SocialMediaLand has been flooded in the last couple of days with stories about Firesheep. In case you have not heard about it, Firesheep is a Firefox add-on that allows anyone to hijack other people’s social network accounts in open wifi zones. The way the application works is staggeringly simple. If Read more
As one of the millions of people who reuses passwords, I found this xkcd utterly brilliant: I wonder if it would be possible to program a web search that looks for the frequency of use of the words ‘xkcd’ and ‘brilliant’, ‘wonderful’, ‘utterly brilliant’, ‘amazing’ and ‘WTF?’ The results I Read more
As of today, I will semi-detach my personal and professional identity from the TechnoLlama online persona. This sounds more ominous than it actually is, what will happen is that I will remove my full name from the blog and my Twitter account, but will not hide who I am, will Read more
As usual, Randall Munroe at xkcd gives us a terrific insight in the latest privacy developments: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. xkcd is a work of unadulterated genius.
I have been feeling quite smug in the last few days. That is, more smug than usual, a certain kind of cultivated perennial smugness is required if you are an academic, but I digress. My disproportionate sense of self-satisfaction comes from the fact that I quit Facebook one year ago. Read more
This is a tour de force speech by Eben Moglen. He talks about privacy in the age of the cloud, and how we need to create new services and architectures that free data from the likes of Facebook and Google. The speech has perhaps the best assessment of Facebook I Read more
Some weeks ago I had a conversation with a fellow academic about privacy (*waves at Judith*). This is a recurring discussion between us, as we have diametrically opposed views about privacy, technology and how to manage one’s image online. I tend to be in the open camp, while she cherishes Read more
Excellent video about Google. It is a bit over the top. Google doesn’t want to “own my phone” as such, or know exactly what I’m doing. It wants to target advertising at me. Yes, it is not the best of motives, but they offer all of their services for free. Read more
Several press outlets have been giving ample coverage to ChatRoulette, an online video chat service that connects two random people. What seemed to be a great idea, quickly turned into a service for online voyeurs, public self-gratification and much public outrage. It also prompted one of the funniest Daily Show Read more
I have been reading an article in the Chicago Tribune about online anonymity. Most of the story is centred around the defamation dispute between Lisa Stone and an anonymous individual going by the handle Hipcheck16 (see legal documents here). Lisa Stone was running for local office in an Illinois suburb Read more