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Google Screenwise: An Unwise Trade of All Your Privacy for Cash Imagine this: an enormous tech company is tracking what you do on your phone, even when you’re not using any of its services, down to the specific images that you see. It’s also tracking all of your network traffic, because you’re installing one of its specially-designed routers. And even though some of that traffic is encrypted, it can still know what websites you visit, due to how DNS resolution works. Oh, it’s also recording audio from a custom-microphone that’s placed near your TV, and analyzing what it hears. It’s an always-on panopticon. In exchange for your privacy (and the privacy of any guests who may be using your Internet connection, or talking near your television), you receive a gift card for a whopping $20. No, we’re not talking about Facebook—we’ve already detailed the frightening consequences of Facebook’s sneaky, privacy-invading and security-breaking “user research” program. This is Google’s “...

Net Neutrality’s Day in Court Public Interest   Advocates,   Local   Governments, and   Others Defend the Open Internet Order The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard the case of Mozilla v. FCC today to determine whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is allowed to repeal its net neutrality rules and abandon its authority over the broadband industry. The case delved into many different legal and technical issues that reveal the extent the FCC is willing to stretch to abandon the Open Internet. On one side sat public interest advocates, local governments, and Internet companies large and small. On the other, the FCC’s legal team was joined by lawyers from the large ISPs arguing in favor of one of the most unpopular decisions in Internet policy history. The FCC’s Order Is Based on a Flawed Understanding of the Internet The FCC’s so-called Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which repealed net neutrality rules, relies on a flawed understanding ...

At the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies Seneca, South Carolina—Home to one of the Schneider Electric’s manufacturing facilities. This particular plant manufactures motor control centers (MCCs), which are used in applications ranging from equipment for production lines and oil rigs, to equipment in wastewater treatment plants. Controlling the cost to heat, cool, and light a large, open facility with high ceilings can present a variety of challenges. For instance, average temperatures in Seneca range from wintertime lows in the 30s to summertime highs in the 90s. Maintaining desired comfort levels year-round while ensuring the operating efficiency can be challenging. To practice what it preaches Schneider Electric selected this U.S. manufacturing facility to participate in the company’s global Energy Action Program . This program enables Schneider Electric to lead by example and “practice what it preaches” to achieve three goals: cut energy waste , deploy energy efficiency ...

Rachel Holland is a Tax & Treasury Director at  Schneider Electric . She describes herself as determined, humble and authentic. She admires Michelle Obama for her poise, confidence, humility and humanity. We caught up with Rachel to find out what makes Schneider Electric a fabulous company and how it is striving to attract the  best female talent  in the industry. This blog has been adapted from a recent article in  Where Women Work Thriving on constant change Above all, for Rachel, working at Schneider Electric is all about growth and change: both in the industry and of the people who are part of it. Rachel believes she is working in a very exciting space right now with Schneider Electric. Right at the forefront of the fourth technological revolution, where the industry is building on the historical industrial revolutions of mass production through electric power and automation through electronics and IT. “Now the fourth technological revoluti...

What We Should Learn From “Facebook Research” Once again, Facebook has broken the trust of its users—this time, through reportedly paying people to give up their privacy by installing an application that sucks up huge amounts of sensitive data , and explicitly sidestepping Apple’s Enterprise Developer program rules. In doing so, the company has repeated several of the privacy-abusive practices that it’s been chastised for before. This underscores just how little the company has learned from a year of user complaints, privacy group criticisms, and Congressional hearings, and it emphasizes the need for legislators to pass new laws to protect the public. The backstory: In 2013, Facebook began offering a “secure” VPN app, Onavo Protect , as a way for users to supposedly protect their web activity from prying eyes. But Facebook simultaneously used Onavo to collect data from its users about their usage of competitors like Twitter . Last year, Apple banned Onavo from its App Store for...

Keep Border Spy Tech Out of Dreamer Protection Bills If Congress votes this month on legislation to protect Dreamers from deportation, any bill it considers should not include invasive surveillance technologies like biometric screening, social media snooping, automatic license plate readers, and drones. Such high tech spying would unduly intrude on the privacy of immigrants and Americans who live near the border and travel abroad. How We Got Here In September 2017, President Trump announced that, effective March 2018, his administration would end the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ) program, which protects from deportation some 800,000 young adults (often called Dreamers) brought to the United States as children. In January 2018, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised to hold a vote in February 2018 on an immigration bill that protects Dreamers. In response to this promise, Democratic Party Senators voted with Republican Par...

Catalog of Missing Devices Illustrates Gadgets that Could and Should Exist Bad Copyright Law Prevents Innovators from Creating Cool New Tools San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has launched its “ Catalog of Missing Devices ”—a project that illustrates the gadgets that could and should exist, if not for bad copyright laws that prevent innovators from creating the cool new tools that could enrich our lives. “The law that is supposed to restrict copying has instead been misused to crack down on competition, strangling a future’s worth of gadgets in their cradles,” said EFF Special Advisor Cory Doctorow. “But it’s hard to notice what isn’t there. We’re aiming to fix that with this Catalog of Missing Devices. It’s a collection of tools, services, and products that could have been, and should have been, but never were.” The damage comes from Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA 1201), which covers digital rights management software (DRM)...

The Hypocrisy of AT&T’s “Internet Bill of Rights” Last week AT&T has decided it’s good business to advocate for an “Internet Bill of Rights.” Of course, that catchy name doesn’t in any way mean that what AT&T wants is a codified list of rights for Internet users . No, what AT&T wants is to keep a firm hold on the gains it has made in the last year at the expense of its customers’ rights. There is nothing in the history—the very recent history—of AT&T to make anyone believe that it has anyone’s actual best interests at heart. Let’s take a look at how this company has traditionally felt about privacy and network neutrality. Few companies have done more to combat privacy and network neutrality than AT&T. It takes an incredible amount of arrogance for AT&T to take out a full page ad in the New York Times calling for an “Internet Bill of Rights” after spending years effectively waging the most far-reaching lobbying campaign to eliminate every consumer rig...

How Congress’s Extension of Section 702 May Expand the NSA’s Warrantless Surveillance Authority Last month, Congress reauthorized Section 702, the controversial law the NSA uses to conduct some of its most invasive electronic surveillance. With Section 702 set to expire, Congress had a golden opportunity to fix the worst flaws in the NSA’s surveillance programs and protect Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. Instead, it reupped Section 702 for six more years. But the bill passed by Congress and signed by the president, labeled S. 139, didn’t just extend Section 702’s duration. It also may expand the NSA’s authority in subtle but dangerous ways. The reauthorization marks the first time that Congress passed legislation that explicitly acknowledges and codifies some of the most controversial aspects of the NSA’s surveillance programs, including “about” collection and “backdoor searches.” That will give the government more legal ammunition to defend these programs in co...

People play the most important role in security, there is no doubt, but here are some ways to keep people informed and be a strong part of a company’s security plan. There is one day every parent keeps an eye on and that is the day their son or daughter gets behind the wheel for the first time. He or she has the idea of once I get on the street, “I am going to be the only one there and everything is going to be fine.” What they don’t realize, however, is there are drivers out there that unintentionally make mistakes or others speeding and operating with reckless behavior showing malicious intent. Along those lines, for a safe driving environment — and to step up the metaphor – or for a secure manufacturing automation environment, it becomes vital to educate people so they understand where the threats come from. The most important element is awareness and education and ensuring that education is recurring and constant. It must come down from the absolute top levels of management an...