For a long time, I’ve resisted purchasing a voice assistant for my home. The idea of having something “always listening” seems too intrusive to me (and, yes, I know my phone is already doing that, but I’m good with the cognitive dissonance). However, the latest news from the advertising realm has me realizing that Alexa and her ilk might actually be the least of my worries.
Read MoreOPLIN 4Cast #627: Think you’re being stalked? You’re not wrong
We’ve already talked about facial recognition this month in the 4cast, so I’m not going to cover that again. Still, there’s been a lot of…
Read MoreOPLIN 4Cast #596: Your phone’s location data…leaked
Have you noticed your inbox filling up with notices about updated terms of service? Many of these are coming about not only in the wake…
Read MoreOPLIN 4Cast #592: The sudden scramble for online privacy
It might be getting more difficult to care about online privacy, especially now, when it may seem as if everyone is putting everything online. At times,…
Posted in 4cast, Flickr, Google Apps, Google Maps, Kido'z, KidZui, Library of Congress, Panda Cloud Antivirus, privacy, tagging, YouTube, and ZuiTube
1. YouTube is going semi-pro. There is a spot on their site called the Screening Room. The videos are now longer, better quality and available…
Posted in 4cast, blogs, education, Facebook, GIMP, Google, Google News, Internet, Library 2.0, Library vs. Internet, LinkedIn, Lipsum, privacy, Reference Extract, social network websites, social search, software development, VirtualBox, and Wikipedia
 This week’s 4cast: Sharing Data: Google & Facebook Join DataPortability.org The mission of DataPortability is to allow personal data (the kind found on social networking…
Read More4Cast #85: Sharing Data, Banning Google, Wikia Search Review, Future of Libraries
Posted in authors, Google, Microsoft Office, privacy, spam, Valve, and Wikipedia
This week’s 4cast: 1. Watch Your Back, Wikipedia As Wikipedia has become increasingly huge (see 4cast #72, item 4), it was inevitable that for-profit competitors…
Posted in Boxee, Cinematic Internet, filtering, Internet, iPhones, privacy, social network websites, and TwitterThoughts
This week’s 4cast: 1. Don’t Be Afraid of the Internet… A new report from the National School Board Association finds that in spite of widespread…
Posted in Blerp, Diigo, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Myebook, Playlist.io, privacy, SocialCast, and StoryTlr
This week’s 4cast: 1. Could We Have Some Privacy, Please? Last month, when a widely read report labeled Google as “hostile to privacy,” some of…
Posted in copyright, Google, privacy, VirtualBox, VMware Server, and YouTube
This week’s 4cast: 1. Viacom to Google: This YouTube Thing’s Gonna Cost Ya When Google purchased YouTube late last year, there was some speculation that…
