The next time that you go to the US, you may have to hand over your Twitter handle as well as your passport if US Customs & Border Protection gets their way. A proposal to ask people to provide details of their social media accounts, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or whatever else, before entering the United States. This of course is causing people to freak out. A coalition of 28 groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Democracy & Technology, Consumer Federation of America, and Electronic Frontier Foundation, has sent a joint letter on the last day of the Department of Homeland Security’s public comment period to say that the proposal is a #fail on the grounds that this is beyond invasive and should be scrapped. Now DHS argues that this is required because they would be able to spot those who would do harm to the US because of what is in their social media accounts.
I have to ask the question. Is a terrorist really going to tip their hand on Twitter that they’re going to do something in the US? Is something like that really easy to find via an algorithm or with a bunch of humans scanning various social media sites? Plus keep in mind that Twitter for example has been actively suspending the accounts of people they consider to be terrorists. So I have to wonder how effective this will be. Maybe DHS has some master plan that would make this effective? I don’t know. What I do know is that on the surface, this doesn’t seem to be a great idea, or a great use of taxpayer money. But in the interest of being able to enter the US, you might want to keep your social media accounts as clean as possible.
Shock! Ashley Madison Broke Canadian And Australian Privacy Laws
Posted in Commentary on August 24, 2016 by itnerdThe epic hack that was Ashley Madison was really the hack that made people really think about what online services they use. Now they’re back in the news for all the wrong reasons because it’s come to light that they broke privacy laws in both Canada and Australia. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, who worked with a similar agency in Australia said Tuesday the company used inadequate privacy and security technology while marketing itself as a discreet and secure way for consenting adults to have affairs. The report found that “poor habits such as inadequate authentication processes and sub-par key and password management practices were rampant at the company” and that “much of the company’s efforts to monitor its own security were ‘focused on detecting system performance issues and unusual employee requests for decryption of sensitive user data.'” What’s more is that Ashley Madison continued to store personal information of its users even after some of which had deleted or deactivated their account(s). These people then had their information included in databases published online after the hack. All of this of course is a #EpicFail.
The company, which shockingly is still around, has voluntarily entered into a compliance agreement and will work to improve their security and privacy protocols. Though I have to wonder if that will encourage people to come back to their service to facilitate their cheating activities.
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