineering & computer science $77,811 $20,000 – $168,000 Law $74,130 $20,000 – $200,000 Physical & biological sciences $73,422 $20,000 – $141,000 Business $67,578 $20,000 – $188,000 Social sciences & humanities $58,897 $16,000 – $123,000
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e9c8854fff41a837dbcc2687071e2989 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/06/29/the-best-san-francisco-area-companies-to-work-for-in-2017/ | The Best San Francisco Area Companies To Work For In 2017 | The Best San Francisco Area Companies To Work For In 2017
Apple rated highly on a list of the top employers in the San Francisco metropolitan region based on... [+] employee reviews posted to Indeed.com, a massive job search platform. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
San Francisco, the city by the bay, is a vibrant metropolitan region—beautiful and diverse. And, as the major urban hub of Silicon Valley, it attracts companies, investors, tech talent and dreamers from all over the world.
Recently Indeed.com, a massive online job search and networking platform with over 10 million company reviews on file, published a roster of the companies in the San Francisco metro region most beloved by their employees. The data, Indeed says, is based on two years worth of reviews posted by members who work for these firms—all of whom have received at least 25 reviews.
For a look at the top-10 best rated companies in the San Francisco area, check out our slideshow below.
Gallery: The 10 Best San Francisco Bay Area Companies To Work For In 2017 11 images View gallery
Topping the list is Salesforce, a mammoth cloud-computing firm that focuses on offering tools in the categories of sales, marketing and commerce. The firm, which is based in San Francisco proper, employs more than 10,000. According to the reviews posted to Indeed.com, employees say Salesforce is a fun place to work that offers a positive culture, diversity and has a strong philanthropic streak.
Apple appears in second place on Indeed’s roster of great bay area employers. Famous for its ubiquitous consumer electronics, the company is also known for its culture of perfection and its iconic co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Located in Cupertino, Apple is currently finishing a massive donut-shaped headquarters nearby. Among the reviews posted to Indeed.com, one employee described company policies as being “very understanding and accommodating to life events,” while at the same time challenging and fun.
Kaiser Permanente appears in third place on the best employers roster. The Oakland-based healthcare company, which was founded in 1945, employs thousands, and reviewers of the firm described it on Indeed.com as being “competitive and fast-paced.”
That said, it offers its personnel benefits such as tuition reimbursement and attractive vacation, sick time and personal day policies.
One of the more renowned employers in the San Francisco area, the Mountain View-based Google, also appears on Indeed’s roster, as one would expect—but in fifth place, right behind a candy company called See’s Candies. Founded in 1921, the firm makes its home in south San Francisco and, in addition to its tasty wares, has received publicity for its notable owner: Warren Buffett, who acquired the candy concern for $30 million in 1972.
Employees who rated the firm on Indeed.com spoke highly of See’s management, while also touting the feel-good day-to-day of indulging customers’ desires for sweets.
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c1d5a35dbabccb3bc5b206acac35501e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/08/29/the-hospitals-most-loved-by-their-employees/ | The Hospitals Most Loved By Their Employees | The Hospitals Most Loved By Their Employees
It’s a good time to be pursuing a career in healthcare. Advances in technology, increases in health insurance coverage in recent years, and the fact that people are living longer; all fuel an increasing need for workers in the healthcare space.
But when it comes to the institutions in the United States where those in healthcare work, which are most appreciated by their employees?
Indeed.com – a large job search platform a vast archive of company reviews – sought to answer that question by looking through its database to find which hospitals rated best among current and former employees. For a look at the top-10 hospitals on Indeed.com’s roster, check out our slideshow below.
Gallery: The Best Hospitals To Work For 11 images View gallery
“We have seen a significant shortage of healthcare professionals in the U.S. for years,” Indeed senior vice president, Paul D’Arcy, said along with the release of the data. “With rapid growth in demand for nurses and doctors, and a much slower growth in supply, many professionals with these highly technical skills are finding the job market to be in their favor.”
In its research, Indeed looked at all the hospitals that had received at least 50 reviews by current and former employees between July 2015 and June 2017. Staff then crunched the numbers to discover which had the highest average ratings in the category of overall employee experience. The result was a roster of 25 top hospitals.
Massachusetts General Hospital topped a list of hospitals in the United States that are most beloved... [+] by their employees. (Photo by Jodi Hilton/Getty Images)
Topping the list was Massachusetts General Hospital. Based in Boston, the institution is the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and a biomedical research facility. The third-oldest general hospital in the country, its specialties include AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer and human genetics.
According to Indeed, employees lauded Mass General’s benefits, diversity and opportunities for advancement. In addition to its marks in the employee experience category, Massachusetts General Hospital also ranks #1 in the individual rankings for best management and work/life balance.
Baptist Health South Florida holds the second place on the list. Headquartered in South Miami (Coral Gables, to be exact), the organization is the second largest employer in the state of Florida, and a non-profit organization that specializes in surgical, diagnostic and urgent care services. The hospitals management received praise from employees, and it came in second in the work/life balance category.
In third place, behind Baptist Health, we find Houston Methodist. Well known as a teaching hospital, it specializes in cardiovascular surgery, cancer, epilepsy treatment and organ transplantation. According to reviews published on Indeed.com, employees spoke positively about the hospital’s salaries, quarterly bonuses, benefits, and tuition reimbursement; as well as its work environment. Houston Methodist has the second highest rating for company culture, according to employee reviews.
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b058e9a9751322b9406ea1b522c0bc53 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/09/06/the-best-paying-jobs-and-industries-in-the-u-s/ | The Best-Paying Jobs And Industries In the U.S. | The Best-Paying Jobs And Industries In the U.S.
A recent analysis from LinkedIn highlights jobs and industries with great pay. (Shutterstock
When you look at studies that list the jobs that earn the most money, you often see the same professions jockeying for position in the rankings. Though many require different skill sets, they all tend to demand high levels of study, experience and inflexible qualifications.
That’s what’s shown in the latest wages report from LinkedIn, a massive professional networking and job search platform. According to its State of the Salary Report, which published August 30, the most lucrative jobs are those in business leadership and in the healthcare industry. LinkedIn says its report is based on salary data from over two million LinkedIn members as of April 2017.
For a look at the top 10 best-paying jobs, according to the report, check out our slideshow below, complete with salary and bonus payment data.
Gallery: 10 Great-Paying Jobs In The U.S. 11 images View gallery
At the top of the list is the role of orthopedic surgeon, which earns $450,000 in median annual compensation—that’s including the median $60,000 bonus that can come with the job.
Behind orthopedic experts are cardiologists, taking the number two position. Those making a career in the field earn a median $382,000 per year. The average median annual bonus is $50,000.
And in third place we find radiologists, which make a median $374,000, including $50,000 in annual bonuses, if they get them.
Overall, doctors account for eight of the top-20 highest-paying jobs, with most of those earning more than $300,000 annually. Among the top-10, doctors fill the top six positions.
Industry Compensation
LinkedIn also looked into the industries that earn the most in general. For a rundown of the top-10 highest paying industries, check out the list below, complete with median annual wages plus bonuses.
Software & IT Services ($104,700) Hardware & Networking ($101,100) Manufacturing ($85,600) Healthcare ($84,600) Finance ($82,800) Consumer Goods ($80,000) Construction ($78,500) Corporate Services ($75,000) Legal ($72,600) Media & Communications ($71,900)
Gender
According to LinkedIn’s analysis, high-paying industries tend to employ more men than women. In the software space, there are 4.7 men for every 1 female. In hardware and networking there are 2.3 men for every woman, and in manufacturing there are more than three times as many men than women.
The financial industry is more even with men and women almost equally represented, and in the healthcare space women are in the majority overall, with 0.5 men for every one woman.
Location, Location, Location
Obviously, positions and industry are not enough to get a clear picture of the compensation trends in the United States. Another important factor is geographical location. When LinkedIn parsed through its reams of data it discovered parts of the country where certain jobs pay better than they do elsewhere.
For instance, registered nurses in the San Francisco metropolitan region make more than $67,000 per year—that’s 81% higher than the national average. In that same region, a police officer’s $60,000 median wage is 72% higher than the national average. Though, to be fair, the cost of living in San Francisco tends to be higher than in many other places in the country, so employers need to pay more out of necessity.
Meanwhile, a program director in Washington D.C. makes $70,000, which is 86% higher than the national average salary for that role. In Seattle, the principal software engineer of an organization makes 48% more than the national average—an annual media income of $145,000.
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656c9a1a1809b112c505f98961044803 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/09/07/the-cities-where-your-money-stretches-the-furthest-and-where-it-hardly-stretches-at-all/ | The Cities Where Your Money Stretches The Furthest (And Where It Hardly Stretches At All) | The Cities Where Your Money Stretches The Furthest (And Where It Hardly Stretches At All)
A recent analysis of money and cost of living by Indeed.com sheds light on some cities where... [+] paychecks go further. (Shutterstock)
If being able to buy more for your money is important for you – and it is quite important to many people – then you’d do well to get yourself over to Birmingham, Alabama, or even Detroit, to get a better bang for your buck.
In those two cities, salaries tend to go further. Birmingham has the distinction of having the highest salaries in the country—adjusted for cost of living, anyway. This according to an analysis of U.S. cities conducted by Indeed.com, a massive job search and career information platform.
For a look at the top 10 cities where salaries stretch the furthest, check out our slideshow below.
Gallery: The 10 Cities Where A Dollar Stretches The Furthest 11 images View gallery
In Birmingham, the average adjusted salary is $86,196, and that buys quite a bit there—which is better than all other cities. In putting together its report, Indeed says it “calculated the average salary for all jobs with annual-salary information posted on Indeed.com between August 2016 and July 2017 in each of the 104 US metropolitan areas with at least 500,000 people, and then adjusted for each metro’s cost of living.”
Behind Birmingham, in second place, is Jackson, Mississippi, where the average adjusted salary is $84,995. In third place we find beautiful and scenic Fresno, California, with its $84,604 in average adjusted annual wages.
The Big Cities?
Are there larger, more well-known cities on the list? Well, yes: Cincinnati is in sixth place and Memphis is in seventh. But larger, more populace metropolis tend to have higher rents, higher taxes, higher cost products and services, and generally tend to be more expensive overall, making it tough to stretch a dollar in those places.
Indeed.com did include an analysis of the larger urban areas in the country, though. The top big city to stretch a dollar was Detroit, where average annual adjusted salary is $81,474. Atlanta followed, with $80,271 in adjusted pay; and behind that was Dallas ($77,627), then San Francisco ($76,943) and Chicago ($76,201).
Where You Can’t Buy A Thrill
But what of the cities where your money hardly stretches at all? The report covers those as well—these are the places where cost of living is high and stymies the power of salary, making it very difficult to make ends meet.
According to Indeed.com’s analysis, Honolulu takes the prize for making it tough on those trying to eke out a living. In that island paradise, the average annual salary is $74,553. But when you adjust for the high cost of living, the salary sinks to $59,882. That's a steep drop. At least the weather is nice.
In second place on the dreary list is Tucson, Arizona, where an average adjusted salary stands at $67,554. That is followed by the Miami area ($69,170), the New York City metropolitan region ($69,295), and Oxnard, California ($70,160).
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d8beb7b3597de904a4052055228d0467 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/10/10/the-top-10-universities-in-latin-america-in-2017/ | The Top 10 Universities In Latin America In 2017 | The Top 10 Universities In Latin America In 2017
An analysis by Times Higher Education, an education industry publication, spotlights the best... [+] schools in Latin America. (Shutterstock)
This month, U.K.-based education magazine Times Higher Education released its annual analysis of the best universities in Latin America. This year, the organization rated a roster of the top 81 schools in that region, based on evaluations of 13 performance indicators that fall into five categories: Citations (research influence), industry income (knowledge transfer), international outlook (staff, students and research), research (volume, income and reputation), and teaching (the learning environment).
Brazil's schools were most numerous on the list, taking 32 of 81 possible slots in the ranking (including the number one position). Still, 20 of those have dropped ranks since last year. Of 13 schools that placed, Mexico's only saw 8 in the top 50, while Chile placed 15 schools on the roster, up from 11 last year. The 81 schools in the ranking come from only eight nations. Several Latin American universities are not ranked due to the fact that they chose not to submit data.
National Autonomous University of Mexico 10. National Autonomous University of Mexico Citations: 59.7 Industry Income: 87.1 International Outlook: 73.4 Research: 85.1 Teaching: 76.6
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro 9. Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Citations: 62.0 Industry Income: 100.0 International Outlook: 70.9 Research: 80.3 Teaching: 72.6
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 8. Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Citations: 61.1 Industry Income: 55.9 International Outlook: 46.2 Research: 81.2 Teaching: 87.0
Federal University of São Paulo 7. Federal University of São Paulo Citations: 72.0 Industry Income: 40.3 International Outlook: 39.3 Research: 77.5 Teaching: 91.3
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education 6. Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education Citations: 85.8 Industry Income: 99.6 International Outlook: 89.6 Research: 77.5 Teaching: 71.7
University of the Andes 5. University of the Andes Citations: 92.9 Industry Income: 54.4 International Outlook: 78.0 Research: 79.4 Teaching: 68.4
4. University of Chile Citations: 92.5 Industry Income: 34.9 International Outlook: 78.8 Research: 87.0 Teaching: 72.2
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Pontifical Catholic University of Chile website 3. Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Citations: 95.0 Industry Income: 44.7 International Outlook: 89.5 Research: 93.4 Teaching: 73.6
University Of São Paulo, Brazil University Of São Paulo website 2. University of São Paulo Citations: 70.5 Industry Income: 50.2 International Outlook: 57.5 Research: 100.0 Teaching: 93.9
State University of Campinas, Brazil State University of Campinas website 1. State University of Campinas Citations: 73.7 Industry Income: 67.0 International Outlook: 54.4 Research: 98.3 Teaching: 93.6
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0e6e88f4aade8867fd9c7ce596d664e5 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/10/12/flex-time-jobs-the-10-best-career-fields-for-making-your-own-schedule/ | Flex-Time Jobs: The 10 Best Career Fields For Making Your Own Schedule | Flex-Time Jobs: The 10 Best Career Fields For Making Your Own Schedule
A recent report from FlexJobs.com, a job search platform that focuses on remote and flexible... [+] schedule work, sheds light on which fields and industries offer a lot of positions for professionals looking to make their own schedules or work from anywhere. (image credit: Shutterstock)
Many professionals yearn for jobs that let them telecommute, maintain a flexible schedule, work part-time, or freelance comfortably. But which career fields have great flex-time options? And which companies are offering them? A recent analysis by FlexJobs.com--a job search platform for telecommuting, part-time and flex-time positions--highlights career fields that had the most number of flexible job postings between January 1, 2017, and September 30, 2017. Here are the results, from top to bottom...
Shutterstock 1. Medical & Health Common Job Titles: Clinical trial manager, medical coder/remote coder, clinical research associate, and coding auditor/reviewer. Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group, and PAREXEL
Medical & Health cont'd Jobs in the medical and health career field come in a variety of forms, from trained medical professionals and administrators, to case managers and social workers. In addition to providing healthcare services, health and medical jobs are related to medical research, health information services, health administration, public health, ethics, regulatory bodies, and lifestyle management.
Shutterstock 2. Education & Training Common Job Titles: Adjunct faculty/instructor, online teacher, and online tutor Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: Connections Education, Kaplan, and Grand Canyon University
Education & Training cont'd Many organizations in this field offer the ability to work virtually thanks to the growing field of online education and training. Professionals will find educator and support roles related to K-12 teaching, college and university education, professional development, skill building, early childhood education, and organizational training.
Shutterstock 3. Computer & IT Common Job Titles: Systems administrator, business systems analyst, network security engineer, and technical support specialist Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: VMWare, Guidewire, and Leidos
Computer & IT cont'd from computer repair to website maintenance to Internet security positions, professionals have many options in this field. Computer and IT jobs often involve providing in-house support for internal computer systems, so training and knowledge in this particular area is important.Industries like information security, digital marketing, cloud solutions, business consulting, education, healthcare, and media hire regularly for flexible computer and IT jobs.
Shutterstock 4. Administrative Common Job Titles: Administrative assistant, office manager, and office coordinator Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: Kelly Services, LiveOps, and Ajilon
Shutterstock 5. Sales Common Job Titles: Territory sales manager, sales representative, and account executive Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: SAP, Salesforce, and AT&T
Shutterstock 6. Customer Service Common Job Titles: Customer service representative, client manager, customer care representative, and customer support agent Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: Williams-Sonoma, Sutherland, and Doist
Shutterstock 7. Accounting & Finance Common Job Titles: Financial analyst, accountant, bookkeeper, and payroll specialist Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accounting Principals, and WinterWyman
Shutterstock 8. Project Management Common Job Titles: Project manager, project coordinator, and product manager Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: Pearson, TEKsystems, and Technology Consulting
Shutterstock 9. Account Management Common Job Titles: Account manager and account executive Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: ON24, Blackline, and Chef
Shutterstock 10. Bilingual Common Job Titles: Interpreter and translator Companies Hiring Flexible Jobs In The Field: LanguageLine Solutions, Nielsen, and Colt
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4abd0f70446dd4eb8f8cf0d7a40b2536 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2017/11/01/the-charities-that-raised-the-most-money-last-year/ | The Charities That Raised The Most Money Last Year | The Charities That Raised The Most Money Last Year
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Last year was a good one for the world of charity in the United States. Top nonprofit organizations raised more than $108 billion from private sources.
This, according to an annual report from The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a Washington, D.C.-based magazine that covers nonprofits and individuals and their charitable activities. Dubbed the Philanthropy 400, the report tracks how much money nonprofit organizations raised the previous year. The 400 organizations highlighted in the ranking this year account for more than 25 percent of all money given to U.S.-based charities in 2016.
For a look at the Philanthropy 400’s top 10 money-raisers, check out our slideshow below. For a look at the full roster of the 400 top nonprofits, check out The Chronicle’s website here.
Gallery: The Charities That Raised The Most Money In 2016 11 images View gallery
In the top spot on this year’s list we find Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, a donor-advised fund which sprang from Fidelity Investments, a financial services company based in Boston. Last year the organization raised $4,076,302,537 in private support. This is the second consecutive year Fidelity has topped the Philanthropy 400. From 2012 and 2015 it held tight to second place.
Current numbers portend a great showing on next year’s list for Fidelity Charitable. The Chronicle’s Heather Joslyn and Peter Olsen-Phillips write that as of the ending of its fiscal year in June, the organization had reported nearly $6.9 billion in raised funds.
Read More: “How The Giving Habits Of The Super Rich Are Changing”
United Way Worldwide—a social services organization based in Alexandria, Virginia—holds the second position on the ranking, as it did last year. According to The Chronicle, United Way raised $3,539,672,346 in 2016 from private sources. The philanthropic powerhouse has a history of excellence on the Philanthropy 400 ranking—it has topped the roster 24 times since 1991.
Third place is held this year by a charitable entity set up by Goldman Sachs, an investment banking and financial services company. Its Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund is a donor-advised fund which raised $3,190,157,926 in private support in 2016. To date, this is the highest the organization has appeared on the Philanthropy 400. Its best prior showing was in 2015 when it ranked twelfth.
One trend The Chronicle notes is the popularity of donor-advised funds (DAFs), which have seen a 106% increase in contributions in the past five years. DAFs allows donors to have control over the ways in which their money is used while also affording them anonymity. They also do not carry the high overhead and administrative costs of setting up a private foundation.
Joslyn and Olsen-Phillips report that the strength of the stock market is a factor in the increase in DAF money, but so are changes in the behavior of well-heeled givers: “More wealthy people are shuttering family foundations and pouring the assets into donor-advised funds. Or they are bypassing the expense and hassle of foundations altogether.”
The sums of money that dictate the Philanthropy 400 ranking are based, The Chronicle says, on filings with the Internal Revenue Service and, in the case of college fundraising, the Council for Aid to Education. Private foundations, nonprofits controlled by government agencies, organizations based abroad, and any overseas affiliates of domestic groups were not included in the report.
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bb08674b28049e1f32cb6ebe1ea48a5d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2018/01/23/the-worlds-most-sustainable-companies-2018/?sh=106ac0e632b0 | The World's Most Sustainable Companies, 2018 | The World's Most Sustainable Companies, 2018
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Just in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, an annual assessment of the world’s most sustainable companies emerges, highlighting large firms from around the world whose sustainability in various categories puts them in a league of their own.
The report, in its fourteenth year, is compiled by Corporate Knights, a Canada-based financial information company and magazine whose focus is how business and societal and ecological benefits can go hand in hand.
In compiling its report, Corporate Knights looked to publicly-disclosed data—financial filings, sustainability reports, etc.—from some 6,000 financially healthy companies across the globe, in all industries, with a minimum annual revenue of $1 billion. Key factors Corporate Knight included in its analysis included energy use, carbon, waste and clean air production. Also taken into account were innovation expenditures, taxes paid, the diversity of leadership, leadership compensation, suppliers the companies work with, pension fund health, safety ratings, employee turnover and the link between sustainability targets and senior executive pay.
Companies that appeared on the previous year’s ranking were automatically included in the analysis and all firms that made the top 900 were contacted for data verification before the results were boiled down to a final 100.
For a look at the top 25 companies on Corporate Knights’ sustainability list, scroll to the end of this article.
Topping the list this year was Dassault Systemes, a French firm that designs engineering software that assists organizations in waste reduction. According to Corporate Knights, the company bested all others in the sustainability ranking by having strong female representation on its board, having a smallish gap between the pay of its CEO and its average workers, and paying more than 26% of its earnings in taxes over the past five years.
Behind Dassault is Neste, a Finnish company that deals in renewable diesel and other petroleum products. Within the next five years, according to Corporate Knights, more than half of its revenue will come from renewable fuel and bio-material. In third place we find Valeo, a company based in France that manufactures automotive parts. It earned its place in the top three by pushing out products that help auto makers reduce emissions.
Overall, the U.S.-based companies held 18 spots on the ranking. French firms held fifteen places, U.K.-based firms added ten and Germany six.
Among the results of its analysis, Corporate Knights discovered that companies on its list of 100 most sustainable had three times as many female top executives than the average multinational firms generating over $1 billion. They also paid 27% more in taxes.
The Top 25 Most Sustainable Companies, with Sustainability Scores
1. Dassault Systemes France Software 86.1% 2. Neste Finland Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels 85.2% 3. Valeo France Auto Components 83.6% 4. Ucb Belgium Pharmaceuticals 79.5% 5. Outotec Finland Construction & Engineering 78.3% 6. Amundi France Capital Markets 77.8% 7. Cisco Systems U.S. Communications Equipment 77.0% 8. Autodesk U.S. Software 76.9% 9. Siemens Germany Industrial Conglomerates 76.7% 10. Samsung SDI S. Korea Electronics, Instruments & Components 75.8% 11. Aareal Bank Germany Thrifts & Mortgage Finance 75.4% 12. Enbridge Canada Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels 74.9% 13. Merck U.S. Pharmaceuticals 74.3% 14. Natura Cosmeticos Brazil Personal Products 74.1% 15. Pearson UK Media 73.9% 16. Amadeus IT Group Spain IT Services 73.2% 17. Bayerische Motoren Werke Germany Automobiles 73.2% 18. Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais CEMIG Brazil Electric Utilities 73.0% 19. Koninklijke Philips Netherlands Industrial Conglomerates 72.5% 20. Allergan U.S. Pharmaceuticals 72.2% 21. Honda Motor Co Japan Automobiles 71.9% 22. Sanofi SA France Pharmaceuticals 71.9% 23. McCormick U.S. Food Products 71.5% 24. Commonwealth Bank of Australia Australia Banks 71.5% 25. Vivendi France Media 71.1%
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a6951836ec8bf80dc9b5d5e3cc2948e8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2018/02/06/canadas-best-employers-2018/ | Canada's Best Employers 2018 | Canada's Best Employers 2018
The 300 best employers in Canada, based on a survey report compiled by Forbes and Statista FORBES
For the past two years, Google had clinched berths in the top ten of FORBES’ annual ranking of Canada’s Best Employers. This year the tech giant jumped to the number one position, thanks to raves from its employees in the Great White North.
For the full list of 300, click here.
The ranking, which was compiled in collaboration with online research firm Statista, highlights 300 companies operating in Canada that have won the endorsement of their workers. Statista surveyed 8,000 Canadians working for large firms and institutions—those with 500 or more employees—in 25 industry sectors, asking them whether they would recommend their employers on a scale of 0 through 10, with 10 being the most positive. Respondents were surveyed through online access panels—not through their employers—and their gender, age, region, education level and ethnicity was representative of Canadian employees in general.
For a look at the top 12 companies on FORBES’ list of Canada’s Best Employers, see the slideshow below. To see the entire list of the 300 best employers, scroll to the end of this article.
Gallery: Canada's 12 Best Employers In 2018 13 images View gallery
By the numbers, the average Google employee surveyed rated the company 9.39 out of 10, in terms of whether they would recommend Google as an employer. Last year the company placed fourth overall, with a score of 9.10, and in 2016 Google held the ninth position. Google’s Canadian headquarters are in Toronto, and the company employs 699 people in the country.
Right behind Google, with an average employee rating of 9.30, is Kruger Products, a manufacturer of paper goods such as towels and toilet paper, based in Mississauga, Ontario. The company—which last year ranked at number 31—was founded in Montreal in 1904. Today the firm employs 2,166 workers.
In third place, with an average score of 9.23 out of ten, is Hydro-Québec—last year’s number 23—a public utilities organization based in Montreal, which generates and distributes electricity and employs 19,552 people.
Among the top ten, educational institutions had a strong showing, taking three spots: Queens University, which took the top position in 2017, this year came in sixth, while Concordia University (last year’s number 91) came in seventh. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board came in tenth this year, jumping up from number 82 in 2017.
Among the companies new to the ranking this year is Vitalité Health Network, a health-care provider that operates in the eastern province of New Brunswick and employs 7,400 people. Its employees scored the organization at 9.17 out of ten, ranking fifth overall.
Canada’s Best Employers—The Full 300
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b5800e72e705a0c2c1ac1b1ddc07d7d0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2019/04/02/the-franchise-news-briefs-shaquille-oneal-joins-with-papa-johns/ | The Franchise News Briefs: Shaquille O’Neal Joins With Papa Johns | The Franchise News Briefs: Shaquille O’Neal Joins With Papa Johns
Shaquille O’Neal Teams Up With Papa Johns
NBA Hall of Famer and restaurateur Shaquille O'Neal will be joining Papa John's as a member of the ... [+] company's Board of Directors and as an investor in nine Papa John's restaurants in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Papa John's International, Inc. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former professional basketball superstar Shaquille O’Neal will be joining the board of directors of Kentucky-based pizza company, Papa Johns.
The former NBA center has agreed to invest more than $800,000 in nine Papa John’s restaurants in the Atlanta area, according to a report from Louisville Business First. O’Neal will be a 30% owner in those units (the rest will be owned by the home office) and be paid $8.25 million in cash and stock for promoting the brand.
O’Neal is one of a handful of new board members Papa John’s has taken on this year.
In Other Papa Johns News, Major League Baseball Reinstates Its Promotion
Papa John's MLB promotion is back on. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Last year in June, as pizza company Papa John’s founder, John Schnatter, was embroiled in controversy following his use of a racial epithet on a conference call, Major League Baseball canceled a game promotion that cut 40% off the cost of pizza purchased at games any time a player hit a grand slam. That promotion, according to a report from Nation’s Restaurant News, is back on, but now the discount is 30%.
MORE FOR YOUReducing Overhead: Using Shared Services Arrangements During And After COVID-19
In the wake of the controversy last year, Schnatter stepped down as CEO. The company has since experienced a sales downturn and has taken steps to resuscitate its image.
U.S. Department of Labor Proposes New Rules
the kitchen of fast food restaurant Getty
This week saw a proposal on how to ascertain whether a company, like a franchisor, is actually employing workers as a joint employer.
Back in 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that a company—like a franchisor—that had indirect control over another company’s employees—say, a franchisee—made both companies joint employers of those employees. That potentially opened up franchisors to liability and labor bargaining issues involving their franchisees’ workforces.
According to a report from Reuters, this latest proposed change to existing regulations, which came from the U.S. Department of Labor, includes a test to determine whether an organization is an employer by exploring whether the company in question has the power to hire or fire, supervise or control, determine rate or method of pay, or maintain work records of an employee.
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462c12d48abdcf9fb26a1a35a04b5fed | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karstenstrauss/2019/07/02/subways-lack-of-transparency-is-out-of-step-with-the-franchise-industry/ | Subway’s Lack Of Transparency Is Out Of Step With The Franchise Industry | Subway’s Lack Of Transparency Is Out Of Step With The Franchise Industry
Subway's refusal to disclose financial data to prospective franchisees goes against industry trends ... [+] and won't help the chain grow. Michael Nagle/© 2015 Bloomberg Finance LP
**UPDATE**
This past weekend, sandwich lovers and franchise industry folks alike were struck by a report from the New York Times that described how the structure of sandwich franchise Subway allows franchisees with authority to target others for closure or takeover. It’s a fascinating read about a dangerous culture of conflict of interest that helped a restaurant chain become the largest franchise in the world.
Aside from the suggested flaws in its management system, there is another area of Subway’s protocol that is also a potential stumbling block, namely its opacity when talking about its financials.
According to the Times’ report, the company’s franchise disclosure document, or FDD—a document every franchise must produce, containing company information and a franchise contract—is more than 600 pages long and gives Subway license to change its rules whenever it sees fit. When I inspected the company's most recent FDD, I found that it offers virtually no data on how much money a person might be able to make should they buy a Subway franchise. Financial data will only be provided for a specific location to a prospective buyer contemplating buying that location.* It also notes that Subway does not authorize employees or representatives to talk about how much money can or can’t be made by owning a Subway restaurant, orally or in writing.
**Subway spokesperson Kevin Kane told Forbes that prospective franchisees do have an avenue to learn about the financial returns of Subway restaurants by "reaching out to existing owners to learn about their experience operating a Subway restaurant. Existing owners may elect to share financial information for their restaurant."
READ MORE: Meet The New Burger Kings—And The Rest Of America’s Best (And Worst) Franchises To Buy In 2019
MORE FOR YOUThinking About A Franchise In 2021? Three Hidden Gems In The Latest Franchise Satisfaction Report
Subway is a private firm and not legally under any obligation to go to great lengths to pull the curtain back on its financials. But in its secrecy it has fallen out of step with other franchises in the industry that have increased the amount of data they provide prospective franchisees. The result is that potential franchisees come to trust these more transparent brands, and that makes them more likely to buy in.
Studies Show Subway Is On The Wrong Side Of Trends
Subway cofounder and billionaire, the late Fred DeLuca, created an aggressive expansion-focused ... [+] management system whose merits have been called into question recently. ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images
A study of 1,905 franchise systems by franchise industry intel firm Franchise Grade discovered that between the years 2010 and 2016 the 870 systems that did not disclose financial performance information in their FDDs saw their number of locations reduce by 0.2%. The 652 franchise systems that did provide financial details experienced an increase of more than 13%. There were also 383 franchisors that provided some metric of expense data—like gross margins or earnings—and those systems grew their location counts by 18.4% during those six years.
The correlation between financial disclosures and growth has not gone unnoticed by franchisors, and brands have become more transparent to appear more trustworthy to investors. According to a 2017 report from industry market research firm FRANdata, looking at 3,000 different brands, the number of franchisors that included detailed financial info in their FDDs grew by 52% between 2014 and 2016. The report also found that a vast majority of franchisees (92%) say that having this data makes them feel more informed and better able to decide whether to invest in a brand.
When Forbes compiled its list of Best & Worst Franchises To Buy, 2019, we discovered that the top brands all provided detailed financial information that would allow franchisees a picture of how much money they might make if they buy in.
Easier On The Franchisee
When a franchise brand discloses more financial information, franchisees have an easier time ... [+] borrowing money to open locations. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Then there is the impact transparency has on the ability of a franchisee to borrow money to invest in starting up a franchise location. FRANdata’s report found that 97% of lenders are more likely to provide capital for franchisees to invest in a franchise if that brand discloses financial performance information. The reason is that transparency and positive numbers comprise about 20% of a lender’s assessment of whether a brand is a risky investment. Low-risk franchises allow franchisees to secure fixed-rate financing and lower equity payments.
If Subway’s financial disclosures are considered insufficient by prospective franchisees, it’s very possible that it is shooting itself in the toe in terms of system growth. That’s not a small matter for a brand that’s shrunk by more than 2,300 locations over the past three years in the U.S. alone.
Franchisees want to invest in systems they feel they can trust, and transparency is the best path to building that trust between brand and potential investor. Subway may have to change in order to build that kind of trust, especially in the wake of this weekend’s revelations.
*sentence added 1:58 p.m. 7/2/2019
**sentence added 10:01 p.m. 7/2/2019
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77b2d74e19d3d2c94924102e74f026b2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2009/07/25/facebook-responds-to-advertising-user-photos-controversy/ | Facebook responds to advertising-user-photos controversy | Facebook responds to advertising-user-photos controversy
Facebook addresses yet another user outrage via its blog
Facebook users were outraged this month to discover that the social network is allegedly letting advertisers use their photos in ads targeted at their friends. A message with instructions on how to opt out went viral this week.
I wrote before that I don't really mind Facebook monetizing through using my image in site ads -- they offer me a great free service after all -- but now the company is responding via Facebook blog to say that its policies on this issue have been misrepresented:
We are as concerned as many of you are about any potential threat to your experience on Facebook and the protection of your privacy. That's why we prohibit ads on Facebook Platform that cause a bad user experience, are misleading, or otherwise violate our policies.... We've run advertisements from our own advertising system for more than a year that let your friends know if you have a direct connection with a product or service, in the same way that your friends learn through your News Feed if you're connected with another friend or an organization's Facebook Page. For example, if one of your friends becomes a fan of a Page, you may see an ad, like the one below, with your friend's profile photo that indicates the action that friend has taken. These social ads always require that you and your friends have taken an express action to indicate your connections with the product or service and that no data be shared with the third party. via Facebook | Debunking Rumors about Advertising and Photos via Inside Facebook.
The blog clarifies that you must be a fan of something in order to become a "spokesperson" for it on a friend's page. Apparently, the case of a husband seeing his wife's photo in a "hot singles" ad was an advertiser abusing the system. The advertiser was later banned.
Of course, this is coupled with a recent push by Facebook to get companies to create fan pages. From the Facebook blog earlier this month:
Facebook Pages make it easy to stay up-to-date with your favorite public figures and organizations. For example, after connecting with Lance Armstrong, I'll receive updates directly from him on my Facebook homepage about his life on the Tour de France, photos of his rides and much more. But when I'm not on Facebook it can be a challenge to keep up, which is why beginning today, we're making it even easier to get direct updates from the organizations and celebrities you care about most... Now, when I visit the websites of Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz or Roger Federer, I not only see their exclusive content but also the personal updates they're posting directly on Facebook including status updates, photos, videos and much more. You'll be able to access Fan Boxes — not just from your favorite celebrities and musicians but also from media outlets and news organizations like ABCNews, NPR and Newsweek, in addition to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and (RED) and your favorite products such as Coca-Cola, Tide, Herbal Essences and Blackberry. We hope this will make it even easier to stay up-to-date with all the people and things that you are interested in. via Facebook | Get Updates on Your Favorite Celebs and Organizations Across the Web.
Inside Facebook reports that Starbucks is leading the Fan Pages pack, with over 3 million fans. I just joined their ranks, so if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, you might see my face appear in an ad for them soon. That's just fine with me. I'm also a Starbucks shareholder.
By the way, next time you're on Facebook, feel free to become a fan of True/Slant.
In reading over this post, I'm noticing a bit of a PR tone for which I apologize. To counteract the sensation of product endorsement, feel free to check out my Verizon hate post.
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ac46a818548f3688030d3d9badeff59c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2009/08/11/solitary-confinement-u-s-prisons/ | Too much privacy: Solitary confinement in U.S. prisons | Too much privacy: Solitary confinement in U.S. prisons
Solitary confinement
Here at The Not-So Private Parts, I write about -- and frequently endorse -- the erosion of privacy. I usually cite two main reasons for shucking privacy: (1) our existence online has made notions of privacy futile and (2) privacy allows us to do bad things. While reading an old New Yorker, I have found a good third reason: too much privacy can drive us insane.
In the privacy of my bathroom (where I "archive" old New Yorkers), I came across an article I had missed in the March 30, 2009 issue: Hellhole, by Atul Gawande, a surgeon who regularly pens brilliant articles about medical mysteries for the magazine. This piece discusses the practice of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and how it destroys the minds of isolated prisoners.
As I read it, the walls of my tiny bathroom felt like they were slowly but surely closing in on me.
Human beings are social creatures, writes Gawande. To be "normal human beings," we need interaction with others. The most commonly cited study to back this up doesn't actually deal with humans, it involves baby rhesus monkeys.
In the 1950s, University of Wisconsin at Madison professor Harry Harlow was raising the monkeys in his lab. He gave them "plenty of food, warm blankets, some toys," but kept them "in isolation from other infant [monkeys] to prevent the spread of infection." As adults, these monkeys were seriously screwed up. Though disease-free, they were "profoundly disturbed, given to staring blankly and rocking in place for long periods, circling their cages repetitively, and mutilating themselves." While that's fine behavior for Goth high schoolers, Harlow didn't like to see his monkeys acting that way.
[O]ne of his researchers noticed how tightly the monkeys clung to their soft blankets. Harlow wondered whether what the monkeys were missing in their Isolettes was a mother. So, in an odd experiment, he gave them an artificial one. In the studies, one artificial mother was a doll made of terry cloth; the other was made of wire. He placed a warming device inside the dolls to make them seem more comforting. The babies, Harlow discovered, largely ignored the wire mother. But they became deeply attached to the cloth mother. They caressed it. They slept curled up on it. They ran to it when frightened. They refused replacements: they wanted only “their” mother. If sharp spikes were made to randomly thrust out of the mother’s body when the rhesus babies held it, they waited patiently for the spikes to recede and returned to clutching it. No matter how tightly they clung to the surrogate mothers, however, the monkeys remained psychologically abnormal. via Is long-term solitary confinement torture? : The New Yorker.
Yeah, not very nice to the monkeys. But it led to an important discovery: companionship prevents psychological abnormalities. Many researchers made comparisons to neglected and orphaned human children, who also developed psychological damage.
So that's how Gawande introduces the concept of isolation. Then he delves into our own experimentations with denying humans companionship: solitary confinement.
A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam, many of whom were treated even worse than McCain, reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered. And what happened to them was physical. EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement. In 1992, fifty-seven prisoners of war, released after an average of six months in detention camps in the former Yugoslavia, were examined using EEG-like tests. The recordings revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were found in prisoners who had endured either head trauma sufficient to render them unconscious or, yes, solitary confinement. Without sustained social interaction, the human brain may become as impaired as one that has incurred a traumatic injury. via Is long-term solitary confinement torture? : The New Yorker.
Gawande then asks a logical question: "If prolonged isolation is—as research and experience have confirmed for decades—so objectively horrifying, so intrinsically cruel, how did we end up with a prison system that may subject more of our own citizens to it than any other country in history has?"
He then tells the tales of several prisoners who have been subjected to solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and how crazy it makes them:
After a few months without regular social contact, however, his experience proved no different from that of the P.O.W.s or hostages, or the majority of isolated prisoners whom researchers have studied: [Bobby Dellelo] started to lose his mind. He talked to himself. He paced back and forth compulsively, shuffling along the same six-foot path for hours on end. Soon, he was having panic attacks, screaming for help. He hallucinated that the colors on the walls were changing. He became enraged by routine noises—the sound of doors opening as the guards made their hourly checks, the sounds of inmates in nearby cells. After a year or so, he was hearing voices on the television talking directly to him. He put the television under his bed, and rarely took it out again. One of the paradoxes of solitary confinement is that, as starved as people become for companionship, the experience typically leaves them unfit for social interaction. Once, Dellelo was allowed to have an in-person meeting with his lawyer, and he simply couldn’t handle it. After so many months in which his primary human contact had been an occasional phone call or brief conversations with an inmate down the tier, shouted through steel doors at the top of their lungs, he found himself unable to carry on a face-to-face conversation. He had trouble following both words and hand gestures and couldn’t generate them himself. When he realized this, he succumbed to a full-blown panic attack. via Is long-term solitary confinement torture? : The New Yorker.
It sounds like even a BlackBerry and access to Twitter wouldn't have helped Bobby Dellelo keep his sanity. But it sure does help me keep mine.
The article is fascinating and I advise reading it in full, either in my bathroom or online at NewYorker.com. And if you're interested generally in problems with U.S. prisons, check out The Prison Dilemma, a page written by fellow True/Slanter Matt Stroud.
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5e92c1944e702f922745bf2cf4e1c291 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2009/08/21/liskula-cohen-rosemary-port-skanks-in-nyc/ | What are the rights of the 'Skanks in NYC' blogger? | What are the rights of the 'Skanks in NYC' blogger?
Rosemary Port and Liskula Cohen (Image from Gothamist)
Update: 'Skanks in NYC' blogger plans to sue Google for $15 million and her lawyer compares her to America's Founding Fathers. See new post. Newer update: Privacy expert says those plans will probably not work out.
This privacy story has been making the rounds in New York this week. Someone anonymously created a blog called "Skanks in NYC" and used it primarily to bash model Liskula Cohen. The blogger called Cohen a skank, a ho, and an old hag, among other nasty things, and posted photos of her, taken from various websites.
Cohen was not pleased and wanted to pursue a defamation lawsuit. That's hard though, when you don't know the identity of the person defaming you. Her lawyer asked the judge to force Google to reveal the identity of the blogger, whose blog was hosted by Google-owned Blogger.
The anonymous blogger's lawyer resisted:
The blogger's lawyer claimed that the views expressed were "hyperbole" and that blogs "have evolved as the modern-day soapbox for personal opinions." The lawyer also offered the view that blogs have "mere venting purposes, affording the less outspoken a protected forum for voicing gripes, leveling invective, and ranting about anything at all." via Judge: 'Skanks in NYC' blogger may be unmasked | Technically Incorrect - CNET News.
The blogger's lawyer did not manage to convince the judge with that argument. On Monday, the judge ordered Google to turn the blogger in, or at least reveal her e-mail and IP address. Cohen was able to use that to figure out who the woman was. It turns out it's someone Cohen knows socially. Now, thanks to court papers filed yesterday, we all know who she is:
Yesterday, after Cohen filed a $3 million defamation lawsuit against her nemesis, court papers at last revealed the blogger's identity: one Rosemary Port, an unemployed nightclub hostess, "promoter," and telemarketer. via Skank Blogger Fully Revealed! - Gothamist.
According to the New York Post, it's a classic girlfight. Port badmouthed Cohen online because Cohen had said nasty things about her to Port's boyfriend. Gothamist hunted down Port's photo on Facebook. It shows her lying naked in bed. It's... well... it's a bit skanky.
Privacy groups are concerned by the precedent set by the judge in forcing Google to reveal Port's identity:
[U]sing the court system to successfully out the person establishes a troubling legal precedent, online privacy groups argue... Such cases have popped up enough to earn their own moniker, "CyberSLAPP." Cyberslapp.org, a Web-site developed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others, says these suits are: "... threatening to overturn the promise of anonymous online speech and chill the freedom of expression that is central to the online world. CyberSLAPP cases typically involve a person who has posted anonymous criticisms of a corporation or public figure on the Internet. The target of the criticism then files a frivolous lawsuit just so they can issue a subpoena to the Web site or Internet Service Provider (ISP) involved, discover the identity of their anonymous critic, and intimidate or silence them." via The Technology Chronicles : "Skank case" precedent worries privacy groups.
The San Francisco Chronicle has more experts weigh in on the case, who all agree that this is "a tough intersection of free speech and defamation."
Interestingly, the model, Cohen, decided last night to drop her $3 million defamation suit against Port, which gives some credence to the claim that this may have been a 'frivolous lawsuit just" to "issue a subpoena to the Web site or Internet Service Provider (ISP) involved, discover the identity of [an] anonymous critic, and intimidate" them.
I think the lesson is: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it on the Internet unless you're okay with the fact that you might one day get outed.
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0731aaa125d7ac5299b3d98a7dabb8e0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/03/04/business-card-im-on-facebook/ | Business card: 'I'm on Facebook' | Business card: 'I'm on Facebook'
Business card for the socially-networked generation
Nowadays, if you're not on Facebook, it's possible you don't actually exist. There was a time when we had to exchange phone numbers or email addresses to keep in touch with a new acquaintance. Now, we usually just head to Facebook and friend them.
Given this new social etiquette, a New Yorker has decided to make it easier for the people she meets by handing out the business card above. Lara, 29, doesn't want just anyone friending her so she asked me to leave out her last name.
Lara is just using the cards socially. But given how often our generation skips from job to job -- see my colleague's life in business cards, at right -- this wouldn't be such a a bad idea for work purposes (depending on how well manicured your Facebook profile is).
Unfortunately, if you have a name like "John Smith," your card is going to be far less effective.
I've never come across an "I'm on Facebook" business card before, so I interviewed Lara -- by Facebook message, of course -- about how she came up with the idea to do it:
KASH: What inspired the cards?
LARA: I came up with the idea while I was G-chatting with a friend of mine before a party. He mentioned that there would be lots of guys at the party so I jokingly asked if I should bring cards with my name and stats. Then that joke quickly evolved into asking my friend to make a card with my full name and "I'm on Facebook." Just about everyone is on that site in some capacity anyway - and people tend to look each other up on there whether they are invited to or not. For me, contact via Facebook is probably the laziest and least desirable way to have a new person get in touch, so it was really done as more of a joke than anything.
KASH: I know you've only had them for a month, but who have you given them out to so far?
LARA: Well my friend only printed 30 for me, so I need to use them sparingly, but I have given a couple out to friends of friends. Usually when people hear about them they want one, but when they hear I only have 30 they back off.
KASH: When I looked you up on Facebook, I was surprised to find that your privacy settings are pretty high...
LARA: I keep my privacy settings high because I don't think it's always the best thing to have all of your information and interests and status updates out there for the entire world to see. Particularly now when people from all aspects of one's life are adding each other as friends. Despite what it might seem like based on the way that "business" card looks, it's not intended as a device to collect friends or get Facebook messages. It's a goofy gimmicky idea that I thought people would get a kick out of.
KASH: How many friends do you currently have on Facebook?
LARA: 280
KASH: What's happened with the people you've given cards to?
LARA: So far no messages or friend requests from the two cards I gave out.
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6ad785f56fd467c9938afca87a2d0577 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/09/13/a-lesson-in-facebook-privacy-settings-from-ceo-mark-zuckerberg/ | A Lesson in Facebook Privacy Settings from CEO Mark Zuckerberg | A Lesson in Facebook Privacy Settings from CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg
The man who created the Facebook empire in order to try to make the world a more open place (according to his Facebook page) is a notoriously private person when it comes to the media. But Mark Zuckerberg recently opened up to Jose Antonio Vargas, who profiled the CEO for The New Yorker.
The profile was sparked by the soon-to-be-released "Social Network" -- trailers suggest that the film about the founding of Facebook at Harvard will not portray Zuckerberg in the most flattering light. Zuckerberg tells Vargas that he doesn't plan to see the movie. And Facebook's guidelines won't allow Sony to advertise the movie on the site. Though, thanks to Facebook's Community Pages, the movie is getting organic advertising as people -- 20,889 of them as of this writing -- add the film to their "favorite movies" and it then pops into user's news feeds. It popped into mine when a friend (who works for Facebook) "liked" the movie.
Zuckerberg was very candid with Vargas, inviting him into his house, introducing him to his girlfriend, and even friending him on Facebook. Vargas got special access to the man and his digital life. That access provides some insight into Mark Zuckerberg's privacy settings on the network. So what can Zuck's Facebook friends see that the rest of us can't?
Any story about Facebook has to touch on privacy of course. Vargas brings it up near the end of the profile:
Privacy, [Zuckerberg] told me, is the “third-rail issue” online. “A lot of people who are worried about privacy and those kinds of issues will take any minor misstep that we make and turn it into as big a deal as possible,” he said.
Yep.
“We realize that people will probably criticize us for this for a long time, but we just believe that this is the right thing to do,” [Zuckerberg continued]. Zuckerberg’s critics argue that his interpretation and understanding of transparency and openness are simplistic, if not downright naïve. “If you are twenty-six years old, you’ve been a golden child, you’ve been wealthy all your life, you’ve been privileged all your life, you’ve been successful your whole life, of course you don’t think anybody would ever have anything to hide,” Anil Dash, a blogging pioneer who was the first employee of Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type, said via Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg opens up : The New Yorker.
But Zuckerberg does exercise privacy control on Facebook. Back in December, when the network changed all of its users' privacy settings, Zuckerberg's profile became über-exposed. Since then, Zuck has figured out how to use the site's privacy settings.
Non-friends on the network see only very basic information on his page: his work and education information, his About Me section, his birthday, his likes and interests, and comments made on other people's pages. See screen shots here.
Vargas makes a big deal of the fact that Zuck had listed the West Wing as one of his favorite shows -- created by Aaron Sorkin, who is also behind the evil "Social Network" movie. Vargas writes that Zuck removed that movie from his favorites during the course of his reporting. But even non-friends will get to see that he's apparently forgiven Sorkin (or at least doesn't want to be seen as petty) as he very recently added it back to his favorite shows:
Profile view for non-friends. Zuck re-likes "West Wing."
Meanwhile, Facebook users who have a mutual friend with Zuckerberg, as I do, get to see his family members, photos, and links that he has posted:
Profile view for someone with a mutual friend
So what did Vargas get to see as a Facebook friend of the CEO?
First off, he got to see his friend list, noting in the profile that Zuck has 871 friends. Friends get to see his email address and cell-phone number. They also get to see the CEO's activity on Places -- Facebook's new location check-in service application:
Since late August, it’s also been pretty easy to track Zuckerberg through a new Facebook feature called Places, which allows users to mark their location at any time. At 2:45 A.M., E.S.T., on August 29th, he was at the Ace Hotel, in New York’s garment district. He was back at Facebook’s headquarters, in Palo Alto, by 7:08 P.M. On August 31st at 10:38 P.M., he and his girlfriend were eating dinner at Taqueria La Bamba, in Mountain View. via Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg opens up : The New Yorker.
Zuckerberg wisely isn't sharing his location details with non-friends, nor his status updates. Here's something Vargas got access to that the general public can't see on Zuckerberg's page:
Friends expect Chan [Zuckerberg's girlfriend] and Zuckerberg to marry. In early September, Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page, “Priscilla Chan is moving in this weekend. Now we have 2x everything, so if you need any household appliances, dishes, glasses, etc please come by and take them before we give them away.”
While Zuckerberg is on a mission to make the world a more open place -- and to make lots of money while doing it -- he and Facebook understand that we want to have different levels of openness with different people in our lives. Zuckerberg doesn't want everyone in the world to know where he's eating dinner or that his girlfriend is moving in with him, so he sets his privacy settings accordingly.
Of course, he decided that a reporter writing a story about him was a "friend." That's a very dangerous assumption.
Editor's note: Thank you to readers, friends, and Tweeps who sent me screenshots of what Mark Zuckerberg's page looks like to someone with no mutual friends.
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dc6ad71205f2d3d86999ab095761ce1c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/09/22/industry-will-benefit-from-clearer-electronic-communication-privacy-law/?boxes=techchanneltopstories | Industry Will Benefit From Clearer Electronic Communications Privacy Law | Industry Will Benefit From Clearer Electronic Communications Privacy Law
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)-- which protects electronic communications from government searches -- was created in 1986 and is ripe for a makeover. The Senate Judiciary Committee discussed the need for a facelift for the Act today with attorneys from law enforcement, the Commerce Department, the tech industry, and civil rights groups.
"Bringing privacy law into the digital age is one of our biggest challenges," said Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt). The law came into being before Gmail, iPhones, and Facebook, and judges have struggled at times in figuring out how to apply rules set in 1986 to rapidly evolving technology.
The outdated law is problematic for businesses, too, said Brad Smith, general counsel for Microsoft, who complained that the tech industry needs some certainty so that when they design technology, they know what to expect from the law. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Nextel have all recently gotten media attention for what they provide to law enforcement officials and how they provide it. Forget warrants. A post-it note has sufficed in the past for data requests.
One of the most egregious ECPA issues is how it treats the protection of email. “Why should email in someone’s inbox be treated different from something in someone’s sent folder?” asked Smith. "Why is something unread in my junk folder subjected to greater privacy than something read in my inbox? Why does an email I sent in April have fewer privacy protections than one I sent in September?"
The law currently differentiates between emails stored on your home computer versus those stored on the server of a third party, because of the way technology worked back in 1986. After 180 days, email stored with a third party (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) is no longer private, in that law enforcement does not require a warrant to get access to it. Law professor Orin Kerr has concluded that ECPA may actually be unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment in its allowing law enforcement to read emails without a warrant. Questions from the senators during the hearing indicated that when the law is updated, that will change and that email will be truly private, no matter where it's located or how old it is.
Those testifying suggested that there are three big trends that Congress needs to take into account in updating the law: cloud computing (as we store more of our data on third party servers rather than at our homes and offices), the increasing use of mobile and smartphones (which so conveniently provide our location information), and the rise of social networking platforms. Digital Due Process, a consortium of civil rights groups and corporations, would add the "use of email" to that list. Check out their take on ECPA reform here.
Cameron Kerry, general counsel of the Department of Commerce, pointed out that 93 percent of the population in the U.S. now have cell phones, and that smartphones will eclipse early generation cell phones by 2011. Cloud computing and the use of mobile “signal a pervasive shift in the volume of sensitive information we entrust to third parties," said Kerry. And, thus, a great increase in information available to law enforcement in investigations.
“I know the information that’s available today is a lot different than when I was in law enforcement," said Leahy. "But I know the threats are greater too.”
Regardless, from the sound of the hearing today, the senators are in favor of increasing privacy protections for email and clarifying what can be provided to law enforcement in terms of location information from consumers' mobile devices.
Here's what the ACLU would like to see happen:
# Robustly Protect All Personal Electronic Information. Congress must ensure that current loopholes in our privacy laws are closed to ensure that electronic information, including most transactional communications, receive full warrant protection regardless of their age or nature. # Safeguard Location Information. Cell phones — a novelty in 1986 — have become ubiquitous. They constantly broadcast user location and can reveal personal activities such as attendance at events or medical clinics. The law should require government officials to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before allowing access. # Institute Appropriate Oversight and Reporting Requirements. So Congress can fulfill its oversight role and ensure adequate transparency to the public, existing reporting requirements for wiretap orders must be extended to all types of law enforcement surveillance requests. # Require a Suppression Remedy. Just as non-electronic information illegally obtained by law enforcement is not admissible in a court of law, the same should be true of illegally obtained electronic information. The discrepancy in the law encourages government overreaching and must be changed to require a judge to bar the use of such unlawfully obtained information in court proceedings. # Craft Reasonable Exceptions. Overbroad exceptions are also depriving Americans of their rightful privacy protection. Currently ECPA sometimes allows access to the content of communications without a true emergency, without informed consent or oversight and without prompt notice to the subject. These overly broad exceptions must be amended to properly safeguard Americans' privacy rights. via ACLU Submits Testimony For Senate Hearing On Electronic Privacy | American Civil Liberties Union.
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c2778826f6394898bd9911ccc7dc2682 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/10/21/virtual-immortality-through-digital-cloning/?boxes=financechannelforbes | Virtual Immortality Through Digital Cloning | Virtual Immortality Through Digital Cloning
CEO Don Davidson's "Intellitar"
If it's not enough to know that your Facebook profile can live on into eternity, you may want to consider creating an "Intellitar" -- a life-like online avatar that can learn how to be like you thanks to an artificial intelligence engine. And can be around to tell "when I was your age" tales to your great, great, great grandchildren.
These days, it seems like people are more worried about how to unwind their digital accounts after death, than preserving themselves forever online. But "Virtual Eternity", launching today, will allow users to create an intellitar that "will be able to preserve and share your personality, life experiences, knowledge, wisdom, and memories in a way never before available." The eponymously-named Huntsville, Alabama company is hoping to attract baby boomers who would like to preserve themselves for future generations, but can't afford the Roy Disney cryogenic treatment.
Users start by choosing a photo for the company to animate. Dan Nosowitz at Popular Science was discomforted by the animation, writing that the video "has that almost-real-but-not-actually-real look that plagued movies like The Polar Express." See the special effects at work on the company CEO's animated self. You can also check out the whole management team's mini-Intellitars here.
Users take a Myers-Briggs type personality test which is assigned to the avatar, and then start imparting knowledge to it -- memories, photos. (Unfortunately, the company has not yet set it up to just scrape your likes, photos, and personality from Facebook.) The avatars "learns" you using an AI engine from LA-based Cognitive Code. Users choose one of two voices for it (or pay $100 and spend three hours to recreate their own voice). Then it becomes interactive, so that others can ask it questions and talk to it.
CEO Don Davidson, who co-founded the company after stints at IBM and Avocent, says, "Basically, it's a scraper," meaning the avatar has an endless capacity for data acquisition about you. He told me that the Intellitars will have three privacy settings for the data acquired -- that which is public (conversations anyone who interacts with the avatar), that which is restricted to friends and family (slightly juicier memories), and that which is limited to special users (the truly scandalous stuff).
Still, Ms. Smith at Network World worries about someone hacking in and sullying your Intellitar's memories. And Forbes member SteveinTransit wonders, "An avatar armed with our stories and Myers-Briggs...Are we responsible for the behaviors of our avatars online?"
As of now, the company is pitching Intellitars as a legacy product to help families create a living, breathing (kind of) genealogical tree. But it imagines other uses: educational and customer service, among others. My suggestion: Partner up with a dating site, like OKCupid or Match.com, so that people can create and interact with avatars before committing to go out on a first date. Perhaps leading one day to your avatar telling a future generation the romantic tale about how their ancestors' avatars met online.
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15739dec82e7870ca67332f9c069e9c8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/10/22/google-comes-clean-on-streetview-cars-wifi-data-collection/ | Google Comes Clean on Street View Cars' WiFi Data Collection | Google Comes Clean on Street View Cars' WiFi Data Collection
Image via CrunchBase
Google's feeling apologetic about its privacy issues today.
In a blog post dedicated to how the company is going to step up its privacy practices, Google revealed what exactly its Street View cars accidentally collected when they downloaded data from open, nonencrypted WiFi networks, notably passwords and emails.
When the inadvertent collection of data was first discovered in May, Google said it didn't realize that it had been collecting the info and didn't know what was in there. Initially, the company that wants to do no evil asked to destroy the WiFi databanks without looking inside, so as not to violate privacy more. But due to legal proceedings here and abroad (lawsuits were filed and criminal investigations were launched), Google was prohibited from doing that in most countries (Ireland, Denmark and Austria being the exceptions). Commissions in Spain and Canada have issued reports on their findings after reviewing the data. In a blog post today, Alan Eustace, Google's senior VP of engineering and research discussed what those investigations revealed about the WiFi snooping.
"It’s clear from those inspections that while most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords," wrote Eustace. "We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and I would like to apologize again for the fact that we collected it in the first place. We are mortified by what happened, but confident that these changes to our processes and structure will significantly improve our internal privacy and security practices for the benefit of all our users."
Google also announced that it was promoting the company's lead privacy engineer, Alma Whitten, to director of privacy, and that all of its employees will be undergoing serious privacy training. Basically, it seems the company is saying, "Sorry about that StreetView WiFi thing, Buzz, and that creepy Google engineer who stalked kiddies using our service. We're going to try harder."
Privacy researcher Chris Soghoian criticized the company for still not having a chief privacy officer (and pointed out that Facebook lacks one as well). Instead, Google has a collection of individuals in charge of privacy, among them are Jane Horvath (Senior Privacy Counsel) and Peter Fleischer (Global Privacy Counsel -- he blogs about it too).
Christine Chen, Google's spokesperson focused on privacy issues says the company likes to spread the privacy love around. "Instead of having a single isolated privacy officer, we embed privacy across functions," says Chen.
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767fbfaef891908fb54d72d53bbd9a8f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/11/03/facebook-responds-to-firesheep-wifi-security-controversy/ | Facebook Responds to Firesheep WiFi Security Controversy | Facebook Responds to Firesheep WiFi Security Controversy
Image via CrunchBase
Many tech insiders have been bleating for years about a privacy flaw inherent in unencrypted browsing that lets hackers snoop on your Web activity. But their cries didn't reach the ears of the general public until the creation of "Firesheep," a simple Firefox add-on that takes advantage of the flaw to let users on an unsecured WiFi network steal cookies and snoop on people's Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr activity -- basically any site that does not offer secure "HTTPS" browsing.
Bank and financial websites are always secured this way to protect your data, but there hasn't been as big a push in the social networking world, where the harm in that data being hacked is less obvious. But the release of Firesheep, allowing Starbucks surfers everywhere to snoop on their fellow laptop users' social sessions (even if doing so is illegal), has people rethinking the potential harm here. The extension has been downloaded over 560,000 times since last week.
One man claims to have had some fun with the tool at a New York Starbucks recently, looking at what a fellow WiFi user ordered on Amazon and then sending him a message about it from his own Facebook account. "No matter how many security measures we provide to the world, there will always be people who leave the door open, even after they've had an intruder," wrote Gary Los Huertos on Technology Sufficiently Advanced.
There are safeguards, but after all those downloads and all the media attention, some people (such as commenters at Hacker News) are asking why the vulnerable websites, like Facebook and Twitter, haven't switched over to secure browsing, or at least warned their users about the issue. I posed that question to Facebook.
A spokesperson tells me, "We have been making progress testing SSL access across Facebook and hope to provide it as an option in the coming months. As always, we advise people to use caution when sending or receiving information over unsecured Wi-Fi networks."
She advised checking out the Facebook Security Page, which, among other things, gives you a history of your sign-ins by IP address -- and would let you know if there are two IPs currently signed-in at Starbucks. You also have the option then to sign another active session out. The spokesperson noted that the Facebook log-in page is always encrypted, preventing someone from stealing your password, and also offered up a general warning for Web users.
"Be careful about the information you access or send from a public wireless network," the spokesperson added. "To be on the safe side, you may want to assume that other people can access any information you see or send over a public wireless network. Unless you can verify that a hot spot has effective security measures in place, it may be best to avoid sending or receiving sensitive information over that network."
Traditionally, adopting the security measures that prevent the easy hacking that Firesheep can do has been deemed too costly by website operators. Plus, the encryption technology can slow down performance. And no one likes a slow Internet. But Google is one company that has done this; it put secure browsing in place for Gmail users in January, making "https" the default option.
A Google spokesperson says that the effect on Gmail's speed is not noticeable on most Internet connections. For a more technical take on that, check out this posting from Adam Langley, a Google engineer who explains that "SSL/TLS is not computationally expensive any more."
Given the controversy, Firesheep may just result in a stampede to https.
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dafe07404ee1ada975c707d25df713aa | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/11/05/twitters-response-to-the-firesheep-controversy/?boxes=financechannelforbes | Twitter's Response to the Firesheep Controversy | Twitter's Response to the Firesheep Controversy
Image via CrunchBase
Firesheep, the tool that makes hacking non-encrypted Web browsing sessions easy, has now been out for over a week. When activated, it lets a user sharing a network with others steal their cookies and snoop on their Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr browsing sessions. It exposes the dangers of websites not enabling their sites with secure "https" access, and has now been downloaded over 600,000 times.
Some of those downloads have been fairly innocent ones, done by curious reporters or pranksters looking to cause a ruckus at the local Starbucks. But some of those hundreds of thousands may have nefarious plans. Firesheep's creator made this hacking-made-easy tool to shame companies that have failed to protect their users by encrypting their sites. (Find a great breakdown of at-risk sites here: Digital Society's "Online services security report card".) Not among those shamed: Google -- it encrypted Gmail at the beginning of this year, saying it's no longer "computationally expensive to do so." So the question now is whether other sites will follow suit.
Facebook told me earlier this week that it's been testing SSL and plans to make it an option in "coming months." Today, I got a response from Twitter about the Firesheep fiasco.
"Protecting users and providing a safe Twitter experience is incredibly important to us," wrote a Twitter spokesperson in an email. "We're actively exploring avenues for increasing user safety that would address this issue."
In the meantime, don't sign onto Twitter if you're sharing a network with other users... unless you don't mind having them read your private direct messages and don't mind the possible embarrassment of an idiocy tweet.
Both Twitter and Facebook are aware of the vulnerability exposed by Firesheep and are working on solutions. Strangely, neither company has communicated directly with its users to warn them about Firesheep and this vulnerability. Instead, Twitter is blogging about Haiti and Facebook is tweeting about its new font size.
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9615f10f1e808aba625ec829203e348c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/12/01/hacker-fail-two-college-kids-discover-police-are-not-as-dumb-as-they-thought/ | Hacker Fail: Two College Kids Discover Police Are Not as 'Dumb' As They Thought | Hacker Fail: Two College Kids Discover Police Are Not as 'Dumb' As They Thought
Image via Wikipedia
In the fall of 2009, University of Central Missouri students Joseph Camp and Daniel Fowler were busy trying to improve their grades -- not through cramming for finals, but by hacking into the university's computer systems. In addition to bumping up their GPAs, they planned to tap into university bank accounts and to harvest information about faculty, staff and alumni in order to sell their identities to interested buyers.
They may not have cracked books that semester, but they did crack into the university's databases fairly easily. According to an indictment (via Courthouse News Service), the two co-ed hackers developed a virus to infect the computers of fellow students and administrators. They spread it by putting it on computers at public computer labs and in the library, sending it out in emails, and putting it on thumb drives. (In one case, an administrator let them plug their thumb drive into his computer to share vacation photos.) The virus installed Spector Pro and Poison Ivy keystroke software and gave Camp and Fowler remote control over infected computers so that they could monitor people's activity, turn on webcams, read emails, and collect user names and passwords from administrators that they were able to use to get into relevant databases.
Unclear whether these skills came out of classes the two were taking at UCM. The indictment doesn't mention their majors at the university.
Soon Camp was transferring thousands of dollars, in small amounts, from the university bank account into his own, and into the account of another lucky/unlucky student who Camp hoped to frame for the crime. He did it over Thanksgiving break of 2009, hoping that people wouldn't be paying attention. They were. Police arrested him on November 25th.
But that didn't stop Fowler and Camp...
Despite their being savvy in the ways of surveillance and electronic monitoring, Camp decided to post away on his Facebook page about the charges. In December, Fowler and Camp tapped back into the network to get a copy of the affidavit for a search warrant of Camp's apartment and to download databases with faculty, staff, alumni, and student information.
Camp then posted portions of the affidavit to his Facebook page to try to intimidate those who ratted him out, writing, "“I am very concerned about anyone who lies to the police! Think I don’t know? I have the papers now! I KNOW WHOs THE SNITCH!” and "I am not a fan of people who lie to the police to get other innocent people in trouble. I will make it a point to post anything that I find out here on facebook so that you feel ashamed about l[y]ing to the police. I wont reda[ct] anything. I will MAKE SURE that your name is posted with the lies you told!"
After a little public witness intimidation on Facebook, Camp contacted a potential buyer in New York for the University of Central Missouri identities, not realizing that the purported identity thief was actually an undercover agent. According to the indictment, Camp told the agent that the university wouldn't do anything about the Thanksgiving hack, because it would embarrass the institution.
“The cops were dumb to bust us so quick,” said Camp, according to the complaint. “If they knew the scope of this, they would have involved the feds.”
Little did Camp know that "the feds" were indeed involved. He tried to sell the agent the 90,000 identities for $35,000. Social security numbers and dates of birth are worth $1 to $8 a pop, after all. Camp was then arrested -- he remains in jail in Rochester, awaiting trial.
A 'Too late' note is a little incriminating, isn't it?
After Camp's arrest, campus police raided Fowler's dorm room. All of his computers were gone. There remained only a single computer monitor with a Post-It note which read, “too late!” with a smiley face on it.
Points for theatrics, but not for accuracy. After months of investigation, Fowler and Camp have now been charged with conspiracy, fraud, computer intrusion, illegal interception of electronic communications, and aggravated identity theft -- each charge "punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000," according to Courthouse News. U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips praised the university for its quick response and notification of victims.
Universities are prime targets for identity theft -- as you'll see if you scroll through the Privacy Rights Data Breach Chronology. As at insurance companies and medical centers -- also attractive targets to hackers -- lots of personally identifiable information tends to be sitting around in nice, convenient Excel sheets.
We can only hope that other hackers go about their hacking as poorly as Fowler and Camp.
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16061b5574acd675dc6ec10a0b242f4d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/12/02/how-would-a-do-not-track-mechanism-for-online-privacy-work/ | How Would a 'Do Not Track' Mechanism for Online Privacy Work? | How Would a 'Do Not Track' Mechanism for Online Privacy Work?
Do Not Track would turn Web surfers into submarines
Today, lawmakers, regulators, privacy advocates, and industry folks gathered in D.C. to talk about "Do Not Track" -- a proposed mechanism to allow web surfers not to have their browsing activities surveilled. The Congressional subcommittee hearing was titled: "Do-Not-Track Legislation: Is Now the Right Time?” The answer to that question seems to be, "Maybe. Or maybe not. This stuff's complicated."
There are two big questions that Hill folk are continuing to work through: 1) How would the technology behind this work? and 2) How will it impact the Internet economy? We're closer to an answer on the first question than on the second.
Despite the similarities in names, Do Not Track is quite different from Do Not Call -- the national registry that allows you to avoid telemarketers. Do Not Track would not be a list that you sign up for, and it would be more granular in application. As envisioned by the Federal Trade Commission, Do Not Track would be an option you would select on your browser -- a feature you could turn on and off. Web surfers would be like submarines -- sometimes putting their browser activities on the radar, seen and collected by website operators and ad networks -- and sometimes going into stealth "Do Not Track" mode, during which Net surfers would send out a beacon (likely with a header set by the browser) letting website operators know that information about them shouldn't be collected.
Joseph Pasqua, of security firm Symantec, thinks that those in stealth mode would likely be moving through duller waters. "A user with the no-track option enabled may be fed Web sites with limited content, while other users without the option set would see a richer web page and have a more robust browsing experience," Pasqua testified.
FTC Consumer Protection Bureau head David Vladeck testified that the creation of a Do Not Track mechanism would end the "tracking arms race" that some Internet companies are currently engaged in, to find ways around people's piecemeal efforts to avoid having their activity profiled, employing everything from zombie Flash cookies that can't be removed from your computer to device fingerprinting. (Of course, some kind of tracking is for your own good. Fingerprinting your computer can be beneficial if you don't want someone across the country buying something online with your stolen credit card details.)
Lawmakers asked witnesses how this would impact a Web that is increasingly fueled by the exchange of personal information. Much of the Internet is free to us because we are willing to let ourselves be tracked. That information is then packaged and sold off. If we all go into stealth mode, what would happen? That question hasn't been resolved yet.
Regardless, Rep. Ed Markey says he may incorporate Do Not Track into privacy legislation to protect children. And incoming senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he plans to push for "Do Not Track" when he moves to D.C. Privacy is a cause that everyone's happy to get behind, though some experts think techies not lawmakers should be the ones orchestrating "Do Not Track."
Assuming this is implemented, the next question will be whether some sites can just choose to block the submarines on stealth mode from entry.
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b7f08c7a11db68dc29a888f7ad7c52e4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/12/12/gawker-gets-hacked-by-gnosis/ | Gawker Gets Hacked by 'Gnosis' | Gawker Gets Hacked by 'Gnosis'
Image via CrunchBase
It's your chance to gawk at Gawker. The gossip site that has mastered the art of invading other people's privacy -- with exclusives on everything from Apple's prototype iPhone 4 to pictures of Brett Favre's, um, "pigskin" -- has had its own privacy invaded this weekend.
A group of hackers, calling themselves Gnosis, broke into Gawker's databases over the last week, and are releasing staff and reader passwords, site source code, and internal messages online. "Your servers, Your database's [sic], Online accounts and source code have all be ripped to shreds!" write the hackers on The Pirate Bay where the torrent file of Gawker data has been posted (Update on Dec 13: The file has been removed from the site).
The site has acknowledged that its readers' passwords have been compromised. "You should change your Gawker password and on any other sites on which you've used the same passwords," writes Gawker in an administrative post. Since many people use variations on the same password across various sites, this could prove to be an annoyance to the 1.3 million people with Gawker accounts. Gawker writer Adrian Chen tweeted, "I think this Gawker hack should be known as 'The Night All of the Internet Changed Their Passwords.'"
Gawker's administrative post about the breach
Gawker readers are not the only ones to be compromised, though. The hackers also included passwords for several of Gawker's writers and managed to access their internal instant message conversations. In addition to being an embarrassing breach of security, given that many of Gawker's scoops come from anonymous sources, this attack could lead to some uncomfortable -- and possibly litigation-inspiring -- unmaskings.
"We went after Gawker because of their outright arrogance," a member of Gnosis tells Mediaite. "We have had access to all of their emails for a long time as well as most of their infrastructure powering the site."
Gawker knows better than anyone that privacy in the Internet age is a fragile thing, but it seems that it didn't inspire the site to be overly protective about its own. "Gawkmedia has possibly the worst security I have ever seen. It is scary how poor it is," the anonymous Gnosis participant tells Mediaite. (Update: Gawker says in a FAQ post that it plans to bring in an "independent security firm to improve security across our entire infrastructure.")
The only possible upside of all of this for Gawker? Lots of traffic. Their administrative warning post is at 76,000 page views and counting. Though that's the last post they've published this evening. Brian Stelter at the New York Times notes that their publishing platform appears to be down.
"I'd write a post about how we've been hacked and can't publish," tweeted Jezebel, the Twitter account for Gawker's site for women. "But we've been hacked and can't publish."
Update on Dec 13: As of 9 a.m., Gawker sites, including Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Kotaku, and flagship Gawker, appear to be publishing again. Jezebel does not yet have a post up, but perhaps its lady writers are just sleeping in.
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72d2d273989ffca0635efc7e7129a8c2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/12/16/mark-zuckerberg-imma-let-you-finish-but-julian-assange-was-clearly-the-person-of-the-year/?partner=relatedstoriesbox | 'Mark Zuckerberg, I'mma let you finish but Julian Assange was clearly the Person of the Year.' | 'Mark Zuckerberg, I'mma let you finish but Julian Assange was clearly the Person of the Year.'
The Internet revolts against Time's choice for Person of the Year
A commenter on Reddit -- a news commentary site that calls itself "the voice of the Internet" -- channeled Kanye West in his reaction to Time Magazine crowning Mark Zuckerberg the person of the year: "Yo Mark Zuckerberg. I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish but Julian Assange was clearly the Person of the Year."
The Internet has spoken -- on Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and various blogs -- and it says Time was wrong to put Facebook's baby-faced CEO on its "Person of the Year" cover instead of the face of Wikileaks. "Hitler" especially was upset:
"Time has voted for closed, secretive networks instead of freedom," whines the 1938 Time Person of the Year.
Reddit marks up Time's poll
Much of the Internet outrage stems from the democratic process being subverted. Time invited its readers to vote to determine who would be person of the year (a hot media trend these days, much like Forbes crowdsourcing Names You Need to Know in 2011). Julian Assange won Time's public poll.
So why did Zuck get the nod? Perhaps because Time already put the face of the face of Wikileaks on its cover last week. I'd argue, though, that Time already gave the essence of Zuckerberg/Facebook the Person of the Year nod in 2006 when it gave the honor to "You" -- back when Facebook was initially fresh, relatively new and exciting, and not populated by grandmothers.
Regardless, the two main contenders for person of the year have privacy in common -- both are helping people, governments, and a big bank sometime soon become more exposed, whether they want it or not. The Information Age is becoming The You-Can't-Control-The-Spread-of-Information Age -- Zuck and Assange are the faces of that, with regard to individuals' personal information and that of major institutions, respectively.
Time is experiencing the pain of that freeing of information. Monolithic journalism is a thing of the past. To invite your readers to vote and then to ignore them is a dangerous thing. Time's proving itself irrelevant by choosing Zuckerberg is currently making the magazine more relevant, but the long-term backlash may hurt its "Person of the Year" brand.
Part of the reason that people are so upset that Assange came in second to Zuckerberg is that Facebook's CEO is so annoyingly clean cut. Last year at this time, Zuckerberg was a bit of a villain. Facebook forced new privacy settings that suddenly and unexpectedly exposed users' previously private information -- including Zuckerberg's event calendar and private photos. Even then, the worst of them showed him clutching a teddy bear, sitting shirtless near a pool, and drinking with friends.
More recently, when Ryan Tate at Gawker had a photographer secretly stalk Zuck over a long weekend, those photos were boring, too. The guy wears gray t-shirts and gives money to charity. Sure, he and his company have helped revolutionize the way we live online, but how did he get the nod when Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and the Google boys -- who have led similar tech revolutions -- haven't? (Well, Gates did get the nod in 2005 along with his wife and Bono, but for being a "good samaritan.")
Assange on the other hand always has something exciting up his sleeve -- whether it's the next big document dump or a hidden OkCupid profile. Maybe Julian Assange will be honored next year after Hollywood releases "The Wikileaks Network" movie.
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2c8c5b3e2b0245e7faf8ee0b085c324c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2010/12/28/apple-hit-with-two-federal-lawsuits-over-tracking-iphone-and-ipad-users-is-googles-android-next/ | Apple Hit With Two Federal Lawsuits Over Tracking iPhone and iPad Users. Is Google's Android Next? | Apple Hit With Two Federal Lawsuits Over Tracking iPhone and iPad Users. Is Google's Android Next?
You may want to download a class action tracking app to your iPhone
It's always sad when two people give you the same present for Christmas, especially if it's not a present you want. That's the situation Apple is in this holiday season, served with two lawsuits in federal court last week, both seeking class action status, for helping advertisers create profiles of iPhone and iPad users.
Lalo v. Apple, first reported by Businessweek, and Freeman v. Apple, first reported by Wired, were both filed on Thursday, Dec. 23, in the Northern District of California. The first was filed by Kamber Law, the team behind the $2.4 million Quantcast "zombie cookie" settlement, and the second by three law firms, including the one that recently sued YouPorn over its "history sniffing."
Both lawsuits are essentially copy-and-paste jobs of a recent Wall Street Journal article about how smartphones spy on their users. The WSJ report detailed how apps on iPhones and Android phones send along personal information including location, gender, age, contacts, and a phone's unique identifier, and how that information is sometimes passed along to advertisers.
The WSJ report detailed how apps on iPhones and Android phones gather personal information including location, gender, age, contacts, and a phone's unique identifier, and then pass that information along to advertisers. The suits focus on Apple's disclosing iPhone and iPad users' Unique Device ID (UDID) -- basically a mobile device's social security number, which, when disclosed, can be used to profile a Machead across apps.
Re-gift alert: Since this occurs on the Android as well, Google may want to look out for a belated class action present. “We usually take the most meritorious action first and then work our way down," says Majed Nachawati, one of the class action attorneys in the Freeman complaint. "Google is on the radar, but we haven’t taken any action against them yet.”
In addition to suing Apple, the defendants from California and Texas named the apps as parties in the lawsuit, including Pandora, the Weather Channel, Dictionary.com, Room Candy (maker of Pimple Popper Lite), among others. The suits allege violations of computer and consumer laws, as well as "trespass on personal property." They claim Apple "aided and abetted" the apps in this illegal activity.
"[T]he iPhone and iPad come equipped with the tools necessary to determine their geographic location. Thus, being able to identify a unique device, and combining that information with the devices’ geographic location, gives the advertiser a huge amount of information about the user of a mobile device," says the Freeman v. Apple complaint. "From the perspective of advertisers engaged in surreptitious tracking, this is a perfect means of tracking mobile device users’ interests and likes on the Internet."
Apple and Google have previously said that users have to give apps permission to access their information. Though researchers at Duke reported earlier this year that Android apps do share information without permission. "The permissions don’t tell the user how their data will be used, and in some cases misused,” Landon Cox, a Duke computer science professor told Dark Reading earlier this year.
Expect more flurries of class action lawsuits over privacy issues. Class action lawyers need to get them in while they still can. Buried in the Commerce Department's recent report on online privacy was a consideration that class action lawsuits over tracking be banned.
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4bd123522a77acac79b34356a566b175 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/01/04/why-your-cell-phone-is-more-private-in-ohio-than-in-california/ | Why Your Cell Phone Is More Private in Ohio than in California | Why Your Cell Phone Is More Private in Ohio than in California
Should police need a warrant to search this?
As a place to live, California has a lot going for it: the Pacific Ocean, pleasant weather, celeb spottings. But if you're concerned about the police perusing the contents of your smartphone without a warrant, you might prefer to spend your time further east in the Buckeye state.
The Supreme Courts of California and Ohio have come down on opposite sides of the question of whether police need a warrant to search an arrested person's cellphone. California may be perceived as the tech savvy state thanks to playing host to Silicon Valley, but when it comes to how the law applies to technology, its analysis is rather simplistic. In an opinion issued Monday, California's court said, "No warrant needed," equating a cell phone with a pack of cigarettes -- Hmmmm. Cell phones are addictive, I suppose -- referencing a Supreme Court decision that allowed police to search a cigarette package in an arrested person's pocket that turned out to contain heroin.
Ohio's court, on the other hand, ruled in December 2009 that a cell phone is more like a laptop, holding vast amounts of personal information and thus subject to greater privacy protections -- namely, a warrant for searching it.
Two widely divergent decisions within a month a year of one another. Regular readers know I like the "tale of two lawsuits" genre of stories, in which different judges look at the same technology and come to opposite conclusions. Let's look a little more closely at these two cases -- both involving drug dealers and their cellphones.
In Ohio, Antwaun Smith's cellphone was seized after officers had one of his clients call him over to her house for a crack cocaine delivery. At some point, the police went through the phone. The prosecution later used the phone's call records and numbers, though not seized photographs, to help convict Smith. Courts have previously found that the police can search an arrested person's body and any "containers" they're carrying -- like a cigarette case or a purse. The judges in Ohio determined, though, that a cellphone holds too much digitized information to be considered just a "container." Our smartphones are truly immense and limitless containers -- granting access to email, contacts, photos, Google map history and Facebook accounts. Given that, the court determined that cellphones are akin to a laptop -- which is entitled to greater privacy, unless you're crossing the border -- and that a police officer's search of Smith's phone without a warrant was improper [PDF].
In California, police seized Gregory Diaz's cellphone after he participated in a sale of ecstasy to a police informant. Diaz was not ecstatic when police found a text message on his phone that read, "6 4 80," meaning “[s]ix pills of Ecstasy for $80.” In their analysis of the warrantless search of Diaz's phone, the California judges disregarded a phone's immense storage capacity instead describing it as just another piece of small personal property on the body. The judges sidestepped the question of the vast amounts of data on a cell phone, writing that doing a quantitative analysis of the storage capacity of a phone "would create difficult line-drawing problems for both courts and police officers in the field. How would a court faced with a similar argument as to another type of item determine whether the item's storage capacity is constitutionally significant? And how would an officer in the field determine this question upon arresting a suspect?"
Not all the California judges were on board with the decision. In her dissent, Justice Kathryn Werdegar wrote:
A contemporary smartphone can hold hundreds or thousands of messages, photographs, videos, maps, contacts, financial records, memoranda and other documents, as well as records of the user's telephone calls and Web browsing. Never before has it been possible to carry so much personal or business information in one's pocket or purse. The potential impairment to privacy if arrestees' mobile phones and handheld computers are treated like clothing or cigarette packages, fully searchable without probable cause or a warrant, is correspondingly great... The majority's holding... apparently allow[s] police carte blanche, with no showing of exigency, to rummage at leisure through the wealth of personal and business information that can be carried on a mobile phone or handheld computer merely because the device was taken from an arrestee's person. The majority thus sanctions a highly intrusive and unjustified type of search, one meeting neither the warrant requirement nor the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
This may well be headed to One First Street
As a California deputy attorney general notes in the San Francisco Chronicle, this may well head to the Supreme Court for resolution. The California judges in the majority are ready for that to happen. They ended their opinion [PDF] with a nod to the Nine: "[U]nder the United States Supreme Court's binding precedent, the warrantless search of defendant's cell phone was valid. If, as the dissent asserts, the wisdom of the high court's decisions 'must be newly evaluated' in light of modern technology (dis. opn. of Werdegar, J., post, at p. 1), then that reevaluation must be undertaken by the high court itself."
Until then, it's probably wise to at least put a password on your smartphone, especially if you live in the Golden State. (Though that's still not a foolproof plan.)
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a9e82854086bc474775bbcb3d7bfcc5e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/02/11/a-ridiculous-california-court-ruling-zip-codes-are-private/ | A Ridiculous California Court Ruling: Zip Codes are Private | A Ridiculous California Court Ruling: Zip Codes are Private
California retailers can take these but not zip codes along with them
It's annoying when a store cashier asks for your zip code when you're checking out. Depending on just how annoying you find this, you might consider moving to California. It will now be illegal for retailers to ask for that information thanks to a California Supreme Court decision this week. In the Golden State, retailers will be fined for prying into consumers' neighborhood info.
Really. It's come to this. Perhaps future episodes of "Beverly Hills 90210" should have those five private digits blacked out of the opening credits.
California resident Jessica Pineda sued Williams Sonoma in 2008 for invasion of privacy and violation of the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act, after she was asked to hand over her zip code in one of their San Mateo stores. She alleged that, with her name, credit card number and zip code, the store was able to track down her home address and then use that to market to her and to sell her info to other businesses. A trial court and appeals court disagreed with her, but the California Supreme Court issued its decision yesterday saying, yes, a zip code is "personally identifiable information."
Thankfully, businesses can still ask for your zip code when they're shipping you something by mail, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. And businesses like gas stations can still ask that consumers enter a zip code as a security measure to confirm that consumers are the legitimate credit card holders.
Privacy lawyer Venkat Balasubramani, at the Law & Technology Marketing Blog, points out that this ruling could later lead to legal problems for the collection of IP addresses -- which are like the zip codes of the digital realm.
"[T]his case highlights how online and off-line retailers live in different worlds," writes Balasubramani. "Off-line retailers go to great lengths to identify and stay in touch with their customers. Online retailers can just use cookies, ask consumers to check a box on their website, or get consumers to like their Facebook page."
The idea of not getting hit up with more marketing of the dead tree variety is certainly appealing, but ruling that a zip code is a private matter seems ludicrous in this day and age. Regardless, if you're in California and a retailer asks for your zip when you pay by credit card, they'll now be slapped with a $1,000 fine under the state's Credit Card Act. For consumers elsewhere, remember that you can always just say no to handing over those precious five digits.
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76c2859c99386dd560ac2c0a40e63aa9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/02/28/danah-boyd-digital-anthropologist/ | danah boyd, Digital Anthropologist | danah boyd, Digital Anthropologist
danah boyd
"Sometimes I feel like my job is Captain Obvious," says danah boyd, sitting cross-legged and shoeless in a neon-green chair at Microsoft Research's office overlooking a frozen Charles River in Cambridge, Mass. Her snow boots kicked off, the petite 33-year-old expert on the Internet and youth is wearing a loose tan sweater, dangly silver jewelry and a trademark fuzzy hat that resembles the ears of a white Pomeranian puppy.
That lower-case spelling of her name? Not a typo. She had it legally changed after graduating with a computer science degree from Brown in 2000, because of "political irritation at the importance of capitalization."
Roll your eyes and LOL, but boyd is a highly sought-after ethnographer--Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is an instant message buddy--who has helped tech companies shape online products and privacy policies aimed at youth. Her résumé includes stints at Friendster, Google, Yahoo and Intel. Each year she spends a few months "in the field," playing Margaret Mead to America's youth by studying how they use technology. In 2009 boyd was the first to reveal how educated whites and Asians were fleeing the social media site MySpace in favor of Facebook.
She doesn't buy the conventional view that the Internet is a dramatic cultural game-changer; we're simply finding digital ways to replicate offline behavior. "The issues we have with technology are rarely about the technologies themselves," she says. At the moment she's finishing a book for publication in 2012 that debunks myths about teens and social media. (Myth number five: Kids don't care about privacy.) Mark Zuckerberg might want to pick up a copy. "He's whip-smart, but we fundamentally disagree on certain philosophical ideas about the world," says boyd--namely, privacy. (Zuckerberg declined to comment.)
"Her name is always brought up, almost reverentially, in tech circles," says Sarahjane Sacchetti, communications head at question-and-answer site Formspring. "Because of her teen focus groups, she understands how young people use the Internet and talks about it in a thoughtful, reasonable way."
Boyd, who has a doctorate in information studies from Berkeley, gained attention early in her career when she took on Sherry Turkle, the noted MIT psychologist and Internet social guru. Turkle viewed the Internet as a great equalizer, where users could reconstruct their gender and identity to suit their fancy. Boyd responded that race and class come in digital versions, too.
Turkle turned dystopian with her new book, Alone Together, which decries machines' disrupting human relationships. Boyd takes issue again. "Technology simply mirrors and magnifies all sorts of things we see in everyday life--and that's good, bad and ugly," she says, pointing to the societal obsession with cyberbullying. "Bullying's not worse today. Technology just makes it more visible, leaving evidence."
That's not to say that everything is obvious with youth online. When teenagers were being cyberbullied anonymously on Formspring -- "Don't you hate Kristen?" or "Why are you such a slut?" -- boyd took a look. She determined from Formspring sign-in data that some of the vicious questions were written by the teen under attack. Boyd speculated that it was a cry for attention and a way to get friends to rally to her defense. She called the practice "digital self-harm."
Boyd's job at Microsoft Research is similar to an academic's. She gets bonuses based on the visibility of her writings or through winning awards. She can pursue what she likes, and for one month every year she takes an e-mail sabbatical, during which she not only ignores all e-mail but also deletes it.
If you want to see boyd angry, mention Zuckerberg's statement that "privacy is no longer a social norm." The two have been on each other's instant message chat lists since 2004, when Zuckerberg took her out for coffee for her insights from studying Friendster's users. People go to great lengths to protect their privacy, she says, pointing to a teen she met who, instead of logging out of Facebook after a session, deactivates her account.
Boyd believes online privacy needs attention from Congress--"Facebook is a social utility; utilities get regulated"--but that it requires subtlety. A law to protect privacy of children under 13, for example, has failed because kids just lie about their ages.
"People are responding to structural conditions on the Internet in very reasonable, rational ways," says boyd. "My job is to uncover it and make sense of it in a way that makes you go, ‘Duh.'"
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c01e5d2ad3380b1b662c219d289ec990 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/03/15/etsys-experiment-with-social-could-be-costly/ | Etsy's Experiment With Social Could Be Costly | Etsy's Experiment With Social Could Be Costly
Update: Etsy has issued a statement, which has been incorporated into this post.
Etsy, as they say on the Internet, you're doing it wrong. The online marketplace for vintage and handmade goods -- essentially an EBay for arts & crafts, with the tagline, "Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade" -- sees some major activity every month; it had $34 million worth of sales in February. (The site earned a write-up in Forbes back in 2008 due to its rapid growth.)
Earlier this year, Etsy -- infected by the buzz word "social" -- came up with a crafty idea: helping its buyers and sellers connect with one another and form "Circles." In addition to allowing members make connections with people they regularly interacted with on the site, Etsy also wanted to help its users find friends and colleagues who were already Etsy users. They instituted a Facebook-like "Friend Finder," so that users could tap into their email address books to see who else they knew was using the site.
"Did you know that your coworker and sister-in-law are shopping and favoriting just around the corner from your favorite Etsy shop? It's time to rendezvous!" wrote Etsy on its blog when it rolled out the change on March 1.
The way the site is set up is that everyone's feedback on purchases on the site is public. And some folks might not want their co-worker or sister-in-law to know that they bought some of the things they bought, such as home-made sex toys.
Now Etsy is dealing with the privacy blow-back. Cue the plaintiffs' lawyers and FTC complaints...
Handle "social" with care
Feedback activity on the Etsy site has historically been public -- including sales and purchase reviews, and "favorited" items. Many of Etsy's users have pseudonymous accounts that don't reveal their real names, but are linked to their real email addresses. So when the site rolled out the new Friend Finder, they made it possible for some users to be "outed" -- so that anyone with their email address as a contact would know who they were and then be able to see their public purchase history.
Users had complained about this in an administrative thread at the end of January. Etsy's response to them was that there would be an "opt-out" option so that users could keep their email addresses private. Many users responded that the new feature should be opt-in. Etsy went ahead with the change, sending out an email to users about its new "Circles" feature -- an email many users missed or ignored.
"I did indeed receive the email. i just never got to read it because I was busier than usual at the end of January," writes one user, who discovered the change in an article on Ars Technica. "[The email] started off with something about circles so I would have seen that word and assumed that was all it was about. Etsy, we all have busy lives. I have a full time job 38hrs a week + a casual job 10hrs a week + a household to run and a shop to stock. These things should be opt in because not every one has time to read your emails and they are easily missed if life gets in the way."
Indeed, any company taking the blowtorch to its privacy policy should strongly consider making the new creation opt-in, not just to appease its users, but to comply with the law. An FTC decision from an incident at Gateway Computers in 2004 specifies that companies must get opt-in consent from users before making a material change to privacy policies. An email sent out notifying customers of a change likely doesn't count.
Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica, who broke the story, compares the debacle to the infamous Facebook Beacon, when Facebook suddenly started displaying users' purchases for stores that were linked to their Facebook accounts. That led to a class action lawsuit that ultimately cost Facebook over $9 million to settle.
Some media covering this story have reported that Etsy also exposed its users' real names when they made the switch. In a response to the controversy, Etsy's founder and its COO issued a statement this afternoon on the company's blog, clarifying that the decision to include a real name is up to a user, and if they do, it would show up in search engines. Ed. note: D'uh. The company's CEO and COO say this has been the case since October.
They don't address the company's Circles feature -- which allows Etsy users to find one another -- though, they do say they are making their feedback system more private by not linking it to the item that was purchased. And Etsy's chiefs say a major change to privacy in the future would be opt-in: "In the future, we may provide an option to share individual purchases publicly at the time of purchase. This will be completely opt-in and on a purchase-by-purchase basis," they write.
In the meantime, a public service announcement for my readers: always make your really, really embarrassing purchases in person (wearing sunglasses and a hat) and pay in cash.
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963ec8491114494c51e8d2d526d5dc1f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/04/07/adventures-in-self-surveillance-aka-the-quantified-self-aka-extreme-navel-gazing/ | Adventures in Self-Surveillance, aka The Quantified Self, aka Extreme Navel-Gazing | Adventures in Self-Surveillance, aka The Quantified Self, aka Extreme Navel-Gazing
I went part-cyborg for this piece
For the last few months, I've been tracking my activities, location, happiness, sleep cycles, among other things, using fun tech gadgets (such as the Fitbit) and smartphone apps. I had to trade my Blackberry in for an Android, since most apps are designed for that or the iPhone -- no complaints here. The tale of what I got out of all this appears in the next issue of Forbes, along with (embarrassingly) some photos of me, including a shot that required the photographer to get into bed with me.
Of course, Forbes is one of those wonderful magazines that provides all of its content online, so you can get the story here, too, below. The magazine title is "Taking My Measure." My significant other has taken to calling it the "My Data Tells Me To Dump My Boyfriend" piece. I think of it as "How I Learned My Bedtime is Midnight." Hope it's an enjoyable read:
A woman entrepreneur, who wishes to remain anonymous, drinks her first stream of urine every morning as a "natural form of tracking" in order to remind herself of what she ate and drank the night before. A help-desk analyst at a corporate law firm started monitoring his spending after racking up five figures in debt on iTunes and buying CDs. Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell keeps an audio recorder running all day and takes digital photos every 30 seconds--with the idea of outsourcing his memory to a computer. Psychology professor Seth Roberts eats a half stick of butter every day because, he says, it speeds up his ability to do simple math problems by 5%.
Tim Ferriss turned his tracking into a bestseller
More prosaically, perhaps, graphic designer Nicholas Felton compiled various biographical data to produce a visually spectacular tribute to his father after he died. Digital diva Esther Dyson keeps an eye on her unread e-mails in order to measure her stress levels. Tim Ferriss, a former sports nutrition company CEO and angel investor in start-ups like Twitter and StumbleUpon, tracks his brain waves while sleeping; he has inserted a blood sugar monitor into his torso and biopsied his thigh to analyze his muscle fibers and endurance enzymes. The 4-Hour Body, Ferriss' treatise on using tracking to lose weight, maximize efficiency and "become superhuman," shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list in January.
Extreme navel-gazing is probably as old as staring at the stars. The Catholic Church gave us confession, which helped organize our thoughts about ourselves (how far we have fallen, how close salvation lies). Psychoanalysis flipped the paradigm, transmuting sin into unconscious desire. Now comes a phenomenon known as the Quantified Self, or self-tracking, which posits a sort of truth in numbers. Its adherents believe that gadgets can help organize torrents of personal data that can help turn us all into happier, healthier, wealthier and more productive human beings. Founded three years ago by two Wired magazine editors, the Quantified Self is an organization in San Francisco with Meetup groups in 23 cities around the world, including Europe, Africa and Australia. Its members obsessively track biometric, behavioral and environmental information with smartphone apps and body-monitoring devices, and perform experiments on themselves to try to improve their lives.
If this sounds weirdly narcissistic, consider that the movement has a forebear in a quintessential American: Benjamin Franklin, the founding father of self-tracking. To chart his progress toward "moral perfection," Franklin kept a daily ledger in red ink of 13 virtues, from temperance to humility. Each day he dotted the virtues he failed to fulfill with a black lead pencil. After tracking for some time, he wrote in his Autobiography: "I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined, but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish."
My name is Kashmir Hill and I am a self-tracker. I got into this a few months ago for a number of reasons. One, it raises intriguing questions about technology and privacy--my beat at FORBES. For another, I'm a social creature; I like to hang out with people online and offline, and sharing data is a great way to do it. I'm also a runner and learned the importance of tracking my runs while training for a marathon a few years back. And, I'm a life-long journal keeper -- my "Dear Diarys" from elementary school to my infrequent journal entries now provide an interesting chronicle of my emotional growth and change. This is a story of the QS revolution told through my own experiences, and of the two kinds of trackers: those seeking to solve problems related to health, productivity and various incarnations of wasted time; and those who love gadgets, new ways of eyeballing themselves and sharing the data with their friends. I find myself straddling the two camps.
What do you learn from turning your body and mind into measurable machines? Some efficiencies, a few helpful insights, rarely an astounding discovery. The crusade is incipient: A lot of applications lie in the future. Some enthusiasts see QS as a new model for health care, with tracking devices displacing doctors. "I call it Homebrew Health," says one angel investor, alluding to the Homebrew Computer Club of the 1970s, the group of electronic enthusiasts, including Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, whose technology hobby led to the birth of the personal computer. Backed by venture capital, the movement has spawned a lot of startups with cool tech toys and services--though most companies are shy about sharing their financial data.
There are disbelievers. Science writer Jonah Lehrer has questioned the usefulness and validity of self-experiments. "The brain is a gullible machine," he writes. "The very act of speculating about a causal relationship--say, for instance, the link between a pill and the ability to concentrate--warps the data, biasing our mind in a million little ways."
Warped or otherwise, I decided to give QS a three-month test drive, downloading Android apps and outfitting myself with devices to track my mood, sleep cycles, calories, location, spending and productivity. A typical day:
6:55 A.M. The sensors in my Zeo headband detect from my brain activity that I'm in "light sleep," so my smart alarm clock decides this is the optimal time to wake me up, playing soothing, xylophonic "daybreak" music. I disagree and hit snooze.
The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach was my favorite self-tracking device
7:05 A.M. Music resumes. I obediently switch on my bedside lamp and remove the black elastic headband that pushed a grapefruit-slice-size strip with three silver-layered sensors into my forehead. (After a few weeks of wear, my forehead is a bit bruised.) Throughout the night the sensors collected electrical signals from my brain, eye movement and facial muscles to determine which stage of sleep I was in: restorative deep sleep, when the heart rate and brain activity slow considerably; the R.E.M. stage of vivid dreaming, which helps with memory storage and emotional processing; the light sleep stage that links those two (a.k.a. "trash sleep"); and, finally, the dreaded "wake" stage, restless periods that I often don't remember in the morning.
My Zeo alarm clock ($199) wirelessly downloads my sleep data throughout the night. In the morning its bright digital display offers a graph of the previous night's cycles so that I can see exactly when I moved from light sleep into deep (11:35 p.m.). I can also insert a USB stick into the alarm clock to get my data and upload it to the grand Zeo database for easier desktop analysis. The company grants researchers access to that communal database, which now contains more than 400,000 nights' worth of sleep (take that, Scheherazade).
The clock rates my night based on the percentage of my total sleep that was deep and R.E.M., giving me a "ZQ" grade of 89 out of 120. The goal is to figure out the factors hurting your sleep score. A friend says he gave up Ambien after his Zeo revealed he was getting only trash sleep after popping the pills. I discovered that my circadian rhythms are such that I need to get to bed by midnight, or I miss my first sleep cycle, in which I get the bulk of my deep sleep.
Zeo was started in 2003 by sleep-deprived engineering students at Brown University who wanted to feel less groggy. They started selling consumer devices in 2009. The company topped $26 million in backing in January with a $12.3 million joint-infusion from Johnson & Johnson and Best Buy, one of the stores that distributes the devices. Zeo cofounder and chief technology officer, Ben Rubin, 28, says that once you start tracking one thing, you're invariably led to monitor and exercise control over other parts of your life.
Rubin calls himself a "body hacker," breaking into his system to try to improve it. He averages an 85 ZQ but tops 100 when he chooses to "crash." Slightly overweight for most of his life, he emphasizes that adequate sleep helps with heft maintenance. In order to slim down more, he started tracking his meals, his exercise with a Daily Run iPhone app and his weight with a Withings Wi-Fi scale ($159) that automatically sends the number to an online chart he's shared with his social networks. Public shame is a great appetite suppressant. His account shows a yearlong drop from 187 to 167 pounds (though he's now back up to 175 pounds).
"The Quantified Self started with uber-geeks, like the guy in San Francisco who has a laptop out at all times to record everything that's happening," says Rubin. "They noticed the huge benefits of quantifying their lives, but it was expensive and time consuming. Now there are all these easier ways for consumers to track, so they can just pick up a device and use it without being Quantified Self nerds."
8:30 A.M. I return from a morning run on a path next to Manhattan's East River. A gray elastic band presses a palm-size white plastic square into my left tricep. The BodyMedia armband ($249, plus monthly subscription) has a motion-sensing accelerometer to count my steps and sensors to measure how much I sweat, my skin temperature and the heat produced by my muscles to calculate calories burned. It also measures my sleep (based on movement, not brain activity) and has a Web interface and smartphone app for logging what I eat and checking calories burned. The company has a longer reach than most QS device makers, having started in 1999 developing armbands for use in out-of-lab health studies. Three years ago it changed focus to target a wider market: fitness-conscious consumers. Seven in ten clients are female, largely because of its partnership with Jenny Craig. BodyMedia CEO Christine Robins says the company has the world's largest living database of energy output, activity and behavior change.
My BodyMedia armband is both a tracker and a motivator, as I strive to rack up active minutes each day, which, given my current schedule, can be challenging. Today's 32-minute, 4,630-step run is a good start. On other days that involve just a 15-minute walk to work, then sitting in front of a computer, it's much harder to meet my meager goal of two hours of activity. From wearing the device I realize how terribly sedentary my daily routine is. That's led me to be more dedicated to my morning run or to lunch-time trips to the FORBES gym.
My behavior illustrates why angel investors like Esther Dyson are putting money behind self-tracking companies, such as GreenGoose, a startup that will soon sell kits with sensors that users can attach to their bikes, running gear or vitamin bottles. Applying a game-like approach to tracking, users get points when the sensors indicate that they've met goals for that day. "Everybody could be healthier," Dyson says. She thinks the health care crisis will push the industry toward self-tracking "to reduce the amount of health care needed and the cost of it."
Her bet is that employers and insurance companies will increasingly pay for these devices. Last October semiconductor maker Tokyo Electron America bought Fitbits--a $99 thumb-size step-and-calorie counting device men can clip to their waistband and women to their bras--for its more than 1,100 U.S. employees. Over a 12-week program, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, they collectively dropped 214 pounds.
From my happiness report
12:30 P.M. Trackyourhappiness.org pings me three times a day to fill out surveys to track my moods, requesting answers within ten minutes to gauge my exuberance quotient. It gives me a spectrum from "very bad" to "very good" for that question and then goes on to ask who I'm with, where I am and what I'm doing, as well as a variety of seemingly unrelated questions, like whether I've been sexually active in the past 24 hours or if I expect good things to happen in the future.
If I'm with people when the survey request comes in, it actually diminishes my happiness since I'm forced to ignore my friends momentarily. Affectiva, an MIT-spawned company, will soon release the "Q-sensor." Aimed for now at autistic children, it's a wristband that tracks and measures "emotional arousal" and stress based on electrical changes in the skin. If linked to your phone by Bluetooth, it could send you e-mails telling you when you're overstressed and need to chill.
After filling out 50 happiness surveys, the program spits out a report. I'm happiest when drinking at bars (duh); least happy on planes and at work (ahem); Sunday is my happiest day of the week followed by Wednesday; I'm just as happy alone as with other people, and I'm happier interacting with my ex than with my current boyfriend. I'm at a slight loss for what to do with these results. Does this mean I should spend more time in bars and less time at work to optimize my happiness? And should I rethink my relationship?
When I attend my first Quantified Self Meetup, I discover that other members share my excitement and perplexity: They don't know what to do with their data. The monthly gatherings, organized through MeetUp.com, feature new techniques for tracking, invite presenters to explain how they've made their data more meaningful and let startups promote their products. The QS' first national conference in May in Mountain View, Calif., with 400 attendees, has attracted more than $300,000 in sponsorships from the likes of Humana, Kaiser Permanente and Intel.
The conversation at one Meetup turns to the idea of devices that make decisions for us. Your Withings scale might decide to lock your freezer to deny access to that quart of Ben & Jerry's. A team at MIT has designed a Bluetooth-enabled "proverbial wallet" with a mechanical hinge that gets harder to open as the money in the holder's bank account dwindles.
Is the Quantified Self a cult? Members ardently believe in technology's power to transform us; they embrace the Buddhist idea of mindfulness; and they proselytize. "This is a huge cultural transformation at the level of what happened with fitness in this country," says QS cofounder Gary Wolf. "That's where we're headed with the Quantified Self. Not that everybody will be taking their own measure, but that everyone will have at least encountered it and that many people will be trying it."
RescueTime's catalogue of my activities this week
6:00 P.M. I log into RescueTime on my office computer for a rating of my productivity for the month so far (FORBES IT installed it at my request). The program logs everything I do, labeling certain activities (like writing posts at Forbes.com) as productive and others (like visiting Facebook) as distracting. It says I've been "very productive" for almost 44 of the 85 hours it's been tracking me this month and "very distracted" for 19 of those hours. The biggest culprit for distraction is my personal Gmail account, where I've spent eight hours this month while at work. I now know what issue to attack--and, as of this writing, so does my boss.
Tracking has changed the life of Seth Roberts, a psych professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Roberts, 57, has been tracking himself since he was a pimply-faced graduate student at Brown University in the 1970s (and thereby discovered that cream worked better than pills in managing acne).
Roberts has specific goals when he monitors his weight, sleep, blood sugar, blood pressure and arithmetic skills. "Self-tracking allows us to find solutions to our health problems that medical researchers can't find," says Roberts. Sometimes it leads to serendipitous discoveries. When trying to discern if standing contributed to weight loss, Roberts learned that being on his feet eight hours a day improved his sleep and that standing on one bent leg for eight minutes had the same effect.
6:30 P.M. I get an e-mail from Mint.com, a site that aggregates financial data from my bank, credit card, investment, loan and savings accounts, and created a budget. Mint monitors my spending; this e-mail tells me I exceeded my monthly travel budget by $345 as a result of back-to-back weekends in D.C. and New Orleans. No more trips for a while.
Nicholas Felton
Graphic designer Nick Felton, 33, isn't so regimented. Thanks to media excitement around his "Feltron Annual Report," a summation of his yearlong tracking with striking, colorful infographics posted on his website, he may be the most visible QS apostle. He wears a Fitbit for step counting and tracks his day in 15-minute increments using the calendar on his iPhone. His reports have included a heat map of New York City of where he spent time, and breakdowns of the music he listened to most (tracked by Last.FM) and how much he spent per mile traveled ($5.26 per treadmill mile, versus 5 cents on an airplane and 93 cents on the subway; oops--time to get to the gym more often).
Three years ago Felton created Daytum.com, a website that lets its 75,000 users track and display personal data. It's all public, unless you opt for a $4-a-month premium account. "If you want privacy, you have to pay for it," says Felton. "It's interesting to see what people choose to share publicly. Bathroom visits, sexual activity, drug use." Felton, who is turning Daytum into a full-time business, thinks most users aren't searching for answers; they just want to turn their data into interesting narratives, like how much milk they drank in a year. "People are interested in observing their habits and understanding how they spend their time," he says.
7:15 P.M. I use the Foursquare app on my Android to document my arrival at an East Village Japanese restaurant. Foursquare offers a chronicle of the places I go to most and an announcement to friends of where I am at any given time.
My location-tracking is simply recreational, but at UCLA researchers are using a phone's GPS system for personalized health care. They've developed pilot programs that rely solely on smartphone technology to monitor, assess and treat participants. In addition to location, Androids and iPhones can track motion thanks to accelerometers (incorporated to sense the phone's vertical or horizontal orientation and flip its screen). The team built a "stress app" to track the anxiety of new mothers: a button, coupled with geo- and time-coded data, to reveal exactly when and where new mothers' stress levels soar--feedback that helps the women address their angst.
But that benefit comes with a trade-off: The app knows perhaps too much about the moms' daily routines. The UCLA team agonized over this and is pondering the use of "personal data vaults," a digital lock box run by a third-party intermediary (which would require passing state laws to give them special privacy protection). "With these wireless devices on us at all times, there will be no more meaningful distinction between being online and being offline," says UCLA law professor Jerry Kang, who imagines a scenario of a divorce attorney using sleep data from a Zeo to prove one parent doesn't deserve custody because she's out partying and not getting sleep. "It's a recipe for disaster."
11:00 P.M. I wish my final check of the day were a website combining all the ways I'm tracking myself so that all my accounts could live together--not to protect my privacy but to more easily reveal interesting correlations. I imagine it showing where spending money makes me happiest and which activities lead to the soundest sleep.
"That's the holy grail," says BodyMedia CEO Christine Robins. "Creating the company that figures out how to aggregate and collect a range of information in an automated way and apply artificial intelligence that helps you interpret it."
Until then I'm left to my own interpretive devices. I've decided my happiness report doesn't mean I need to break up with my boyfriend: The survey I took while talking to my ex was at a bar while drinking, which may explain the high level of happiness, while my current has been present for a far greater number of surveys (sober and inebriated), resulting in mellower (but still high!) levels of happiness. Hello, heart. Data don't always tell the whole story.
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d3a7565e750a9151f907b821c265af26 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/04/13/hugh-grant-turns-table-on-celeb-tapping-journalist/ | Hugh Grant Turns Table on Celeb-Tapping Journalist | Hugh Grant Turns Table on Celeb-Tapping Journalist
Hugh Grant gets a byline
I don't think Hugh Grant has ever played the role of a journalist in a film, but he made a nice go at it in real life. Grant's been the subject of many a tabloid story over the past decade, but this week, he's the author of one. Grant sported a hidden tape recorder during drinks with a former celebrity-beat journalist and published the most scandalous and interesting parts of their conversation in the New Statesman, including whether or not Rupert Murdoch had any idea about the phone hacking that journalists were doing at News of the World, one of the newspapers owned by News Corp.
Grant had met Paul McMullan, an ex-News of the World journalist, in December, when Grant's Ferrari broke down on a Kent highway and McMullan gave him a lift (after snapping some photos to sell to the Daily Mail for 3,000 pounds). McMullan is one of the journalists who has provided evidence of the illegal lengths NotW journalists were going to in order to break news stories about celebrities and royals -- including allegedly breaking into their voice mailboxes. A former editor and current reporter for the paper were arrested and charged with "unlawful interception of voicemail messages" earlier this month.
Sienna Miller
Meanwhile news subjects -- such as actress Sienna Miller -- have filed lawsuits against the paper for violating their privacy. (Ironically, those civil suits against the paper had been delayed for privacy reasons -- Miller's phone company, Vodafone, refused to provide her with data about which numbers had accessed her voice mail, until she got a court order.) News of the World issued a "whoops, we're sorry" statement about the phone hacking on Sunday.
In the transcript of Grant's convo with the former paparazzo, titled The Bugger, Bugged, McMullan's candid with Grant about practices among the UK press, in part because he didn't realize he was being recorded:
McMullan: Good question. You're not taping, are you? Grant: [slightly shrill voice] No.
McMullan and Grant have a fairly long back-and-forth about whether it's unethical to listen in on the conversations of celebrities. McMullan argues that they are public figures and not entitled to privacy. Grant, obviously, disagrees with that point of view.
McMullan also argues that phone hacking should be permissible because it's so easy to do. I'd like to think that he was befuddled by beer, but he makes the argument that hacking a landline should be illegal but hacking a mobile phone shouldn't be, because of the difficulty of doing the former. Have I mentioned that McMullan is a journalist and not a lawyer?
Grant went beyond philosophical discussions and interrogated McMullan about the extent to which higher-ups knew about the phone hacking going on, asking, for example, about whether Rupert Murdoch might have known:
Grant: Do you think Murdoch knew about phone-hacking? McMullan: Errr, possibly not. He's a funny bloke given that he owns the Sun and the Screws . . . quite puritanical. Sorry to talk about Divine Brown [Ed note: the sex worker with whom Grant was found to be friendly], but when that came out . . . Murdoch was furious: "What are you putting that on our front page for? You're bringing down the tone of our papers." [Indicating himself] That's what we do over here. Grant: Well, it's also because it was his film I was about to come out in. McMullan: Oh. I see. Grant: Yeah. It was a Fox film.
There'll certainly be more interesting testimony to come as the criminal and civil cases around the phone-hacking proceed in London. But this an interesting start, and a fascinating reversal of the roles of privacy invader and invaded.
All in all, nice reporting work by Grant. Though it looks like he could have used some old-fashioned fact-checking. He writes that when McMullan rescued him on the highway in December, he was driving a "battered white van," but in the photo that ran in the Mail, the van is maroon.
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38c1645ad66895c98f1fc969986ceae9 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/04/20/cool-or-creepy-your-iphone-and-ipad-are-keeping-track-of-everywhere-you-go-and-you-can-see-it/ | Cool or Creepy? Your iPhone and iPad Are Keeping Track of Everywhere You Go, And You Can See It | Cool or Creepy? Your iPhone and iPad Are Keeping Track of Everywhere You Go, And You Can See It
Your iPhone knows where you've been
If you have an iPhone or iPad, it's tracking your every move. Regular readers know that all smartphones do this; what's different for Macheads is that this record of everywhere they've been is stored in a file on their Apple devices (rather than locked away in a corporate database).
Two journalists/researchers stumbled upon the location file on their jail-broken iPhones while looking for cool information to visualize. Named "consolidated.db," the file has thousands of location data points for each of them starting at the time they respectively updated their operating systems to iOS 4 -- released in June 2010. Each location point includes latitude, longitude, a time stamp, and the IP address for the wireless network their phone was accessing for service. One of the researchers had 33,000 location check-ins over seven months (including a few erroneously placing him in South America).
So, are you freaked out or blown away?
Alastair Allan, who lives in England, visualizes the location data from his phone. The red dots... [+] shows where he transfers planes on trips to the U.S.
The researchers who discovered this, Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan, posted a video about it on O'Reilly Radar. While talking about how they discovered it and what it reveals about their routines over the past year, they oscillate between being disturbed by Apple putting the file on their device without informing them about it -- and the implications of that for privacy -- and being excited about the cool things that they might be able to do with that information.
Warden, who worked at Apple for five years and "loves the company," expresses concern about the fact that the history is sitting on a plain, unencrypted file on the iPhone, and then transferred to a computer any time the device is synced.
"Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you've been," Pete Warden told the Guardian in an article that fans the privacy fear flames.
But Warden and Alastair say they don't plan to try to get rid of the file from their devices even if they could. Self-proclaimed geeks, they express excitement about the "innovation and cool stuff" that could come from this kind of collection of our location data. Apple has not issued any public statement about the file, but Warden and Allan suspect it is part of the geo-fencing capabilities that the company has talked about for the iPhone.
So as with so much technology innovation, we're faced with the question: is this cool or is this creepy?
"What you have to be aware of, of course, is that the cell operators/providers themselves have all this information," notes Allan in the video where they talk about their discovery.
iPhone location data showing Allan's Amtrak trip from New York to D.C. (From O'Reilly Radar)
"But in order to get hold of it, you have to get a court order or go to some extreme lengths to get this information from your cell provider," responds Warden. Recently, German politician Malte Spitz went to those extreme lengths, taking Deutsche Telekom to court to get his location data. If Apple were his mobile phone provider, that time and expense wouldn't have been required. Warden has created an application allowing Apple users to visualize the data in their hidden location file.
(Non-Macheads who can't try this out, here's what the tracking maps reveal.)
Yet Warden and Allan are bothered that Apple did not inform customers about this, and that the file is sitting there unencrypted.
I don't have an iPhone myself, and Warden and Allan have not found any kind of location file like this on the Android (the phone I now have). But, personally, I'd love to have all of my location data dating back to the acquisition of my first cell phone in the early aughts. I'd love to sync it with that of my significant other and figure out how we previously lived in the same city for five years, with mutual acquaintances, and never managed to meet. 'Twould be fun to see the moments when we were at the same concert, bar, or restaurant, unaware of the other.
So, Google, if you could work on getting this on the Android for future use, that'd be great. But please make sure that creepy apps can't tap into it.
Meanwhile, Apple users can visualize their own data with Warden's "iPhone Tracker" here.
Tip o' the Hat to Jeff Bercovici who spotted Alastair Allan's O'Reilly Radar article. And check out YouTube to see Warden and Allan discussing their findings.
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e7797336bd6214be2aa061564b08b94d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/05/09/british-celebs-supposed-secrets-posted-to-twitter/ | British Celebs' Supposed Secrets Posted To Twitter | British Celebs' Supposed Secrets Posted To Twitter
British socialite Jemima Khan says she's not part of a super injunction, calling the allegation "a... [+] bloody nightmare"
An anonymous Twitter user has England questioning the usefulness of gag orders for the press in the social media age. A tweep going by the name @InjunctionSuper posted a series of micro-messages this weekend about scandals involving British celebs such as chef star Gordon Ramsay that have allegedly been hushed up in the UK press thanks to "super injunctions."
If you don't live in the UK, that may not mean much to you. A super-injunction is a nifty little court order that public figures can get to prohibit the British press from reporting something embarrassing about them that's not deemed to be essential information for public consumption. The first rule about super injunctions is that you can't talk about super injunctions. (There are also normal injunctions that allow a public figure to be kept anonymous, but do not suppress reporting on the events entirely.)
Since the press can't report on whether a super injunction actually exists, the coverage of the scandal and the need to tiptoe around the allegations and who stands accused makes for some rather awkwardly-written articles in the UK press.
The UK press aren't including the names of the six celebs who allegedly have super-injunctions nor why they allegedly have them (mainly the usual tabloid fodder of affairs, prostitutes and sex toys). Nor are they naming or linking to the Twitter account, likely for fear of being found in contempt of court if the celebs do have super injunctions. Which is probably proof that they do have super-injunctions, a point socialite Jemima Khan made via Twitter after saying that she is not part of English broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson's injunction: "The proof that I haven't got a super injunction is that the papers have printed my name (and no one else's- for fear of being sued)."
(Claire O'Connor of Filthy Rich pointed out to me by email that there's a certain irony to Khan's getting caught up in this Twitter leak. She's on the record as a supporter of rapid transparency. The heiress offered to help bail out Julian Assange during his extradition hearing in London. She also encouraged ex-boyfriend Hugh Grant to turn the tables on a former tabloid reporter and bug their off-the-record conversation for the New Statesman.)
These days, the press are not the sole gatekeepers for information reaching a wider audience, meaning super injunctions are only guaranteed to work if journalists have exclusive access to scandalous info. In this particular case, there's no putting this scandalous toothpaste back in the tube. Over 50,000 people are following @InjunctionSuper on Twitter and other Twitter users have retweeted the allegations hundreds of times. This has led Emma Barnett to suggest in the Telegraph that super injunctions no longer work in the digital age.
It's true that it's hard to keep secrets these days. It's also true that whoever is behind @InjunctionSuper could still be brought to court by one of those with a super injunction and have to pay some nasty fines. Just because he or she has an anonymous account doesn't mean that the tweep can't be tracked down by subpoenaing Twitter to get his or her IP address.
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99da2eb340f7cd183503193b53ac2098 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/01/fox13-reporter-files-50-million-lawsuit-against-thedirty-com-saying-nude-photos-arent-her/ | Fox13 Reporter Files $50 Million Lawsuit Against TheDirty.com Saying Nude Photos Aren't Hers | Fox13 Reporter Files $50 Million Lawsuit Against TheDirty.com Saying Nude Photos Aren't Hers
TV news reporter sues TheDirty.com
TheDirty.com is in legal hot water yet again. The site is infamous for its scandalous photos and crude comments -- often toeing the line of what's legal, and sometimes crossing it. Lauren Lee Gauck, a Tennessee TV news reporter for Fox13, claims the site crossed that line when it posted a photo montage of her that included nude photos, and alleged drug use. Lee says that the allegations are false and that the nudie pics weren't of her.
Her lawsuit against the "micro-celebrity gossip site" for defamation demands that the post be taken down and that she be awarded $50 million in damages, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. TheDirty.com took the post down after being contacted by Gauck's attorney, but not before it attracted 22,000 views, according to her lawsuit. So she's already faring better against the site than did fellow reporter Erin Andrews. After the ESPN sportscaster's lawyer contacted the TheDirty.com asking it to take down nude photos of her that had been taken by a peephole stalker, the site responded by republishing them. The site's being much more careful this time around...
Dirty.com founder Nik Ritchie (also known by his real name Hooman Karamaian) has been sued several times now, and at least once successfully. A Texas woman won a $1.5 million judgment after the site published comments suggesting she had herpes. A Kentucky cheerleader initially won a $11-million default judgment after the site alleged she had STDs after letting numerous Cincinnati Bengals team members play with her pom poms -- but she had accidentally sued the wrong site (thedirt.com rather than thedirty.com), so that lawsuit is ongoing.
Gauck has quite a case. TheDirty.com "publicly portrayed Ms.Gauckas, among other things, a person who poses for lascivious nude pictures and/or is otherwise involved in pornographic activity, uses and abuses alcohol and drugs, engages in promiscuous sexual activity, and physically assaults other person due to excessive drinking," states the complaint. "The defamatory material is highly offensive to Ms.Gauck and would be highly offensive to a reasonable person."
How many lawsuits can one gossip site withstand before folding? We may just find out.
When I interviewed Richie in the fall, I asked him if he worries about these lawsuits bringing an end to his dirty business. “If you sue me, all it’s going to do is cost you money,” he told me. “Email me nicely and I’ll take it down.”
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31319ba74462290c8c2b14d41c413503 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/16/google-offers-up-a-free-online-reputation-monitoring-tool/ | Google Offers A Free 'Online Reputation Monitoring' Tool | Google Offers A Free 'Online Reputation Monitoring' Tool
Image via CrunchBase
I've been begging readers to put a Google Alert on their name for years. Google is now going to make it even easier for peeps to keep track of what's being said about them online, with "Me on the Web." From the Google public policy blog (via Mashable):
[Y]our online identity is determined not only by what you post, but also by what others post about you -- whether a mention in a blog post, a photo tag or a reply to a public status update. When someone searches for your name on a search engine like Google, the results that appear are a combination of information you’ve posted and information published by others. Today we’ve released a new tool to help make it easier to monitor your identity on the web and to provide easy access to resources describing ways to control what information is on the web. via Google Public Policy Blog: Me, Myself and I: Helping to manage your identity on the web.
If you already have a Google account, getting to the tool is easy:
Go to your Google Dashboard (https://www.google.com/dashboard/). Under "Me on the Web," click "Set up search alerts for your data." Click the relevant boxes. I have search alerts set up for my name, a variant of my name ("Kash Hill" in addition to "Kashmir Hill"), and for my email address.
The new reputation monitoring tool
Less easy is getting something nasty that pops up in that monitoring taken down. Google includes a link to instructions for getting websites removed from Google search results. If a site exposes confidential data (such as when my sister found a spreadsheet online that contained hers and others' social security numbers), you can use Google's URL removal tool to send an urgent request to have that site removed. Otherwise, you're stuck contacting a site's webmaster and begging them to take pity on you.
Alternately, there are a host of start-ups that hope to make money off of helping you clean up your Internet face.
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c23039bca4b262ae0c5542b81093fe20 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/20/was-googles-call-dad-reminder-in-gmail-too-invasive/ | Was Google's 'Call Dad' Reminder In Gmail Too Invasive? | Was Google's 'Call Dad' Reminder In Gmail Too Invasive?
Google's message to Gmail users on Father's Day rubbed some the wrong way
To mark Father's Day (and to promote its Voice and Video Chat service), Google inserted a reminder into users' Gmail accounts on Sunday to "call dad." The message appeared in a user's Google Chat box, which is usually populated only by status messages written by friends and contacts.
I spotted it only after having already called my father. I had a mixed reaction; I thought it cute, but also odd as I'd never seen a message from Google pop up there before. Others had a stronger reaction to the message, particularly those who have lost their fathers, or have terrible relationships with them.
Those pained by the holiday and the reminder flocked to a Google forum for help removing the message. "I very recently lost my dad and while I understand the sentiment, having that 'reminder' there is incredibly mocking," wrote one user. "I'm sure it was a sweet and genuine idea by someone who meant well, but we're already bombarded by reminders that it's Father's Day; seeing that little 'Call Dad' note just isn't pleasant for those of us who CAN'T call Dad," wrote another.
With its millions of Gmail users, Google has a powerful platform for promoting its other products. But given all that the company knows about its users and its intimate access to them, it has to be careful about how it takes advantage of that platform. Buzz was the epic example of Google failing to exercise that care. This is a smaller but similar example. Alexia Tsotsis writes at TechCrunch:
Albeit micro, ‘Reminder: Call dad’ is just one more example of Google not entirely grasping social niceties. It should be obvious that putting up a status message that’s offensive to some users (especially users whose fathers have passed away, or were abusive, et al.), in a place that most people consider private, might not go over well. But it wasn’t. Google's Father's Day doodle As many of the Hacker News commenters pointed out, the line between what should be public versus private is the kicker here. People don’t get angry when Google uses its homepage logo to celebrate a holiday (in fact Google also put the same reminder on its homepage, to lesser complaint) because they consider the homepage a public space. via ‘Reminder: Call Dad’ Is Another Notch In Google’s Belt Of Social Fail.
Google's a quirky company, and this is the kind of cutesy gesture I expect from them. I'm probably in the majority in welcoming the reminder and while I'm the kind of person who is wary of people being oversensitive about kindly holiday greetings, I still think Google should take seriously the minority of users offended by the message. While users have adjusted to ads in their mailboxes, personal messages that don't come in email form are a step too far, especially when they come in the form of commands. (In other words, Google, avoid messages advising Gmail users to "buy lots of presents" on Christmas Eve, "drink a lot" on St. Patrick's Day, "repent your sins" on Easter, or "call the devil" on Halloween.)
On the forum offering instructions for how to "disable this and any future insensitive reminders from Google to call someone from your Gmail," a user writes: "I'm sure in a Google-designed childhood everyone would be loved, protected, and nurtured to be the best little software engineer he/she can be. However, I don't appreciate the reminder of my unpleasant childhood and presumption that I want to speak to my father. My email is not the place for this. This was your free one, Google. Next time you get this personal I'm deleting my accounts."
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c25db74f410b007b203e8340ad92dfcc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/06/28/federal-judge-and-his-very-famous-law-clerk-say-the-fourth-amendment-is-all-but-obsolete-thanks-to-safeway-club-card-amazon-and-google/ | Federal Judge and His Very Famous Law Clerk Say The Fourth Amendment 'Is All But Obsolete' Thanks To Safeway Club Card, Amazon and Google | Federal Judge and His Very Famous Law Clerk Say The Fourth Amendment 'Is All But Obsolete' Thanks To Safeway Club Card, Amazon and Google
Time to scratch off that Fourth one?
The chief justice of the Ninth Circuit and one of his law clerks have penned a eulogy for the Fourth Amendment (that's the one providing our constitutional right to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures). It's been murdered, Judge Alex Kozinski and Stephanie Grace write in an editorial for The Daily, and you all are the guilty culprits.
You've put a knife in it, by letting supermarkets track your shopping in exchange for loyalty discounts, letting Amazon and eBay store your credit card info, and letting Google track the websites you visit and take photos of your homes with satellites.
The problem, at least constitutionally speaking, is that the Fourth Amendment protects only what we reasonably expect to keep private. One facet of this rule, known as the third party doctrine, is that we don’t have reasonable expectations of privacy in things we’ve already revealed to other people or the public... With so little left private, the Fourth Amendment is all but obsolete. Where police officers once needed a warrant to search your bookshelf for “Atlas Shrugged,” they can now simply ask Amazon.com if you bought it. Where police needed probable cause before seizing your day planner, they can now piece together your whereabouts from your purchases, cellphone data and car’s GPS. Someday soon we’ll realize that we’ve lost everything we once cherished as private. via Remember what the Fourth Amendment protects? No? Just as well. | United States |Axisoflogic.com.
The lamentation for the loss of privacy has special resonance coming from these two.
Judge Kozinski's law clerk, Stephanie Grace, was at the heart of a private-email-gone-viral scandal last year, after a good-friend-turned-enemy provided an email Grace had written about the link between race and intelligence to a black law student association member, who sent it out on a list-serv, leading it to be picked up by blogs and the mainstream media. Much digital ink was spilled over whether or not the email was racist, and whether it would ruin her career.
Her boss has also been at the heart of a scandal, after a hacker got access to his personal files and found sexually-explicit jokes there -- of the standard chain letter variety, including "cow porn." But more importantly, Judge Kozinski is one of the top federal judges in the United States. Born in Romania to Holocaust survivors, he likely has a Continental European sense of privacy, that is, a heightened respect for it, given the terrible things a government can do when it knows too much about you and its power is not restrained.
Their editorial gets at the loss of privacy that is becoming the norm in the tech age, when we willingly hand over our private data to corporations for convenience's sake. The problem is that this wears away at what is considered "private." Kozinski and Grace don't offer a solution, though I imagine they're hoping the Supreme Court will read this before deciding a new case added to the docket this week, U.S. v. Jones, deciding whether police need a warrant to put a GPS tracking device on someone's car. Wired called it "one of the biggest Fourth Amendment cases in a decade."
By Kozinski and Grace's logic, the Court could say that because most people have a Garmin in their car at all times keeping track of their GPS (as well as a smartphone doing the same thing), their reasonable expectation of privacy in where they go has taken a hit. Privacy advocates will be hoping that the Supreme Court will keep the Fourth Amendment on life support by deciding that law enforcement do need to get a court's permission before slapping a tracker on your vehicle.
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d0504bd052d3dc59d1217e2a10545880 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/07/19/someone-posted-something-nasty-about-you-on-the-internet-now-what/ | Someone Posted Something Nasty About You On The Internet. Now What? | Someone Posted Something Nasty About You On The Internet. Now What?
This is the last post in a three-part series about online defamation and involuntary nudity. The first focused on an offender and the second on a victim. Here, we focus on a Microsoft attorney who has started a side project to help victims.
Colette Vogele, of WithoutMyConsent.org
When Colette Vogele took a job at Microsoft over a year ago, she had one condition. While running her own Internet law firm in San Francisco for five years, she had handled three cases in which clients’ nude photos and sex tapes had wound up on porn sites on the Internet against their will, thanks to vengeful ex-partners. She had become acutely aware of how difficult it can be to get defamatory material off the Internet without drawing more attention to the fact that the mega-embarrassing material exists.
She wanted to offer resources to people facing similar situations, but knew that wouldn’t be something that would be part of her job as a copyright and trade secrets lawyer for Microsoft. Thus, part of her job negotiations included securing permission to do this on the side.
“There should be repercussions for people who publish intimate sex tapes without the permission of the video’s stars,” says Vogele. In June, spurred to action by the Tyler Clementi tragedy, she and a co-founder launched Without My Consent, a website with resources for those who whose unclothed selves wind up on websites, or whose amateur sex videos suddenly get uploaded to YouTube against their will. The site offers resources for the lawyers working on the cases and for victims to help them navigate the legal system to try to get the material removed and to unmask their anonymous assailants, all without becoming victims of “the Streisand Effect…”
“I don’t think a lawsuit is always the answer,” says Vogele, who advises first contacting a site owner (like Hunter Moore of IsAnybodyUp, a site that posts nude photos alongside Facebook profile screenshots) to try to get material taken down. But to find out who is behind the photo submission may well involve going to court to get a subpoena to force a site owner to unveil the responsible party.
There are many privacy organizations that deal with issues around online defamation, but Vogele’s website may be the first how-to-guide for victims. Without My Consent has resources explaining relevant law in a given state and offers procedural advice for doing that -- the most important of which is how to file a lawsuit pseudonymously, so as not to enter evidence of your sexy or defamatory material into official public record.
“The last thing you want is to be public in court and create more records about the problem you’re trying to get rid of,” says Vogele. Within legal circles, this is commonly referred to as the Streisand Effect, named for Barbra Streisand who sued to get a site to take down paparazzi photos of her home. Her lawsuit launched a gajillion news stories, which all included the photo of her home, eliminating any chance she had of getting it scrubbed from the Internet.
I mentioned the case of Paul Syiek, who went to court and won his case against an ex-employee who had defamed him on the consumer website Ripoff Report. Though he won a six-figure judgment against the person and had a legal judgment proving that the statements were defamatory, Ripoff Report will not take the posting down (a position that has legal protection thanks to a federal court ruling in the website’s favor in another case).
“I think it’s going to be really important to involve the tech companies in this conversation,” says Vogele, who admits the legal system has limitations. Given her employer, it seems like Vogele is in the right circles to make this happen.
What about Vogele’s own clients from her law firm days? She says that two of the cases settled, and the third has stalled as the judge won’t let the client proceed pseudonymously. In the first case she took on, they sent out letters to all the sites hosting the sex tape and 85% of them took it down. But when you Google the woman’s name with sex, the remaining sites come up at the top of the search results. “That client is thinking about changing her name,” says Vogele. “She’s still nervous to go online. She’s afraid of setting up a Facebook account.”
Bookmark WithoutMyConsent.org in case you or a friend wind up naked on the Internet.
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48ab6dc242aea520d6c3ebba61a6ffe8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/05/flight-of-the-paparazzi-drone/ | Flight of the Paparazzi Drone | Flight of the Paparazzi Drone
In thinking about news organizations' uses of drones, there are a variety of potential applications. News Corp's The Daily used a drone to gather footage of disaster areas in Mississippi and North Dakota. While unobjectionable journalistically, it may have violated FAA regulations in doing so, as the agency currently prohibits strictly commercial use of drones. I asked the Daily about the FAA investigation and whether they had legal certification for use of their MicroDrone MD4-1000. "We're not going to comment on our newsgathering," said a spokesperson.
Part of the concern about media's use of drones is where the line would be drawn on what's proper. What happens when paparazzi get their hands on drones? Basically, more photos of Paris Hilton. Here are paparazzi with a drone in France (via sUAS News):
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057025cbb4f115b2a3a1393946e1265e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/10/quote-of-the-day-silicon-valley-we-have-a-problem/ | Quote of the Day: Silicon Valley, We Have A Problem. | Quote of the Day: Silicon Valley, We Have A Problem.
“I cannot accept that individuals have no say over their data once it has been launched into cyberspace."
-- Wishful thinking from Viviane Reding, the European Union’s justice commissioner, speaking to the New York Times about Spain's attempts to force Google to grant people more control over the search results for their names.
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cd196f1e2ce7c170591153693a71db3b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/06/absolute-software-settles-lawsuit-over-nude-photos/ | Absolute Software Settles Lawsuit Over Nude Photos | Absolute Software Settles Lawsuit Over Nude Photos
Last week, I told you about the case of Susan Clements-Jeffrey, a schoolteacher who unknowingly bought a stolen laptop from one of her students for $60. (Though, at that price, she should have known it was stolen.) It in fact belonged to another school district, which asked laptop recovery firm Absolute Software to activate tracking program 'LoJack for Laptops' to retrieve it. While capturing the machine's IP address and geographical info, the folks at Absolute also nabbed nude photos that Clements-Jeffrey and her boyfriend exchanged. After the police showed those photos to the scandalous schoolteacher when they came to retrieve the device, calling them "disgusting," she, along with her boyfriend, sued the police officers and Absolute for invasion of privacy.
The case raised interesting questions about how intrusive laptop recovery software should be and whether the software company had gone too far with its techniques. Clements-Jeffrey's attorney, John Marshall, told me last week that his clients were "eager to bring the case to the jury," but it looks like they were more eager about taking a payout. The Associated Press reports that the case settled on Tuesday for an undisclosed amount.
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43fc46c440516f516ecfd7ba585dd6b7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/08/what-are-the-legal-penalties-for-using-craigslist-to-crowd-source-revenge/ | What Are The Legal Penalties For Using Craigslist To Crowd-Source Revenge? | What Are The Legal Penalties For Using Craigslist To Crowd-Source Revenge?
Craigslist is an ill-advised vehicle for revenge
After a disgruntled law student who was the subject of a story I wrote for Above the Law posted my photo and cell phone number in a "Casual Encounters" ad on Craigslist -- causing my phone to ring off the hook for hours one Sunday morning -- I coined the term "crowd-sourced revenge" to describe it. I was far from the only victim of a Fake-Craigslist-Ad prank. It's a fairly easy and anonymous way to recruit unwitting volunteers to harass a person who has gotten under your skin. But it's also illegal.
A security consultant contacted me saying he wanted to assist me in pressing charges, but I felt satisfied enough after having written about it. In that post last year, I mentioned cases in which victims had chosen to involve authorities:
(1) A feuding Connecticut neighbor posted a fake orgy ad in Casual Encounters titled “Looking for Lust,” claiming it had been posted by a “married West Hartford soccer mom … looking for group sex.” Several lusty strangers showed up (while one confused one showed up at the wrong address where he groped a confused teenage girl in his eagerness).
(2) An angry pharmacist at a CVS in Norwalk, Conn. created a fake "Sex Partner Wanted" ad after a female customer complained of bad service. She got numerous calls; when Craigslist later provided her with the email address linked to the ad's posting, police were able to link it back to the pharmacist.
(3) A 40-year-old woman in Long Island posted a "looking for a good time?" ad in an Escort Service area on Craigslist, providing the phone number for her 9-year-old neighbor after the little girl argued with her daughter;
(4) In the most disturbing example of Craigslist revenge I've ever come across, a rejected ex-boyfriend posted a "rape fantasy" ad on behalf of his ex-girlfriend, and a 26-year-old man fulfilled it.
So what are the criminal penalties for this kind of thing? In the last example, they were appropriately severe. Both the ex-boyfriend and the Craigslist-ad-responding rapist plead guilty to felonies including sexual assault and were sentenced to 60 years. (Note to readers: Yet another reason NOT to respond to rape fantasy ads.) But when the crime does not go beyond the prank itself, the punishment is usually simple probation.
The Connecticut neighbor, Philip Conran, 44, was just sentenced this week: "three years of probation and 200 hours of community service," reports the AP. He also has to pay for his neighbor's new alarm system. The bad-pill pharmacist similarly got two years of probation. The Long Island mother, Margery Tannenbaum, who perpetrated her Craigslist prank on her minor neighbor back in the summer of 2009 still hasn't been sentenced; her next court appearance is set for January 2012.
I'm noticing two trends here. The first is that you won't usually wind up in jail for a Craigslist prank, though you will end up with a misdemeanor criminal record. The second is that many of these pranks seem to happen in the Northeast, leading me to think that passive aggressiveness may be a regional character trait.
Related: Using Craigslist to crowdsource revenge
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cedbbd62ec34f2c8b946fb275c1aede7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/19/netflix-whoops-qwikster-twitter-account-run-by-a-pot-smoking-elmo/ | Netflix Whoops: Qwikster Twitter Account Already Taken -- By A Pot-Smoking Elmo | Netflix Whoops: Qwikster Twitter Account Already Taken -- By A Pot-Smoking Elmo
P.R. 201: Nail down your company Twitter account.
Afraid of becoming like "AOL dial-up or a Borders bookstore," Netflix announced that it needs to change to keep up with the times. That evolution consists of Netflix ripping itself in two, with Netflix becoming a stream-only company and its newly-born brother Qwikster taking over the responsibility of mailing DVDs out to people. Timothy Lee explains why he thinks this is a bad idea for Netflix at the bargaining table. At the very least, it may not have been a very well-executed announcement. P.R. 101: Buy the url/domain name for your new product. P.R. 201: Nail down the Facebook page and the Twitter handle for it.
Twitter flunked P.R. 201. It hasn't started a Facebook page for Qwikster yet (though Netflix has a thriving one). And, as TechCrunch notes, the Qwikster Twitter account is already taken -- by a "Jason Castillo" whose icon is a red Elmo smoking a blunt. Not the greatest logo for the new company; Netflix can't be tickled by that. One of Qwikster's most recent updates, from June, conveys the overall tone of the account: "Bored as shyt wanna blaze but at the same time I don't ugh f** it where's the bowl at spark me up lls."
A better logo, via Qwikster.com
Redgrlsays quipped, "@Qwikster is out of every DVD except Half Baked and all the Cheech and Chong films."
Hey Netflix, better be qwik to get control of that account.
Update: The man behind the Qwikster account is looking to cash in. While selling a Twitter username is technically against site rules, he can probably find a way to work something out.
I asked Twitter about how it handles users who want to sell their accounts. Spokesperson Carolyn Penner says: "Beyond [posted Twitter rules], we don't comment on specific accounts, for privacy reasons, and it's not productive to get into a theoretical discussion."
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49b836b5f0d4da541158c8d8d7ab95f3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/09/26/gms-boneheaded-privacy-mistake-with-onstar/ | GM's Boneheaded Privacy Mistake With OnStar | GM's Boneheaded Privacy Mistake With OnStar
OnStar suffers a privacy backlash, after a data overreach
OnStar, the GM subsidiary that provides navigation and safety systems for cars, took a terrible turn last week when it announced a huge change to its contract with its customers. It informed them that it planned to continue to collect driving data from their devices even after they had canceled their OnStar subscriptions.
COLLECTING INFORMATION FROM NON-CUSTOMERS UNLESS THEY OPTED OUT. Valuable, sensitive information about when, where, and how they drive.
Jonathan Zdziarski was the first to notice the change, because he took the time to read the boring "updated terms and conditions" email the company had sent him. On the second page of the company's updated privacy statement -- that is set to go into effect in December -- OnStar wrote in bold:
Unless the Data Connection to your Vehicle is deactivated, data about your Vehicle will continue to be collected even if you do not have a Plan. It is important that you convey this to other drivers, occupants, or subsequent owners of your Vehicle. You may deactivate the Data Connection to your Vehicle at any time by contacting an OnStar Advisor.
That includes data about vehicle diagnostics (oil changes, tire pressure, gas used); information about crashes; and the car's GPS/location information. Zdziarski immediately canceled his account with the company (and took the time to contact an Advisor to cut the data connection to his vehicle). And now three senators are revving the engine for an investigation into the company's practices.
Watching you whether you're subscribed or not
Senators Al Franken and Chris Coons said the company's decision to collect information from non-customers was a blatant privacy violation and may break federal law. Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation, calling it "one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory."
I can't really imagine a scenario in which OnStar will actually decide to move forward with its plan. It could have been mighty valuable, creating an amazing wealth of information about American car use and giving GM a huge pool of test drivers in real road conditions.
(Update, September 27: OnStar has killed the plan.)
OnStar has millions of users; not only do the units come pre-installed in GM vehicles, they are now available for purchase for cars from other automakers. The company argued that when collecting data from units that were not actively subscribed, it would only be from customers who had previously chosen to subscribe to OnStar and had previously consented to the data collection. But (!) the service usually comes free with a new car for the first few months to try to hook subscribers. If the term change were to go through, that would mean OnStar would be able to collect information from all of these drivers, even if they opted never to actually pay for the service.
Language from an OnStar contract, indicating that it would continue to collect information from... [+] future owners of a vehicle, via Jonathan Zdziarski
It's mind-blowing that OnStar thought this would be okay. Just because you have a tracking device pre-installed in a vehicle doesn't mean it's okay to leave it turned on at all times. Though, the equivalent for those of us without vehicles might be companies placing cookies on our computers that then track us around the Internet. Perhaps Internet companies are starting to make other businesses like OnStar experience some data-envy, causing them to push the limits of their collection?
A huge problem, and the one that Senators Franken and Coon focused on, was OnStar giving itself the right to share or sell location information in "anonymized form." As many have pointed out, it's virtually impossible to "anonymize" the movements of a person's car -- the fact that it sits in your driveway every night for hours and at your work place for several hours each day means that it would be fairly easy to figure out the "anonymous" person the car belongs to.
As more and more of our belongings go wireless, businesses are going to have to grapple with when it is and isn't okay to collect sensitive data. Your refrigerator could report on how often you eat ice cream. When your house is on the smart grid, it could reveal which rooms you like to spend time in. All this data is super interesting, making it hard for companies to take their hands out of the information cookie jar.
For a better way to collect data from safety systems in car, check out how AAA tracks teen drivers.
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c7a0965ab608522237f72923e9f96eee | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/10/26/tsa-disciplines-officer-who-left-a-pervy-note-for-passenger-with-vibrator-in-her-checked-bag/ | TSA Disciplines Officer Who Left A Pervy Note For Passenger With Vibrator In Her Checked Bag | TSA Disciplines Officer Who Left A Pervy Note For Passenger With Vibrator In Her Checked Bag
A TSA officer added a personalized message to an official note
On Saturday night, a TSA officer screening baggage for a flight from Newark Airport to Dublin, Ireland found a suspicious item: a "bullet" vibrator. While it was determined not to pose a threat, the officer decided to personalize the official TSA document informing the passenger that her bag had been inspected. "GET YOUR FREAK ON, GIRL," the officer wrote. When blogger Jill Filipovic (disclosure: a friend of mine) discovered the note, she tweeted a photo of it and posted it to Feministe. Her initial amusement evolved into mild horror over the intimate nature of the message.
While the TSA was initially skeptical about the possibility that one of its officers would do this, they launched an investigation and have discovered the employee at fault, removed that person from screening operations and took "appropriate disciplinary action." Here's an update from a TSA spokesperson:
After learning of the note, TSA swiftly began an investigation on the matter and quickly identified the employee responsible. That individual was immediately removed from screening operations and appropriate disciplinary action has been initiated.
Update (Oct 27): Jill Filipovic reports that the officer was suspended, and expresses her desire that he or she not be fired.
TSA views the handwritten note to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional and apologizes for this unfortunate incident. TSA has zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior by our employees as occurred in this instance. When this is brought to our attention TSA takes swift and appropriate action. Additionally, an agency official has reached out to the passenger to apologize personally.
I've asked the Transportation Security Administration about the nature of the "appropriate disciplinary action," i.e. whether the employee has been fired or not. The agency is not willing to tell me anything more specific at the moment. Personally, I'm torn on whether this is a fire-able offense. It's a kind of shared fiction we engage in with TSA officers -- that when they pat down our bodies and go through our bags, they're not feeling and seeing the things that embarrass us. By officers not remarking on what they find, we can maintain the illusion that they are like machines, focused solely on finding potential threats. But this note shattered that illusion; it was a comment on the obvious: TSA officers do giggle at the weird things in passengers' bags and do take note of how the "point of resistance" varies from man to man during patdowns. A lack of reaction lets us pretend they don't; this officer's note highlights the ultimate falsity of officers' feigned nonchalance. Maybe it was an officer taking a stand. Staging a rebellion. Or maybe it was just a dude (or lady) who wanted to harass some nameless passenger. Maybe this person has even done it before, but made the mistake, this time, of leaving a note in the bag of a blogger with a large platform and many media friends following her on Twitter.
As some have pointed out, the particular device that Jill was carrying does look a little like a detonator, but hopefully the $25 million that the TSA is dropping on better bag-screening technology will help to prevent these types of false positives in the future. And hopefully, TSA employees will come to understand that it's not okay to exacerbate the invasion of privacy involved in pawing through our bags by editorializing on what they contain.
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0d38421c9f2cef5135748e56ae0a1777 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/11/17/amazon-says-that-litigious-aging-actress-should-have-read-imdbs-privacy-policy/ | Amazon Says That Litigious, 'Aging' Actress Should Have Read IMDb's Privacy Policy | Amazon Says That Litigious, 'Aging' Actress Should Have Read IMDb's Privacy Policy
Image via Wikipedia
An actress in Texas sued Amazon earlier this year after her real age popped up on everyone’s favorite website for figuring out who-that-guy-in-that-one-movie-was, IMDb.com. She alleges that Amazon-owned IMDb violated privacy and consumer laws by getting her age using personal information she provided when she paid to sign up for a premium IMDBpro account and then posting it for the world (and importantly, casting directors) to see. IMDb “reveal[ed] to the public that [she] is many years older than she looks" -- according to her complaint which she filed anonymously as "Jane Doe" -- making it much harder for the "up-and-coming" actress of Asian descent to find work in the entertainment industry.
Amazon responded to the $1,075,000 lawsuit with harsh words this week, mocking the actress for trying to enlist Amazon to "doctor actual factual information" on IMDb to help her "perpetuate a falsehood." It also objected to her filing anonymously, saying "her attempt to manipulate the federal court system so she can censor IMDb.com's display of her birth date and pretend to the world that she is not 40 years old is selfish, contrary to the public interest and a frivolous abuse of the Court's resources." (In other words, she really needs to act her age, quips Taylor Buley.)
Moreover, Amazon claims that it didn't get her age through the use of her credit card information, but that even if it did, it had the right to, thanks to IMDb.com's privacy policy. In their motion to dismiss the case, they point to a few boilerplate clauses in that policy, including this one:
Information You Give Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our Web site or give us in any other way. You can choose not to provide certain information, but then you might not be able to take advantage of many of our features. We use the information that you provide for such purposes as responding to your requests, customizing future browsing for you, improving our site, and communicating with you.
(Italics are the work of Amazon's lawyers.)
It's pretty normal stuff in a policy (that no one actually reads), but Amazon says it matters. "Even if Plaintiff's allegations that Defendants used her credit card information to obtain her date of birth were true (which they are not)," write Amazon's lawyers at Perkins Coie. "[E]ven if IMDb.com used Plaintiff's name, address or zip code from her credit card subscription to locate her birth date, such use is consistent with the Subscriber Agreement and Privacy Policy."
We'll see what a judge thinks about the argument. Across the country, in a case involving Wikileaks supporters who didn't want Twitter to hand their IP address information over to the Department of Justice, a judge ruled that the privacy policy was an important read. Though lawyers argued that no one reads privacy policies -- which is backed up by both anecdotal and academic evidence -- the judge ruled that the legalese matters.
Regardless of whether the judge thinks IMDb's privacy policy matters, it may be a pretty tough slog for the actress to prove that the site did wrong by printing factual information about a public figure, who, notes Amazon's lawyers, "wants to become even more famous and well known."
Hat Tip: GeekWire via Taylor Buley
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fce0099f244ae416e7b40a669f4788b3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/06/mark-zuckerbergs-private-photos-exposed-thanks-to-facebook-flaw/ | Mark Zuckerberg's Private Photos Exposed Thanks To Facebook Flaw | Mark Zuckerberg's Private Photos Exposed Thanks To Facebook Flaw
Mark Zuckerberg's private photos were exposed through a security workaround
Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he would start eating only animals he himself killed. Here's a photo of one of his victims at right. The photo was one of many from Zuck's private photo albums, exposed to the public by someone who discovered a flaw in Facebook's security settings.
(Some of Zuckerberg's photos featured on this website are private and some were already publicly available -- such as a photo of Zuck with President Obama and another of him handing out Halloween candy with his girlfriend.)
The trick for getting access to Zuck's private photos was exposed by someone on the BodyBuilding.com forum (oddly enough). "ThePoz" discovered that he could access a person's private photos through a self-reporting mechanism that the site has to get rid of inappropriate photos featuring nudity or pornography. After falsely accusing a fellow user of posting an XXX profile photo, he was given the option by Facebook to, "Help us take action by selecting additional photos to include with your report."
Facebook then gave him a selection of other photos of the user -- who happened to be an attractive young woman -- even though her settings were such that those photos were private.
That same chicken?
I've reached out to Facebook to ask whether they'll be fixing this flaw, but they haven't gotten back to me. Enjoy the privacy invasion while you can!
While this exploit was working earlier, it appears the security hole has now been patched. Since it was first reported just a day ago, kudos to Facebook for fixing it so quickly. Though it's certainly ironic that a tool intended to protect users (from nudity) could expose them like this.
Update: A Facebook spokesperson confirms that they have temporarily fixed the problem.
"The bug allowed anyone to view a limited number of another user's most recently uploaded photos irrespective of the privacy settings for these photos," says a spokesperson. " This was the result of one of our recent code pushes and was live for a limited period of time. Upon discovering the bug, we immediately disabled the system, and will only return functionality once we can confirm the bug has been fixed."
Facebook encourages others who catch flaws on their system to privately report problems through their White Hat program and claim bounties of $500. Of course, the rest of us kind of like the dramatic version.
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5ca5318022c088e4bdf7096b3524029e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/13/court-orders-man-to-delete-revenge-blog-targeted-at-his-ex/ | Court Orders Man To Delete Revenge Blog Targeted At His Ex | Court Orders Man To Delete Revenge Blog Targeted At His Ex
A somewhat surprising order for a court in Minnesota
If the epic divorce movie War of the Roses were updated for modern times, Kathleen Turner would likely Google bomb Michael Douglas and he would leak naked photos of her to a 'revenge porn' website. Break-ups have always been nasty but the Internet has introduced all kinds of new weapons for the broken-hearted and revenge-minded. One court in Minnesota was willing to intervene, privileging the "right to be free from harassment" over the right to free speech.
Minnesotan Andrew John Arlotta dated a woman for a year back in 2008-2009. After they broke up, Ann Marie Johnson had to get a restraining order against him to keep him from harassing her in person. So he turned to the Internet instead.
Arlotta created a blog titled "Help Ann Johnson," where he did his best to do the opposite. According to a court opinion, Arlotta wrote about Johnson's "involvement in sexually and physically abusive relationships, and questioned the state of her mental health." Arlotta e-mailed links to the blog to Johnson's family, friends, and Morgan Stanley co-workers, and sent it to them on Facebook using fake identities, such as “Dana Russel” and “Pekin Ilanis.” After a year of the digital harassment, Johnson sought a new restraining order in September 2010 (which prompted "Pekin Ilanis" to advocate for Johnson's right to free speech and ask for support on "his" behalf from a "First Amendment" Facebook group).
A court issued a 50-year (!) restraining order in March. It Johnson-blocked Arlotta, ordering him not to contact her or any third parties about her, and not to do, write, or say anything that would have a negative impact on Johnson's "safety, security, or privacy." The judge also ordered him to delete his "Help Ann Johnson" Blogspot blog.
"I believe it's rare, if not unprecedented, for a court to order an entire blog deleted," says technology law professor Eric Goldman.
Arlotta complied, but then appears to have had second thoughts. In August, someone posted a question to a Google forum about how to recover a deleted Blogspot account, giving the url for "Help Ann Johnson." Arlotta also appealed the court's decision, saying that his blogging was truthful and not harassment directly aimed at Johnson, and that the order violated his right to free speech. The appeals court didn't buy his arguments.
"The record amply demonstrates that Arlotta's repeated electronic messages and promotion of his blog were not 'merely attempt [s] to publish his thoughts and ideas to an audience,' but shared sensitive information about Johnson in a manner that substantially and adversely impacted her privacy interests," wrote Judge Louise Bjorkman for the appeals court in its decision. "[T]he state has a compelling interest in ensuring Johnson's right to be free from harassment."
As Goldman says, this is a pretty startling decision. I've never actually seen a court kill a harassing blog before (except in the case of brand name companies being "harassed" by pirates). It's usually pretty difficult to undo damage wrought by determined reputation wreckers, but if other courts embrace this approach -- privileging the right to be free from harassment over the right to free speech -- that could possibly change. On the other hand, this kind of legal logic could make things difficult for anyone with a restraining order against them to ever write a memoir or blog about why.
More on this: Eric Goldman's take on the Technology & Marketing Law Blog.
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9f64cedd408a56a95f450192b591203b | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/13/the-future-of-drones-in-america/ | The Future Of Drones In America | The Future Of Drones In America
A North Dakota family was arrested with the help of a Predator B drone, usually used to patrol the... [+] border
Earlier this year, a North Dakota sheriff was on the search for six missing cows. He turned up with a warrant at a family ranch, but was chased off by someone with a rifle, reports the Los Angeles Times. So he called in back-up, including a drone from Border Patrol, to search the family's 3,000-acre ranch for the armed suspects. The drone used its sensors to find them and to determine they were unarmed. Police then arrested the family of six, marking the first known use of a drone to arrest U.S. citizens, reports the Times. (Afterwards, I assume the drone returned to keeping a close eye on the Canadian border.)
While drones are in heavy use in the wars abroad, their use in the States is rare, because of federal restrictions on air space. Commercial use is virtually forbidden, and less than 300 certificates of authorization have been issued to government entities to take drones for a whirl. The Federal Aviation Association, though, has announced that it plans to revisit its restrictions in the spring of 2012. That means it could be much easier to fly drones in the U.S. as soon as 2013 or 2014. What will that mean? Who will use them?
"Law enforcement agencies are chomping at the bit to get these in the air," says Gretchen West, executive vice president of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), an industry group that has been lobbying the FAA to make changes to its regulations to free up air space for unmanned vehicles and allow for greater government and commercial uses of drones. Besides the po-po, others eager to use drones include first responders and firefighters (for obvious reasons), oil and gas companies (to scout electric lines and pipelines), agriculture folks (for crop dusting and livestock tracking), insurance companies (for house inspections), and news organizations (for footage during sporting or news events). A professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has already launched a "drone journalism lab" to contemplate drones as tools for journalists in the U.S. (I'm imagining class discussions that start, "Okay, pretend we have a drone with a facial recognition-enabled camera. Should we or should we not use that to track Justin Bieber?"
West says other countries have already embraced drones. "In Japan, they have 10,000 UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) flying for agricultural purposes," says West. "In the UK, law enforcement is already using them and there are plans to deploy drones during the London Olympics in 2012."
The FAA has been slow to usher in the age of drones in the U.S. for a few reasons: America's crowded airspace, safety concerns, and questions of privacy. On the last point, legal scholar Ryan Calo theorizes that, rather than eroding our and Bieber's privacy, drones buzzing around may actually be a catalyst for greater privacy protection. "People would feel observed, regardless of how or whether the information was actually used," writes Calo in the Stanford Law Review. "The resulting backlash could force us to reexamine not merely the use of drones to observe, but the doctrines that today permit this use."
Perhaps. Or perhaps we'll get as used to them as we are to surveillance cameras on every corner. Either way, they're coming. Cow stealers, beware.
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cdad4a0e58d1c62939d83d8461801d8e | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/16/you-have-a-constitutional-right-to-stalk-and-harass-people-on-twitter/ | You Have A Constitutional Right To Stalk And Harass People On Twitter | You Have A Constitutional Right To Stalk And Harass People On Twitter
Some of the offending tweets, from the court's opinion
In the Internet age, it's important to learn the art of averting your eyes, rules a federal judge.
From 2008 to 2010, a man named William Lawrence Cassidy tweeted at Buddhist leader Alyce Zeoli over 8,000 times, using the micro-messaging forum to criticize her looks, criticize Buddhism, describe cinematic ways that she could die and to tell her to commit suicide . Every time Zeoli blocked one of the accounts, Cassidy would create a new username. She went to authorities over the Twitter harassment at the end of 2010 and the FBI pressed charges against Cassidy for stalking Zeoli and causing her "substantial emotional distress."
A federal judge dismissed the case on Thursday, privileging Cassidy's right to free speech over Zeoli's right to be free of harassment, reports the New York Times. (Regular readers will remember that a state court ruled the opposite earlier this week in a case where a restraining order was in place.)
In his 27-page order, Judge Roger W. Titus wrote that “while Mr. Cassidy’s speech may have inflicted substantial emotional distress, the government’s indictment here is directed squarely at protected speech: anonymous, uncomfortable Internet speech addressing religious matters.” via U.S. Judge Dismisses Twitter Stalking Case - NYTimes.com.
In his opinion, Judge Titus noted both that Zeoli is a public figure (since she's a religious leader) and that she could have avoided harassment "simply by averting her eyes from the Defendant's blog and not looking at, or blocking, his Tweets."
The all important "right to look away."
As a side note, since Tweets from Twitter aren't indexed by search engines, it may well be one of the kindest places to harass people, as what's written doesn't show up in their search results.
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af1561b4c559885d7df913164967c450 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/21/some-scolding-no-fines-for-facebook-after-irish-privacy-investigation/ | Some Scolding, No Fines For Facebook After Irish Privacy Investigation | Some Scolding, No Fines For Facebook After Irish Privacy Investigation
Another day, another government investigation into Facebook
Facebook has been spending lots of quality time with federal regulators this year. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission got Mark Zuckerberg to admit that the company "had made a bunch of mistakes" and to submit to 20 years of privacy audits. Today, the Irish Data Protection Commission released the findings of its investigation into the company. Thanks to Facebook's international headquarters being located in Dublin (for tax reasons), the Irish DPC gets to oversee how Facebook handles the data of all users outside of the U.S. and Canada. Its verdict? Facebook isn't doing a horrible job!
"The audit has found a positive approach and commitment on the part of Facebook Ireland to respecting the privacy rights of its users," said Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes.
Despite finding that Facebook was generally complying with European law, the agency produced a 149-page report [PDF] detailing Facebook's privacy and data protection practices and pointing out areas for improvement. The major recommendations were that Facebook make it clearer what information it retain about users and enhance users' abilities to make changes to what info is shared about them. Some examples of changes that need to be made to Facebook's policies for non-North American users:
The Irish DPC says Facebook needs to make it clearer to users when they write on someone else's wall who will be able to see what they've written. Facebook currently keeps information about which ads users click on indefinitely. The DPC says Facebook should only keep that information for two years. Facebook didn't do a good job rolling out its facial recognition feature. The Irish DPC is requiring Facebook to give users additional notifications about the feature, giving users another option to opt out if they don't like it. The DPC confirmed that if a user disables the feature, Facebook deletes the person's facial profile. Facebook needs to anonymise information it collects from social plug-ins on other websites (i.e., the 'Like' and 'Share' buttons) within 10 days for logged-out users and deleted within 90 days. For logged-in users, the data just needs to be anonymised within 90 days.
"Facebook is a relatively young company. It's not surprising that we found some room for improvement," said deputy commissioner Gary Davis, who oversaw the audit. "The almost Darwinian nature of the site means that there will constantly be an absolute need to have in place robust mechanisms to keep pace with the innovation that is the source of the site’s success."
The audit was spurred in part by complaints from Austrian law student Max Schrems of Europe vs Facebook, who got Facebook to send him a hundred+ page file with all of the data the social network had about him. Schrems was disturbed to find that Facebook kept information he thought had been deleted -- such as old messages, dismissed pokes and friend removals -- and kept records he wasn't aware of, such as IP information for any computer he had ever signed in from. The Irish DPC reports that Facebook plans to make it possible for users to permanently delete this information.
The extensive report includes some interesting anecdotes about what the team observed at Facebook's Dublin headquarters. Facebook's Dublin office handles 60 trademark and defamation complaints per day. The report includes an example the audit team observed:
The Inspection Team viewed a copyright complaint from a user in Germany where one user alleged that a photograph of himself which he indicated was his intellectual property was being used without his permission by another user. In a case like this, following an examination of the report, the Team member may decide to simply remove the photograph so that the user may no longer use/publish the photograph.
More prolific are complaints about fake profiles, private impersonations and cyber-bullying are investigated. "Several thousand reports are received each day from users," according to the report. From the report:
We also examined a number of privacy related queries. One was from a French user who sought the removal of her deceased father’s account. She sought full removal as opposed to memorialising (which is a status that FB-I will place an account if it is verifiably notified that an account holder has passed away). This request was acted upon once the requester was in a position to supply verification of the death of her father. However, FB-I did confirm in line with its standard policy that it could not provide any information on the account itself. Another case related to a French user who as the Mother of a 14 year old in France sought the deletion of her daughter’s account as she was unhappy with the use her daughter was making of the account. It was explained to the mother that FB-I could not delete the account on her request and she was provided with extensive information on how to engage with her daughter in relation to her concerns. Also examined was a complaint from a female user in Germany in relation to a fake account allegedly posted by a former boyfriend. The account in question was already removed by the time the complaint was received. The complainant sought IP address and other contact details for the poster of the fake profile but again FB-I pointed out that such information could only be provided by legitimate legal means such as a court order or via a relevant law enforcement authority relying upon a relevant legal basis. We noted from an examination of the various complaints that where supporting documentation was sought to verify identity that it was immediately deleted as part of the workflow once identity was proven.
If nothing else, working in "User Operations" at Facebook has got to be pretty entertaining.
Facebook welcomed the Irish report, responding on their blog. "We work on a daily basis with regulators around the world, and we appreciate the investment of time and effort by the DPC and its leadership to improve the experience of Facebook users," wrote Facebook director of public policy Richard Allan.
It makes sense that Facebook would welcome outside stamps of approval from government regulators in the U.S. and abroad. The hope, of course, is that the oversight will reassure Facebook users. One of Facebook's biggest challenges is to maintain the trust of its users. For without them, as MySpace can well attest, its product will become worthless.
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a121ed3a824a00c7479ffc202f7fb4d7 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/01/17/facebook-unmasks-koobface-gang-aided-by-their-foursquare-check-ins-and-social-networking-photos/ | Facebook Unmasks Koobface Gang, Aided By Their Foursquare Check-ins And Social Networking Photos | Facebook Unmasks Koobface Gang, Aided By Their Foursquare Check-ins And Social Networking Photos
One member of the gang exposed the Koobface headquarters on Foursquare, via the New York Times
Facebook is trying a new tactic to fight cybercrime: public shame. The social network fingered five Russians that security researchers have determined are behind the "Koobface" worm that infected hundreds of thousands of computers and generated at least $6 million in criminal gains for its creators. (Yup, those "YOU HAVE TO WATCH THIS CRAZY VIDEO" Facebook posts containing malicious links lead to serious profits for botnet rings when they dupe enough users.)
Independent security researchers and members of the Facebook security team tracked digital breadcrumbs to expose the five men responsible for Koobface (an anagram for Facebook). In what appears to be a gamble to try to force law enforcement's hand, Facebook and security firm Sophos handed the names of the gang members over to the New York Times, and detailed how they tracked them down based on IP fingerprints, Foursquare check-ins, Twitter activity, friend lists on a Russian social networking site, and Flickr photos showing the gang vacationing across Europe. The young cybercriminals' addiction to social networking proved to be part of their undoing.
How much easier would Batman's job be if the Joker uploaded photos of his gang to Facebook and announced on Foursquare his new location every time he escaped from Arkham Asylum? Sophos's detailed description of the sleuthing that led to the Koobface gang's outing reflects the surprising publicness of the Web's latest cybervillains. The five-person gang were among the 90 million members of "vkontakte.ru" -- the Facebook of Russia. The wife of one of the gang had her privacy settings set quite low, exposing photos of the gang hanging out together (and swimming with a dolphin). Thanks to her tagged photos, investigators were able to link members' real identities with online handles they had elsewhere when they were associated with photos.
Sophos included photos of the members of the gang on its blog, taken from various social networking... [+] sites
The group investigators have identified has adopted the tongue-in-cheek name, Ali Baba & 4: Anton Korotchenko, who uses the online nickname “KrotReal”; Stanislav Avdeyko, known as “leDed”; Svyatoslav E. Polichuck, who goes by “PsViat” and “PsycoMan”; Roman P. Koturbach, who uses the online moniker “PoMuc”; and Alexander Koltysehv, or “Floppy.” ) via Koobface Gang That Spread Worm on Facebook Operates in the Open - NYTimes.com.
One member of the gang, Anton Korotchenko, was a big fan of Twitter and Foursquare. While he has since deleted his accounts, after being linked to Koobface earlier this month, he "checked in" to the group's headquarters often enough to become its mayor. (Rather than a cool villainous lair, the Koobface gang operated out of an office building in St. Petersburg, Russia.) Investigators were able to tie IP information from the group's servers to the physical location revealed by "Anton K.'s" Foursquare duchy.
“People who engage in this type of stuff need to know that their name and real identity are going to come out eventually and they’re going to get arrested and they’re going to be targeted,” Facebook security officer Joe Sullivan told the New York Times. As the NYT notes, none of the men have actually been charged with a crime yet. The collection of cybercrime fighters that have been collecting info on Koobface have been sharing information with the FBI, but the agency currently has no comment.
"We are confident that our work in identifying those responsible will put a significant dent in their ability to harm those online and lead to a safer internet for all," writes Facebook on its security page.
Is this the new cyber vigilante justice? Expose in the newspapers first and then hope for arrests later? As Sophos writes on its blog, "Now we have to wait and see what, if any, action the authorities will take against the Koobface gang."
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94a53e748b0c5c1c00cd1d3343df5ac4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/07/the-austrian-thorn-in-facebooks-side/ | Max Schrems: The Austrian Thorn In Facebook's Side | Max Schrems: The Austrian Thorn In Facebook's Side
There are likely many things about Facebook that annoy you. Wouldn't it be nice if you could sit down for six hours with one of the company's top executives to give him an earful about what you 'dislike' about the site? That's what 24-year-old Austrian law student Max Schrems got to do yesterday, thanks to his having filed dozens of complaints in Europe about Facebook's data practices. On Monday, Facebook's European director of policy (and former MP) Richard Allan and another unidentified California-based Facebook exec flew to Vienna to meet with Schrems for a whopping six hours to discuss his concerns.
Of Facebook’s 845 million users, Schrems may be the one most aggravating to the company. Last year, the 24-year-old Austrian law student spent a semester in the U.S. at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. When a professor invited Facebook privacy lawyer Ed Palmieri to speak to the class, Schrems was shocked by the lawyer’s limited grasp of the severity of data protection laws in Europe. He decided his thesis paper for the class would be about Facebook’s misunderstanding of privacy law in his home continent. In the course of his research, he discovered that Facebook’s dossiers on individual users are hundreds of pages long and include information users thought had been deleted. When he returned to Austria last summer, he formed an activist group called Europe v. Facebook (to legitimize his campaign and make it seem like more than just one law student) and publicized his findings online, leading to widespread media attention, a probe by a European privacy regulator, and questions from Congress.
Facebook has its European headquarters in Ireland -- a common practice among the tech titans, including Google and Microsoft, allowing them to avoid paying U.S. income tax on foreign profits. (Google saved $3.1 billion over the past 3 years this way, though the IRS isn't thrilled about that.)
“Having a headquarters in Europe makes Facebook vulnerable, though,” says Schrems. “That means all of its European users have contracts with that Dublin office and makes the company subject to Ireland’s strict privacy law.”
One aspect of that law is a “right to access.” This entitles Europeans to know exactly what a company knows about them. During his thesis paper research, Schrems discovered a then little-known webpage on the Facebook site that allows European users to make this request by submitting proof of identity (a copy of a passport, for example), an e-mail address, a home address, and the link to one’s profile page. Schrems and a few of his friends made the request, and a few weeks later, received CDs from Facebook’s California office in the mail. Schrems, who has been on Facebook since 2008, had a file that was over 1,200 pages long, including everyone he had ever friended and de-friended, every event he had ever been invited to (and how he responded), a history of every “poke” he had ever received, a record of who else signed onto Facebook on the same computers as him, email addresses that he hadn’t provided for himself (but that must have been culled from his friends’ contact lists) and all of his past messages and chats, including some with the notation “deleted.”
Schrems redacted personal information from the lengthy files and then posted them online at Europe v. Facebook where they captured the attention of media, privacy advocates, politicians and regulators. When Reddit got wind of it, its users flooded Facebook with requests for their own files -- though Facebook only sends these to European users. Schrems filed a series of complaints with the Irish Data Protection Agency, accusing Facebook of retaining data users had tried to delete and also saying that his file wasn't long enough. Facebook refused to turn over some information -- such as Schrem’s biometic faceprint -- saying it was a trade secret. Even though the claim that the technology the company’s applied to personal information is proprietary seems reasonable, many lambasted Facebook for suggesting that users’ data was Facebook’s intellectual property.
“I still wonder why Facebook sent the file to me. Why would you send that evidence to your opponent?” Schrems compares it to the files that the Stasi compiled on citizens in East Germany. “The most prominent politicians had a thousand pages in their files,” says Schrems. “I’m just a normal guy who’s been on Facebook for three years. Imagine this in 10 years: every demonstration I’ve been to, my political thoughts, intimate conversations, discussion of illnesses.”
This is perhaps the downside of the digital age. It’s easy to collect and save data, with little pressure to automatically get rid of anything. In the virtual world, there is a near endless supply of file cabinets, and many users are excited about the prospect of archiving everything. In a recent Atlantic article, James Fallows expressed a concern that was the complete opposite of Schrems after his wife’s email was permanently deleted by a hacker: that tech companies might delete our information too easily. (Google says that it can take up to 60 days to delete emails and that they “may remain in our backup systems for an additional period of time.” Things at Twitter are a little more complicated. You can only get access to your last 100 personal messages, though the rest are stored in the company’s databases. Thus, there will be messages you can’t get access to and delete individually, though you can choose the nuclear option and delete your entire Twitter account. The company says it will be permanently destroyed after 30 days.)
“You should be able to delete things and know that they are gone,” argues Schrems. (And others.)
In a statement about his meeting with Facebook's representatives on Monday, Schrems says that the problems around deletion remain, though Facebook says it is working on it. "Facebook is like a large tanker that moves in the right direction, but is still not fully there, the representatives said," reports Schrems.
It sounds like Richard Allan and his companion were able to convince Schrems to cease his seemingly endless series of complaints. Facebook likely wants these resolved going into its IPO, and wants to quiet a harsh critic who has garnered much press in Europe and the States.
"We will narrow our complaints down to the issues that are still remaining and ask for a formal decision by the Irish DPC in all the remaining cases," writes Schrems, though he notes that his group "still has serious doubts about a lot of Facebook’s data usage and will go on pushing the company to fully implement European data protection law."
Meanwhile, Schrems is still working on finishing his paper for his Santa Clara University law professor. It was due in the spring, but his professor, noting how busy he's been, gave him an extension.
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6d26206cef2d71ada08361cec3e6becc | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/05/the-drone-that-crashed-into-a-s-w-a-t-teams-tank/ | The Drone That Crashed Into A S.W.A.T. Team's Tank | The Drone That Crashed Into A S.W.A.T. Team's Tank
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has this $300,000 drone. They have not crashed it.
Last September, members of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office in Texas drove out to a training facility run by Vanguard Defense Industries. The air must have been full of excitement. The sheriff's office was just a month away from getting its very own drone from Vanguard: a $300,000 Shadowhawk helicopter, paid for by a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Members of the sheriff's office were there to see Vanguard fly some of its drones and to take promotional photos with a model of their-soon-to-be-acquired Shadowhawk. The S.W.A.T. team even brought their BearCat, a scary-looking tank increasingly popular with local police departments. Adorbs!
Unfortunately, the excited air was too much for one of the prototype drones that Vanguard flew that Friday afternoon. A drone Vanguard had developed for military use appeared to be having a problem, so its on-the-ground pilot forced it to make an emergency landing. As reported by Stephen Dean at the Houston Examiner, it crash landed into the S.W.A.T. team's BearCat tank.
Luckily, those things are heavily armored. Vanguard CEO Michael Buscher says it broke a spotlight on the vehicle, and that his company's insurance paid for the damage. Though there were many cameras there, no photos or video from the incident have been publicly released.
Contrary to the original report in the Examiner and on Gizmodo, the sheriff's office did not crash its own drone. A month later, the Montgomery County's Sheriff's Office did get its drone. After the BearCat scare, they may be extra cautious in flying it.
Congress recently ordered the FAA to accelerate the process by which it gives local police departments permission to fly drones. (As of this week, a North Dakota police department is the 7th in the country to get the drone go-ahead from the FAA, and will be leasing two drones from the University of North Dakota for just $1/year.) While civil liberties groups want greater attention paid to the privacy implications of putting surveillance drones into law enforcement's hands, the FAA is more concerned about making sure this relatively new technology is safe -- and that drones won't crash into crowds, people's homes, and even the occasional heavily-armored police vehicle. Apparently, those concerns are justified.
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a5f27cfa4de1f3a5e5f0c7b1a909f7d8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/03/28/humiliation-after-a-privacy-invasion-is-not-an-actual-damage-rules-supreme-court/ | Humiliation After A Privacy Invasion Is Not An 'Actual Damage,' Rules Supreme Court | Humiliation After A Privacy Invasion Is Not An 'Actual Damage,' Rules Supreme Court
"There is nothing absurd about a scheme that limits the Government’s Privacy Act liability to harm... [+] that can be substantiated by proof of tangible economic loss," wrote Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
After a ruling from the Supreme Court today, should your TSA body scan somehow get out into the public and go viral, you’re going to be out of luck in collecting damages unless it causes you to lose your job.
"After today, no matter how debilitating and substantial the resulting mental anguish, an individual harmed by a federal agency’s intentional or willful [exposure of their personal information] will be left without a remedy unless he or she is able to prove [pocketbook] harm," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor today, dissenting from a Supreme Court ruling [pdf] that will make it harder for U.S. citizens to successfully sue government agencies that publicize embarrassing personal data.
The Supreme Court was unsympathetic to the plight of pilot Stanmore C. Cooper who sued the government after the Social Security Administration, from which he was receiving disability benefits, revealed to the Federal Aviation Administration, from which he had a pilot's license, that he had H.I.V. (He had been diagnosed in 1985.) Cooper had concealed his medical condition from the FAA for years because he feared discrimination based on his disease and that it would reveal his sexual orientation as a gay man. (Mike Sacks at the Huffington Post has a nice backgrounder on the case.) Once outed (for lying) on federal forms, he pled guilty, lost his pilot's license, and paid a $1,000 fine. But then he sued over violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits the government from sharing citizens' personal records with other agencies or with the public without their consent.
In a successful suit over the Act, a plaintiff will collect no less than $1,000 if he can prove "actual damages" as a result of an exposure. A federal court had ruled that Cooper was entitled to damages from the FAA for the severe mental and emotional distress involved in the breach of his confidential medical information. But the private pilot's claims did not fly with the Supreme Court, which interpreted "actual damages" to be of the economic variety.
“The Privacy Act does not unequivocally authorize an award of damages for mental or emotional distress,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia (who is famously skeptical of privacy rights) in the majority (5-3) opinion. "[T]here is nothing absurd about a scheme that limits the Government’s Privacy Act liability to harm that can be substantiated by proof of tangible economic loss."
In other words, Cooper is out of luck.
As the New York Times points out, Cooper's lawyers had argued that a win for the government would "[make] it easy for the government to silence whistleblowers by subjecting them to embarrassing disclosures."
Justice Elena Kagan abstained. Sotomayor was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer in the dissenting opinion.
"Although some privacy invasions no doubt result in economic loss, we have recognized time and again that the primary form of injuries is nonpecuniary, and includes mental distress and personal humiliation," wrote Sotomayor, suggesting that the majority had misinterpreted the intent behind the Privacy Act. "Nowhere in the Privacy Act does Congress so much as hint that it views a $5 hit to the pocketbook as more worthy of remedy than debilitating mental distress...[I]ndividuals can no longer recover what our precedents and common sense understand to be the primary, and often only, damages sustained as a result of an invasion of privacy, namely mental or emotional distress."
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d54264acfeaff687ef88b27c4f0fbe5f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/05/07/fantastic-theres-a-quick-erase-app-for-sending-your-nude-photos/ | 'This Sext Message Will Self Destruct In Five Seconds.' | 'This Sext Message Will Self Destruct In Five Seconds.'
A promotional image from the Snapchat iTunes site
Anthony Weiner does it. So does Scarlett Johansson. Olivia Munn does it (with captions!). According to Pew, 6% of adults and 4% of teens do it. And for 18-29 year olds, it's as high as 13%. Despite the many scandals that have resulted from sending out nude photos, many of us persist in the desire to provide the ones we love (or just really, really like) with scandalous snapshots.
Luckily there are techies out there who are trying to come up with ways to let us practice "safe sext." Nick Bilton points to one this week in the New York Times: Snapchat, a free iPhone app that lets you send photos with an expiration time of 1 to 10 seconds.
Snapchat's iTunes page doesn't explicitly convey that it's a way to send nudie photos Mission-Impossible style (i.e. "This sext message will self-destruct in 5 seconds."), instead describing it as "real-time picture chatting." However, iTunes has rated the app 12+ for "mature themes" and "mild sexual content or nudity." When it comes to nude self-portraits, though, it should really be 18+ as photos of folks younger than that are considered to be child pornography.
Many of the reviewers of the app seem to be young people who use it to send photos (with clothes on, I assume) while in class. But at least one reviewer picked up on what the app is intended for, based on the promotional photo at right:
"I'm pretty sure it's meant for nudes," writes Samurai.Annette, astutely.
Snapchat disables recipients' ability to take screenshots with their iPhones, so they can't capture the digital flashing, meaning the recipient is less likely to be able to later use the photo against a sender by posting it to a revenge porn site or leaking it to Gawker. (Update: Not anymore!) But it's not sure-proof: Bilton points out that someone could take a photo of the picture on the phone using a camera. There's also the issue of Snapchat's servers: how long do these photos reside there? In their privacy policy (which I hope people using this for nude-photo sending purposes actually read), the Toyopa Group, which makes the app, says it "attempt(s) to delete image data as soon as possible after the message is transmitted," but that it can't guarantee messages will always be deleted.
"[This] refers to circumstances outside of our control," writes Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel in an email. "Capturing screenshots, taking a photo of your iPhone with another camera, sneaky friends peeking over your shoulder, etc."
"Messages, therefore, are sent at the risk of the user," the privacy policy warns. That's evergreen advice when it comes to sext messages.
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48fc823d0555de90d60b8cd27744b3ba | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/05/29/social-network-of-the-living-dead-would-you-pay-500-to-keep-your-facebook-page-active-after-you-die/ | Social Network Of The Living Dead | Social Network Of The Living Dead
Dead Social wants to give you a tweet afterlife
Entrepreneur James Norris has an idea that's either scary good or just scary. He's the founder of "Dead Soc.ial," a tool people can use to keep their social networking accounts active after they die, to send out messages with things left unsaid and keep the deceased in the minds, hearts and Facebook news feeds of their friends and loved ones.
In other words, Norris wants to bring zombies onto our social networks.
Norris's inspiration for the start-up was Bob Monkhouse, an English entertainer who appeared in a TV ad to raise awareness about prostate cancer four years after his death.
"Why should we stop creating content when we die?" asks Norris, on the phone from London where he is based. "Why should our relationships end when our physical bodies do?"
The basic service, which is still in beta, is free. It allows you to send messages to specific individuals at the time of your death -- such as reminding your friend Pete that he still owes you money......
...and over time, say if you want to send your daughter a message on her birthday every year. To maintain a public Facebook Fan Page requires a premium account. Norris hasn't determined the exact price point for that, but is considering a one-time fee of $500. In describing the kind of customer who might be willing to pay for a public afterlife, Norris tends to stick to celebs.
"Imagine if Amy Winehouse had done this. She could have included messages with her unreleased materials and revealed the untold secrets about her affair with Pete Doherty," he says. "Universal or Sony might want artists to sign up for this service to keep a person's estate 'alive' after their death."
Norris says that Dead Social is signing up about 40 new users per day, but that none of their low-thousands of users have kicked the bucket yet. At this point, each user has to choose a solicitor -- one person with the power to notify the site that the user has gone died, so that the zombie account can go into active mode. (I hope no one has chosen a prankster as their guardian.)
Stephen Fry is on Dead Social's want list
Putting more ghosts into the machine is fairly creepy, but I can see the appeal of saying goodbye to loved ones this way, especially if one were to bite it unexpectedly. A message from a loved one after a fatal accident could help in the grieving process.
"People are being encouraged more and more to think about their wishes for the end of life and this is the modern equivalent of writing letters to be read after your death," says Allison Troman-Nunes, a coordinator at the Peace Hospice in London, via email. "I can think of many incidences of parents who have died at the hospice who may have wanted to use the service to send messages to a loved one on significant birthdays and anniversaries. I'm not a fan of social media accounts as I often think people get wrapped up in the trivia of life (no I don’t want to know what your contemplating to have for dinner) but perhaps this puts a bit more soul into it."
The service would be far more useful if Norris were to build in practical features -- such as a social media will, so that Dead Soc.ial users could tell family members what to do with the remains of their various digital accounts (read it? delete it? memorialize it?).
While it sounds like a lark, Norris has quit his job, poured his savings into this, and is looking for investors. His plan now is to try to get a few high-profile people to sign up, starting with a Twitter campaign targeting actor Stephen Fry.
"He's England's national grand daddy," says Norris. I asked whether he thought Fry might be offended at being asked to sign up for a social network for the dead. Norris didn't think so. "He is a technology enthusiast and futurist. I think that he will find the concept interesting."
Dead Soc.ial does have competitors. A company called Intellitar offers a service called "Virtual Eternity," through which paying customers can create virtual clones that live on after their death, preserving their personalities and memories. Future family members will be able to chat with the avatars (hailing from the uncanny valley) like Superman chatting with the ghosts of his Kryptonian parents in the Fortress of Solitude.
If all of this planning for post-death creeps you out too much, you can keep your fingers crossed that some technology company (ahem, Google X) is working on a way for us to simply upload our brains for iEternity.
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fc90ab81ca39f8613cf4e49afcbead71 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/06/20/a-quantified-self-fatality-family-says-cyclists-death-is-fault-of-ride-tracking-company-strava/ | A Quantified Self Fatality? Family Says Cyclist's Death Is Fault Of Ride-Tracking Company Strava. | A Quantified Self Fatality? Family Says Cyclist's Death Is Fault Of Ride-Tracking Company Strava.
The Strava route Kim Flint was racing when he crashed
Strava is one of the many start-ups that's made a business of helping people collect more data about their athletic activity. The company has a smartphone app the active set can use to track their runs and bike rides, using GPS to map the route. Of course the technology has a social component. Strava users can 'compete' with other users by comparing their times on particular routes and get publicly recognized for high scores, arcade-game style. But in an arcade game, losing a life is no big deal.
Strava 'player' William "Kim" Flint got so competitive that when he lost his first place rank as "King of the Mountain" for a steep route in Berkeley, California, he raced down the road on his bike at 40 mph to try to reclaim his title. The 41-year-old electrical engineer had to brake suddenly; he flipped over a car and died on the 2010 ride, reports ABC News. Now his family is suing Strava for negligence, alleging that the start-up is responsible for Flint's death.
Susan Kang, the lawyer for the family, says Flint was "obsessed" with his scores, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. And he may not be the only one. A San Francisco cyclist who killed a 71-year-old pedestrian earlier this year after allegedly running a red light is also a Strava user, says the Flints' lawyer, though it's unclear if he was racing on the app at the time of the biking fatality. Kang tells ABC News that Strava "creates a wild, wild West culture where [law-breaking] is encouraged and rewarded with no warnings about the risks."
Who knew self-tracking could be so dangerous?
Sure, Strava by introducing comparative data into people's rides may be making them more competitive and causing them to take more risks than they already do. But does that really mean the company's to blame for a user's death? I, for one, doubt this lawsuit has wheels.
The family, though, claims that Strava is at fault because there were no warnings on "courses" -- courses that are set and determined by users -- that some may be dangerous. (Are we really all so data driven now that we can't actually look at a really steep hill and recognize it as terrifying on a bike?) The start-up has since changed that practice, and now allows users to flag certain routes as hazardous. The Berkeley road Flint crashed on has since been flagged and Strava no longer allows users to compete on the segment. (One user recently complained about that, writing, "This descent is EPIC! Why isn't there a leader board anymore!!??")
Strava, which has attracted over $15 million in funding, doesn't want to spend that money on legal settlements.
"The death of Kim Flint was a tragic accident, and we expressed our sincere condolences when it occurred in 2010," says Strava spokesperson Mark Riedy. "Based on the facts involved in the accident and the law, there is no merit to this lawsuit. We again express our condolences to the Flint family, but we will defend the company vigorously through the legal process ahead."
Other Stravarians, be careful! There are no extra lives in this game.
H/T INRNG and Eric Goldman
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d702cc41f1030a523a6682e361e6e40f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/06/28/supreme-court-disappoints-facebook-linkedin-zynga-and-yahoo/ | Supreme Court Disappoints Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga and Yahoo | Supreme Court Disappoints Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga and Yahoo
Supreme Court disappointed Obamacare haters and tech firms today
The big Supreme Court news today is that Obamacare got five thumbs up from the Court, meaning the president probably did this at some point this morning. But the Court also dropped another significant case. Literally dropped it.
The Supremes heard arguments this term in First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards, a lawsuit filed by an Ohio homeowner against her bank because it got kickbacks for steering her to a specific title company. She didn't suffer any harm from the wheeling and dealing by the bank and title company but sued for monetary damages because what they did violated a federal law. She would have been entitled to just a couple thousand dollars, but First American Financial challenged her right to sue the company at all, saying that even though it might have violated a federal law, Denise Edwards suffered no harm from it; she would have paid the same amount for title insurance regardless.
After the Ninth Circuit ruled in Denise Edwards' favor, the bank appealed to the Supreme Court which took the case. This caught the attention of the tech company illuminati. Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga, and Yahoo joined forces to file a brief [pdf] in the case urging the Supreme Court not to allow people to sue them for breaking federal laws when those people suffered no actual injury. Specific federal laws that folks tend to get these companies on are the Electronic Communications Act, the Wiretap Act and the Stored Communications Act -- all laws designed to protect the privacy of your communications. The tech companies would have loved for those types of class action lawsuits to go away.
Interestingly, Google did not join in, even though it's currently embroiled in one of these exact types of cases: a class action lawsuit filed by people whose personal communications were sucked up from unprotected Wi-Fi by Google's Street View cars. Instead, the tech mafia name-checked In Re: Facebook Privacy Litigation, a class action lawsuit filed by Facebook users alleging that the social network had violated a federal privacy law by leaking information about users to advertisers (ultimately dismissed). They wrote in their brief that the Ninth Circuit's "erroneous ruling" was of "particular concern" to them "because permitting these types of 'no-injury' lawsuits (often class actions with great attendant expense and burden)" could have "significant negative impacts on [them] due to the broad-scale nature of their operations," noting that they interact with millions of "mostly non-paying" users per day.
In other words, there are a lot of people out there who could potentially sue them. They argued that allowing those millions the ability to team up with class action lawyers when they'd suffered no harm could subject the companies to damages demands that are "potentially bankrupting," and that the fear of such an outcome forces them to settle otherwise baseless suits. (Ahem.)
So the tech corp. crowd was hoping the Supreme Court would reverse the Ninth Circuit and rule that Denise Edwards could not in fact sue her bank for violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, since she suffered no harm. Instead, the Court decided to reverse its decision to take the case. "The writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted," said the opinion [pdf] issued Thursday.
"Apparently the case didn't have the questions they wanted to answer," said Justin Brookman who heads up the privacy division at the non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology.
He expressed some relief that SCOTUS didn't make a decision on the case, given the fact pattern. Denise Edwards really didn't suffer any kind of harm (beyond some moral indignation), but the types of cases the tech firms hoped the Supreme Court's decision would make go away involve "intangible" privacy harms. There's no economic or security injury, but rather harm to a person's right to privacy. 'No-injury' should be in a different basket that 'privacy injury,' but a broad ruling from the Supreme Court might have made it much harder for plaintiffs to file lawsuits for violation of their privacy.
"It's probably a win [for privacy]," says Brookman.
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1819495ec3090b2ec0f940350f50a846 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/06/29/what-i-wish-i-had-when-i-woke-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-and-couldnt-breathe/ | What I Wish I Had When I Woke Up In The Middle Of The Night And Couldn't Breathe | What I Wish I Had When I Woke Up In The Middle Of The Night And Couldn't Breathe
I would like an app for this.
Back in April, before the temperature rose to a thousand degrees, I spent a lovely weekend outside. I picnicked. I BBQed. I ran. I biked. I threw Aerobies. I basically starred in my very own Levitra ad. But on Sunday night, when I went to bed, I had a cough that wouldn't go away and my breathing felt weird. It was odd, but not odd enough to stop me from falling asleep. However, I woke up at 3 a.m. and it was worse. It felt like someone was standing on my chest, my breathing shallow and labored. My boyfriend bolted awake, somehow aware of my alarm. We immediately turned to Dr. Google to try to figure out what was happening.
It quickly became apparent that I was having an asthmatic attack, which had never happened before. My daily Claritin was not able to withstand the weekend-long attack of allergens. (An allergy test I've taken since then revealed that I'm basically allergic to every kind of tree in D.C.) The Google search did not reveal how one should deal with said asthmatic attack at 3:30 a.m. on a Sunday night/Monday morning. I was loathe to go to the emergency room. And I'm not the only one. Jeff Jarvis recently recounted at BuzzMachine how he ignored a diagnosis of appendicitis from Dr. Google, instead taking some aspirin for the pain in his abdomen and going about his day, only to end up in the emergency room that night with a burst appendix. When it comes to medical diagnoses, we still seem to want an actual medical professional involved in the decision-making.
Instead, I attempted a home remedy to tide me over til morning when I could call a doctor's office: tea and a spoonful of chili pepper -- spicy foods are supposed to open the airways. Not only was it disgusting, it did not help, but I managed to fall asleep, survive the night, and make an appointment with an allergy specialist the next morning. (She prescribed closed windows at home, nightly showers, nasal spray, and an inhaler for emergencies.)
What I really wanted in the middle of the night was to use my smartphone not to Google, but to actually talk to a doctor, who could have told me whether it was okay to wait til morning or if I needed to go to the ER stat. Our smartphones can connect us with potential love interests, fellow commuters, and friends around us, why not with doctors? A smartphone app that recently captured Lifehacker's attention is moving society in that direction:
You can still use HealthTap to ask doctors your questions and get push notifications of their responses, but you can also reach out to a live doctor to ask personal, private health questions that you may not want to schedule an appointment for. Those doctors will give you their own credentials, answer your questions, and then refer you to an in-person appointment if necessary. via HealthTap Puts a Doctor On Your Smartphone, Helps You Find a Good One to See In Person.
It's $9.99 for the first question plus a follow-up, and $4.99 after that. In my ideal world, I would have pinged one of HealthTap's 12,000 physicians that night. But I'd like to do more, to do all that stuff we do anytime we happen to be hanging out with a friend who is a doc. I'd like to be able to send photos of a mole or rash to a doctor and get a quick opinion, rather than having to go to the trouble of making and showing up for an appointment.
HealthTap is still a little wary of moving that far into the realm of the doctor-patient relationship, warning on its website that "HealthTap does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment" and is "not intended or designed to replace a physician's independent judgment about any symptom, condition, or the appropriateness or risks of a procedure or treatment for a given person."
In other words, they don't want to be on the hook for actually giving you medical advice (as opposed to generic medical information).
Satish Misra is a medical resident at Johns Hopkins. When he was in medical school, he co-founded a blog, iMedicalApps, which reviews health apps and tracks developments in digital healthcare. I told Misra that I want an app that offers me an on-call doc (or on-Skype-call doc) who will explicitly give me advice when I want it.
"The malpractice issue is a big one," says Misra. "If you look at communities like HealthTap for example, there is significant enough concern that their terms of use state that anything they get on the site from a physician is for informational purposes, that conversations with physicians through the site do not construe treatment relationships."
He thinks one big challenge for "smartdoc" systems is demonstrating that they're effective. "In my own experience, the instinct is certainly to send patients that call to the ER for fear of being wrong - even when we all know that we will be wrong sometimes," he says.
But he thinks the bigger challenge is staffing a virtual hospital that might be asked to attend to the needs of an unknown number of subscribers.
"It'd be quite a capital-intense operation to have sufficient physician staff to man that," he says. "And it's far more cost-effective and practical to have nurses or other healthcare professionals as the first-line."
Misra says some doctors are starting to incorporate virtual appointments into their practices. He points to the Teledermatology Program at UC-Davis and to the tiny Fingerlakes Family Practice, run by Dr. Robert Smith in upstate New York.
"Our exam rooms are now equipped with state of the art telepresence software and high definition webcams to offer the a real visit feel whenever coming into the office is not possible," says the Fingerlakes Virtual Care info page. "Or, if you are in the office seeing one of our clinicians, we have the capability of bringing a specialist into our office via our teleconferencing software."
That sounds pretty cool. The problem? Insurance isn't buying into it: "A virtual care visit is currently not covered by insurance companies or by medicare as they do not recognize the efficiency and value of this type of visit. Therefore, the patient becomes responsible for the cost of this visit that ranges from $25 to $50 depending on the length and nature of the visit."
Insurance companies do appear to be catching on, though. Aetna acquired iTriage last year, an app developed by two ER doctors for providing medical info to patients. Apps like iTriage and the awesome ZocDoc, though, primarily exist to steer users to a particular doctor for in-person appointments. They include the all-important ratings by other patients to help you make that decision. They don't put the doctor IN your phone (where I want her).
"It's a risk-averse profession," says Misra, in explaining why smartphone innovation is slow to come to the medical industry. "Unlike other fields, we can't be content to simply launch new services and let the market decide - we've got to evaluate the services for efficacy and unintended issues."
He mentions a study of the effectiveness of a teledermatology program, for example, that showed it was successfully and correctly identifying the lesions patients were showing to the doctors. "However, what was interesting was that when people get referred for an in-person visit, there are actually a substantial number of other lesions identified that actually turn out to be malignant," he says. "Teledermatology misses that. Its just an interesting example of unintended consequences and the importance of thoughtful evaluation in medicine."
Plus there are obvious security concerns. As sensitive as health information is, doctors and hospitals that move into virtual care will have to be as wary of hackers as they are of a hacking cough.
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6e6b07b00c227863f9483ae11450e5f3 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/07/17/we-need-more-than-one-screen-to-keep-us-entertained/ | We Need More Than One Screen To Keep Us Entertained | We Need More Than One Screen To Keep Us Entertained
Last night, while watching an episode of Twin Peaks on Netflix (yes, I realize I'm late to the party), I had my iPad in hand (to play Boggle) and my smartphone at my side to monitor text messages and incoming emails. My boyfriend was seated at his computer, watching Twin Peaks with me, but also monitoring Twitter and writing. I thought we were a bit freakish, but it turns out we're not. We're part of a movement.
The Pew Center calls this movement "the rise of the Connected Viewer." According to a Pew study that can probably be filed in the "cataloging things that are pretty obvious" category, more than half of all phone owners are "connected viewers," meaning they are "connected" to their phone/Internet while watching TV. According to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project:
38% of cell owners used their phone to keep themselves occupied during commercials or breaks in something they were watching
Sorry advertisers. If people aren't skipping commercials, they're very effectively ignoring them.
23% used their phone to exchange text messages with someone else who was watching the same program in a different location 22% used their phone to check whether something they heard on television was true
Case in point, we Googled an obscure reference in Twin Peaks last night.
20% used their phone to visit a website that was mentioned on television
Ashton Kutcher has been on to this for a while, giving the tech cos he invests in sticker placement on his lap top on "Two And A Half Men". Prepare yourself for a continuing flood of website placements in television shows.
11% used their phone to see what other people were saying online about a program they were watching, and 11% posted their own comments online about a program they were watching using their mobile phone
When watching awards shows, I usually find the meta-commentary on Twitter more entertaining than the show. Yes, Oscars, I'm talking about you.
6% used their phone to vote for a reality show contestant
The younger you are, the more likely you are to "connectedly view."
Question: Is television less likely to rot your brain if you're keeping it engaged via smartphone? Or is this contributing to a societal Attention Deficit Disorder, a constant need of stimulation so pervasive that we need smartphones on top of iPads on top of television screens to keep us entertained?
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ecfb837fd1422286058b2b269e1c46b1 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/06/beware-tech-abandoners-people-without-facebook-accounts-are-suspicious/ | Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are 'Suspicious.' | Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are 'Suspicious.'
The term "Crackberry" seems silly today -- and not just because consumers OD'ed on Blackberry and moved on to iDealers. The term arose in an earlier "aughts" time when Blackberry dominated the smartphone market and lawyers and execs were nearly the only ones who had them, due to their need to be able to respond to email immediately. Things have changed. Now we all need to be able to respond to email immediately. And to tweet. And to instantly share our photos on Facebook. We're all addicted to technology now, and not just to the Blackberry. We're "addicted" to our iPhones, and Facebook, and Twitter, and Android, and Pinterest, and iPads, and Word with Friends, and fill-in-the-blank-with-your-digital-dope-of-choice.
The sudden and dramatic advent of social-media-enabling technologies into our lives seems to be causing some mid-digital-life crises. Not only has Silicon Valley developed a guilty conscience about addicting us to screens, we the users are starting to question how technology is changing us: making us fat, making us unhealthy, making us depressed, making us lonely, making us narcissistic, and making us waste time worrying about whether it's making us fat, unhealthy, depressed, narcissistic and/or lonely. That's leading some users to consider abandoning the whole enterprise. My colleague Haydn Shaughnessy gave up his smartphone last year. Now, inspired by the example of former Facebooker Katherine Losse, he's considering giving up Facebook.
I am writing with some words of caution. I used to say that "if you’re not on Facebook, it’s possible you don’t actually exist." I think it's time to update that, courtesy of Slashdot: Facebook abstainers will be labeled suspicious.
Slashdot flagged a German news story in which an expert noted that mass murderers Anders Breivik and James Holmes both lacked much of a social media presence, leading to the conclusion, in Slashdot's phrasing, that "not having a Facebook account could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer."
That's a tad extreme, but I'm seeing the suggestion more and more often that a missing Facebook account raises red flags. After a woman found out via Facebook that a man who'd 'poked' her in real life had a long term girlfriend, she turned to digital manners advice givers Farhad Manjoo and Emily Yoffe of Slate to ask whether she should tell the girlfriend. They said she should and then went on a digression about transparent romances in the age of Facebook:
Farhad: I think we've mentioned it before that if you are going out with someone and they don't have a Facebook profile, you should be suspicious. Emily: Wait a minute. You may have mentioned that. Farhad: I think I’ve recommended that. You know why, though? Imagine if this guy didn't have a Facebook profile. That’s why. You should be suspicious of someone who is not making your relationship known publicly on a site like Facebook. I’m going to go on record with that. Emily: I'm fine with people not having a Facebook page if they don't want one. However, I think you’re right. If you’re of a certain age and you meet someone who you are about to go to bed with, and that person doesn't have a Facebook page, you may be getting a false name. It could be some kind of red flag. via Transcript: Facebook stalker: Should I tell a cheating guy’s girlfriend that we hooked up? - Slate Magazine.
It's not just love seekers who worry about what the lack of a Facebook account means. Anecdotally, I've heard both job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate doesn't have a Facebook account. Does it mean they deactivated it because it was full of red flags? Are they hiding something?
The idea that a Facebook resister is a potential mass murderer, flaky employee, and/or person who struggles with fidelity is obviously flawed. There are people who choose not to be Facebookers for myriad non-psychopathic reasons: because they find it too addictive, or because they hold their privacy dear, or because they don't actually want to know what their old high school buddies are up to. My own boyfriend isn't on Facebook and I don't hold it against him (too much).
But it does seem that increasingly, it's expected that everyone is on Facebook in some capacity, and that a negative assumption is starting to arise about those who reject the Big Blue Giant's siren call. Continuing to navigate life without having this digital form of identification may be like trying to get into a bar without a driver's license.
Gallery: The Facebook Wall Of Shame 10 images View gallery
Case in point: Katherine Losse, the ex-Facebook employee that quit the company and the social network after cashing in her stock options, and who inspired my colleague to consider UnFacebooking, couldn't stay off Facebookfor long. She wound up opening a new account.
“You can’t get away from it. It’s everything. It’s everywhere,” she told the Washington Post. “The moment we’re in now is about trying to deal with all this technology rather than rejecting it, because obviously we can’t reject it entirely.”
Well, you can, but it might lead to your being rejected down the line too.
* Updated August 7 to include some reasons why a person might choose not to be on Facebook, beyond being too busy planning commando attacks.
* Another update: Haydn responds (and critiques)!
* And another update: A follow-up story from me, "You Don't Need A Facebook Account To Be Considered 'Normal' (But It Helps)"
Read more:
What Facebook Hands Over To The Police When A User Is Suspected Of Murder
Using Twitter To Identify Psychopaths
Is Facebook Making You Lonely? Don't Be Stupid
Facebook Can Tell You If A Person Is Worth Hiring
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23b7da07c4a1088cfab428993f55862f | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/10/04/facebook-scans-private-messages-to-hand-out-public-likes/ | Facebook Scans Private Messages To Hand Out Public 'Likes' | Facebook Scans Private Messages To Hand Out Public 'Likes'
Facebook doesn't just rely on its users to hit the "Like" button around the Web to tell the world that they endorse a product, news article, hotel, or LOLcat. It scans their private messages to friends, and when it sees a link to a 'Likeable' page, it doles out 'Likes' accordingly. Two 'Likes' per private message sent, to be exact. This is a fascinating find by security researcher Ashkan Soltani, writing for the Wall Street Journal:
A recent online video shows that the social networking site scans the links you’re sending – registering them as though you “Like” the page you sent. ... The video, which was posted this week on Hacker News, showed a person who sent links in Facebook messages in order to inflate the number of “Likes” a page had received. Each time the link was sent, the page’s “Like” count went up by two, something that the Hacker News poster said allows people to “pump up to 1,800 ‘Likes’ in an hour.”
I tested it myself. When I sent a link to Soltani's test page in private messages to my sisters, Soltani's page registered two extra "Likes" with each message. When I sent the link to both sisters at once, the page still got just two "Likes." His page also got two more "Likes" when I posted a link to it on Soltani's wall (publicly). I tried the test again sending a recent article I wrote to my sister. It jumped from "5 shares" to "7 shares" after I sent her the message.
Writes Soltani:
In addition to raising privacy questions, then, the video points to potential problems with “Like fraud.” via How Private Are Your Private Facebook Messages? - Digits - WSJ.
Indeed. When I first started, Soltani's test page had 4 Likes. Now it has 12, and the jump is all my doing.
We already know that Google scans our Gmail to target us with ads and that Facebook scans our inboxes looking for sexual predators and child porn, but many users may not have realized that the links they were exchanging privately resulted in a public -- though anonymous -- endorsement of said links.
I reached out to Facebook for comment on this. While I'm not surprised that links posted to Facebook, whether publicly or privately, are scanned for security reasons, I am taken aback by the fact that Facebook assigns a public value to those links. It's less surprising when the number that jumps is "shares" rather than "Likes," as "Likes" implies, you know, actually liking something. I wonder how many people have sent an article or product link to Facebook friends out of outrage, only to have it instead get more 'Likes.' Do over 6,000 people really "Like" the Placenta Teddy Bear, or is that just reflective of the number of times a link to that page has been sent around in horror?
Update: Facebook says the double loving is a bug, and that only one "Like" should be handed out. A spokesperson also emphasizes that this a third-party Social Plug-in version of the "Like" button and that it is meant to reflect engagement rather than endorsement. Here's the full statement from Facebook:
Absolutely no private information has been exposed and Facebook is not automatically Liking any Facebook Pages on a user's behalf. Many websites that use Facebook's 'Like', 'Recommend', or 'Share' buttons also carry a counter next to them. This counter reflects the number of times people have clicked those buttons and also the number of times people have shared that page's link on Facebook. When the count is increased via shares over private messages, no user information is exchanged, and privacy settings of content are unaffected. Links shared through messages do not affect the Like count on Facebook Pages. We did recently find a bug with our social plugins where at times the count for the Share or Like goes up by two, and we are working on fix to solve the issue now. To be clear, this only affects social plugins off of Facebook and is not related to Facebook Page likes. This bug does not impact the user experience with messages or what appears on their timelines.
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e3b058002654dc9a2089162c2ba85cc4 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/10/10/microsoft-is-losing-in-a-bitter-battle-to-protect-users-privacy/ | Microsoft Is Losing In A Bitter Battle To Protect Internet Users' Privacy | Microsoft Is Losing In A Bitter Battle To Protect Internet Users' Privacy
Microsoft has a privacy headache.
On October 26, Microsoft is planning to launch a new version of Internet Explorer that has privacy baked in. It will have a "Do Not Track" signal turned on by default, so that those people who still use Internet Explorer and who actually take the time to upgrade to the new version will be automatically telling websites and advertisers that they don't want data about them to be collected or used to target them with ads while they browse the Internet. (If that is in fact what "Do Not Track" turns out to mean.)
Sounds great, right? It certainly correlates with what people say they want: The majority of Americans revealed in a recent Berkeley survey that they don't want to be tracked online even if they don't totally understand what that means. And when Microsoft polled some of its U.S. and European consumers, 75 percent of them said they wanted the company to turn on Do Not Track for them.
But Microsoft is facing major opposition to its plan to make privacy the default setting for Internet Explorers, and that opposition from the advertising industry might mean that the setting winds up being completely useless.
The Digital Advertising Alliance, a trade group that represents a bulk of Internet advertising companies, released a "Screw you, Microsoft" statement this week, informing the tech giant that its members plan to ignore the DNT signal emitted by Internet Explorer 10 users. From the statement:
The DAA does not require companies to honor DNT signals fixed by the browser manufacturers and set by them in browsers. Specifically, it is not a DAA Principle or in any way a requirement under the DAA Program to honor a DNT signal that is automatically set in IE10 or any other browser. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and the Direct Marketing Association will not sanction or penalize companies or otherwise enforce with respect to DNT signals set on IE10 or other browsers.
There's no legal strength behind "Do Not Track" yet. The Federal Trade Commission has signaled that it's content to let "stakeholders" work out an agreement. So at this point, Do Not Track is kind of like a car's turning signal. Someone might flip on their right blinker to let you know they want to change lanes, but you aren't required by law to let them over. (I don't think.) But the showdown between Microsoft and the advertising industry illustrates why DNT might need actual legal oomph behind it.
The trade associations that lead the DAA do not believe that Microsoft’s IE10 browser settings are an appropriate standard for providing consumer choice. Machine-driven do not track does not represent user choice; it represents browser-manufacturer choice. Allowing browser manufacturers to determine the kinds of information users receive could negatively impact the vast consumer benefits and Internet experiences delivered by DAA participants and millions of other Web sites that consumers value.
Microsoft, of course, would point back to the surveys above to argue that consumers in general do prefer not to be tracked.
"Consumers want and expect strong privacy protection to be built into Microsoft products and services," said Brendon Lynch, Microsoft's chief privacy officer in a statement. "A recent Microsoft survey of U.S. and European consumers shows 75 percent of PC users want Microsoft to turn 'on' Do Not Track (DNT). This reaffirms our decision to enable DNT in the 'Express Settings' portion of the Windows 8 set-up experience. There, consumers can easily switch DNT off if they’d like. Transparency and choice guide our approach. We will continue to innovate and compete on privacy.”
Tech non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology has called Microsoft's move "aggressive," but others are fans of the company's proactive approach.
"The DAA is trying to kill off Do Not Track," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the tech non-profit Center for Digital Democracy in a statement. "Its announcement today to punish Microsoft for putting consumers first is an extreme measure designed to strong-arm companies that care about privacy. The DAA's campaign to penalize Microsoft is part of a broad-based attack by ad industry lobbyists against Do Not Track, including their attempt to derail the work of the W3C last week in Amsterdam."
Microsoft is in a difficult position now. If advertisers are ignoring its DNT signals while respecting them from other browsers, IE10 winds up being the browser that offers the least privacy rather than the most.
Update: A Microsoft spokesman disagrees with my last sentence. He writes, "I don’t think that’s accurate. IE still offers Tracking Protection and InPrivate browsing. These are available now and will be complementary to DNT."
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890e8938e4b668e86e577783ab641c0d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/11/26/what-you-actually-need-to-know-about-the-changes-facebook-is-making-to-its-privacy-policy/ | What You Actually Need To Know About The Changes Facebook Is Making To Its Privacy Policy | What You Actually Need To Know About The Changes Facebook Is Making To Its Privacy Policy
Facebook is changing its privacy policy. Again.
Many Facebook users are frantically posting a "copyright protection notice" on their Walls to try to keep Facebook from violating their privacy by copying, disseminating, sharing, leaking, licking, scratching, biting, or clawing the contents of their Facebook accounts. It's complete legal mumbo jumbo that's not enforceable or binding on Facebook, as pointed out by my colleagues Dave Thier and Jeff Bercovici, as well as by College Humor. It's not the first time the notice has gone viral; it seems to have been spurred this time though by changes to the agreement that is binding on Facebook when it comes to your privacy: the site's privacy policy, which Facebook likes to call the "Data Use Policy" (in acknowledgement perhaps of the fact that privacy policies don't exist to protect your privacy but to explain the ways in which it will be violated).
Facebook sent out notice about the changes near midnight East Coast time the night before Thanksgiving -- the kind of timing most companies would use to drop bad news, knowing most people are too busy traveling, salivating, or silently suffering through awkward family time to pay attention. That caused some people to freak out, assuming Facebook was changing the policy to retain rights to all your photos as well as your eternal soul.
It was only a holiday evening for the American part of the Facebook user base.
It's hard to blame those naive Facebook users desperately posting this notice to their wall in hopes of putting some kind of legal fence around their drunken party pics. Even the experts are confused by Facebook's privacy policy changes. Mathew Ingram, a tech writer I hold in high esteem, told his readers that the most recent changes to the privacy policy pave the way for Facebook to create ads that follow you around the Web. As evidence, he cites a post I wrote... six months ago. Yeah, you gave Facebook the right to use your info to create an external ad network last summer. That's old news! Here's what you need to know about the most recent set of proposed changes:
1. There's a handy-dandy redlined version of the new policy here. One of the biggest changes is that Facebook isn't going to let you vote anymore on changes to its policy. Facebook was trying this whole democracy thing, letting its community decide whether or not it should make changes to the agreements between the social-networking site and its users. The problem: voter apathy. The vote was only triggered if the site received over 7,000 comments on proposed changes. During a vote in June, only 342,632 people participated. That's a miniscule fraction of Facebook's now one-billion strong user base, and thus nearly meaningless, and not enough to hit Facebook's 30% voter participation requirement to make the vote binding. So Facebook's pulling the plug on democracy -- a sad turn of events, argues Michael Phillips at Buzzfeed -- instead having a substantive "comment period" and making its privacy czar Erin Egan available to answer questions.
2. Facebook is adding a clause to the data use policy that allows it to share "information with affiliates," i.e. other companies that Facebook owns. Bloomberg calls the move Google-like, pointing out that it will allow Facebook "to build unified profiles of its users that include people's personal data from its social network and from Instagram." I think it's less like Google mashing up everything it knows about a person in one basket and more like a typical corporate clause. But it does mean that Facebook and Instagram info may now exist on the same server and won't be kept separate, meaning the social networking can now see everything it knows about you through a Walden filter.
"As our company grows, we acquire businesses that become a legal part of our organization," says a Facebook spokesperson. "We wanted to clarify that we will share information with our affiliates and vice versa, both to help improve our services and theirs, and to take advantage of storage efficiencies."
3. Facebook is making some changes to your ability to block people from sending you private messages. They're removing a clause that said, "You can control who can start a message thread with you using your 'How You Connect' settings." But Facebook says it's not totally taking away your ability to block your ex from harassing you via private message.
"We are working on updates to Facebook Messages and have made this change in our Data Use Policy in order to allow for improvements to the product," says a Facebook spokesperson. "You will still be able to block senders and manage which messages you see in your inbox."
Two privacy groups, who have asked Facebook to withdraw its proposed changes, alleging they violate the company's agreement with the FTC, argue in a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg that the change to the messaging controls means Facebook users are going to get hit with more spam.
***
So your eternal soul is safe for now. The comment period for these changes ends on Wednesday, November 28. You can weigh in here.
Related on Forbes:
Gallery: Tech Wreck: The Fall Of Social Web Billionaires 9 images View gallery
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ba25f5b7a512fb83b4bba75f9eecfde8 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/11/29/why-netflix-getting-what-it-wants-from-congress-means-your-email-gets-warrant-protection/ | Why Netflix Getting What It Wants From Congress Means Your Email Will Get Warrant Protection | Why Netflix Getting What It Wants From Congress Means Your Email Will Get Warrant Protection
Update (Dec. 21): Congress gutted the email privacy protections from this legislation before passing it.
Good news today for those people worried about the government snooping in their inboxes. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday that would require the feds and the po-po to get a warrant before they can get access to your email. That means getting a judge involved, and it would be an improvement from the current state of affairs. As David Kravets at Wired ably explains, the law governing your email is outdated, giving little protection to email in the cloud after it's been there for 6 months. When the Electronic Communications Privacy Act was first passed in 1986, after all, email that sat around in transit for that long was seen as being "abandoned" because you hadn't downloaded it to your computer.
"This is an important gain for privacy. We are very happy that the committee voted that all electronic content like emails, photos and other communications held by companies like Google and Facebook should be protected with a search warrant," said Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement. “We believe law enforcement should use the same standard to search your inbox that they do to search your home.”
Privacy advocates have been wishing and praying and hoping for email privacy reform to happen for years now. The battle is far from over -- the bill still needs to get the attention and approval of the House and Senate -- but it's a big step forward. How did it finally happen?
Senator Patrick Leahy tacked the amendment updating ECPA on to another bill that's been fast-tracked this year thanks in part to the efforts of Netflix and Facebook. The ECPA amendment is attached to H.R. 2471, a bill to amend yet another piece of privacy legislation, the Video Privacy Protection Act. This is an act that was passed to protect the privacy of your video rental records, brought about after an enterprising Washington City Paper reporter shocked lawmakers by getting and publishing Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's Blockbuster rentals. The knee-jerk bill forbids video providers from disclosing what you watch; they have to get your explicit consent every time they want to share that info.
This has been a thorn in the side for Netflix, preventing the video giant from taking advantage of Facebook's "frictionless sharing." So Netflix and Facebook and others have been pushing Congress to change the law so that Netflix can help your friends spam your newsfeed with their movie selections. Despite some criticism from privacy advocates who are concerned that it will "reduc[e] consumer control over another category of sensitive, personal information," lawmakers have seemed open to making the change so that you can grant a company the right to share your watching habits in one fell swoop as you already can with your reading and listening habits. (Yes, talking about you, Washington Post Social Reader and Spotify users.)
During the hearing today, Senator Diane Feinstein added an amendment to the VPPA legislation to allow users to retain some control. Companies would only be granted a two-year right to share and broadcast your movie habits; after two years, they'll have to ask for consumer consent again.
Seeing the momentum the VPPA update had, Leahy tacked the ECPA reform amendment onto it. Little did Leahy know, extra momentum would come in the form of the recent David Petraeus scandal and the questionable investigation that allowed FBI agents to get access to his sexy emails with, as far as we currently know, little judicial oversight.
So, if Congress passes the bill, you'll wind up losing a little movie rental privacy in exchange for better email protection. When the film about the Petraeus email scandal inevitably comes out, I hope you'll appreciate the irony when you watch it on Netflix and the fact that you did so pops up on your Facebook Timeline.
Earlier: Report Claiming Senator Leahy Is About To Make Email Privacy Even Worse Is Flawed
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2858051ce99bb7d059178cde7e1bab91 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/12/07/dear-journalists-at-vice-and-elsewhere-here-are-some-simple-ways-not-to-get-your-source-arrested/ | Dear Journalists at Vice and Elsewhere, Here Are Some Simple Ways Not To Get Your Source Arrested | Dear Journalists at Vice and Elsewhere, Here Are Some Simple Ways Not To Get Your Source Arrested
You forgot to scrub the metadata, suckers.
Computer security millionaire John McAfee's surreal flight from Belizean law enforcement came to an end this week when he was detained (and then hospitalized) in Guatemala, as has been widely reported. A piece of the story that hasn't been included in much of the reporting is how authorities figured out that McAfee -- who was wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor -- had fled Belize for Guatemala. McAfee's location was exposed after he agreed to let two reporters from Vice Magazine tag along with him. Proud to finally be in the thick of a story rife with vices -- drugs, murder, prostitutes, guns, vicious dogs, a fugitive millionaire and his inappropriately young girlfriend -- they proudly posted an iPhone photo to their blog of Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro standing with the source of the mayhem in front of a jungly background, saying, "We are with John McAfee right now, suckers."
With that posting, they went from chroniclers of vices to inadvertent narcs. They left the metadata in the photo, revealing McAfee's exact location, down to latitude and longitude. McAfee tried to claim he'd manipulated the data -- a claim that Vice photographer backed up on Facebook in a posting he's since deleted -- but then capitulated, hired a lawyer, and tried to claim asylum in Guatemala. Guatemalan authorities instead detained McAfee for entering the country illegally. All of which was dutifully reported by the Vice reporters, with no mention of their screw-up. Mat Honan at Wired excoriated Vice for its role in events:
This was deeply stupid. People have been pointing out the dangers of inadvertently leaving GPS tags in cellphone pictures for years and years. Vice is the same publication that regularly drops in on revolutions and all manner of criminals. They should have known better.
And they have the resources to do it better. Vice is a $100 million operation.
Then, it followed up this egregiously stupid action with a far worse one. Vice photographer Robert King apparently lied on his Facebook page and Twitter in order to protect McAfee. Like McAfee, he claimed that the geodata in the photo had been manipulated to conceal their true location. ... But the coverup, as always, is worse than the crime. In claiming the geodata had been manipulated when it had not, Vice was no longer just documenting. Now it was actively aiding a fugitive wanted for questioning in the murder investigation of his neighbor Gregory Faull, who was shot dead at his own home. Via How Trusting In Vice Led To John McAfee's Downfall - Wired.
It was indeed deeply stupid. Journalists are professional dealers in information but many are terrible about protecting it. While willing to go to jail to protect their sources, journalists may wind up leaving them exposed instead through poor data practices. In a New York Times editorial last year, Chris Soghoian, now chief technologist at the ACLU, warned that "secrets aren't safe with journalists" explaining that "the safety of anonymous sources will depend not only on journalists’ ethics, but on their computer skills."
There are three very basic things journalists should be doing to shield their sources:
Scrubbing metadata from photos, documents and other files. Resisting the desire to save copies of everything. Encrypting communications.
Technologist Ashkan Soltani walked me through some simple tools for doing this. They're not foolproof, but they'll make it a little less likely that your blog post will wind up sending the person you're profiling to jail (unless that's your intent).
1. Scrubbing metadata.
"All files -- photos, Word docs, PDFs -- include some kind of metadata: author, location created, device information," says Soltani. If you leave the metadata attached, you run the risk of exposing private information about the person who gave you the file, or, in the case of Vice, the location of the person trying to keep his location under wraps.
Before you share a Word doc with the world that a source sent you, run it through a scrubber. Otherwise, it may reveal where the doc was created, who authored it and anyone who has ever made changes to it. There's Doc Scrubber for Microsoft Word. For PDF docs, use a tool like Metadata Assistant. Or use Adobe Acrobat's "Examine Document" tool which will scan the doc for hidden information. For photos, think about turning off geotagging on your phone or digital camera so that the information doesn't get included in the first place. You'll usually do that in your phone's "Location Settings." Instructions here. You can run your photos through a metadata scrubber. Or, if you don't care much about the resolution, you can just take a screenshot of the photo and use that metadata-free version.
Some photo-hosting services do you the favor of scrubbing metadata. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all have this privacy-protective measure in place.
2. Resisting the desire to save copies of everything.
We live in a time when it's easy to save everything, meaning we've all become digital hoarders. Why delete an email or chat when you can just archive it? It could come in handy later. Or it could come back to bite you later.
"Disable chat logs in whatever program you're using, Gmail or Skype," says Soltani. In Gmail, that means switching chats to "off the record." In Skype, it means turning off the feature that automatically saves your chats to anywhere you log in. (Added privacy bonus: That could keep your boss from winding up getting his hands on a sexy chat you had on your home computer.) If you need to keep a record of a chat, save it as a Word file on your own computer, and encrypt it. "Don't keep emails around for years and years," says Soltani. "Practice better data hygiene." Soltani says journalists and sources might consider setting up temporary email accounts to communicate about a story, and then to delete the accounts after the story's complete. He compares it to using a burner cell phone.
3. Encrypting your communications.
This may be the most labor intensive of the recommendations from computer security professionals, but if it's important that your communications with someone not be compromised, it's worth it. This means your emails will appear as gibberish to anyone you don't want reading them. Had David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell encrypted their emails to one another rather than saving them in a drafts folder, their exposing themselves to each other wouldn't have been exposed to the world. "This allows you to communicate securely and protects your messages if your account is compromised," says Soltani.
For chat, consider using Adium's OTR. Use a Virtual Private Network or create your own SSL. Take 30 minutes (more or less, depending on your savvy level) to set up SMime or PGP for Gmail so that the emails you send from whichever provider you use are encrypted. The only limitation here: you need to get the person you're communicating with to enable encryption as well. Rather than calling someone from your landline or cell phone, use Skype or Silent Circle.
***
A journalist's job is to bring information to light. Using these tools, you'll retain some control over which information gets lit.
Gallery: 10 Incredibly Simple Things You Can Do To Protect Your Privacy 10 images View gallery
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7bf1a118cb8a8d6c64acd19b9d2409b6 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/12/14/the-little-known-spy-agency-that-knows-your-flight-plans-and-much-more/ | The Little Known Spy Agency That Knows Your Flight Plans And Much More | The Little Known Spy Agency That Knows Your Flight Plans And Much More
This week, the Wall Street Journal had an in-depth report about how the National Counterterrorism Center won the intel jackpot, giving it the right to store and monitor almost any government database. The Journal highlights dissent within the government about the program; the former privacy czar for the Department of Homeland Security said that new rules being set for the seven-year-old NCTC constituted a "sea change" because, in the words of the WSJ, "whenever citizens interact with the government, the first question asked will be, are they a terrorist?"
Here's the crucial part about the Bin Laden-hunting agency's new powers for those readers who haven't figured out how to get around the WSJ's paywall:
[New rules] allow the little-known National Counterterrorism Center to examine the government files of U.S. citizens for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect them. That is a departure from past practice, which barred the agency from storing information about ordinary Americans unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation. Now, NCTC can copy entire government databases—flight records, casino-employee lists, the names of Americans hosting foreign-exchange students and many others. The agency has new authority to keep data about innocent U.S. citizens for up to five years, and to analyze it for suspicious patterns of behavior. Previously, both were prohibited. Data about Americans "reasonably believed to constitute terrorism information" may be permanently retained.
The allure of the power of big data trumps privacy concerns once again. The news to many may be that TV shows and movies led them astray in suggesting that most law enforcement agencies could already do this.
Here are some of the reactions from people worth reading.
Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel at the ACLU, says that the ACLU has "been warning about the dangers of the program for months." He writes:
The program is striking in so many ways. Innocent people can be investigated and their data kept for years. It can be shared with foreign governments. All of this in service of not just terrorism investigations but also investigations of future crimes. In effect, the U.S. government is using information it gathers for its ordinary business to turn its own citizens into the subjects of terrorism investigations.
In a thoughtful Facebook post, tech policy wonk Alexander Howard questions the lack of public debate in granting the NCTC these powers:
Data mining existing records offers unprecedented opportunities to find and detect terrorism plots before they happen. The 4th Amendment apparently doesn't apply to government data collected in the course of business, so this is constitutional.... The public is left to hope that the government oversees itself effectively behind closed doors. Does anyone think that the privacy officers whose objections were overruled in these internal debates will provide a sufficient counterweight in the years to come?
Steptoe law partner Stewart Baker, who used to be at Department of Homeland Security, suggests the objections from the DHS privacy officer catalogued by the WSJ reflect territorial impulses rather than true privacy concerns:
[T]he scandal isn't about privacy. It's about how the government is slowly unlearning the lessons of 9/11. DHS has passenger lists for flights in and out of the US. It uses those lists to watch for terrorists. The National Counter Terrorism Center also watches for terrorists. So it asked for DHS's lists. The first rule of bureaucracy is never to share information with a rival. So it's no surprise that DHS didn't want to hand over its data to Matt Olsen's NCTC. It's not even a surprise that DHS claimed it was fighting for Americans' privacy. But, really, how silly is that? Do you know anyone who resonates to this slogan: "I''m glad Janet Napolitano has my travel records, but I will fight to the death to keep them out of Matt Olsen's hands"?
Baker is definitely in the privacy skepticism camp, but he has a point here. Back in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security seemed to be making a push to do something very similar to what the National Counterterrorism Center has gotten permission to do.
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bd5325687fa1f90f64c01ec29d2889ba | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/01/10/women-turn-to-the-web-to-decipher-mens-text-messages/ | Women Turn To The Web To Decipher Men's Text Messages | Women Turn To The Web To Decipher Men's Text Messages
Thanks to the Internet, the wealth that is human knowledge has been democratized, archived, and placed at our fingertips. The answer to almost any question is just a Google search away. Sites like Wikipedia have capitalized on the intelligence of the masses, crowd-sourcing millions of articles from experts across the globe. It was only a matter of time before the Internet reached its true potential: helping women figure out what is going through men's minds when they send a text message.
"HeTexted," which launched in October is a place where women of all ages can submit cryptic text messages they've received from men for help with interpretation or to simply get "He's into you" or "He's not into you" votes. I share with you, because like Leslie Horn of Gizmodo, I can't stop reading these entertaining and sometimes horrifying texts. I'm not the only one. Within a month of its viral launch, the founders landed a book deal (with the book due out in January 2014).
The most forced smiley face of all time
I don't think she does in fact love it.
I can't believe it either.
When the site first launched, to much media attention, Rebecca Greenfield of the Atlantic Wire focused on the site's dark side: "Underneath the hilarious back-and-forth texts and glimpses into other people's dating mishaps and misunderstandings, it's actually all about making fun of how 'clueless' women are when it comes to men... So it basically exploits our moments of relationship indecision, turning them into something to laugh at rather than actually helping—even though helping is what the site claims it's about."
I refuse not to laugh at cluelessness. That's not a sacrifice I'm willing to make. And I think the Internet is doing a favor to all the friends of these women who would otherwise have to consult with them endlessly over inane digital back-and-forths.
"We really do want to help people," says Carrie Henderson-McDermott, 26, one of the site's co-founders. "Woman twice divorced who are returning to the dating field who never had to do texting before need this help."
And so HeTexted joins the many spaces on the Internet that some of us go to for dating advice and the rest of us go to for relationship schadenfreude. We are endlessly fascinated by peeks into other people's private lives, especially around the confusion and excitement of courting. The site, which attracts from 25,000 to 40,000 visitors per day, is careful though about personally identifiable information slipping into the submissions. Full names and numbers have to be deleted.
"We don't want any personal information leaked. We don't want people using the site to get back at people," says Henderson-McDermott. "I monitor the site. I live on it."
And Greenfield might like to know that moving forward, submissions won't be limited to "clueless women." The site founders are launching a site called "SheTexted," for the clueless with a Y Chromosome, within 6-10 weeks.
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f315bbc1c3f7fd75e7953f7b436df8b0 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/01/18/tsa-abandons-rapiscans-nude-body-scanners/ | TSA Abandons Rapiscan's Nude Body Scanners | TSA Abandons Rapiscan's Nude Body Scanners
Rapiscan was unable to translate the backscatter image above into the 'Automated Target Recognition'... [+] image below
As threatened back in 2011, the Transportation Security Agency is pulling the plug on "naked body scanners" in airports, ending its contract with backscatter scanner maker Rapiscan because the company was unable to come up with privacy-protective technology to shield travelers' private-ish parts from view. Via the L.A. Times:
The Rapiscan scanner uses low-level X-rays to create what looks like a naked image of screened passengers to target weapons hidden under the clothes. A second type of TSA scanner, built by L-3 Communications Holdings, uses radio waves and shows hidden objects on an avatar images on a screen -- not on an image of a passenger. TSA gave Rapiscan until June 2013 to come up with a software upgrade to prevent the scanner from projecting the naked image. TSA officials said Rapiscan won't be able to meet that deadline.
This doesn't mean you no longer have to go through full-body scanners, maximum-security prison style, at the airport. It just means that all machines that scan your body will display a generic stick figure body to TSA security agents rather than the X-ray nudie shot, seen at right.
Rapiscan's inability to deal with privacy issues and add "Automated Target Recognition" software to its machines to provide a G-rated version of its scans is a coup for its competitor L-3, the company that makes millimeter-wave versions of the scanners for the TSA and has been able to provide Disney-approved versions of its scans. As ProPublica reported last year, the TSA has been steadily swapping out the Rapiscan machines for L-3's versions. Via Wired:
Rapiscan had a contract to produce 500 machines for the TSA at a cost of about $180,000 each... In all, the 250 Rapiscan machines already deployed are to be phased out of airports nationwide and will be replaced with machines produced by L-3 Communications.
Rapiscan's privacy fail cost it over $40 million in revenue. Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems is also taking a "one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports," reports the AP. However, OSI's chief financial officer for tells the Associated Press that "there's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the abandoned machines.
Of course, even with the privacy protective machines, there's still a revealing image of you being created; it's just not what a human being winds up looking at.
Gallery: The Dumbest Things People Try To Get Through Airport Security 10 images View gallery
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9d049b380e014a2dcb79c569af1b459d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/02/05/terrible-app-idea-of-the-week-bang-with-friends/ | Terrible App Idea of the Week: 'Bang With Friends' | Terrible App Idea of the Week: 'Bang With Friends'
A Facebook app that you'll regret taking home
I get a lot of pitches from start-ups that are hoping for coverage from the tech community. Sometimes I am astounded by these pitches -- not because I desperately want to write about the company but because of how far-fetched it seems that denizens of the world will actually want to use the services offered. When I got a pitch late last year for an app named "Blurt," I decided to start a column dedicated to the worst idea to float into my inbox on a vaguely weekly basis.
(What's Blurt? It's like Twitter for audio, allowing you to broadcast 10-second clips of sound. Its website features videos of truly terrible use cases, including one woman broadcasting a plea for a "Romeo." Josh Constine of TechCrunch summed up my feelings on the app: "Everyone hates voicemail. Let's build a social network around it!" And, of course, it's been upstaged in a big way by Twitter's Vine, which includes audio and an easier-consumed-online video component.)
The latest app to impress me with how insanely ridiculous it is: Bang With Friends. It's like Words With Friends, without the letter tiles and clothes. This is an app dedicated to discovering which of your Facebook friends is DTB (Down To Bang). The app promises to "anonymously" find friends who want to Poke (or get Poked) in real life. You sign up and choose which of your contacts you're willing to put on your "Friends With Benefits List." If they sign up and put you on their list, the app connects you and provides explicit instructions as to what to do. It claims to be "completely private and discreet until both friends are down to bang." The massive media frenzy around an app that transforms Facebook into one big Craigslist Casual Encounters section inspired an immediate knock-off site, "Bang With Professionals" -- for LinkedIn, obvs.
So why is this a horrible idea?
Despite claims that it's anonymous, private, and discreet, it's not really. As a general principle, anything that involves signing up with your Facebook account doesn't usually fall into those three categories. As pointed out by Katie Hearney at Buzzfeed, Facebook lets you see which of your friends have expressed an interest in Facebook-enabled banging when you go to add the app. See here: Why you might not want to bang with friends "It's not really "anonymous" when your Facebook friends can see that you're out there trawling for sex, is it?," writes Hearney. Caveat: if you want the world to know you're interested in casual banging, this is the app for you. Facebook already has the "Poke," which essentially provides this function already. (Yes, if you get Poked by a random friend, it's his or her awkward digital way of expressing interest in banging getting to know you better.) The app's creators don't even want to be associated with the app. The "three college-aged males" behind BWF are remaining anonymous and admit they created the site in two hours "with a lot of Red Bull and vodka." Do you trust these men with the information that you're up for casual sex with the random people that populate your Facebook friends, and do you further trust them to keep that information secure? Practice safer sex trawling, friends! If you want to converse with makers of said app, their official email address is "pimpin@bangwithfriends.com." This leads me to suspect the anonymous males behind the app are younger than college-aged. This app is a poor substitute for going to a bar with an attractive friend, having a few drinks and seeing what happens. Since you already know each other, this is fairly easy to accomplish. The app would be far more useful were it "Bang With Friends of Friends." Finally, it's worth noting that Bang With Friends is hiring. Since I don't imagine this app is going to be around for long, any job there is likely to be a quickie on your resume. This company might not be right for you if you take offense at sexual assault jokes, though, as they invite you to send your application to "gang@bangwithfriends.com."
If you have suggestions for terrible ideas that should be included in future columns, email me.
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81786bbeb4cbed40b78dde994bf646cd | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/02/21/facebook-wall-of-shame-dont-post-terrible-things-about-your-kid-while-in-a-custody-battle/ | Facebook Wall Of Shame: Don't Post Terrible Things About Your Kid While In A Custody Battle | Facebook Wall Of Shame: Don't Post Terrible Things About Your Kid While In A Custody Battle
Evidence from Facebook is inevitably going to wind up in divorce and child custody battles these days, so it's unwise to tell all your friends there that you think your child is a horrible person. Case in point: A New York judge recently pointed to a woman's Facebook postings about her children in deciding to award sole custody of them to her ex-husband:
The mother admitted that she swears and yells at the oldest child, often resorting to physical means to deal with him. In addition, she utilized Facebook to insult and demean the child, who was then 10 years old, by, among other things, calling him an "a**hole." She testified without remorse that she did so because that is what "[h]e is," and she thought it was important for her Facebook friends to know this.
If you really think your child is horrible, feel free to vent to friends over a glass of wine, but perhaps don't do so on the Internet.
Gallery: The Facebook Wall Of Shame 10 images View gallery
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ecde150994f93f308f5512c0f4dc186d | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/04/26/catfishing-gets-its-first-legal-mention/ | 'Catfishing' Gets Its First Legal Mention | 'Catfishing' Gets Its First Legal Mention
Beware of catfish
Thanks to the Manti Te'o hoax, everyone now knows what it means to be "catfished." The term was coined by a filmmaker named Nev Schulman as the title for his documentary about falling in love with a Facebook hottie who turned out not to be the person she claimed to be online. MTV turned the film into a TV series in which Schulman helps incredibly naive people realize that they too are being deceived by people who they have met online. (A piece of advice: If your digital significant other won't Skype with you, you may be courting a catfish.)
Now the term has made the leap from national headlines to the court record. Two college students at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana pranked an ex-roommate who they apparently didn't like. They created a fake Facebook profile for a high school sophomore who they named "Ashley" and had "her" start up a Facebook friendship with the disliked roommate. They went so far as to recruit a 15-year-old girl to pretend to be Ashley on the phone, according to court documents. In late 2011, after a few weeks of communicating, the ex-roommate suggested to Ashley that they see a movie together. When he walked into the movie theater lobby, he instead found his erstwhile roommates waiting for him.
In a "To Catch A Predator"-inspired move, they used a smartphone to videotape him while they told him Ashley was fictitious and that he had actually been communicating with them. They then posted the video to YouTube with the title, "[Name of Roommate] is a pedophile." He complained to the university about his classmates invading his privacy and creating a hostile environment. An academic review board recommended suspending them for a year, a ruling that they challenged in court asserting violation of their First Amendment and due process rights by the public university, writes Venkat Balasubramani at the Technology & Marketing Blog. Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson was unsympathetic to their claims, finding that their conduct was objectionable enough to warrant censure by the university. She specifically calls them out for "catfishing" their victim:
The Students took their "catfishing" scheme a step further-videotaping the target's reaction when he found out that "Ashley" did not exist, and posting the video on YouTube with the caption "[the Target] is a pedophile." The Court fails to see how their actions could not be considered objectionable.
This looks to be the first time Schulman's term has made it into the court record.
"I did a search this morning in Westlaw and Lexis and, as far as I can tell, this is the first case using the term 'catfishing,'" writes co-writer Eric Goldman in the blog post. "Citing the Urban Dictionary (!), the court defined catfishing as '[t]he phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic relationships (over a long period of time).'"
It's worth noting that when Schulman coined the term "catfish," he didn't necessarily mean it derogatorily. It was a reference to the fact that the scaly creatures are added to tanks to keep other fish moving about. "Catfish keep us on our toes. Life without them would be less interesting," Schulman told me. Some victims of the phenomenon would probably say they prefer not to be kept on their toes, especially when put up on YouTube in that state.
Follow @kashhill
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162e2b3c9a37bbcd3fe64a5a5e7b61b2 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/05/09/25-things-i-learned-about-bitcoin-from-living-on-it-for-a-week/ | 21 Things I Learned About Bitcoin From Living On It For A Week | 21 Things I Learned About Bitcoin From Living On It For A Week
I lived on Bitcoin for a week -- Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7. This is what I learned.
1. It is possible to live on Bitcoin in San Francisco for a week. It cost me about 4.85 Bitcoins. I sometimes had to live on the fringes to get by.
2. It is only recently possible to live on Bitcoin for a week. Three of the four merchants I relied on for my most basic need – food – only started accepting Bitcoin in the last month.
3. It would have been much easier to do my experiment in Berlin. I could have just hung out all week in Kreuzberg, a neighborhood with the highest concentration of merchants accepting Bitcoin, including, importantly, a bar.
4. It’s disconcerting to live on Bitcoin with the currency volatility. The buying power of my little 5 Bitcoin bank has fluctuated wildly since I created it, from a BTC valuation high of $140 USD to a low of $90 USD. I bought 28 mini-cupcakes at the low point for .5896 BTC. They were $56 at the time (which is already crazy). Reevaluating at BTC's high point, I spent $86 on cupcakes. My expense report is going to be a nightmare. Bitcoin will not be able to stabilize as a currency until there are more places that list their prices in Bitcoin.
5. It’s hard to convince someone who has never heard of Bitcoin before to accept it as payment. You can simply choose to walk away from the person who won’t accept Bitcoin payment, but that is hard to do when the person is your landlord.
6. Bitcoin is hard to explain to people. It is perhaps like what it was like explaining “Internet” in its infancy. The easiest way is to call it "the local currency of the Internet," "the Internet applied to money," or "stateless virtual money." Or given the mysteriousness of its unknown and now absent creator ("Satoshi Nakamoto") and the fact that thousands of people have turned their computers into autonomous mining drones working for mining pool operators that have spent and will spend years slaving away on Nakamoto's code to create new Bitcoins, this may actually be the Singularity's mint.
7. There will only be about 21 million Bitcoins made. That number will be reached in 2140.
8. As of this writing, over 11 million Bitcoins are in circulation.
9. Bitcoin is like digitally paying in cash, in that you can move money online from one person to another person without using an intermediary like a bank, a credit agency, a Paypal, or a Western Union, and you can do so without attaching your identity to the payment. It’s like having your own email server and creating a different address for every message you send out. And it means no one can shut that wallet down – as happened to Wikileaks when payment providers refused to process payments sent to it.
10. But it is not like cash in that the movement of the money is traceable. The security of Bitcoin comes from the fact that the whole network sees that a particular transaction happened, and that money moved from one place to another place. It’s as if every time you paid in cash in the real world, the serial numbers were scanned so that you could trace the money as it moved around, making it near impossible to introduce fake new money.
11. So it’s less anonymous than you might think, but it would have worked very well for Junie Hoang, the actress who sued IMDb for posting her real age on the site. Hoang had scrupulously kept a pseudonym while working in Hollywood but when she paid for a IMDb Pro account, she had to use a credit card which revealed her real name. IMDb used her real name to find (and post) her birthdate. That wouldn’t have happened if she could have paid in Bitcoin. Other potential Bitcoin uses might include online purchases we don’t want associated with our identities. There’s been much attention paid to Bitcoin being the currency of choice for drug purchases on Silk Road, but it could also be useful for paying for the online purchase of porn or sex toys; embarrassing or illness-revealing medications; pregnancy tests (say if you don’t want the store you’re buying from to know you’re potentially expecting), or a donation to an organization where you wish to remain anonymous. As my colleague Andy Greenberg notes, Bitcoin accounts for 99% of the assets of non-profit Defense Distributed, maker of the 3D-printed gun.
12. In-person Bitcoin purchases rely heavily on QR codes. I’ve never seen so many people actually using QR codes.
13. Living on Bitcoin is a great way to lose weight. As it is not widely accepted, you are prevented from spontaneous snacking. And because most transportation providers do not currently accept it, you must walk or bike a lot. I lost 5 pounds in a week.
14. There are people who are very excited about the idea behind Bitcoin. They are the Bitcoin Believers. You can call them technolibertarians or digital gold bugs. They like the idea of a monetary system not controlled by a government that doesn't have a Fed that can choose to print money when it wants to. They are generous. I received over 10 BTC in tips from enthusiastic readers.
15. There are people who are very excited about the financial opportunities behind Bitcoin. There is a whole economy of miners, mining equipment makers, payment processors, money exchangers, and speculators rising up around it. It is actually thriving. There are a ton of people trying to make money off of this thing. Some are legitimate businesses and some are pure gambles, such as the Redditor with a wife and child who used the $30,000 limit on his credit card to buy Bitcoin when it was valued at $14-25 USD and cashed out when it went above $200. He did not respond to a media request; he may still be celebrating.
[newsincvid id="24812952"]
16. If you're not a technolibertarian or a Bitcoin opportunist, the appeal of Bitcoin is still revealing itself. (1) It lets you make digital purchases in stores without revealing your identity (by using a credit card with your name and number on it). It would let you do the same thing online. (2) Merchants can avoid paying high transaction fees and don't have to worry about fraudulent purchases that result in charge-backs. "When a transaction is done, it's done." If merchants were to offer discounts to Bitcoin shoppers, that would make the currency more appealing. (3) For spending internationally or while abroad, you don't have to worry about converting your money to the local currency, and the conversion fees that go along with that. (4) It allows people to make purchases when they are banned by other traditional payment providers.
"PayPal alone blocks access from over 60 countries, and many credit card companies have similar restrictions. Some are blocked for political reasons, some because of higher fraud rates, and some for other financial reasons," said WordPress in a blog post when it enabled Bitcoin payments. "Whatever the reason, we don’t think an individual blogger from Haiti, Ethiopia, or Kenya should have diminished access to the blogosphere because of payment issues they can’t control. Our goal is to enable people, not block them."
The Forbes E-book On Bitcoin Secret Money: Living on Bitcoin in the Real World, by Forbes staff writer Kashmir Hill, can be bought in Bitcoin or legal tender.
Timothy Lee is likely right that we don't really know all the ways it could be used yet: "Bitcoin allows wealth to be reduced to pure information and transmitted costlessly around the world—something nobody knew how to do before 2009. Its applications won’t be immediately obvious, especially to ordinary users."
17. I won't totally believe in Bitcoin until I can buy a fresh cup of coffee with it.
18. Bitcoiners are the new vegans. Merchants that offer their goods to this niche community can tap into a fervent and loyal customer base. OkCupid, WordPress, Reddit and others have already figured that out.
19. I am not the first person to try to live only on Bitcoin. In the summer of 2011, a 25-year-old electrical engineer went on a road trip from Connecticut to Los Angeles, only using Bitcoin the whole way. He accomplished this mainly by meeting up with people from the Bitcoin community to whom he paid BTC to buy things for him in U.S. dollars. He also got over 500 BTC in donations from the Bitcoin community. "It was pretty wild," he told me. "When I left 1 BTC = 1 USD; 1 tank of gas == 35 BTC. When I hit LA during the 2011 peak 1 BTC ~= 30 USD; 1 tank of gas == 1.2 BTC." He also survived, though he would not have had he obeyed my rule of only buying from merchants who sell goods and services for Bitcoin.
20. I couldn’t have done any of this story because I couldn’t pay for my smartphone with Bitcoin. The major flaw in my experiment: it would have been near impossible without the data plan on my Verizon iPhone -- which is one of the things I couldn't pay for with Bitcoin.
21. Bitcoin is on the U.S. government's radar. The Treasury Department told Bitcoin exchanges in March that they need to do due diligence to prevent money laundering. James Freis, counsel at Cleary Gottlieb and former director of the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, says Bitcoin is unique in that it's not possible to regulate the administrator (the absent Nakamoto) -- the administrator is now a diffuse network making Nakamoto's code a reality -- but it can regulate the companies that exchange Bitcoin for cash. Freis says the guidance offered by the Treasury department doesn't mean Bitcoin is legal or illegal, but that the exchanges "have to follow the rules.” Freis is skeptical about Bitcoin's future. "Bitcoin only has value because people accept that as a form of payment," he says. "But that acceptance could go away in an instant.”
Still don't get Bitcoin? Try listening to it.
Follow @kashhill
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c412db19a16b4e4b853693cc78559761 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/06/04/jill-kelley-sues-government-for-invading-her-privacy-and-trashing-her-reputation-during-petraeus-scandal/ | Jill Kelley Sues Government For Invading Her Privacy and Trashing Her Reputation During Petraeus Scandal | Jill Kelley Sues Government For Invading Her Privacy and Trashing Her Reputation During Petraeus Scandal
Jill Kelley
A sex scandal that entertained rocked Washington, D.C. this fall and led to the resignation of CIA chief David Petraeus was all started because a woman in Tampa, Jill Kelley, reported harassing emails about her that were sent from "kelleypatrol@gmail.com" to her friend U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen and from a "Tampa Angel" account to her husband. The emails displayed a knowledge of her comings-and-goings as well as information about meetings with senior military officials, which struck her as a security risk. The ensuing investigation involved following a digital trail that led to an email account shared by four-star general Petraeus and his "All In" biographer Paula Broadwell for the purposes of conducting an extramarital affair. The case led to questions about the privacy of our email and the power of the government to intrude upon it; if the chief of one of the country's foremost intelligence agencies doesn't know how to keep information secret, who does?
Questions as to appropriate use of the government's spying powers continue to be asked in light of the DOJ's dive into the Gmail of Fox News reporter James Rosen and Google's legal fight against turning over user information after receiving National Security letters. But the government using its powers to read risque emails exchanged between Petraeus and Broadwell is back in the limelight this week thanks to the Tampa woman who started the investigation suing the government for the way it handled things.
Reading the complaint -- which is an incredible 65 pages long -- it's clear that the Kelleys weren't happy about being drawn into the media coverage of the scandal and that the investigation led to a review of the Kelleys' email account, turning over long exchanges between Jill Kelley and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen. They also have never been able to vent to the woman who harassed Kelley; they note in the complaint that "neither of the Kelleys have ever met with or spoken to Ms. Broadwell."
The Kelleys are civilians but socialized regularly with a military circle that included people deployed to the nearby MacDill Air Force Base. It's always interesting to see how "normal people" (i.e., non-criminals) react when confronted with the access to information the government has when they get drawn into an investigation. From the Kelleys' complaint:
Defendants’ investigatory and compulsory powers give them unparalleled access into the private lives of citizens. The privacy rights Plaintiffs seek to vindicate in this suit are intended to check the potential for abuse inherent in these expansive and intrusive powers. If defendants can wreak such emotional, reputational, and financial havoc on a couple as educated, intelligent, successful, and public-spirited as the Kelleys, they could certainly do so to anyone.
The suit also seems to be an attempt at reputation damage control, as it outlines at length the Kelley's professional and civil engagements. For example, the complaint has a footnote explaining that Kelley's being an "honorary counsel" to the State Department is, "in contrast to statements made by some of the Defendants... not a trifle." This suit is likely intended as a counterweight to the coverage of them at the time. The tone of that coverage is best summed up with a Google Image search of Jill Kelley; it features photos of Kelley wearing beads with Petraeus at Gasparilla, Tampa's Mardi Gras-like celebration, and a New York Post cover with Kelley's face next to the headline "The Other Woman."
Kelley explains in the suit that she gave FBI investigators the user name and password for her email account so they could look at the email from "Tampa Angel" (which was sent to the email account she shared with her husband). The investigators were only supposed to look at that email, per the Kelleys' request, but they went snooping, she alleges. And that my friends, is why we don't give our username and password to anyone (!) and especially not to the FBI. From the complaint:
"Upon information and belief, the federal agents collected more than the one “Tampa Angel” email to which the Kelleys allowed them access... The Kelleys have not received any notice, delayed or contemporaneous, of any subpoena, order, writ or other process by which the United States would have lawful access to their electronic communications, such as is provided for at18 U.S.C. § 2705.... Upon information and belief, government agents accessed and collected a multitude of personal emails from multiple email addresses and accounts including, but not limited to, other Tampa Angel emails, and emails between the Kelleys and Director Petraeus, General Allen, and Agent Humphries, among others."
I hope the Kelleys have since changed their email password.
The Kelleys complain that the investigation went off the rails, leading to questions about the nature of her relationship with the FBI agent she first contacted based on their email exchanges as well as "bewildering questions regarding her relationship with Director Petraeus and General Allen — including insinuations and accusations that she was engaged in adulterous activity for approximately 30 minutes" after the FBI escorted her from her home in an SUV against her will. She calls it "a harrowing experience."
Saying that they previously led very private lives and weren't even on "Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media account," the Kelleys complain that "unnamed" government officials revealed Jill Kelley's identity to the media and that "United States Government sources had fed the media absolutely egregious, spurious, and false 'facts' that generated even more frenetic speculation about Mrs. Kelley’s intimate and sexual life." That section of the complaint includes links to articles in the Business Insider and the Daily Beast.
Complaining that the media attention hurt Jill Kelley's real estate business and that they no longer get invites to prestigious events, the Kelleys request a trial by jury, a "formal apology," and monetary damages.
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f2d2f78c28188012be1b1cb0b4bee2fe | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/08/the-people-making-real-money-on-bitcoin/ | The People Making Real Money On Bitcoin | The People Making Real Money On Bitcoin
Bitcoin moguls Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss
Last week, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss announced their campaign to get people to stop thinking of them as "the twins best known for their part in the history of Facebook" an SEC filing for the "Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust," an exchange-traded fund that would allow institutional investors to dabble in the virtual currency without the hassle of buying it directly from a Bitcoin Exchange. The overview in the filing, which tentatively sets the IPO at $20 million, provides a pretty great Bitcoin 101 lesson, while also laying out the many risks inherent in the currency, as recycled here.
Bitcoin value over the last week
The Winklevosses, who own approximately 1% of all bitcoins -- or about 100K BTC -- got some blowback in the press, notably from Felix Salmon at Reuters who questioned paying a management fee to have someone provide bitcoins for your portfolio rather than simply buying them yourself. (Of course, you could say the same thing about any foreign currency ETF, of which there are many.) Whether related to the news or not, the currency's value has since dropped by a third, from the $100 range to the $70s, hurting the speculators already in the bitcoin market.
The Forbes E-book On Bitcoin Secret Money: Living on Bitcoin in the Real World, by Forbes staff writer Kashmir Hill, can be bought in Bitcoin or legal tender.
"A lot of investors can't directly hold bitcoin (pension funds, 401ks, etc.) and others won't want the hassle of purchasing and securely storing bitcoin themselves," say the Winklevosses. "At the same time, however, these same investors might want bitcoin exposure and our product will allow them to gain it."
If the BTC ETF does manage to get the SEC stamp of approval, it would certainly go a long way to legitimize the digital coin if not stabilize it. But the smarter investment may be in the infrastructure around bitcoin rather than the coin itself. Whether Bitcoin goes boom or bust, plenty of entrepreneurs, like the Winklevii, are finding ways to turn a real world buck on the digital money. Here are a few of them:
Bitpay: Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, Bitpay processes bitcoin payments for over 7,000 merchants, helping them to set up BTC cash registers on their websites and in their real world stores -- usually in the form of an app on an iPad. CEO Tony Gallippi says the company is processing $5 million in transactions per month. It keeps 1% of that as a fee. That translates to $50,000 in real world dollars for the company in a given month. The funders who dropped $2 million on the company are hoping that it becomes the Paypal of bitcoin (assuming Paypal itself doesn't start processing the currency).
Pricey Bitcoin drills
Butterfly Labs: Bitcoin is like a digital gold in that it must be "mined" -- except the drilling equipment in this case takes the form of encrypting devices. Initially "miners" jerry-rigged their own equipment, but as the mining proceeds, much like with real world resources, it grows more complicated and requires increasingly sophisticated equipment. Enter mining equipment companies like Butterfly Labs.
The company started out planning to provide super computing capabilities for banks to run algorithms for making automated trades. But it got Bitcoin Fever in 2011 when it realized the chips it was programming would work well for bitcoin mining. It's now making some of the most powerful mining equipment on the market: high-speed encryption devices that use ASIC chips and allow complete "noobs" to mine hundreds of dollars worth of bitcoin. Their "Bitforce miners" range in price from $274 to almost $23,000. Jeff Ownby, Butterfly Lab's VP of Marketing and E-commerce, says the company has shipped "thousands" of the devices, but is still back-logged with orders, contributing to the discontent of some of its customers. Hoping to smooth things over with disgruntled wannabe miners, the company set aside 1,000 Bitcoin for charity after failing to deliver its equipment on time.
Why doesn't Butterfly Lab just use the devices itself and become THE mining mogul? “That just happens to be our business model," says Ownby. "We got into the business to build hardware. We don’t want to compete with our customers. There’s always going to be the need for better, faster hardware.”
Coinbase: A provider of digital wallets to hold digital money, Coinbase is a San Francisco outfit started by a former AirBnB engineer and a Wall Street trader. It charges a 1% fee for those who want to convert dollars to bitcoin and vice versa. Back in May, the company reported $15 million in buys and sells, translating into a $150,000 revenue month for the company.
And no list of people making money off of bitcoin would be complete without the Dread Pirate Robert, says my colleague Andy Greenberg. The pseudonymous overseer of Silk Road -- a site that allows users to buy and sell sometimes-illegal goods for bitcoins -- is making a pretty penny off of the bitcoin black market. The site saw $22 million worth of transactions last year according to one study.
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71fc789aa1b917c195470985ec885814 | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/26/smart-homes-hack/?utm_campaign=techtwittersf&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter | When 'Smart Homes' Get Hacked: I Haunted A Complete Stranger's House Via The Internet | When 'Smart Homes' Get Hacked: I Haunted A Complete Stranger's House Via The Internet
The Hatleys' home was at my command after a Google search
“I can see all of the devices in your home and I think I can control them,” I said to Thomas Hatley, a complete stranger in Oregon who I had rudely awoken with an early phone call on a Thursday morning.
He and his wife were still in bed. Expressing surprise, he asked me to try to turn the master bedroom lights on and off. Sitting in my living room in San Francisco, I flipped the light switch with a click, and resisted the Poltergeist-like temptation to turn the television on as well.
“They just came on and now they’re off,” he said. “I’ll be darned.”
The home automation market was worth $1.5 billion in 2012 according to Reuters; there's been an explosion in products that promise to make our homes “smarter." The best known is Nest, a thermostat that monitors inhabitants' activity, learns their schedules and temperature preferences and heats or cools the house as it deems appropriate. Many of these products have smartphone apps and Web portals that let users operate devices, cameras, and locks from afar. Getting to live the Jetsons' lifestyle has downsides though; as we bring the things in our homes onto the Internet, we run into the same kind of security concerns we have for any connected device: they could get hacked.
Googling a very simple phrase led me to a list of “smart homes” that had done something rather stupid. The homes all have an automation system from Insteon that allows remote control of their lights, hot tubs, fans, televisions, water pumps, garage doors, cameras, and other devices, so that their owners can turn these things on and off with a smartphone app or via the Web. The dumb thing? Their systems had been made crawl-able by search engines – meaning they show up in search results -- and due to Insteon not requiring user names and passwords by default in a now-discontinued product, I was able to click on the links, giving me the ability to turn these people's homes into haunted houses, energy-consumption nightmares, or even robbery targets. Opening a garage door could make a house ripe for actual physical intrusion.
Thomas Hatley’s home was one of eight that I was able to access. Sensitive information was revealed – not just what appliances and devices people had, but their time zone (along with the closest major city to their home), IP addresses and even the name of a child; apparently, the parents wanted the ability to pull the plug on his television from afar. In at least three cases, there was enough information to link the homes on the Internet to their locations in the real world. The names for most of the systems were generic, but in one of those cases, it included a street address that I was able to track down to a house in Connecticut.
I could have wreaked serious havoc with this home
When I called, a “Craig” picked up the phone. He revealed that he has a side job as a consultant who helps install Insteon devices in people’s homes, and had been using the system himself for 10 years. I told him I could see (and probably control) his network and he became defensive.
“There’s a password, though,” he said testily. “I want potential customers to be able to see the system to know how it works. You can’t control them, you can just see them.”
I asked him if I could try to turn one of his devices on and off. He told me to turn off the light in the room he was in. After I did it, there was a pregnant pause. “Anything?,” I asked. He responded that nothing happened and rushed off the phone. I suspected he might be lying. The next day, Craig’s system was locked down, accessible only by username and password.
Daniel Crowley and David Bryan, of Trustwave
The Insteon vulnerability was one of many found in smarthome devices by David Bryan and Daniel Crowley, security researchers at Trustwave. Bryan got one of Insteon’s HUB devices in December, installed the app on his phone, and began monitoring how it worked.
“What I saw concerned me,” he said. “There was no authentication between the handheld and any of the control commands.”
"You could put someone's electric bill through the roof by turning on a hot tub heater," says Bryan. He contacted Insteon support by email and asked how to enable a username and password, and Trustwave recently sent the company a full advisory as to its vulnerabilities. The company later fixed the problem with HUB, issuing a recall for the devices in early 2013, though it did not inform customers that the security vulnerability was one of the reasons for that recall.
Insteon chief information officer Mike Nunes says the systems that I'm seeing online are from a product discontinued in the last year. He blamed user error for the appearance in search results, saying the older product was not originally intended for remote access, and to set this up required some savvy on the users' part. The devices had come with an instruction manual telling users how to put the devices online which strongly advised them to add a username and password to the system. (But, really, who reads instruction manuals closely?)
Insteon says the problem has been fixed in its current product but affected users were never... [+] informed that this vulnerability existed
"This would require the user to have chosen to publish a link (IP address) to the Internet AND for them to have not set a username and password," says Nunes. I told Nunes that requiring a username/password by default is good security-by-design to protect people from making a mistake like this. "It did not require it by default, but it supported it and encouraged it," he replied.
In Thomas Hatley's case, he created a website that acted as the gateway for a number of services for his home. There is a password on his website, but you can circumvent that by going straight to the Insteon port, which was not password protected. “I would say that some of the responsibility would be mine, because of how I have my internal router configured," says Hatley who describes himself as a home automation enthusiast. “But it’s coming from that port, and I didn’t realize that port was accessible from the outside.”
The company's current product automatically assigns a username and password, but it did not during the first few months of release -- which is one of the products that Trustwave's Bryan got. If you have one of those early products, you should really go through with that recall. Bryan rated the new authentication as "poor" saying that cracking it would "be a trivial task for most security professionals."
The problem with Insteon products that don't have password protection by default is similar to one found with Trendnet IP cameras a few years ago; a lack of authentication meant that anyone who figured out the IP address for a particular camera could watch the camera’s stream—some streams were rather intimate. Even without a public-facing website, a vulnerability like this means that anyone who figures out how to identify the addresses for vulnerable systems – as happened with the Trendnet cameras -- could get access to and control of people’s homes.
“I’m excited these technologies exist but am heart-broken that these security flaws exist,” says Trustwave's Crowley.
He and his colleague found security flaws that would allow a digital intruder to take control of a number of sensitive devices beyond the Insteon systems, from the Belkin WeMo Switch to the Satis Smart Toilet. Yes, they found that a toilet was hackable. You only have to have the Android app for the $5,000 toilet on your phone and be close enough to the toilet to communicate with it.
“It connects through Bluetooth, with no username or password using the pin ‘0000’,” said Crowley. “So anyone who has the application on their phone and was connected to the network could control anyone else’s toilet. You could turn the bidet on while someone’s in there.”
They will present their findings – Home Invasion 2.0 -- at Black Hat and Defcon in the next two weeks, along with security engineer Jennifer Savage. Trustwave points out vulnerabilities like this in hopes of convincing companies of the importance of security testing before releasing products (security testing that Trustwave offers).
Another problem with some of the devices, such as the Mi Casa Verde MIOS VeraLite, is that once they're connected to a Wi-Fi network, they assume that anyone using that network is an authorized user. So if you can manage to get on someone’s Wi-Fi network – which is easy if they have no password on it – you could take control of their home.
“These companies are considering the home network as a fortress,” says Crowley. “In most cases, it’s anything but.”
Insteon's flaw was worse in that it allowed access to any one via the Internet. The researchers could see the exposed systems online but weren’t comfortable poking around further. I was -- but I was definitely nervous about it and made sure I had Insteon users' permission before flickering their lights. Weighing on my mind was the CFAA/"unauthorized access" to computer systems charges used to prosecute Aaron Swartz and to convict Andrew "weev" Auernheimer, a hacker who exposed a vulnerability in AT&T’s servers that leaked the email addresses of the company's iPad 3G users.
“This type of issue is very much like the one presented in the ‘weev’ case,” said Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer who specializes in Internet law and security matters. She is part of a team of lawyers appealing Auernheimer's criminal conviction and 41-month prison sentence, a sentence that has had a chilling effect on other researchers who seek to expose security flaws in company’s products. Hofmann says the Trustwave researchers’ reluctance (as well as my own wariness) to poke around in something publicly available on the Internet to alert the users affected “shows why that case is such a dangerous precedent.”
“The people who discovered this and reported it to the company so it can fix the problem shouldn’t have to worry that they somehow ran afoul of the law,” says Hofmann.
"Hopefully, our talk will highlight that these kinds of devices don’t have very good security, and that they need to improve," says Trustwave's Crowley. "Most of these flaws were obvious from just a couple of hours of looking at it."
Follow @kashhill
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0400197df966a4e9621acbe375595c9c | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/30/google-alerts-are-broken/?sh=70eaa5162ff7 | 'Google Alerts' Are Broken | 'Google Alerts' Are Broken
This no longer works very well
The company whose name is almost always followed by the modifier "the search giant" is slipping. I've long advised people to put a "Google alert" on their name as a very simple way to monitor what's being said about them online. That's no longer good advice.
Unfortunately, as has been rumored for months, the very simple tool -- which sends "email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries" and which the company has touted as an excellent way to manage your online identity -- is broken. Using it to keep track of what's being said about you -- or other news -- is about as effective as whatever therapy Anthony Weiner underwent.
One of my sources told me that Google alerts were no longer working as a way to keep track of his mentions in the media. I had noticed the same thing after catching few of the citations to my recent 'digital home invasion' story. We are not alone. Search engine expert Danny Sullivan reported in February that his "alerts" were becoming far less comprehensive. In March, the Financial Brand -- a service provider for financial marketers -- wrote that the tool "is now so unreliable that it has been rendered effectively useless."
"[Y]ou're right, we're having some issues with Alerts not being as comprehensive as we'd like," says a Google spokesperson in response to a query this week.
Google has known about this problem for months. It either can't fix it or doesn't care to. Has the company decided that Facebook has the narcissism market cornered? Could "Alerts" be going the way of Google Reader? The Financial Brand admonished the company, writing:
Google has lost touch with its core business model: search. Searching the internet is what Google is was known for, it is was what Google (once) did better than everyone else. But Google has become distracted with “Shiny New Syndrome,” wasting tremendous amounts of time and energy (yours and ours) on ideas that fall way outside the search model.
Google did not respond to a query as to what's causing the problems, but the spokesperson did suggest a hack.
Google says you should do this instead of relying on Google Alerts
"[Google Alerts are] still a good way to keep up with instances of your name appearing online, but we'd also recommend using Google Search for the most comprehensive results," he writes. "Above the search results you can also filter to specific formats like images, blogs, or news, and you can click on 'Search tools' to narrow to a specific time (such as the past week or past year)."
Meanwhile, Venture Beat has a post recommending seven replacements for 'Google Alerts,' some paid and some free. Someone should let Kim Kardashian know; despite the mention of her name here this post probably won't show up in her 'Google Alerts.'
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