Thursday - Sep 30, 2010
If you want anytime/anywhere Net access, then a recent decision by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is really good news. After two years of debate, the commissioners have agreed unanimously to allow unused TV channels to be allocated for broadband. According to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, “My hope and expectation is that it will lead to significant innovation and investment.” It may signal a new digital revolution.
By broadcasting broadband signals in the “white spaces” of the TV spectrum, signal strength increases dramatically. Super WiFi can cover an area 16 times larger than it currently does, potentially turning entire cities into giant hot spots. Stronger signals penetrate buildings better, even reaching underground into subways.
For rural residents it can mean receiving unprecedented broadband access. The first public white spaces network launched last year in Claudville, Viriginia. As a technology testbed, 75% of the town now has broadband access for the first time, a boon for students and businesses. “This technology should be in every rural community. We talk about no child left behind. Well, this is one of the ways of putting feet to that,” says Pastor Jerry Whitlow, who runs the local school. Now that the FCC has finally made a decision, Pastor Whitlow’s wish may come true.
Tuesday - Sep 28, 2010
It’s no mystery why advertisers target kids. Kids play a huge role in influencing how families spend money, especially at grocery and toy stores. For decades, Saturday morning cartoon shows were saturated with commercials for sugary cereals and action toys. With children and teens going online to play games, research homework, and communicate with friends, among other things, websites are increasingly tracking their online activities.
An eye-opening story in the Wall Street Journal documents just how pervasive this is. According the WSJ analysis, the top 50 U.S. sites for kids use 30% more tracking technology than the top 50 sites overall. Data is collected using cookies, then sold to marketers. While the data doesn’t identify the child by name, it does include “age, tastes, hobbies, shopping habits, race, likelihood to post comments and general location, such as city.” Under U.S. law the bartering of this information is perfectly legal.
If you are a parent, should you be concerned? While it’s creepy to have information secretly collected about anyone, children are especially vulnerable. Yet as the expression goes, there’s no free lunch. Free sites rely on advertising to pay the bills, so you have to expect to give up some personal information as part of the bargain.
It’s always a good ideal to monitor your child’s Internet activity. Many sites require parental permission for kids under 13 to join. Before you consent, read the site’s privacy policy to learn how it uses the information it collects. You may be able to opt-out. If there’s no privacy policy, don’t join.
Periodically check the web browser’s History file to see which sites your child frequents. Then visit the sites and research what information they collect and what they do with it.
While these steps won’t stop data collection, it can limit it. And at the very least, you will have done your due diligence to protect your child.
Thursday - Sep 23, 2010
In May I wrote about a site that shows the number of requests made to Google by various government agencies that either want content removed or want more information about it. Google has now released a Transparency Report with figures for the first six months of 2010.
The interactive world map lists governments that made requests, along with corresponding data. Click a country for details as to the specific nature of the request.
The largest number of requests (4,287) came from the U.S., with 128 subsequent removals. Next is Brazil with 2,435 request, with 398 removals. According to Google, most of the activity in Brazil concerns orkut, Google’s social networking service that’s very popular among young Brazilians.
Perhaps more useful is Google’s traffic tool. Many governments block access to Google services, the classic example being China. The traffic tool gives an indication whether an interruption of services is caused by technical issues, such as a malfunctioning server, or by government action.
If sunlight is the best disinfectant, than Google’s data on government requests puts bureaucrats on notice that their actions are on the public record. Whether this curtails their attempts at censorship remains to be seen.
