• Invasion of the Data Snatchers
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/opinion/keller-invasion-of-the-data-snatchers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=3&

    ...

    When it comes to privacy, we are all hypocrites. We howl when a newspaper publishes public records about personal behavior. At the same time, we are acquiescing in a much more sweeping erosion of our privacy — government surveillance, corporate data-mining, political microtargeting, hacker invasions — with no comparable outpouring of protest. As a society we have no coherent view of what information is worth defending and how to defend it.

    ...

  • Si j’ai bien suivi, François Hollande nous aurait donc entraînés dans une guerre, au Mali, contre des islamistes financés par le Qatar et… entraînés par les Américains. Elle est pas belle, la vie ?
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/world/africa/french-jets-strike-deep-inside-islamist-held-mali.html

    But as insurgents swept through the desert last year, commanders of this nation’s elite army units, the fruit of years of careful American training, defected when they were needed most — taking troops, guns, trucks and their newfound skills to the enemy in the heat of battle, according to senior Malian military officials.

    […]

    Then an American-trained officer overthrew Mali’s elected government, setting the stage for more than half of the country to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists. American spy planes and surveillance drones have tried to make sense of the mess, but American officials and their allies are still scrambling even to get a detailed picture of who they are up against.

    Now, in the face of longstanding American warnings that a Western assault on the Islamist stronghold could rally jihadists around the world and prompt terrorist attacks as far away as Europe, the French have entered the war themselves.

    Dans de telles conditions, je ne vois pas comment on pourrait perdre.

  • L’affaire de Steubenville
    Extrait de Invasion of the Data Snatchers - NYTimes.com
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/opinion/keller-invasion-of-the-data-snatchers.html?pagewanted=2

    via @reka

    Or take the Steubenville case. In Steubenville, Ohio, authorities charged two members of the high school football team with the repeated rape of a passed-out-drunk 16-year-old, but did not charge the many others who allegedly cheered them on and made videos. So the online activists of Anonymous took it upon themselves to hack into private accounts, recover deleted and incriminating videos, and make them public. Amanda Marcotte wrestled with the moral dilemma on Slate: “By stepping in and holding people accountable, Anonymous stands a very good chance of taking action that actually does something to stop rape. But: This type of online vigilante justice is potentially invading the privacy of or defaming innocent Steubenville residents, and even if everything published is true, there are very serious legal limits to the Anonymous strategy.”

    Le paragraphe ci-dessus synthétise deux articles, la description des faits (viol collectif dans une fête en août 2012) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/sports/high-school-football-rape-case-unfolds-online-and-divides-steubenville-ohio parue dans le NYT du 17/12/12 et les suites de cette publication (hack par des Anonymous et divulgation de noms de personnes impliquées) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/25/sports/hackers-of-steubenville-football-teams-web-site-demand-apology-in-rape-case (NYT 25/12/12)

  • Invasion of the Data Snatchers - NYTimes.com

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/opinion/keller-invasion-of-the-data-snatchers.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_2
    By BILL KELLER
    January 13

    YOU are the editor of a local newspaper. A reporter on your staff comes to you having obtained (by legal means) one of the following:
    Related:

    • Police records of arrests for drunken driving;

    • The personal details of all the employees of local clinics that perform abortions;

    • The subscriber list of a survivalist magazine with pronounced racist overtones;

    • The names and addresses of food stamp recipients in your community;

    • The donors to a group that promotes L.G.B.T. rights;

    • The names of husbands accused of infidelity in divorce suits, along with the identities of the alleged lovers;

    • Addresses of homes where pit bulls are kept.

    The reporter proposes to publish the names and home addresses and map them on a large graphic, all part of an article on “The [drunks/abortionists/racists/poor/gays/cheats/scary dogs] next door.”

    Some of these lists might strike you as fair game. (Many community newspapers publish D.U.I. arrests, presumably to shame the accused into driving sober.) Others probably make you uncomfortable or indignant. You might find that the tricky part is articulating why: what is the boundary between a public service and an invasion of privacy?

    #presse #média #information #data #internet

    cc @fil

    • À lire intégralement !

      “The Obama administration’s position on privacy is basically ‘Trust us, we’re good guys,’ ” said Daniel Solove of George Washington University, whose book “Nothing to Hide” challenges the myth that law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from government snooping. “That’s exactly what Bush said. And it’s also the same thing that any despot says. We shouldn’t have to trust.”

      Par ailleurs, je découvre l’affaire de Steubenville. Ça mérite une entrée à part entière.

    • Steubenville —> je regarde, mais vu que je suis plombé pour quelques jours tu peux t’y coller...

      A propos de « trust us », dans une de mes confs, je développe la question des « données produites par les autres » et la « confiance qu’on a (ou qu’on a pas) dans les autres ». Je souligne la relation très indirecte entre ce que représentent les données et les utilisateurs des données qui « doivent » faire confiance aux producteurs (c’est un pré-requis, soit il a confiance et il utilise, soit il n’accorde pas son crédit et il n’utilise pas). Parce que l’utilisateur n’est pas sur le terrain, le travail sur les données repose avant tout sur la confiance qu’on accorde aux producteurs. mais comment mesurer le sérieux ? la crédibiité ? la méthode de calcul pour arriver à la donnée ? —> Difficile, trop souvent on se repose sur ce qu’on reçoit, et on se dit bah... « I trust it »