Hacked E-Mails Fuel Global Warming Debate: Via Threat Level.

An online debate over global warming science has broken out after an unknown hacker broke into the e-mail server at a prominent, British climate-research center, stole more than a thousand e-mails about global warming research and posted them online.

Global warming skeptics are seizing on portions of the messages as evidence that scientists are colluding and warping data to fit the theory of global warming, but researchers say the e-mails are being taken out of context and just show scientists engaged in frank discussion.

The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is one of the United Kingdom’s leading climate research centers and has been a strong proponent of the position that global warming is real and has human causes. The center confirmed the hack occurred in an e-mail statement to Threat Level. [ Read more ... ]

Four Billion Little Brothers?: Privacy, mobile phones, and ubiquitous data collection: Via ACM Queue.

Privacy, mobile phones, and ubiquitous data collection Participatory sensing technologies could improve our lives and our communities, but at what cost to our privacy?

They place calls, surf the Internet, and there are close to 4 billion of them in the world. Their built-in microphones, cameras, and location awareness can collect images, sound, and GPS data. Beyond chatting and texting, these features could make phones ubiquitous, familiar tools for quantifying personal patterns and habits. They could also be platforms for thousands to document a neighborhood, gather evidence to make a case, or study mobility and health. This data could help you understand your daily carbon footprint, exposure to air pollution, exercise habits, and frequency of interactions with family and friends.

At the same time, however, this data reveals a lot about your regular locations, habits, and routines. Once such data is captured, acquaintances, friends, or authorities might coerce you to disclose it. Perhaps worse, it could be collected or reused without your knowledge or permission. At the extreme, mobile phones could become the most widespread embedded surveillance tools in history. [ Read more ... ]

Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency | washingtonpost.com: "Dick Cheney is the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office of vice president. This series examines Cheney's largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment. [ Read more ... ]