Headlines of the Week & Government and Your Data
Added a couple of posts over at FriendlyToS.
Headlines of the Week
A number of activists have voiced their concern over the terms of Google Plus that require users to supply their real names. In particular, the policy has been criticized as inconsistent and favoring the famous (since celebrities have been able to use their stage names), disrespecting of those who choose an identity of their own, and inconsiderate of those who need to hide their identity for their own safety. In the face of these criticisms, Google has announced that in the future, Google Plus users will be able to use pseudonyms on their profiles.
Check out the full post at FriendlyToS.
Government and Your Data
The law allows government agencies to access data about you. Your consent to website terms allows government agencies to access data about you. This is not a comment on the state of citizen rights, nor is it an Orwellian critique of government surveillance. This is simply a reminder that if you put information online, or make use of Internet services, the possibility exists that the government can access that information for some compelling reason.
Head to FriendlyToS for the whole post.
2015-12-29 Update
FriendlyToS is no longer on the Internet. The content of the Headlines of the Week post referenced above has been reproduced below. The content of the Government and Your Data post can be found here.
ECPA's 25th Anniversary
This week marked the 25th anniversary of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a law that establishes privacy protections for electronic communications from government actions, such as interceptions and searches. Because it was written in 1986, the act doesn't explicitly talk about a lot of Internet technologies, including email, IM, and social network messages. And for this reason, groups and senators have used this anniversary to call for the ECPA to be updated to cover the forms of communication that most Americans use today.
Google Plus To Allow pseudonyms
A number of activists have voiced their concern over the terms of Google Plus that require users to supply their real names. In particular, the policy has been criticized as inconsistent and favoring the famous (since celebrities have been able to use their stage names), disrespecting of those who choose an identity of their own, and inconsiderate of those who need to hide their identity for their own safety. In the face of these criticisms, Google has announced that in the future, Google Plus users will be able to use pseudonyms on their profiles.
Google Defaulting to SSL Searches
In more Google news, the search giant has decided to enable SSL by default for searches conducted by a user who is logged in. This is great news for the privacy and security of users, since SSL protects users from having their searches intercepted by others, or having results redirect to nefarious sites.
Canadian Supreme Court Says Links Are Not Defamation
In Canadian free speech news, Canada's Supreme Court has ruled that a page or post that links to a defamatory site is not itself defamation (false statements that seriously damage one's reputation) - meaning that Canadian's do not have to worry about being sued for merely linking to a defaming page.
