Privacy Issues:
How ‘Do Not Track’ Ended Up Going Nowhere
Back in 2010, the Federal Trade Commission pledged to give Internet users the power to determine if or when websites were allowed to track their behavior. With just a few clicks, the FTC’s Do Not Track initiative promised to let consumers opt out of having any of their online data hoovered up by just about anyone on the Internet. It would be easy for consumers to find and use, be persistent (and not be overridden when consumers update their browsers), apply universally to anyone who tracks consumer activities online and be enforceable, according to former FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz’s Senate Commerce Committee testimony in 2012.
But five years out, the same agency whose Do Not Call initiative failed to stop unwanted telemarketing calls once again has little to show for its efforts, this time to control tracking on the Web. The strategy was flawed from the start. By tapping the World Wide Web Consortium, an organization that sets standards for the Web, to work out the details for implementing Do Not Track, the FTC relied on a group dominated by powerful Internet companies. These companies included Google, Facebook and Yahoo, whose businesses depend on online advertising, which require precision tracking of users. To put it another way, that’s like Sony Pictures inviting the North Koreans to run vulnerability tests on its computer networks.
http://recode.net/2016/01/04/how-do-not-track-ended-up-going-nowhere/.
New student database slammed by privacy experts
The U.S. Education Department’s new planned system of records that will collect detailed data on thousands of students — and transfer records to private contractors — is being slammed by experts who say there are not adequate privacy safeguards embedded in the project. The system will contain personally identifying information on approximately 12,000 students, 500 teachers, and 104 principals from 104 schools in 12 school districts. The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit public interest research group that focuses on civil liberties issues and the First Amendment, has sent the department a formal objection to the system. The proposed database exposes students to privacy risks by collecting and students’ personally identifiable information, including but not limited to "individualized education plan status" and "discipline records." Because the Department can still achieve its research goals by collecting aggregate data, the Department should not collect, use, or disclose student personally identifiable information. Moreover, the Education Department has recently faced criticism for failing to safeguard student data. In November, a congressional scorecard on how well federal agencies were implementing four key areas of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, or FITARA, gave the Education Department three Fs and one D.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/01/07/new-student-database-slammed-by-privacy-experts/.
Court rules Shutterfly may have violated privacy by scanning face photos
A federal judge has has denied a motion to dismiss a civil case against photo-sharing site Shutterfly that claims the company violated users’ privacy by collecting and scanning face geometries from uploaded images without consent. The first of its kind ruling could open the door to future class-action lawsuits against Shutterfly and other social networks that use facial recognition technology without an opt-in policy. The civil lawsuit, brought by the law firm Carey Rodriguez Milian Gonya LLP on behalf of Brian Norberg, alleges that Shutterfly violated the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting and scanning face geometry in photos uploaded on Shutterfly’s website without the consent of those featured in the images. In addition to the case against Shutterfly, the law firm is also leading separate claims against other companies on biometric data, including one against Facebook.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/3020457/data-privacy/court-rules-shutterfly-may-have-violated-privacy-by-scanning-face-photos.html.
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Libraries:
This article is not new, justly newly discovered by me! -ed.
Are Best Practices Really Best? A Review of the Best Practices Literature in Library and Information Studies
Abstract
Objective – The term “best practice” appears often in library and information science literature, yet, despite the frequency with which the term is used, there is little discussion about what is meant by the term and how one can reliably identify a best practice.
Methods – This paper reviews 113 articles that identify and discuss best practices, in order to determine how “best practices” are distinguished from other practices, and whether these determinations are made on the basis of consistent and reliable evidence. The review also takes into account definitions of the term to discover if a common definition is used amongst authors.
Results – The “evidence” upon which papers on “best practices” are based falls into one of the following six categories: 1) opinion (n=18, 15%), 2) literature reviews (n=13, 12%), 3) practices in the library in which the author works (n=19, 17%), 4) formal and informal qualitative and quantitative approaches (n=16, 14%), 5) a combination of the aforementioned (i.e., combined approaches) (n=34, 30%), and 6) “other” sources or approaches which are largely one of a kind (n=13, 12%). There is no widely shared or common definition of “best practices” amongst the authors of these papers, and most papers (n=94, 83%) fail to define the term at all. The number of papers was, for the most part, split evenly amongst the six categories indicating that writers on the subject are basing “best practices” assertions on a wide variety of sources and evidence.
Conclusions – Library and information science literature on “best practices” is rarely based on rigorous empirical methods of research and therefore is generally unreliable. There is, in addition, no widely held understanding of what is meant by the use of the term.
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/20021/15939.
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Internet Access:
It’s 2016 already, how are websites still screwing up these user experiences?!
We’re a few days into the new year and I’m sick of it already. This is fundamental web usability 101 stuff that plagues us all and makes our online life that much more painful than it needs to be. None of these practices – none of them – is ever met with "Oh how nice, this site is doing that thing". Every one of these is absolutely driving the web into a dismal abyss of frustration and much ranting by all.
And before anyone retorts with "Oh you can just install this do-whacky plugin which rewrites the page or changes the behaviour", no, that’s entirely not the point. Not only does it not solve a bunch of the problems, it shouldn’t damn well have to! How about we all just agree to stop making the web a less enjoyable place and not do these things from the outset?
Allow me to totally lose my cool for a bit and tell you just what’s wrong with the web today…
Surveys and other crap – anything that takes over my screen …
The back button – let it do its job! …
[etc.]
http://www.troyhunt.com/2016/01/its-2016-already-how-are-websites-still.html.
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Public Policy:
Paper Box Chemicals No Longer Considered Safe by FDA for Contact With Food
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Monday announced it plans to publish a final rule banning three chemicals used in many pizza boxes and other food packaging. In response to a petition filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Food Safety, the Breast Cancer Fund, the Center for Environmental Health, Clean Water Action, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Children’s Environmental Health Network, Environmental Working Group, and Improving Kids’ Environment, FDA said it was going to ban three specific perfluoroalkyl ethyl types. The perfluoroalkyl ethyl is used in food contact substances (FCSs) that act as oil and water repellants for paper and paperboard, which comes in contact with aqueous and fatty foods. FDA says new data is available that shows the toxicity of substances structurally similar to these compounds that demonstrate there is no longer a reasonable certainty of no harm from the food-contact use of these FCSs.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2016/01/paper-box-chemicals-no-longer-considered-safe-by-fda-for-contact-with-food.
EPA Releases the First of Four Preliminary Risk Assessments for Insecticides Potentially Harmful to Bees
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a preliminary pollinator risk assessment for the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, which shows a threat to some pollinators. EPA’s assessment, prepared in collaboration with California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, indicates that imidacloprid potentially poses risk to hives when the pesticide comes in contact with certain crops that attract pollinators.
"Delivering on the President’s National Pollinator Strategy means EPA is committed not only to protecting bees and reversing bee loss, but for the first time assessing the health of the colony for the neonicotinoid pesticides," said Jim Jones Assistant Administrator of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "Using science as our guide, this preliminary assessment reflects our collaboration with the State of California and Canada to assess the results of the most recent testing required by EPA."
The preliminary risk assessment identified a residue level for imidacloprid of 25 ppb, which sets a threshold above which effects on pollinator hives are likely to be seen, and at that level and below which effects are unlikely. These effects include decreases in pollinators as well as less honey produced. For example, data show that citrus and cotton may have residues of the pesticide in pollen and nectar above the threshold level. Other crops such as corn and leafy vegetables either do not produce nectar or have residues below the EPA identified level. Additional data is being generated on these and other crops to help EPA evaluate whether imidacloprid poses a risk to hives. In 2015, EPA proposed to prohibit the use of pesticides that are toxic to bees, including the neonicotinoids, when crops are in bloom and bees are under contract for pollination services. The Agency temporarily halted the approval of new outdoor neonicotinoid pesticide uses until new bee data is submitted and pollinator risk assessments are complete.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/63e7fb0e47b1aa3685257f320050a7e3!OpenDocument.
Wash. Governor Calls for Better Data Sharing To Improve Gun Safety
On Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed an executive order (EO 16-02) launching a statewide public health initiative that relies on improved data sharing to reduce gun violence. Inslee’s order comes just days after President Barack Obama unveiled gun control-related executive actions. As part of Obama’s proposals, HHS finalized a rule to modify HIPAA to allow certain entities to disclose the names of individuals barred from owning firearms for mental health reasons to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.
Inslee’s order calls for:
– Improved data analysis on the effectiveness of current firearm safety efforts;
– Identifying failures in the state’s current data sharing methods among state agencies, law enforcement and other entities (AP/Modern Healthcare, – Strengthening of background check laws approved in 2014.
Inslee’s executive order also requires the departments of Health and Social and Health Services to work with the University of Washington and other state and local agencies to collect, review and share data on firearm related deaths and hospitalizations.
http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2016/1/7/wash-gov-signs-gun-safety-executive-order-to-improve-data-sharing.
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International Outlook
Your Apps, Please? China Shows how Surveillance Leads to Intimidation and Software Censorship
Xinjiang, home of the China’s muslim Uighur minority, has long been the world’s laboratory for Internet repression. Faced with widespread local unrest, and online debate, China has done everything it can to enforce its vision of the Net in the region, from imprisoning bloggers and online publishers, to quarantining the entire Xinjiang network from the rest of the Internet for over ten months in 2009. Nonetheless, Xinjiang residents still circumvent censorship and surveillance in the pursuit of privacy and free expression. They use virtual private networks and other methods to get around the Great Firewall. They use popular messaging apps that they have heard could defend them against surveillance, like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Now China has taken the next step. In November, a select group of Xinjiang residents found their mobile phone service abruptly terminated. Their phone service providers told them to visit their local police station to have the service restored. When contacted, the police told them that they had been detected using a VPN, or downloading foreign messaging software. Remove the software, the police said, and you’ll get your connection back. Faced with being unable to spy on every conversation, China has set upon outlawing not just the content of particular communications, but the use of particular general purpose applications. Censorship has expanded from certain speech acts, to any software that enables free speech. In Xinjiang, there are no innocent users of certain programs, because that software is itself a crime.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/01/china-shows-how-backdoors-lead-software-censorship.
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Digital Preservation:
How Chemistry Is Rescuing Our Audio History from Melting
Our cultural history is crumbling. Not because of bad education—though one might make that argument—but because of chemistry.
Between the late 60s and the late 80s, much of our culture—from the Nixon trials on television to unreleased music from famous artists like the Beatles—was recorded on magnetic tape, and this tape is starting to disintegrate. Some of the audio and visual data has already been safely adapted to digital storage, but the majority hasn’t—and it’s a problem of massive proportions. The Cultural Heritage Index estimates that there are 46 million magnetic tapes in museums and archives in the U.S. alone—and about 40 percent of them are of unknown quality. (The remaining 60 percent are known to be either already disintegrated or in good enough condition to be played.) What’s more, in only about 20 years we won’t be able to digitize them. This is partly because digitization machines that can handle the tapes have ceased production. On Sept 30th, for example, Sony stopped taking orders for videotape machines, and in June 2015, the last audio reel-to-reel machine went out of production.
Letting these tapes just disintegrate would be akin to idly watching millions of books fall into a pit of fire. So Steve Morgan, an analytical chemist at the University of South Carolina, and Eric Breitung, a senior research scientist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, decided to help prevent that outcome. They combined a laptop-sized infrared spectrometer with an algorithm that uses multivariate statistics to pick up patterns of all the absorption peaks. As the tapes go through the breakdown reaction, the chemical changes give off tiny signals in the form of compounds, which can be seen with infrared light—and when the patterns of reactions are analyzed with the model, it can predict which tapes are playable. In a test of 133 quarter-inch audiotapes belonging to the Library of Congress, containing various media, the researchers identified which ones were unplayable with 92 percent accuracy.
http://nautil.us/blog/how-chemistry-is-rescuing-our-audio-history-from-melting.
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The Intersect Alert is a newsletter of the Government Relations Committee, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, Special Libraries Association.