CD with medical data of 75,000 is found

I think the problem in this story is not that there was a CD found with medical data but rather that it was not encrypted. As it mentioned in the end of the article this is violating many medical record privacy laws. Now the company has assured the public as well as their policy holders that no information was retrieved and misused after interviews that THEY conducted. How is that suppose to make them feel much better? How does anyone know that for sure? The answer is you can not. Not only can you not be positive your personal information was not leaked but your information was not even protected. It was sent on a CD which anyone with a computer could read. Which is a violation in itself. I feel they must be prosecuted because these laws were put in place to protect people and if we can make an example of this company and set a precedent for future cases hopefully this will not happen again.


Source:
http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-6167435.html

Murder, They Blogged

This story is about a 17 year old boy who killed his 15 year old girlfriend's mother. They were not arrested till 3 weeks after the murder. Police have looked at both children's myspace blogs and messages and concluded that the murder was planned. I think the blog is going to help investigators because the children had conflicting stories. It may be just the evidence they need to link the girl to the crime. Especially when one of her comments to her boyfriend was "Your gonna be really happy when you come home! Your wifey cleaned up the house and did ALL the laundry for you. [emotion for a grin]" The girl was clearly settling in to her new lifestyle which didn't include her previously deceased mother. However, I think that there might be some issues regarding whether or not the blog will be admissible in court proceedings. Perhaps its not whether the blog is admissible but rather if it is enough to tie the boy and girl to the crime. The boy and girl did not come out and say what happened but there were references and music lyrics that could be link to the crime.


Source: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1597801,00.html?cnn=yes

Woman accuses Yahoo of stealing her image

In this article, a woman who is a current yahoo user claims that her photograph was used in a welcome email for new users to yahoo. She claims that this picture was used with out her permission and is a violation of her rights.
After reading this article I have many questions. How did Yahoo obtain the photograph? Being a Yahoo account holder myself, I know that Yahoo is more than just a site used for email. There is also a Yahoo photos section which this woman could have loaded her picture to. What is in the user agreement when she signed up for her account with Yahoo? Does it give Yahoo explicit rights to photographs uploaded onto their website? Did she sign up for her Yahoo account before or after picture uploading was added to the service? If so her user agreement didn't include the rights to her photos. It will be interesting to see where this case goes.



Source:
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6163987.html

Egyptian court sentences blogger to 4 years in prison

This article surprised me more than anything else. I am not sure of the legal system in Egypt but I would have hoped that any citizen of the world would have the right to free speech. The man who is facing 4 years (pending an appeal) wrote negatively about the Egyptian President and about the religion of Islam in his personal blog. I think it is his right to blog about his feelings and impressions. By punishing this man the Egyptian government is taking a stand not only on the freedom of speech but the freedom of speech as it realtes to the internet. If his appeal is rejected it would set a precedent about future blog cases. Not only would it establish a precedent but it would probably deter many bloggers from writing about such issues. This case is attracting attention from around the world.

Source:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/16760332.htm

Man sues IBM over firing, says he's an Internet addict

In New York a man was fired from IBM for logging on to an adult chat site during work. He is suing IBM saying that he is suffering from an Internet addiction which in his opinion means he should not get fired but offered some sort of professional help.
The man has many things going for him in his lawsuit.
1.) He is an army veteran and says the reason he uses such sites is because he saw something traumatic when he was over seas. By using these chat rooms it distracts him from the pain he feels because of the incident.
2.) He claims that other employees with worse offenses were treated lightly. He says two employees had sex on a desk and were only transferred not fired.
3.) The day of the incident the man had just returned from visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
4.) He was denied an appeal from his employer.

If these four items end up being true which can easily be verified then I feel this man has a very strong case. The only defense IBM has so far is that the man was warned several months back. If this was a written warning it may sway the case in IBM's direction but if it was only verbal then it may be hard to prove that it even happened leaving the case to the accused.






Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/18/chat.room.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Tivo/Amazon: Video Downloads

As mentioned in the article cited below, TiVo was first in talks with NetFlix however NetFlix did not have the resources that Amazon does. The collaboration allows users to download a missed TV show episode or an entire movie for a small fee. This collaboration is called Unbox.

The introduction of Amazon to TiVo brings many things to mind. In my opinion Blockbuster and many other smaller video rental stores will suffer severely due to this new technology. The convinience of renting a movie and being able to receive it almost instantaneously can not compare to the old process of renting a video. There is less effort involved and perhaps even less money involved when considering gas, rental and late fees.

Many existing TiVo customers already have the hardware needed to use this technology. As of now Apple is the only other competition in this market but Apple's hardware would run for at least $300. Which puts the Unbox in a competitive position.

I also think that NetFlix will introduce a similar product in the not so distant future so that they can compete with the changing technology. NetFLix introduced an innovative idea by allowing people to rent from the comfort of their own home mailboxes but as technology changes so will the products.




Source:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/16641224.htm