Category Archives: Mobiles
Decrypting Blackberry Security, Decentralizing the Future
Countries around the globe have been threatening Research in Motion (RIM) for months now, publicly stating that they would ban BlackBerry services if RIM refuses to provide decryption keys to various governments. The tech press has generally focused on ‘governments just don’t get how encryption works’ rather than ‘this is how BlackBerry security works, and how government demands affect consumers and businesses alike.’ This post is an effort to more completely respond to the second focus in something approximating comprehensive detail. Continue reading
Do You Know Who Your iPhone’s Been Calling?
Privacy policies are largely garbage from an end-user perspective. API developers need to adopt ethics of privacy, instil it throughout their code, and cut off those who abusing the API in manners that clearly violate both the terms and aims of the privacy ethic and policy. APIs should be run past privacy-minded technologists prior to being rolled out, and be modified where it is clear that the API permits and encourages invasive surveillance without the end-user’s consent. Ideally we’d see mass opt-in requirements for this kind of surveillance but I fear that this is unlikely, at least in the short term. Developing an ethic of privacy, combined with accessible three-layer privacy policies, might at least keep application and API developers honest at best, and give grounds for suit in front of the FTC, OPC, and EU Commission at worst. Continue reading
Data Retention, Protection, and Privacy
The aim of this post is to identify a few deficiencies in both data retention and data protection laws and argue that privacy advocates and government officials to defend privacy first, approaching data protection as a tool rather than an end-in-itself. Continue reading
Analyzing the Verizon-Google Net Neutrality Framework
In this post, I exclusively work through the principles suggested by Verizon-Google. In my probationary analysis, I will draw on existing American regulatory language and lessons that might be drawn from the Canadian experience surrounding network management. My overall feel of the document published by Verizon-Google is that, in many ways, it’s very conservative insofar as it adheres to dominant North American regulatory approaches. My key suggestion is that instead of rejecting the principles laid out in their entirety that we instead carefully consider each in turn. During my examination, I should identify what principles and/or their elements could be usefully taken up into a government-backed regulatory framework that recognizes the technical, social, and economic potentials of America’s broadband networks. Continue reading
