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Social Networks Web/Tech

Google+, Facebook and Online Identity: The Problem With “Real Names” (And Why It Matters To You)

A long time ago, Lawrence Lessig wrote the book Code (1999). He argued, persuasively, that “code is law.” And “code”? It’s written, in the main, by profit-maximizing organizations. In 2003, Mark Zuckerburg launched the site that would become Facebook. You had to use a real email address and your real name. The site was, for […]

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Legal Personal Technology Web/Tech

More Than 100 Companies Affected By Epsilon Data Breach

Two weeks ago Epsilon, a company that sends out 40+ billion emails a year, said it had suffered a data breach but refused to provide details, saying that it “[could not] release the names of its clients.” Today it seems clear than more than 100 companies were part of this data breach. Most of those affected seem […]

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Personal Technology Social Networks Web/Tech

Digital Identity Guilty By Association, The Worst Type of “Justification”

The White House made a big statement about (digital) identity theft on Friday, with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke announcing a public-private sector effort,  National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC). “The administration hopes to see a robust trusted ID market in the U.S. in three to five years,” according to PC World. The trusted […]