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Montana's News Station, June 17, 2009; Updated: June 19, 2009
(After massive media & internet coverage the City Of Bozeman dropped this requirement. - Tabosphere)
Applying for a job with the City of Bozeman? You may be asked to provide more personal information than you expected.
That was the case for one person who applied for employment with the City. The anonymous viewer emailed the news station recently to express concern with a component of the city's background check policy, which states that to be considered for a job applicants must provide log-in information and passwords for social network sites in which they participate.
The requirement is included on a waiver statement applicants must sign, giving the City permission to conduct an investigation into the person's "background, references, character, past employment, education, credit history, criminal or police records."
"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.," the City form states. There are then three lines where applicants can list the Web sites, their user names and log-in information and their passwords.
click here to read the full article
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Bozeman City job requirement raises privacy concerns
FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments
By DEBORAH YAO, AP, Google News, June 21, 2009
Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.
What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.
The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.
click here to read the full article
click here to read the FTC's proposed guidelines
Big music file-sharing penalties getting tuned out
By Michael A. Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 2009
The award in the digital music file-sharing court case was daunting -- $1.92 million.
Liable for it is Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota woman who a federal jury ruled Thursday willfully violated the copyrights on 24 songs. The jury awarded recording companies $80,000 for each of the violations.
Nevertheless, those who continue to illegally participate in peer-to-peer -- or P2P -- file-sharing don't have to worry about facing such a financial hit as Ms. Thomas-Rasset. The recording industry in August stopped filing lawsuits against individuals and is instead working with Internet service providers, or ISPs, to fight offenders.
Moreover, it may soon be legal for P2P file-sharing. Major record labels are discussing the possibility of a new entity called Choruss in which blanket licenses would be granted to universities and someday residential ISPs for a fee that would authorize the music swapping.
click here to read the full article
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Privacy May Be a Victim in Cyberdefense Plan
By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER, The New York Times, June 12, 2009
WASHINGTON — A plan to create a new Pentagon cybercommand is raising significant privacy and diplomatic concerns, as the Obama administration moves ahead on efforts to protect the nation from cyberattack and to prepare for possible offensive operations against adversaries’ computer networks.
President Obama has said that the new cyberdefense strategy he unveiled last month will provide protections for personal privacy and civil liberties. But senior Pentagon and military officials say that Mr. Obama’s assurances may be challenging to guarantee in practice, particularly in trying to monitor the thousands of daily attacks on security systems in the United States that have set off a race to develop better cyberweapons.
Much of the new military command’s work is expected to be carried out by the National Security Agency, whose role in intercepting the domestic end of international calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, under secret orders issued by the Bush administration, has already generated intense controversy.
click here to read the full article
Read The New York Times past articles in their series:
Cyberwar - Concerns and Complications
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Tell the FCC: The Internet Is Good for Democracy
Typical.
The media exec Michael Lynton just launched an attack on the Web, saying that he sees "nothing good having come from the Internet. Period."
But Michael Lynton is just the latest in a line of old media bosses who see the open Internet as a threat — something they need to control in order to keep prices high, access limited and users in check.
Those of us who rely upon the Internet every day now have a chance to tell Michael otherwise:
Make Sure Lynton and His Cronies Don't Stifle the Internet
At this very minute, the Federal Communications Commission is crafting America's first national broadband plan. Whether the plan will give more control over our Internet to the likes of Sony Pictures, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable and Verizon depends on what we do right now.
These companies' well-heeled lobbyists are flooding the FCC's public docket with comments in support of policies that let them:* Tilt the Web’s level playing field to favor the Web sites of corporate partners;
Acting FCC chairman Michael Copps has called the creation of the broadband plan "the most formative — indeed, transformative — proceeding ever in the Commission’s history." He added: "The Commission must act to ensure that the genius of the open Internet is not lost."
* Deploy content-sniffing devices that would randomly open and sift through our private Web communications;
* Impose usage penalties on people who use the Web for more than simple e-mail and Web surfing;
* Block innovative Web services that compete against their phone, cable and entertainment products; and
* Disconnect users for any reason or without justification
Copps is right. Michael Lynton is wrong. We need to tell the FCC that a more open and accessible Internet is a good thing that will revitalize our economy, engage millions more people in our democracy and give new meaning to freedom of speech. And we reject the nonsense that open Internet backers are all conspiring to promote piracy.
It’s time for the FCC to get behind a people-powered vision of 21st-century media media that’s participatory, open and democratic -- and not to hand the keys to the Internet to the old guard.
Tell the FCC: The Internet Is Good for Democracy. Period.
Click on the link above and tell the FCC that our national broadband plan must guarantee an open, fast, affordable and people-powered Internet without corporate gatekeepers.
Thank You,
Timothy Karr
Free Press Action Fund
www.freepress.net