Big Brother is watching

Forget cookies on your machine that track your online behavior. Google is out to track your physical visits. While marketers are going to love this, privacy advocates are probably going to be up in arms.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20140411-709370.html

Who will watch the watchers? - Article for the day 13 Sept

A very well written critique of what NSA's activities have caused.

Mr Snowden’s ability to walk off with a stash of NSA documents is grave evidence of a woeful lack of internal controls. He has gone public, but could just as easily have put his stolen documents to criminal use—as others in his position may already have done

(It) damage(s) the reputation of America’s technology industry and leave its government looking untrustworthy and hypocritical..

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586345-covertly-weakening-security-entire-internet-make-snooping-easier-bad

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Is big data headed towards the minority report? - Article for the day 20 July

So I came across this article in the Economist that talks about how predictive policing is becoming a part of various city policy tools. It is a very balanced article which also talks about how this should not end up in the future depicted in the movie "Minority Report". It also has a few words of caution for the overzealous social media folks.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582042-it-getting-easier-foresee-wrongdoing-and-spot-likely-wrongdoers-dont-even-think-about-it

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Bonus - More "Minority Report" gadgets coming out in marketing too http://mashable.com/2013/07/09/face-detection-ads/

J.K. Rowling is Robert Galbraith - Article for the day 15 July

This is so totally cool. Rowling decides that she didn't want to have the pressure of hype and expectation to weigh down on her. So she published under a pseudonym. With the constant chatter in all the 24 hour news channels this is brilliant. Pre-book launch no unnecessary attention. And once the secret is out, there is going to be a lot of talk about it.

www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/jk-rowling-revealed-as-writer-of-critically-acclaimed-crime-novel/article4914799.ece

The book was called The Cuckoo’s Calling. Available on Amazon and Flipkart

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post. Sorry for the delayed post today. Was traveling over the weekend.

Spamming by so-called MBA Colleges

In a recent discussion among friends I heard that a lot of them were getting sms's / emails from second and third rung colleges from last years admission process. Several of them have their numbers on the national Do Not Disturb registry. (You can check if your number is on the DND registry here )

I find this trend disturbing. I have also noticed sites where their terms and conditions state that they can send sms's even if registered under DND. While most people do not really read the terms and conditions, I find that a lot of people are still being spammed without consent.

I was given to believe that there exists a market for people's personal information. Email addresses and Cell phone numbers are being bought by colleges / agents and are used to harass students. Authorities are reluctant to crack down since it is not worth their time.

What can we do to make it worth their time? A protest fast at Jantar Mantar manages to grab eyeballs but is difficult to organize. Thus I have an idea for our media folks. Can you get a separate cell phone number and email address and register for the CAT in November 2011? The total cost would be about Rs 2000 (SIM + Registration). The total time investment would be about 10 hours (Register the sim, create and email address, obtain the CAT form, give the exam, etc). However, at the end of July 2012 you have a full page story with a lot of hard facts. Any body interested?