Tag Archives: Social Issues

Plaxo and Privacy — A Storm In A Teacup?

Plaxo, the besieged contact updating service, is pointing readers of its blog to an article that takes issue with the company’s critics. The article, written by Jim Harper of PolicyCounsel.com, takes issue with privacy concerns, especially those aired by Australian academic Roger Clarke which I’ve tried to summarise in an earlier post. Jim’s language is quite… Read More »

More On Plaxo And Privacy

An interesting academic piece on the privacy aspects of Plaxo (and other networking services), noticed by bagus. Roger Clarke, who wears several hats as an academic and consultant in Australia and Hong Kong, focuses not on the privacy of those who sign up for such services but “on a matter that is new, and of great… Read More »

Spam Law Passed, Not Many Impressed

The U.S. Congress has passed the anti-spam bill, after the House voted to approve minor Senate amendments, The Register reports. Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act does more harm than good in the fight against spam, according to critics. The bill criminalises common… Read More »

Stop It Before It Starts

A program I’ve found highly useful of late is Windows Startup Inspector. It does something Windows XP should do, but doesn’t: Allow you to decide what programs do and don’t start when Windows does. It sounds dumb until you realise that most programs these days — including a lot that should know better — automatically… Read More »