You are here June 2009
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2009-06-02 17:41
Kudos to Saul Hansell for his post at the NY Times Bits Blog which ably spotlights the growing clash between those who publicly advocate for more privacy on the web and those who behind-the-scenes are opposed to more privacy on the web.
- From Hansell's post: "...There is a split, he told the conference, between the typical view of privacy among technology experts and the emerging view of people brought up in the social networking, Web 2.0 world.
- “The Web 2.0 movement is opposed to the privacy movement,” he said. Traditionally, privacy advocates have pushed for a policy of “data minimization,” he argued. ....
- The new ideology revolves around what Mr. Swire called “data empowerment.”
This privacy-publicacy tension that I have been writing about for months -- is obviously very real indeed.
I coined the term "publicacy" a year ago because the english language did not have an antonym to the word "privacy," and it was clear to me that one would be needed because there was a growing movement that did not believe in online privacy -- even though the vast majority of Internet users expect online privacy -- per Consumer Report's Survey.
This growing privacy-publicacy tension is very relevant to Hill efforts to pass privacy legislation.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Wed, 2009-06-03 18:18
I filed comments today on the FCC's Notice of Inquiry on the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which is required to be delivered to Congress by February 2010.
- I made three main points about the National Broadband Plan; it should:
- Build upon America's strong foundation of success in developing facilities-based broadband competition in the vast majority of the U.S.;
- Factor in the latest data which indicates the U.S. is not falling behind in broadband or economic competitiveness; and
- Elevate cybersecurity as a national priority per the President's recent cybersecurity review.
My two-page comments, with links to several of my research pieces, can be found here.
The press release about my comments can be found here.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-06-04 16:58
The President's Cybersecurity announcement 5-29 was a game changer for the Internet. For the first time the U.S. Government officially declared the lack of cybersecurity as the Internet's biggest problem.
- It is interesting to note there was instant disagreement with the President's assessment from some in the Web 2.0 world. Speakers at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Washington this week said (per Washington Internet Daily) that:
- "Cybersecurity threats in general are wildly overstated or portrayed as malevolent acts when some of the best known incidents have come through accidents or simple security holes."
- I have been writing this now twelve-part series: "The open Internet's growing security problem" since the beginning of the year, precisely because many continue to deny the growing mountain of evidence from mainstream sources that the Internet security problem is getting worse not better.
- Fortunately, President Obama gets it.
Here is the latest mainstream evidence of the open Internet's growing security problem.
"Mysterious virus strikes FBI" ZDNet
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Sat, 2009-06-06 18:19
Increasingly the "underground currency" of the Internet is private data.
- Private information is valuable to many Internet businesses, because in the absence of a system where consumers can assert ownership of and control over their privacy, privacy can be taken from them for free and profited from with little to no obligation to, or compensation due, to the affected user/consumer.
- In effect, the increasing practice of commercializing privacy by publicacy businesses increasingly creates new risks for consumers in return for little to no protection or reward.
Why are private data a de facto "underground currency" on the Internet? Well, most consumers are unaware that they are not in control of their private information. For example, a Consumer Reports 9-25-08 consumer survey found:
- "61% are confident that what they do online is private and not shared without their permission;
- 57% incorrectly believe that companies must identify themselves and indicate why they are collecting data and whether they intend to share it with other organizations;
- 48% incorrectly believe their consent is required for companies to use the personal information they collect from online activities..."
The current technology-driven, "Swiss cheese" privacy framework may be the worst of all possible worlds.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Mon, 2009-06-08 20:56
A scan of the major comments just delivered to the FCC on the National Broadband Plan (which is due to Congress February 2010), spotlighted the big broadband policy "fork-in-the-road" decision that the FCC now has before it.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-06-11 17:43
Despite the widely held view that indexing is the safest way to invest, indexing helped recklessly drive our financial system and economy into the ditch last fall.
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While there’s consensus the financial crisis warrants “new rules of the road” and better policing to protect against systemic risk, all the rules and oversight in the world can’t keep us out of the ditch in the future if index vehicles continue to drive the wrong way against oncoming traffic.
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And “stress testing” whether bank vehicles can survive head-on crashes, completely misses the point that indexers should not be driving the wrong way on the freeway.
A major reason the system has become so unstable and dangerous to financial security is that over ten percent of money management vehicles on the road today are indexers, which by design drive the wrong way against the oncoming traffic of a market economy that allocates capital based on economic merit.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-06-11 17:43
This is an introduction and background for my new multi-part research series on diagnosing the root causes of the Financial Crisis.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Thu, 2009-06-11 17:42
In another example of how many have overstated that the U.S. is falling behind the world in broadband, the OECD ranks the U.S. #1 in broadband Internet access to schools, with 97% of all American primary and secondary schools having broadband Internet access per the latest OECD data.
This data suggests that lack of broadband access may not a major reason why American students test lower than students in many OECD countries.
For more data and studies on why the U.S. is not falling behind the world on broadband click here.
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Fri, 2009-06-12 12:34
With all due respect to Mr. John Bogle, legendary founder of Vanguard and de facto leader of the American index fund movement that now manages ~$1.5 trillion, I must respectfully challenge, on the merits, Mr. Bogle's, and others, ongoing mischaracterization of indexing as "investing."
Submitted by Scott Cleland on Tue, 2009-06-16 20:18
In some of the worst sophistry I have seen in a long time, several pro-regulation groups, who obviously oppose competition policy for communications, petitioned the FCC with a classic straw man argument that essentially asserts that because wireless competition is imperfect, its "demonstrably uncompetitive" "and "produces active and ongoing consumer harms."
- Any open, transparent, balanced and fair-minded review of the real competitive facts in the U.S. wireless industry will expose these assertions as un-true and un-supported by the balance of available evidence.
- The sophistic comments, which can be found at the bottom of this Media Access Project press release are an obvious "stalking horse" for those who advocate abandoning private enterprise competition policy in favor of common carrier regulated public infrastructure policy.
The comments consistently present fallacious "black or white" arguments that if a competitive imperfection can be asserted, however thin, unsupported, irrelevant or out-of-context, one must conclude that the market is anti-competitive requiring ongoing government regulation of prices, terms, conditions, operations and network management.
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