The following is from an entrepreneur friend I’ve blogged about before. What he’s going through is a direct result of FATCA. You and me? We might not think we’re rich enough to be affected by this horrible, impossible law. If we have few or no offshore assets, we might think we have nothing to worry about. But in the long run, we’re all hurt as American citizens become worldwide pariahs, as avenues of freedom are closed off, and as stupid government tricks push our commerce and technology into fear-created backwaters. Anyhow, from my friend: I’ve already whined to you about…
Category: Privacy and self ownership
Owning our own information and telling Big Brother to get lost
The other day, RL sent this link. It’s to a nice, friendly, good-humored, free site that helps people compose letters to the FBI requesting their infamous files. You just fill in your personal info and the site produces a letter you can print out and send off to find out what the FBI’s got on you. Nice convenience. Naturally, despite all its cheerful disclaimers, the site makes me want to wrap my entire self in tinfoil several layers deep. There was a time, I suppose, when I held the common fear: If you ask for your FBI file and you…
Remember those strange underwater dog photos that went viral last month? Turns out the photographer is getting the success he deserves (which often doesn’t happen with ‘Net phenomena) and sharing his goodness with shelter dogs. (Tip o’ hat to F.) Unlike, for instance, killer PETA. The most over-crowded and hectically run big-city pound is better for animals than those creeps. The true prices of things. This came from S. with a one-word comment: Eeeewwwwwww. Elegant solution: post-earthquake container housing. (H/T MSJ.) One of those small, strange stories that comes along every once in a while (and makes writers want to…
But if I posted it, poor old Dave would be compelled to fire my sorry self from the blogging crew. Reader JP sent it to me this afternoon. It shows an airport “security” checkpoint. Picture a conveyor belt. Picture a male TSA agent in blue uniform. Well, partially in blue uniform. Partially … not. Picture a blonde woman passenger with, shall we say, unusually developed glands. She is emphatically not wearing any uniform of any sort. Said TSA agent has said passenger bent over conveyor belt and is … um … subjecting her to an unusually thorough probe. Without using…
Deadlining, so nothing Deep and Profound at the moment (not even anything deep and profound without the capital letters). But lotsa, lotsa links …. Here’s some insider dope on the weird stuff you may have heard is going on at Cato. Mobile phone privacy tips. And when it comes to privacy, you just gotta love Mozilla. You know that stupid TSA rule against more than three ounces of liquid? Well see if you can figure this one. And speaking of milk, turns out you can get a bigger “price on your head” for selling the raw stuff than for oh…
This just in from a reader who’s a frequent flyer. It’s creepy, even though it is voluntary. I have no words, so I’ll just let him tell it: Hi Claire, This is just too weird. KLM will help singles hook up on flights between Amsterdam and New York, San Francisco and Sao Paulo. They call it “Meet and Seat.” The basic idea is that single travelers can browse the Facebook and LinkedIn pages of strangers booked on the same flight, and request a seat next to them. I thought it was a joke until I went to the KLM website:…
We may need eight hours of sleep, but maybe not in the way we’ve been told. Two related from NPR: The “right to be forgotten” threatens free speech and how much does the cloud know? (Tip o’ hat to PT.) An open letter to the MPAA’s Chris Dodd from Eric S. Raymond. You might save this one for when you’ve got plenty of time, but here’s a special report from ShadowStats on our prospects for hyperinflation. Yoga. And sex. About those FEMA camps … (Can anybody tell me why we’re going to need camps for “displaced citizens” now when we’ve…
A big build-up. The cooperation of 25 worldwide media outlets. The hacking skills of Anonymous. A dramatic (and humorous) countdown. An announcement at midnight (GMT) and five million emails revealing how “private” intelligence service Stratfor and governments (not to mention Big Money and Big Media) work cooperate collude together. I don’t know how significant this is going to be, but if the reality matches the build-up (a build-up that showed Twitter is definitely good for something besides timely Oscar buzz), big. ADDED: And Anonymous has an announcement (semi-related) coming up in a few hours.
In the last week, instead of posting miscellany here at the blog, I’ve been taking it to Twitter. Matt suggested that in a comment and it’s definitely a good way to go. Contrary to some folks’ fears, you don’t have to join Twitter to read those tweets (100 and counting, including re-tweets). Just click the link in the stickied post up above. I don’t think that gives you the full picture, as following me (gods forbid, they really need a better term — flocking; flying; singing; migrating) on Twitter would do. But it’s a good way to get your miscellany…
I read this on Friday and have been mulling (okay, grousing about) it ever since. Dan Rowinski is mad-mad-mad at the online companies who, one after another, steal users’ data, then (inevitably) go, “Whoops. Oh, it was just an accident! We’ll fix that now.” He’s sick of the repeted abuse. Sick of the lies. Sick of being used. Sick of having to be on alert all the time. Sick even of hearing about it. Yes, Rowinski is mad-mad-mad. So what’s he going to do to combat that data rape or protect himself? … I say screw it. Screw the companies…