Always in Motion

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s Comments on YouTube.Com
Ohio Voting Systems Review Findings (EVEREST)

Several friends went to ShmooCon, the big annual hacker convention in Washington, D.C. last weekend (February 15-17, 2008). I’ve heard so many tantalizing ShmooCon security breach stories now that I really need to experience this event myself.

My friend Kimberly heard a presentation there by security investigators commissioned by the State of Ohio to conduct the Evaluation & Validation of Election-Related Equipment, Standards & Testing voting system review (EVEREST). This team tested Ohio’s voting machines and systems for performance and security risks. These voting machines and systems are used throughout our country.

According to this State of Ohio online article Kimberly pointed out to me, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner said, “To put it in every-day terms, the tools needed to compromise an accurate vote count could be as simple as tampering with the paper audit trail connector or using a magnet and a personal digital assistant.”

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s Comments on YouTube.Com
Ohio Voting Systems Review Findings (EVEREST)

Click each image above to see the detailed Facebook privacy settings discussed below.

Vara, Vauhini. “It’s Hard to Hide From Your ‘Friends.’” Wall Street Journal. 30 Jan. 2008: D1.

Wall Street Journal web site

Vauhini Vara’s article discusses three new loss-of-privacy situations in which you may unknowingly be a participant.

1. Facebook now lets your online friends view your purchases from participating online vendors’ sites, whether or not you are aware of it.

2. Google, Inc. news service sends lists of articles you’ve read to your friends and acquaintances, whether or not you know it.

3. Sears Holdings Corp. used to let anyone in the world know about anyone else’s Sears purchases with a simple, open online search. So many people complained about this “feature” that it was removed from the site.

The only situation that applied to me was Facebook. As soon as I finished Vauhini Vara’s article, YOU KNOW I scurried off to my computer to see what my Facebook settings were. Sure enough, my settings were wide open — the default behavior. However, no one knew about my purchases yet and, thanks to this article, no one will because I changed them. I never, ever noticed the “External Websites” privacy setting in Facebook until I read through this article.

All of these social networking “features” were implemented without users’ knowledge.

I really recommend that you read this article and doublecheck YOUR settings.

Read Vauhini Vara’s full article.

Saranow, Jennifer. “The Cut-and-Paste Personality.” Wall Street Journal. 16 Feb. 2008: W1.
Wall Street Journal web site

On online dating web sites such as Match.com and PlentyOfFish.com, some folks are cutting and pasting others’ witty and attractive “About Me” profiles rather than crafting their own. This is in an attempt to more effectively “market themselves” to whomever they want to date.

There are a few colorful stories in this article about people who got caught, mostly when they actually went on dates and their in-person conversations contrasted sharply with their online descriptions.

I also learned from this article that now people can hire dating coaches.

And there’s a book out called Online Dating for Dummies.

Read Jennifer Saranow’s full Wall Street Journal article.