Day: January 22, 2010

Cell phone technology has really improved, and today’s mobile phones are equipped with a variety of nifty features including games, movies, music, the internet, email and even Global Position System (GPS) technology. GPS is a satellite-based navigation system that allows users to determine and communicate their precise location from anywhere on Earth.

Although GPS was originally created and used by the U.S. military, it is now available to the public. This has allowed the general public to enjoy a convenient tool that enables them to keep track of their loved ones. However, on the flip side of the coin, GPS can also be a tool used by a third party to invade the privacy of others.

In regard to cell phones, GPS Tracking is available in both software and hardware forms. GPS Tracker software is a program that is downloaded into your cell phone, while GPS Tracker hardware is a physical chip installed on your mobile phone. Complimentary software can then be installed on any PC which can monitor the location of the cell phone, and even make a summary of the cell phone user’s movements.

Since a GPS tracker can allow you to locate anyone, this tool has become very popular for people who wish to install GPS Tracker hardware on their partner or children’s cell phones in order to keep track of their whereabouts. However, you need to be aware that just as easily as you can apply this hardware to their phones, so can this hardware be applied to yours. Moreover, any person can install GPS Tracker hardware on your cell phone or the cell phone of a loved one, and track your movements without your knowledge. This is a scary, but very real possibility. Therefore, you need to keep a watchful eye on your cell phone to safeguard your privacy.

The best way to protect your cell phone from GPS Tracker hardware installed by a third party is to keep your phone on you at all times; leave your phone safely at home when you don’t need to bring it with you; and don’t lend your phone out to anyone, including your family members, unless it is absolutely necessary.

Finally, if your children have cell phones, make sure you keep a close eye on their mobile phone use. This also means paying attention to the people who call their cell phones so you can find the owner of a phone number here if you come across the number of a caller you don’t recognize and wish to learn their identity.

Together with XM Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio is one of the two main providers of digital radio broadcasting in the United States. Sirius Satellite Radio currently broadcasts on over 120 channels with a variety of broadcasts including music, talk shows, news broadcasts and different other forms of audio entertainment. Sirius Satellite Radio covers the entire US territory. The high quality of the broadcasting signal produced by using the most advanced digital encoding technology makes the transmission clear and accurate. The fidelity of the sound transmitted digitally is much better than any analog radio provider can offer. The noise disturbances often associated to FM and AM broadcasts are now eliminated and the transmission is clear and almost identical in quality with the original track. Sirius Satellite Radio holds one of the two FCC approved licenses for delivering digital radio in the United States. The digital radio broadcaster only shares the field of Satellite Digital Audio Radio Services (SDARS) with Sirius XM Satellite Radio Inc. Here is some more information on the Sirius company:

Corporate headquarters: New York City, New York
Date of launch: July 1, 2002
Satellites in service: 3
Available satellite radio channels:120
Monthly subscription cost:$12.95
Sirius Satellite Radio is truly an impressive corporation. Located in the heart of New York City with a huge recording studio situated in the Rockefeller Center, Sirius Satellite Radio has a huge library of over 2 million music tracks. The quality of the transmission is very high as it is in the 128kb/sec format – which is similar to CD audio quality. The company uses digitized signals through the PAC encoding technology, providing high fidelity broadcasts all over the United States.

The Sirius satellite

The three Loral SS/L-1300 commercial satellites used by Sirius deliver constant digital radio broadcasting to Sirius’ subscribers. As with most commercial satellites, the Loral SS/L-1300s orbit above the Earth at 22 300 miles. Very similar to XMs satellites, the Loral SS/L-1300 commercial satellites have a more inclined orbit which allows them to cover an even more extended area. The elevation angle of 60 degrees is more generous than the regular 45 degrees used by geostationary satellites. Since one of the most problematic aspects of satellite radio broadcasting is the line of sight – which can be easily interrupted by landscape or buildings – the Loral SS/L-1300 commercial satellites have a slight advantage over their competitors, since they have a clearer line of sight. The three satellites used for broadcasting slowly orbit around the Earth and only two of them are functional at any time. This is because Sirius only has two transmission frequencies and by alternating satellite transmission they can eliminate interferences while also having a spare satellite to put to use in case something goes wrong with one of the others. The 3 satelites take turns broadcasting – when one of them leaves the footprint of the continental U.S. another picks up the broadcasting transmission. Since the more inclined orbit provides better coverage, Canada and Mexico are also well covered by the digital broadcasting. This is an interesting feature of the Sirius satellite radio, as it enhances the benefit of not having to switch radio stations during long trips or while traveling outside US borders. Sirius has also announced a collaboration with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Standard Radio Inc. This would allow anyone in Canada to benefit from Sirius’ services while using any of the Canadian English and French channels.

Sirius broadcasting

Because the broadcast signal used in satellite radio transmission is so strong, you only need a small receiver in order to be able to listen to it. By using small omni-directional antennas you can take your digital radio programs wherever you are – either on the road or at home. The technology used is similar to GPS devices and the receivers don’t require pointing. Some of the new features of satellite radio refer to the extended broadcast information abilities, and the transmission can supply information on artist, music title or genre. One of the developments Sirius is working on is streaming video broadcasting – something that will probably become available to the general public soon after the technology and broadcasting methods become secure enough.

Critical Analysis of Information Technology Act, 2000

 

Till year 2000, India did not have any legislation governing cyber space or Information Technology Law.  To give consideration to the Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and to give legal recognition to electronic commerce the Information Technology Act, 2000 was enacted. Though this is comparatively a new legislation as far as others areas of law are concerned, still 8 years have passed since this act was enacted and in these 8 years Technology has changed at a much faster pace. Though law cannot possibly be expected to keep pace with changes in technology, still there are few areas in the current cyber laws which need some attention.

  

Spamming

 

Spam may be defined as Unsolicited Bulk E-mail. Initially it was viewed as a mere nuisance but now it is posing major economic problems. I think almost all of us receive many unwanted mails daily. Though there are some technical methods to deal with spam, they are not very effective and adequate in dealing with this menace. In the absence of any adequate technical protection, stringent legislation is required to deal with the problem of spam. The Information Technology Act does not discuss the issue of spamming at all. USA and the European Union have enacted anti spam legislation. In fact Australia has very stringent spam laws under which the spammers may be fined up to 1.1 million dollars per day.

 

Pornography

 

Though the Information Technology Act talks about publishing of information which is “obscene” in nature, it doesn’t specifically define what is obscene and what may be classified as pornography. Even the punishment for pornography is not sufficient in India. In China the punishment for maintaining pornographic website is life imprisonment but by the proposed amendment in IT Act the imprisonment is being reduced to two years from the present five year imprisonment. Also the intermediaries are exempted from any liability. Though legislations worldwide contain severe provisions for child pornography there is no mention of child pornography in the Indian Act. It is interesting to note down that the Information Technology Act prohibits publishing of pornography but viewing of pornography is not an offence under the act.

Phishing

 

According to Wikipedia, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail and often directs users to enter personal and financial details at a website. Phishing is an example of social engineering technique used to fool users. There is no law against phishing in the Information Technology Act though the Indian Penal Code talks about cheating, it is not sufficient to check the activity of phishing. Recently a phishing attack was noticed on the customers of State Bank of India in which a clone of the SBI website was used. What is worse is that even SBI has not alerted its customers. So the need of the hour is a legislation which prohibits the activity of phishing in India.

 

Data Protection in Internet Banking

 

Data protection laws primarily aim to safeguard the interest of the individual whose data is handled and processed by others. Internet Banking involves not just the banks and their customers, but numerous third parties too. Information held by banks about their customers, their transactions etc. changes hand several times. It is impossible for the banks to retain information within their own computer networks. High risks are involved in preventing leakage or tampering of data which ask for adequate legal and technical protection. India has no law on data protection leave alone a law governing an area as specific as protection of data in electronic banking.

 

The Information Technology Act talks about unauthorized access but it does not talk about maintaining integrity of customer transactions. The act does not lay down any duty upon banks to protect the details of customers and clients. U.K has a data protection law which was enacted 10 years back that is in 1998 under which banks or any person holding sensitive information may be held liable for damages if it fails to maintain adequate security protection in respect of data. In India, a bank’s liability would arise out of contract as there is no statute on the point.

 

Privacy Protection

 

Privacy and data protection are important issues that need to be addressed today as information technology assumes greater importance in personal, professional and commercial spheres. The European Union and the United States have strict policies relating to privacy and protection of personal data when such data or information is being transferred out of their domain.

It also pertinent to note here, that the absence of a specific privacy law in India has resulted in a loss of substantial foreign investment and other business opportunities. This deficiency has also served as an obstacle to the real growth of electronic commerce. Thus, a statute addressing various issues related to privacy is of utmost importance today, if not an entire act can be brought into force, then at least specific provisions relating to privacy and data protection be incorporated into the Act.

Conclusion

 

These were some of the most important shortcomings of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Though an amendment was proposed in the Act in 2005, the bill has still not been passed and moreover the bill also fails to address these issues and shortcomings. It seems quite evident that by the time the bill is passed, it would have become obsolete and ineffective.

 

MySpace leads Facebook in revenue earned form advertisements. But recently, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in unique visitors. This is an astounding accomplishment being that MySpace had a three year lead and enjoys immense popularity. Users are leaving MySpace for Facebook in droves and it is speculated that this transition may be a result of class rather than trend.

Following the creation of Friendstar, a number of eUniverse employees saw its potential and used its more popular features to create a social networking website with a wider base. MySpace was launched in August 2003 and with resources including technicians, bandwidth and server capacity already in place users increased at an astounding rate.

MySpace operates from advertising revenue alone. There is absolutely no cost to the end user. MySpace is capable of using behavioral targeting to customize the ads that each user sees. Only Yahoo! has been able to collect more data about it’s users in order to customize advertising. The success of MySpace has trickled down to many young entrepreneurs who provide widgets or accessories that add to the functionality of the networking powerhouse.

MySpace encourages users to customize their profile pages by entering HTML. In addition musicians are allowed to upload and share up to 6 MP3 songs provided it is their own work or they have permission to use the songs. Over eight million artists owe their discovery to MySpace so far! Political organizations and politicians themselves have created MySpace pages to expand their membership and to get more young viewers involved in campaigning. MySpace offers many engaging features including Bulletins, Groups, MySpace IM, MySpace TV, Applications, MySpace Mobile, MySpace News, MySpace Classifieds, MySpace Karaoke and MySpace polls.

MySpace networking has many positive aspects, unfortunately, they are matched in number by negative aspects. MySpace does not have a customer service number readily available. Most problems are solved via networking with other MySpace users. HTML code is rarely met because those using the code are not experienced. This can lead to accessibility problems and freeze up web browsers.

Security is another major problem. Advertisements are abundant and some provide links to fake login screens that trick a user into entering their MySpace user name and password. Spam bulletins and infections are prime examples of security breaches. Social issues arise such as teens inadvertently inviting a large number of people to parties. People are also more likely to present themselves in ways that they would not in person which undercuts the purposeful design of MySpace which is to bring people together. Stalkers also are able to gather a large amount of information about an individual via MySpace.

Facebook is also a social networking website. Unlike MySpace its origin is not corporate but academic! Membership was initially offered to only Harvard College students. Shortly after in March of 2004 membership was expanded to include Stanford, Columbia and Yale. In September of 2005 Facebook welcomed high school students by invitation only then employees of Apple Inc. and Microsoft. Finally, Facebook expanded its membership to include everyone over the age of 13 with a valid email address in September 2006. Facebook members join networks which are organized by city, school, workplace and region.

Facebook remains privately owned by Facebook Inc. but has investors who are major players including PayPal co-founder Peter Theil, Accel Partners, Greylock Partners and Microsoft.

Facebook offers many of the same features as MySpace like banner ads, creating customized profiles, and the viewing of the profile data being restricted to users from the network or confirmed friends. Facebook’s features include the Wall, Pokes, Photos, News Feed, Facebook Notes, Chat and Gifts.

The most significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization. Facebook only allows plain text as opposed to HTML and Cascading Style Sheets. But despite its 3 year head start in the general public, MySpace fell behind Facebook in May of 2008 with a total of 123.9 million unique Facebook visitors. According to Alexa, Facebook’s ranking among all websites went from 60th to 7th from September 2006 to September 2007. It is currently 5th.

Currently young people are leaving MySpace in droves for Facebook. Some speculate that it is typical teens moving on from one trend to the next. Others speculate that Facebook attracts more affluent users. Facebook originated with Ivy League students who then attracted high school kids who were eager to become part of the culture in their upcoming college experience. Danah Boyd, a researcher for the University of California, Berkley, claims that the “goody-two-shoes, jocks, athletes, and other ‘good’ kids” are going to Facebook. These ‘good’ kids are attracted first to the Facebook’s origin and they are also eager to stay away from the controversy that surrounds MySpace. Therefore there is evidence of a class divide rather than a change in trend for all young users. It will be interesting to see if Facebook becomes similarly polluted.

MySpace leads Facebook in revenue earned form advertisements. But recently, Facebook has surpassed MySpace in unique visitors. This is an astounding accomplishment being that MySpace had a three year lead and enjoys immense popularity. Users are leaving MySpace for Facebook in droves and it is speculated that this transition may be a result of class rather than trend.

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