I think many people know that Google has been developing technology to be able to detect known child pornography images. You see, child pornographers tend to ‘trade’ photos around, so the same photos end up being possessed by many of them. Therefore, there is value in creating software that can create ‘hashes’ or a unique mathematical fingerprint, of known images captured from previous criminals. Google has been working on this.
Well, it turns out they’re using it to make sure nobody’s using their resources to break the law by distributing child pornography using their servers.
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FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly makes a great point about how to approach FCC and Communications Act reform. Assume regulators will abuse it and write defensively.
Yet another Tor child pornography ring has been caught, so why exactly should I cry if Tor users are claiming Apple is ignoring problems? These guys are ignoring the critical problem of serious crimes on their network, after all.
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I’d have signed a letter against IRFA, the Pandora-backed regulatory bailout.
Government is trying to give advice on security online, including advice on how to deal with breakins. Information exchange is truly a proper cybersecurity role for government. Also important is prosecuting private offenders, and dealing with state offenders.
Though it gets tricky when state offenders include firms selling goods while pretending to be private firms, such as Chinese firms like Lenovo or Huawei.
ECPA reform is being held in the Senate. Leaky Leahy says it’s a Republican doing it. I wonder who? Lindsey Graham? John McCain? I’m not entirely convinced that the bill is necessary, but I don’t think it’s a particularly idea as long as we preserve something along the lines of FISA.
If you really want your email to be private, don’t have it all run through Google.
Turns out Snowden’s final decision to pledge allegiance to United Russia has encouraged a child pornographer in Ireland to follow suit.
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China is ‘demanding’ information about what the NSA is up to, wink wink. Because they’re totally, 100%, absolutely not in cahoots with Snowden or anything, of course not.
I hope these SWATters are found and get prison time.
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Sorry for missing Tech at Night on Friday. After that near-miss with a cold, I decided to start the weekend a little early that night. But we’re back. So with five days of news to catch up on, let’s see what we have here.
Here’s a reminder of why Net Neutrality was a terrible idea. Making people pay for what they use creates opportunities for innovation. If ESPN wants to negotiate bulk rates for wireless data, let them!
And yet that John McCain would add more regulations. We need less micromanagement of cable, not more.
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US attempts to extradite Kim Dotcom have been delayed until 2013. It is unconfirmed whether the delay is related to the need to send a reinforced tanker to New Zealand in order to have a vehicle strong enough carry his weight back to the United States. In the meantime, the hubris (and food) filled man is trying to dictate terms to the US. That won’t go over well with prosecutors, I don’t think.
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The Japanese culture does not share quite the same sexual taboos that we have in the west. The differences are most notable in Japanese law on pornography and obscenity. While all Japanese pornography has long been required to be censored – a requirement going back the 19th century restoration of the Emperors over the Shoguns – Japan has long been vastly more accepting of sexual depictions of minors than the west. Pornography and prostitution of minors was legal in Japan until 1999, and even that major law set punishments that will look low to many of us.
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