NewsScan Daily, 24 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 24 May 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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appropriate use of information technology. NSD is written by John Gehl and
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       System for Tracking Visitors to U.S.
       Vietnam Orders New Crackdown
       Chinese Surfers Persist Despite Gov't Constraints
       Terror Database Named 120,000
       Microsoft Questioned on E-Mail Deletion Policies
       In Praise of the Database Nation

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Nelly Sachs
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It


SYSTEM FOR TRACKING VISITORS TO U.S.
     The Department of Homeland Security is getting ready to award a very
large contract (perhaps worth as much as $15 billion) for a network of
databases to track visitors to the country before and after they arrive. The
system will attempt to show where the visitors are going and whether they
pose a terrorist threat. The three companies vying for the contract, which
is called US-Visit, are Accenture, Computer Sciences, and Lockheed Martin.
Visitors arriving at checkpoints will face real-time identification to
confirm they are who they say they are and to make it possible to track them
while they remain inside the U.S. Asa Hutchinson of Homeland Security says,
""This is hugely important for the security of our country and for the wise
use of our limited resources. We're talking here about a comprehensive
approach to border security." Civil libertarians are alarmed that the
databases could, despite assurances from the Homeland Security department,
be used to monitor American citizens. (New York Times 24 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/politics/24VISI.html?hp

VIETNAM ORDERS NEW CRACKDOWN
     Vietnam is stepping up its campaign against "bad and poisonous
information on the Internet." Three ministries -- culture and information,
public security, and post and telecommunications -- have been ordered to
regularly monitor online information and punish those who abuse the
Internet, according to the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan. In March, the
government announced new regulations that sharply tightened control over
Internet usage and required people at Internet cafes to present personal
identification information before logging on. Internet cafe owners were told
to document the time each user spends online and prevent users from
bypassing government-imposed barriers designed to block access to sites
deemed subversive or pornographic. (The Australian 21 May 2004) Rec'd from
John Lamp http://tinyurl.com/2y29l

CHINESE SURFERS PERSIST DESPITE GOV'T CONSTRAINTS
     In China, people are increasingly using the Internet to broadcast their
opinions in public and challenge the government's ability to control news,
information and public debate. One webmaster says: "The party is not a
monolithic block. The police may feel, 'If we can avoid the trouble, let's
avoid the trouble.' No one wants to go out of their way to hurt people."
Government local authorities often look the other way when cafe managers
fail to record customers' names or install surveillance software, as long as
they pay taxes and fees. An observer notes: "There are more and more of us
mice, but the cat, for various reasons, is less interested in its work. The
cat is too busy making money." (Washington Post 23 May 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50496-2004May23.html

TERROR DATABASE NAMED 120,000
     Before helping launch the criminal information project known as Matrix,
a database contractor gave U.S. and Florida authorities the names of 120,000
people who showed a statistical likelihood of being terrorists. The "high
terrorism factor" scoring system also became a key selling point for the
involvement of the database company Seisint in the Matrix project. Public
records obtained from several states show that Justice Department officials
cited the scoring technology in appointing Seisint sole contractor on the
federally funded $12 million project. (The Australian 21 May 2004) Rec'd
from John Lamp http://tinyurl.com/29o4s

MICROSOFT QUESTIONED ON E-MAIL DELETION POLICIES
A federal judge in Baltimore has ordered Microsoft to search for evidence
that would confirm or refute a charge by a company suing Microsoft that
"Microsoft as matter of institutional policy has decided to destroy e-mails
in anticipation of litigation." The order directs Microsoft to search a
legal department computer, a server, and backup tapes, as well as question
Microsoft lawyers about e-mail from one of its executives allegedly urging
employees not to save their e-mail for more than 30 days, telling them "Do
not archive your e-mail." Microsoft says the evidence will show that the
executive's instructions were "consistent with a policy that is responsive
to any legal requirements and consistent with a policy of efficient
management of corporate e-mail." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 24 May 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8725934.htm

IN PRAISE OF THE DATABASE NATION
     In the libertarian magazine Reason, Declan McCullagh writes about "the
unsung benefits that have accompanied the databasification of American...
Data collection and information sharing emerged not through chance but
because they bring lower prices and more choices for consumers. The ability
to identify customers who are not likely to pay their bills lets stores
offer better deals to those people who will." McCullagh, a former Washington
bureau chief for Wired and now author of the e-mail list Politech,
emphasizes the role of personal choice in the use of databases: "If you
don't like Safeway's discount card, don't get it. That choice disappears
when the government demands data. Governments have the unique -- and
uniquely dangerous -- ability to compel you to divulge information whether
you want to or not." The current issue of Reason received by subscribers in
the mail has the subscriber's name on the cover of his or her personal copy,
plus an aerial photo of where the subscriber lives. (Reason Jun 2004)
http://reason.org/ 

*****  

FLASH CARD 
     "Bewitched is half of everything." (Nelly Sachs)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: NELLY SACHS
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the German-born Jewish poet and
dramatist Nelly Sachs (1891-1970), who shared the 1966 Nobel Prize for
literature with the Israeli writer Shmuel Yosef Agnon. Sachs wrote mainly
about the persecution and genocidal oppression endured by the Jewish people
for hundreds of years. In the words of the Nobel judges Sachs was praised
for her "outstanding lyrical and dramatic writing, which interprets Israel's
destiny with touching strength." In accepting the prize Sachs commented that
her fellow laureate, Agnon, represented Israel, whereas "I represent the
tragedy of the Jewish people."
     Sachs was born and educated in Berlin. Her father was a prosperous
manufacturer, and she grew up in the fashionable Tiergarten section of
Berlin. She began writing verse at age 17, mostly romantic and conventional
poems that were published in newspapers. When the Nazis came to power, she
turned to the study of ancient Jewish writings to strengthen herself against
the growing climate of anti-Semitism. In 1940 she learned that she was to be
sent to a forced labor camp. Fortunately she was able to escape to Sweden
thanks to the help she received from the Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.
Lagerlöf had been her pen pal and elicited the support of the Swedish royal
family on her behalf. While living in Sweden Sachs shared a one-room
apartment with her mother. She learned Swedish, and occupied her time
translating German poetry into Swedish.
     As early as 1921 Sachs had published a collection of short stories
entitled "Legends and Tales." Her writing after World War II was focused on
the Holocaust and other historical atrocities inflicted on the Jewish
people. Her best-known play was, "Eli: A Mystery Play of the Sufferings of
Israel" (1950). English translations of many of her poems are contained in
the two collections, "O the Chimneys" (1967) and "The Seeker and Other
Poems" (1970). The "O the Chimneys" title was taken from the famous poem she
wrote in which she envisions Israel's body drifting upward as smoke from the
chimneys of Nazi extermination camps.
     In 1965, the year before winning the Nobel Prize on her 75th birthday,
Sachs had received the German Publishers Peace Prize. She used the occasions
to speak in the spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness that were frequent
themes in her poetry: "In spite of all the horrors of the past, I believe in
you."

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1878818716/
newsscancom/ref=nosim for Nelly Sach's correspondence with the poet Paul
Celan -- or look for it in your favorite library. We donate all revenue from
our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

DID THEY READ IT? NO!
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10615
     Here's how to prevent your mail reading activities from being tracked
using DidTheyReadIt.
     The company that makes DidTheyReadIt is called Rampell Software, and if
someone signs up for their service, the mail is forwarded through one of
their servers at rampellsoft.com. This information is visible in the
"Received" field at the beginning of Internet e-mail that lists all of the
servers that the e-mail message has gone through to get from its point of
origin to your computer. This information is not always directly displayed
by e-mail programs.  For example, in Eudora, which is what I use, you have
to click on a little box called "Blah Blah Blah" to see that field.
     An efficient way to detect undesirable messages sent through
DidTheyReadIt -- the messages that will automatically notify the person that
you read them, forwarded them, etc. -- and to delete them or inform the
sender that you won't open a message sent in this way, is to create Eudora
calls a "filter" and Outlook a "rule."  The filter or rule should examine
incoming messages for "rampellsoft.com" in the Received field or in the
message headers as a whole (in Eudora, you tell it to look for "Any Header"
containing "rampellsoft.com") and then take some action, e.g., move the
message to a particular mailbox, delete it, or reply to it with an automatic
reply saying that you won't open such messages.  I have created an automatic
reply that will inform the sender of such a message that I consider messages
tracked in this way an invasion of privacy and will automatically delete
them.  (Jeremy Shapiro, New York)

HOW THEY DO IT
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10615
     For anyone curious as to how DidTheyReadIt.com (and others, they are
not unique but perhaps simply better marketed) does it, take a look at:
http://www.codeproject.com/aspnet/EmailTracker.asp. Courtesy of Google.
(Eric Schultz, Nun's Island, Quebec)

BUT A QUESTION REMAINS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10615
     I was curious after reading your piece about didtheyreadit.com, so I
signed up for the free subscription (5 emails tracked for free per month.)
     They are using the same old <img> tag technique 'spammers' (and the
like) have been using since email clients became HTML enabled. If you were
to 'view source' of such an email message, you'd see an <img> tag added
which references a URL back to the website (in this case,
didtheyreadit.com). The URL usually provides a tracking number, and instead
of simply linking to an image file, as most innocent <img> tags would do, it
first runs a program on the web server which logs the hit before finally
responding back with some image data (often a small transparent Gif file).
     I confess that, as a web developer, I've employed this technique at the
request of clients who distribute HTML newsletters via email, so they can
get an indication as to how many of their subscribers actually read the
message. I further confess that I'm stumped as to how didtheyreadit.com is
able to determine the length of time the message was open!
     For recipients, this <img> tag tracking technique is easy to overcome.
If you only read email in Plain Text (not HTML) or if you read your messages
after disconnecting from the internet, then the tracking simply can't work.
Your email client can help, too. In Yahoo web based email, for example, go
into the Mail Options 'Spam Protection' settings and choose "Block all
images until I've had a chance to look it over". I tested this filter
against an email sent via didtheyreadit.com and as predicted, they were not
able to track the message. If I were to forward the message without removing
the <img> tag, though, the tracking could work on the next recipient.
     P.S. Many, many personal thanks for your beautiful "Above the Fold"
newsletter. Its contribution to the quality of my life is HUGE. (Denis M.
Kitchen, Lockport, NY)

WHO NEEDS AN ELEPHANT TO CARRY A SUITCASE?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10446
     I prefer to be well behind the cutting edge of technology. It is good
in several ways. (For one, you do not cut your fingers while handling it!)
a)   I check my electronic mail once a day, just as I have always been doing
with my paper mail. When I have no time for somebody who drops in while I am
busy, why should somebody on the other side of the world expect me to read
his message the moment it arrives -- and also reply instantly? b)  When I
buy a new computer, I select the one with the lowest speed. It costs me less
than half of the top model. Since I am not going to design a new car or
create special effects for a new Hollywood blockbuster, the lowest current
speed is more than enough for my needs. Why do manufacturers emphasize speed
so much? Because the American culture worships speed in every sphere. c)  I
would love to buy a basic version of the latest Microsoft Word but it is not
available. When I started using a personal computer, the whole of Microsoft
Word came on a single 51Ž4-inch floppy disk of less than 1Ž4MB. Now it is so
large that I cannot learn to use all its features even in a lifetime. I do
not want more than what is sufficient for my work. (Who needs a sword to
trim ones nails or an elephant to carry ones suitcase?) Power is another god
that the American culture worships. So, Microsoft and others will continue
to produce ever bigger software even for ordinary mortals.  (Muhammad Abd
al-Hameed, Lahore, Pakistan [email protected])

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