Monthly Archives: May 2011

24/7 Surveillance Degrades Online Privacy
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At a TedXObserver event in London last month author, activist, journalist, and blogger Cory Doctorow gave a talk outlining the ways we’re undervaluing our privacy in an era of full disclosure and 24/7 surveillance and asks the question:

“How do we get kids to care about online privacy?”

Doctorow states that Facebook uses “powerful game like mechanisms to reward disclosure” comparing it to B.F. Skinner’s theory of using social reinforcement to strengthen a desired behavior – Like giving away information.

Making Facebook Less Creepy

Parents and schools will spy on everything in the attempt to keep them safe but this may groom them for an existence where constant internet surveillance is considered legitimate, normal, and good “teaching them to systematically undervalue their privacy years before …

Surveillance Protest Art – It’s a Two-Way Mirror
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Imagine you’ve been detained as a suspected terrorist.  Only you’re a U.S. citizen, a university professor, and have a valid passport.

The U.S. terrorist watch list – the party that’s too easy to get invited to, and too hard to leave even when you don’t belong.  But that’s where Hasan Elahi wound up when he was mistaken for somebody else and thought to be stockpiling explosives.  

Hasan Baba interviewed Elahi for San Francisco’s KALW radio station and explains that:

He was eventually cleared, but the experience inspired him to launch a project called “Hiding in Plain Sight” in which he photographs every single detail of his daily life – no matter how mundane – and uploads it on his website for the world – and …

Free Grandstream VoIP Phone & IP Camera via Facebook
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David Sims at TMC has reported that Grandstream is giving away a free VoIP phone and IP Camera via Facebook: 

“Officials of Grandstream, which sells IP video and surveillance products, want to show you — yes, you — how IP allows Grandstream products to work together, and they want to do it by giving away their GXV3140 IP Multimedia Phone AND GXV3615 Cube IP Camera.

To be eligible for the drawing, simply “like” them on Facebook (News – Alert) before May 31, at facebook.com/GrandstreamNetworksInc. That puts your name in the drawing. The winner will be announced June 1.

 The Grandstream GXV3140 Multimedia Phone:

  • Blends state-of-art real time video conference capability with a number of popular Web and social networking applications (such as Web
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iPhone App for ACTi
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For Apple’s triple threat ACTi is now providing a surveillance app for use on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod:

ACTi MobileGo! allows you to view and control cameras on iPhone, iPad, and iPod. It provides easy access to live video and playback of recorded video for remote and real-ACTi MobileGO!time surveillance applications.

ACTi MobileGO! is available on iTunes and features:

  • Access to your ACTi IP cameras anytime, anywhere.
  • Pan, Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) control for ACTi PTZ cameras, including presets.
  • Live viewing with pre-defined layouts. 
  • Configurable Settings with optional resolutions of 640×480 to 320×240.
  • Save camera image to iPhone of iPad.
  • Search and Playback video with time and event-based search functions.


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