Ay caramba, Ubuntu 12.10: Get it right on Amazon!

Another glimpse at the new Ubuntu, and at what makes it awkward. Mr. Shuttleworth has already declared that all your data belong to him…

“Don’t trust us? Erm, we have root. You do trust us with your data already.”

Silly me, I was thinking I had root over my own computer, and noone else, but apparently I should check the code. 12.10 includes data-leaking features you need to switch off yourself.

This very well might be my last Ubuntu upgrade… I am looking around at the other options.

Canonical is killing free software...

The upcoming release of Ubuntu will have a “shopping lense”, that provides you with “relevant articles you can buy” when searching for something on your own computer, like a document or photo.

Needless to say, that causes a bit of controversy, and, as sketched in this article, may break EU laws.

For me, the worrying aspect is that Canonical chooses to move away from core values in the free software movement. Phrases like “we respect your privacy” are empty when you add features like this without getting my explicit consent as a user.

Canonical says the data they collect is “only visible to a small group of people whose job requires that they have access and who are trained in respecting people’s privacy”.

I don’t want my desktop software crippled with “features” that send data to an unknown group of people I should just trust, for unknown purposes.

The drugs don't work: a modern medical scandal

The Guardian published an edited extract from Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre. A horrific story of where we have let the pharma industry take us. As terrible as the global banking crisis, with people actually dying…

Rijksmuseum to release works online

The Dutch newspaper Parool reports that in October, around 125,000 works in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will be put online and made free to use.

The White House releases their Petition Code

Via Mike Gifford:

Many folks on this list have already heard the news that the White House released their first set of Drupal code on GitHub: https://github.com/WhiteHouse/petition

Oded Na’aman: The Checkpoint, Terror, Power, and Cruelty

The story of modern-day Yossarian, struggling with “clear-headed judgment” when people stop being people.

(via Scheier on Security)

Kan deze overheid echt alle gegevens beschermen die ze over ons verzamelt? (Piratenpartij)

Op het Nationaal Privacydebat dat WebWereld eerder dit jaar organiseerde betoogde Lodewijk van Zwieten, Landelijk officier van justitie voor cybercrime: “Wanneer de overheid privacygevoelige gegevens opslaat is het niet de vraag of, maar wanneer deze op straat komen.”

[…]

De wens om tot een compleet overzicht te komen van 16 miljoen transparante burgers waarvan alle persoonsgegevens, vingerafdrukken, medische gegevens, telefoon-, surf- en emailgeschiedenis en zelfs de locatie van hun telefoon opgeslagen en gekoppeld zijn, past niet in een vrij land.

[…]

Het is dus hoog tijd voor dataminimalisatie en het echt werk maken van privacy-by-design. Niet alleen de veiligheid en privacy van de burgers zou hiermee gediend zijn, maar ook de staatskas, waaruit ieder jaar 5 tot 7 miljard euro aan mislukte ICT-projecten verdwijnt.

BBC Internet Blog: Building the Olympic Data Services

The Olympic achievement behind the scenes: building a linked data architecture to deal with XML message streams, a complex domain ontology, near-real-time video on demand linked with additional information, with real-time adjustments to performance and prioritisation, future-proof and gracefully degrading.

DFID Open and Enhanced Access Policy Published at Long Last

From November 1st, all recipients of DFID funded research must make their findings freely available.

[…]

Under the new policy, researchers will be required to make peer-reviewed journal articles open access through one of two routes: open access publishing (gold open access) or self-archiving (green open access).

The policy actually also extends to data sets, video, audio, images, and software, and contains some interesting citations to rationalise this choice.

It also is intended to give a boost to the DFID Research 4 Development (R4D) portal.