- Google’s legal wrangling could legalize packet sniffing open WiFi
David Kravets at Wired advances this interesting theory. It is very early days to say how likely any new case law based on Google’s inadvertent WiFi data capture will play out for other scenarios. It seems wise, though, to bear in mind the broader context and hope for an appropriately narrow ruling or set of rulings that will avoid this sort of worst case scenario. - Canonical becomes OIN’s first associate member
There has been some speculation about what this means in practice with little consensus. I like PJ’s simply remarks at Groklaw–“One thing for sure I know about Mark Shuttleworth. He’s brave. Microsoft doesn’t cause him to cower in fear. And I’ll tell you what I know about OIN. They know how to fight to win.” - One fifth of Android apps access private data
Curt Hopkins at RWW has a short piece explaining this price of an open marketplace that may surprise some and perhaps balance the pans with Apple’s recent privacy grab over location data. Of course, the telling difference is Apple isn’t allowing for any consumer choice at all in the exchange. While Google’s market may present unclear risks, there is some notification around data permissions and no one is forcing you to install and use an app of unknown trustworthiness. - Developers predict iOS and OSX likely to merge over time
This bit of discussion coordinated by Ars Technica with some developers of popular OSX applications is a bit different than the rumors that Jobs would bring the same centralized control seen in the mobile platform to the Mac. The technical arguments are interesting though I don’t buy all of them. I could see combining and streamlining of APIs as an efficiency but the mere age of OSX’s underpinnings shouldn’t be a determinant in replacing bits with the counterparts from the mobile side. This is all mere speculation, though by informed observers, so it remains to be seen what, if anything, Apple does in this direction. - Schools, governments blocking Google because encrypted search prevents monitoring
- New Zealand reverses course on software patents, now looking to allow them
- Who is attending closed door net neutrality discussions
- Act now, tell the White House what you think of ACTA
Via Cory at Boing Boing. - Rumor that iOS will try harder to end jailbreaking
Tag: OIN
Open DPI, OpenID, Open Invention and More
- Vendor opens part of its DPI implementation
Nate Anderson at Ars takes a look at the actual details of the vendor’s announcement. The open source edition doesn’t include any of the code for examining encrypted protocols. It is also clearly nothing but an attempt to use the open information to address customer concerns. That’s good as far as it goes but it isn’t the implementation that’s an issue, I think, but ISPs’ desires to use such privacy invading technology. - The fed adopts OpenID for some of its services
There’s no timeline mentioned in the Wired article, but this is good news regardless. Not only is the list of sites due to rollout limited, but so is the number of providers. You won’t be able to use any OpenID provider. However the move may encourage other services that maybe are on the fence about the standard. - OIN picks up some ‘Linux-related’ patents from Microsoft
Some smart speculation from Matt Asay on The Open Road. I would say even if the patents would not have been useful for MS to troll by proxy, having more software patents in the hands of OIN is a safer move, just on principle, for open source and free software. - Crypto tools to keep you hidden on Facebook
I wish we didn’t need such tools. These look like a good approach, especially that personal information can be stored on an external server so any trusted sharing happens outside of Facebook. - Anonymous tries a DDoS attack against Australian government
According to Wired, their announcement is not surprisingly prompted by the governments repeated attempts to implementing filtering of internet access. It looks like the government’s IT may have taken down, and kept down, the sites being targeted.