Update: Irish Times communities editor David Cochrane has pointed out that, while the main @IrishTimes twitter account does not engage with followers, many of the staff who have twitter accounts do engage. I’m happy to clarify that point. Data protection is boring. Obscure activist groups in Austria suing Facebook over their cookie policy, or yet… Continue reading Terms and conditions apply
Tag: privacy
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
It started when an Richard Downes took to the internet looking for people to talk about TOR (The Onion Router), software which allows internet users to protect their identity. Patrick O’Donovan decided to hop on the bandwagon. He issued a press release. Then he tried to message Downes privately. Others have already written about O’Donovan’s… Continue reading A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
The Public Interest
“Taking photographs of individuals in private places without their consent is not acceptable, unless justified by the public interest.” I’ve never been a huge fan of the Press Council. It was set up as the lesser of two evils, an industry-funded self-regulator, the greater evil being a state-sponsored regulator. Threats of new privacy laws, and… Continue reading The Public Interest
Why I left Facebook
I deleted my facebook account today, though it will take fourteen days for the cancellation to become final. [If you want to know how I did it, follow the simple instructions at WikiHow.] If you really want to opt out, then it’s worth checking that link. Facebook don’t make it easy to permanently delete your… Continue reading Why I left Facebook
Poll Topper
This week, this blog quietly marked it’s first anniversary. The first post here appeared on 27 May last year, two hundred words on an item covering the wearing of the hijab, religious freedom and tolerance. I have no idea how many hits that post garnered, I didn’t bother tracking hits to the blog until a… Continue reading Poll Topper
A Picture Is Worth…?
Local election candidate Emma Kiernan broke out of the local media to gain (perhaps fleeting) national fame this week, thanks to the interweb. Kiernan, a Fine Gael candidate running for a spot on Newbridge town council, is young, attractive, and like many of her friends, she has a facebook profile. Like everyone else on Facebook,… Continue reading A Picture Is Worth…?
Striking An Odd Note
Meteor, the third place mobile telephone company in the Irish marketplace behind Vodafone and O2, has a new advertisement. The new commercial, which I caught on one of the radio stations as I drove home this evening, promotes the company’s mobile broadband offering. The service can be used for “those embarrassing music downloads, you know… Continue reading Striking An Odd Note
Pay The Piper
Last month, Eircom reached an agreement with the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) to disconnect internet customers who continued to download copyrighted music after three warnings. In a joint statement, both sides said they agreed on the three strikes approach to end ‘the abuse of the internet by P2P (peer to peer) copyright infringers.’ This… Continue reading Pay The Piper
Face The Music
I downloaded the latest OpenOffice release today. It clocked in at about 140Mb. I also downloaded several podcasts. mostly from the BBC and NPR. Then I emailed some high resolution photos, each about 10Mb. I mention this because Eircom reached a settlement today with the Irish Recorded Music Association. Big Music doesn’t like the internet,… Continue reading Face The Music