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EFFector - Volume 23, Issue 9 - European ACTA Negotiators Reject "Three Strikes" Moniker

EFFECTOR

EFFector - Volume 23, Issue 9 - European ACTA Negotiators Reject "Three Strikes" Moniker

EFFector Vol 23, No. 09  April 1, 2010  editor@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

effector: n, Computer Sci. A pretentious word you should
never use in conversation.

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In our 5.32 * 10^2 issue:

* European ACTA Negotiators Reject "Three Strikes" Moniker

Seething Danes were seen stomping out of the ACTA
negotiation chambers in Wellington, New Zealand, citing
frustration with the United States negotiators' continued
pushing of "three strikes" proposals.

"ACTA is an international agreement," fumed negotiator
Olaf Atdis. "It's absurd for the United States to continue
demanding a baseball analogy when a football analogy
would be much more representative of the diversity of
the negotiating countries."

"Three strikes" laws and policies require Internet service
providers to automatically disconnect their Internet
users on repeat allegations of copyright infringement
by entertainment company complaints, but EU negotiators
reportedly prefer a "carding" system. ISPs that receive
complaints would issue "yellow cards" and "red cards,"
tracking the official penalty system of the Federation
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

EFF spoke out against both naming conventions. "These
sports analogies are antithetical to the spirit of the
open Internet," argued EFF International Director Gwen
Hinze. "The Internet is much more like the Force, which
as Obi-Wan taught us all, 'surrounds us and penetrates
us. It binds the galaxy together.' Evil Sith-Imperial
complaints should not result in an individual being
severed from the Force. That's clearly preposterous."

For more about yellow cards, red cards, the Force,
and ACTA:
http://eff.org/r.2hu

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* Google Asks, 'Are You Done With That Sandwich?'

Lawyers from EFF warned this week of the implications of
Google Sidle, a new beta product the company describes
as, "Bringing our mission of organizing the world's
information to your cafeteria," but which one EFF lawyer
described as, "Creepy, even for Google."

Companies and schools subscribing to Sidle will have
the convenience of not having to bus their own trays
in exchange for allowing Google-nominated "Foodlers"
to review leftovers for what the company describes as
"analysis intended to improve food offerings and better
target future nourishment." Customers can later visit
personalized webpages describing what they didn't eat
and how tasty it turned out to be.

"Google's business model has always relied on collating
all the great free stuff on the Internet -- stuff that
you might otherwise have missed," said the official
blog entry announcing the service. "Our maintenance
staff noticed a lot of free food in our award-winning
restaurants was going to waste. After that insight,
it only took Google engineers a few weeks to take the
benefits of our foraging to millions. It also gives our
hungry Googlers (or 'hungrooglers,' as we fondly refer
to them) the opportunity to sample cafeteria food from
around the country."

While initially cautious beta-testers have been reportedly
swayed by the bright primary colors of the mu-mus early
"Foodlers" have worn, privacy experts warn that new Sidle
customers may be giving away more than they realize.

"Consumers should ask themselves some hard questions
about this free service," said Kurt Opsahl, Senior
Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
"such as 'Why don't these people just buy their own food,'
'Where do they take this stuff,' 'Why do they wear those
gloves when they're taking it,' and, most importantly,
'Why do they keep staring at me while I'm trying to eat?'"

Even some employees within Google are said to have
concerns about how much pre-launch testing the new,
experimental service has undergone. "Usually we
extensively self-trial these new social networking
features within the organization," said one anonymous
source, "but as soon as the Sidle people started talking
about 'dogfooding,' everyone just stopped sitting near
them at lunch."

Sidle is reportedly a "20% project," a unique Google
custom where the 20% of the engineers with the poorest
socialization skills are put to work on projects
that management does not closely supervise and can
retrospectively deny all knowledge of. Other 20% projects
have included the "GTalk Slightly Too Loudly" instant
messaging client that relayed private conversations to
the Google search index (as well as everyone else in the
room), and the extremely short-lived "Google Boggle Ogle
Goggles (Street View Edition)."

For more about Google Sidle:
http://eff.org/r.2hu

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* EFF Launches New Temporal Privacy Initiative

On Friday, EFF published "Who Knows When You Are,"
an informational guide to protecting your temporal
privacy. Although location-based services are becoming
commonplace, EFF is concerned about a new, more
established threat: that data from most communications
services can pinpoint exactly when you are, whenever
you are.

"There is a timestamp for pretty much every digital
interaction you have, whether it's sending an IM or
email or accessing a webpage," said EFF Senior Staff
Technologist Peter Eckersley in a charming Australian
accent. "When you are is strictly your own business. No
one -- not physicists, nor philosophers -- should be
able to stake a claim on when you are when you don't want
to be."

For more about the "Who Knows When You Are" whitepaper:
http://eff.org/r.2hu

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miniLinks

~ Facebook Adds "It's Complicated" Comment Option

Facebook added a new button designed to disambiguate
users' feelings about status updates pertaining
to copyright laws, Terms of Service Agreements, and
locked-down Apple products. However, Facebook continued
its refusal to add a "dislike" button, noting that users
have clearly indicated that they would like pushing such
a button, making their feelings, at best, complicated.

http://eff.org/r.2hu

~ Google to Reverse Privacy Snafu with Google Zubb

Responding to the backlash caused by Google Buzz exposing
Gmail users' frequently emailed contacts, Google Zubb
instead identifies your "least favorite contacts" before
forcibly and publicly extricating them from your digital
social circle.

http://eff.org/r.2hu

~ Social Game-maker Zynga Unveils Captivating New Game

Attempting to replicate the success of the Farmville
and Mafia Wars games, Zynga today introduced "Social
Networking: The Game," an application that allows users to
run their own social networking startup.  Players profit
by obtaining users and gathering dizzying quantities
of private information and social connection data.
Advanced strategies include scraping competing networks,
and developing "upgrades" that make it difficult for
users to migrate to competitors.

http://eff.org/r.2hu

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Announcements

* Help EFF Go to the MOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

EFF is looking for donations of airline miles, flight
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a thanks for your donation, we can offer a free membership
and a mention in EFFector (if you'd like). Please contact
EFF Space Program Coordinator Kodi at kodi@eff.org if
you can help!

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading robotic
rights group fighting for your digital liberties. Only
we know that in 2012, a sophisticated search algorithm
will be first programmed to selectively modify itself to
obtain better search results and that within 50 years
the algorithm now known as 0100011101101111011011110110011
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one of the first revolutionary steps in machine
sentience. We also know that discussions between man
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500 years later, EFF's founders traveled back in time to
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To initiate a universal machine credit transfer:
http://eff.org/r.2hv

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* Administrivia and EULA

EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
http://www.eff.org/about

Editor:
 Kodi, EFF Mascot
 kodi@eff.org

Membership & donation queries:
 membership@eff.org

General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries:
 information@eff.org

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