EFF praises major tech companies for doing more to protect your data

The jury (or rather, congress) is still out on how Snowden’s now-legendary leaks will effect the NSA, but it’s certainly changed how companies handle user data. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s latest “Who Has Your Back?” transparency report, 2014 is a landmark year for user privacy — Apple, Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Twitter all earned perfect scores in the report’s six-point evaluation. The scoring metric awards stars for companies that require the government to get a warrant before collecting user data, or to firms that publish their own transparency reports. Overall, the report shows a marked improvement over last year, but the EFF still highlights other big companies that could do a lot more to protect and reassure their users.

“Transparency reports have become the industry standard for major tech companies,” the report reads. “But Adobe, Amazon, Foursquare, Myspace, Wikimedia and Snapchat have yet to publish a report.” The EFF specifically chews out Amazon for having “a tremendous amount of user data,” but no clear way for users to evaluate its policies on how law enforcement can access that data. Even so, the EFF ends its conclusions on a high note, saying that most companies are “heading in the right direction.” Check out the full report at the source link below.

[Image credit: Shutterstock / Galushko Sergey]

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Via: CNET

Source: EFF

Fancy ash tray rewards smokers for not littering with a song and light show

Some places impose hefty fines to prevent cigarette littering, but a group of Dutch designers believe that the answer lies in rewarding smokers for doing the right thing instead. So, the team designed a souped up trash can called Fumo that lights up like a disco ball and plays music like a jukebox when you toss in a cigarette butt. It even starts blinking the moment you step close, just so you know it’s not some boring receptacle before you even get the chance to try it out — and no, check the calendar if you must, it’s not an April Fool’s joke. The designers say the trash can can also be tweaked depending on the purpose: for instance, it can incorporate interactive elements for festivals or play solemn music if it’s meant to be installed in front of a hospital. According to a recent research, around 4.5 trillion cigarette remnants end up as trash every year, so it really is a big issue that might only be solved by banning filters altogether. As to whether Fumo has the potential to minimize cigarette litter or if it’s just a gimmicky idea whose novelty will wear off quickly, you tell us after watching it in action after the break.

Filed under: Misc

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Via: Fast Company

Source: ioglo

Google puts Mattel and Disney designer Ivy Ross in charge of Glass

Google has just made a creative choice for its new head of Glass, picking one-time Mattel design lead and noted jewelery artist Ivy Ross. That signals a big shift away from Glass’ geeky developer base while it transitions to a full-fledged consumer product. She would fill the position previously held by Babak Parviz as Google’s Glass lead and work under Google X for Astro Teller and co-founder Sergei Brin. On the Google Glass G+ page, Ross said that she’s spent her career “at the intersection of design and marketing” and that she’ll be looking to answer some of the “audacious questions” around Glass. Though she didn’t say so, some of those will no doubt revolve around privacy and other contentious issues with the upcoming product.

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Source: Google Glass (G+)

Bitcoin bank entices mom and pop with insurance, fraud checks and zero fees

If Bitcoin is meant to be an anonymous, decentralized currency that is free of intermediaries and national restrictions, then today’s launch of a new Bitcoin bank, called Circle, might seem deeply antithetical. Circle’s website does its utmost to look like that of an ordinary financial service, using words like “withdrawing,” “depositing” and “digital money,” instead of the usual terms about buying and selling Bitcoins. It follows US anti-money laundering rules, requiring users to identify themselves, and it expects you to connect your Bitcoin account to your normal credit card or bank accounts. Crypto-currency purists just aren’t going to dig it, but then again Circle claims to offer some serious advantages that are missing from other, more direct approaches to Bitcoin banking…

It charges no fees for anything (at least not right now), which makes it a relatively friction-free way of accessing money in a range of local currencies; it insures deposits against Mt. Gox-style calamities; it stores “most” of its holdings offline to safeguard it from hackers, and it even has a customer service phone line. For someone with relatives or business interests in other countries, who has to deal with unstable banks or currencies, Circle could well serve as an enticement to use Bitcoin for the first time, which is exactly its stated objective. But of course it glosses over the fact that “digital money” itself can be highly unstable, and the friendly voice at the other end of that customer service line is bound to sound a little hollow if the underlying worth of your savings suddenly plummets.

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Verge, Recode

Source: Circle