Report Says E-Voting Is Unsafe Political Speech7/11/2000; 8:53:40 PM ''Voting in your pajamas is unsafe. So says the latest study published by the Voting Integrity Project, a non-partisan group based in Arlington, Virginia that has openly attacked the Arizona Democratic Party's Internet primary election in March.''Wired bring up a couple of things..."But critics have decried [Election.com]'s closed-mouth security policies, and say that fair elections need to be independently evaluated, something Election.

Alternative View of Weblogs Technology & Sociology7/11/2000; 8:00:38 PM Weblogs are often looked as as collaborative filters. I think another valid way of looking at them is as "surfing time". When you visit a weblog, you "absorb" the time that person has spent surfing and contributing to their weblog. A day spent browsing weblogs that aren't all me-too-'blogs, but have some original browsing behind them, can cover a large portion of the importent news of the day, allowing you to effectively surf at many, many times your own speed.

News Site Tools Administrative7/11/2000; 1:30:41 PM If you have Internet Explorer 5 or greater (hopefully both Mac and Windows...), or are using Mozilla Milestone 16 or greater (which is currently much slower), you should hopefully see some new site tools in the bar to the right.To see how to use them and some notes on their current status, visit the Site Tools Help page.In particular, these tools are designed to be helpful in conjunction with this site's Site Index page.

Can a labeling system [P3] protect your privacy? Privacy from Companies7/11/2000; 1:11:13 PM "In reality, P3P technology won't do much of anything to guarantee your privacy, and you need go no further than the White House's own Web site to understand why.... I took a close look at the original White House policy when it was first unveiled in June. Translated from XML back into English, it said that the organization named "

Ireland Shows US How To Do Digital Electronic Signatures Misc. 7/10/2000; 8:49:48 PM "The Irish e-commerce legislation differs from the new American legislation and recently signed British legislation in that it offers strong, explicit protection to users of encryption and forbids law enforcement from demanding that users hand over their encryption "keys," the unique mathematical code that will descramble encoded documents or emails." Emphasis mine. I still want to examine this in more detail, to make sure the Wired reporter got it all right.

American Bar Wants Clarity In International Law Misc.7/10/2000; 8:39:32 PM "A study of cyberspace legal issues released by an American Bar Association committee on Monday suggested a multinational commission needs to be created to set global Internet rules."Then again, the report's conclusions haven't been accepted by the American Bar Association... maybe the plea for clarity will be crushed by the leaders in charge.Clarity mean fewer lawyers, after all...

Web privacy battle looms Privacy from Companies7/10/2000; 2:45:09 PM Holy smokes, it's the US Government on the right side of a privacy debate!"The Federal Trade Commission voted to go to court against electronic-commerce company Toysmart.com, which is seeking to sell customer data despite a guarantee not share the information, the Wall Street Journal reported in Monday's electronic edition."Note the WSJ is a subscription service, so linking straight to it is difficult.

Check Your Freedom at the Front Door Misc. 7/10/2000; 8:30:24 AM This article summarizes the state of the web with regard to many the freedoms we have online. There's nothing new in this article for frequent readers of this site (except perhaps the corporate stuff, which I tend to not pay attention to), but if you're trying to explain to someone why there might be some worrisome trends on the Internet, this is an excellent article to point them to.

U.S.-EU Data Privacy Deal Panned Privacy from Companies7/10/2000; 8:03:24 AM "The European Parliament rejected a data-privacy deal hashed out between the U.S. and the European Commission that would shield American companies from stringent European privacy regulations."I agree with Europe; the safe harbor proposals were absurd. Interesting quote:"We don't think going back to the United States and trying to negotiate improvements is achievable," says EC spokesman Gerard de Graaf. "The EC will take the Parliament seriously, but at the same time, it will be careful to see its powers maintained.

Now, Companies Can Track Down TheirCyber-Critics Misc.7/9/2000; 3:07:43 PM ''Thanks to a new product from Dallas-based eWatch -- and sold through Edelman Interactive public relations agency and PR Newswire -- companies can now monitor what people do or say on the Web and respond. The result: So-called "anticorporate activism," as it's known in the flak trade, will never be the same -- and neither will your sense of free speech as a consumer.