Samuelson Clinic Blog Feed

``Do Hackers Pose a Threat to Smart Phones?''

aburstein — Tue, 27 May 2008 18:35:44 -0700

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that malware for smart phones (e.g., Windows CE- and Symbian-based devices, and Blackberries) is real and on the rise. read more »

CFP '08 is coming up!

aburstein — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:10:07 -0700

The 2008 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference is just a few weeks away: it’ll be held May 20-23 in New Haven, CT. read more »

The Law and Business of Online Advertising

Chris Hoofnagle — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:03:21 -0700

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara Law School are sponsoring The Law & Business of Online Advertising Conference at the Bancroft Hotel on Friday, April 18, 2008. Panelists include Samuelson Clinic Associate Director Jason Schultz and staff attorney Chris Hoofnagle: read more »

US e-Passport Insecurity

Jen King — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:05:16 -0700

According to the Washington Times, the Government Printing Office has been outsourcing the creation of e-Passport covers, which contain the contactless smart card chip (a.k.a. RFID chip) and antenna, to companies in Europe and Thailand. Apparently the GPO did this due to cost concerns, and it’s paid handsomely: over $100 million in profits claims the Times, due to the huge mark-up. read more »

Reality Mining with Mobile Phones

Jen King — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:05:05 -0800

MIT’s Technology Review reports on “reality mining” — mining your everyday social interactions — with mobile phone sensors to build an inferential portrait of who you interact with, what you do, and where you go. As Professor Sandy Pentland describes: read more »

Can One Live Anonymously?

Chris Hoofnagle — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:57:56 -0800

I’ve spent the last few months working with an excellent journalist on the Anonymity Experiment, which will appear in this month’s Popular Science magazine. In it, Catherine Price attempts to live a normal life without revealing personal data: read more »

Clinic Obtains Data on Security Breaches at Banks

Chris Hoofnagle — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:25:41 -0800

A recent Gartner study, authored by Avivah Litan, Phishing Attacks Escalate, Morph and Cause Considerable Damage, finds that phishing attacks rose in 2007, costing the economy $3.2 billion. read more »

CA Senate Office Releases Compendium of Privacy Laws

Chris Hoofnagle — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:08:22 -0800

The California Senate Office of Research has just released Saskia Kim’s summary of California privacy laws: Consumer Privacy and Identity Theft. This is a useful resource for anyone who wants to learn more about California’s approach to privacy.

Rebecca Herold on Security Breaches

Chris Hoofnagle — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:54:50 -0800

Today’s TRUST Seminar featured Rebecca Herold, a privacy and security consultant with Information Shield. read more »

Why Privacy Is What It Is...

Chris Hoofnagle — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:21:26 -0800

The Ponemon Institute and TRUSTe have just released their annual Most Trusted Companies for Privacy report. As part of this report, the groups asked consumers about the factors—positive and negative—that shaped their perceptions of companies’ privacy practices. (Full disclosure: I am a fellow of the Ponemon Institute.) read more »