Digital Trends
Facebook might be many things, but few have called it a threat to national security. However, according to British newspaper The Sun, security reasons are behind a new order that could prevent troops in Afghanistan using Facebook to keep in touch with families and friends.
The newspaper has said that the ‘Contact With The Media and Communicating In Public’ was issued February 4 and later leaked to the media. In part, it states:
New Zealand’s Chris Ogle probably thought he was getting a good deal when he plunked down a little bit of money (reports range from $9 to $18) to buy a used iPod from an Oklahoma thrift outlet…but when he hooked up the iPod, he found some 60 pages of U.S. military data, including information on soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, equipment deployment lists, and mission information. Some of the information included private details about U.S. military personnel; most of the data dates from 2005.
The much-touted One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program has announced it is laying off half its staff and reducing salaries for its remaining employees, blaming the global economic downturn for the restructuring. At the same time, the program is vowing to do more with less, including spinning off the development of the Linux-based Sugar operating system to the OLPC community and working to deploy a $0 laptop for the worlds least developed nations.
The changes leave the OLPC program with 32 people.
The MedAlert bracelet is a great idea, but can only carry so much information. But a former British SAS soldier has turned an idea that he used in Afghanistan into a business.
Back then, he had details like his allergies stored on a memory stick that he sewed into his clothes, in case of injury. Now he’s selling the U Tag, a memory stick that looks like a dog tag, and which can be worn or attached like a fob to a keychain. The aluminum case sports the medical snake entwined on a staff and the word ICE (In Case of Emergency).
Pakistan wants to send a message that it takes terrorism seriously&mdsah;even so-called cyber-terrorism. A new decree signed by Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari, the Prevention of Electronic Crimes law (PDF), makes causing death through any act of cyber-terrorism punishable by death.
According to a copy of the ordinance, “Whoever commits the offense of cyber-terrorism and causes death of any person shall be punishable with death or imprisonment for life, and with fine, and in any other case he shall be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, or with fine not less than ten million rupees, or with both.”
What’s in a name? Well, if your YouTube channel is called Foreign Office Presence on YouTube, you can be forgiven for thinking that it’s very little. But the clumsily-titled channel, which has been around since last September, is to have a big re-launch in March or April. In a story in the Guardian, a spokesman said, "There will be a total revamp of the web presence and that includes a presence on YouTube because of the particular segment of the market YouTube is targeted at, the 18-25s." One burning question, of course, is why a government office is so keen to target that demographic, going behind the scenes for off-camera talking from Foreign Secretary David Miliband or catching the doubtless enthralling observations of junior staffers. It is, apparently, a two-pronged initiative. The first is aimed at young Britons themselves, as part of the Know Before You Go campaign, aimed at stopping a repeat of previous years when large numbers of young British holidaymakers ended up in hospital or under arrest for binge drinking abroad. The other intent, is to aim at the young in Arab countries, hoping to limit some of the damage to Britain’s reputation by its involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But will trying to make diplomats and wonks appear cooler and more approachable really make a difference? Tune in and find out.
You might be surprised it wasn’t already the case, but now British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will have free Wi-Fi in their barracks. That might not seem like much, but it’s a significant step forward enabling troops to stay in touch with home. The work, known as Project Mercury, is expected to be completed by next spring. “We have hard wired computers and there is currently a ratio of one to 70 or so troops,” a Ministry of Defence spokesman told GC News. "Project Mercury will take the ratio to one to 50, but the wireless network will bring the ratio to about one to 25." Additionally, more phone lines will be brought in, and each soldier will receive 30 minutes of free calls to anywhere in the world each week.
We’re used to being able to blog, text and post however and whenever we want. But if you’re a member of the British armed forces, new regulations that have been quietly introduced meanyou’re no longer able to do that. Under the new regulations, British service personnel can no longer blog, take part in surveys, speak in public, post on bulletin boards, play inmulti-player computer games or send text messages or photographs if the information they use concerns matters of defence unless they have the express permission of a superior officer. Also prohibitedis the sending of video, still pictures or audio. According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), which issued the regulations, the rules cover “all publicspeaking, writing or other communications, including via the internet and other sharing technologies, on issues arising from an individual’s official business or experience, whether on-duty, off-dutyor in spare time.” According to human rights lawyers, these rules, which amount to a gag order, may be illegal, in contravention of Article 10 of the Human Rights Act, under which peopleare allowed freedom of expression. Under previous rules, personnel had to seek permission to speak in public, but online debates and blogs weren’t covered. However, many personnel have writtencritically about issues involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the MoD’s director general of media communications, Simon McDowell, these new rules are not a form ofcensorship or gagging. “We are trying to give straightforward, clear guidance that is up to date. The existing regulations were confusing and didn’t include things like acceptingpayment. It applies to communicating about defence matters, not personal things. Particular things can impact on operational security; information which somebody can get a hold of. Even a littlephotograph sent from Afghanistan on a mobile phone could endanger people’s lives and break operational security.”
A year-long study by the OpenNet Initiative, detailed at a conference in Oxford, England, examined the practices of 41 countries to learn about online government surveillance and censorship. The results? Where five years ago only a handful of states were filtering Internet content, the study found 25 of the countries it examined were engaged in state-mandated filtering and censorship of online content, and the filtering is becoming more sophisticated over time, entailing not only outright blocks on particular Web sites or topics, but bans on applications like Skype and Google Maps.
Cable television network The History Channel has entered into a partnership with controversial New York-based Kuma Reality Games to developer three online games in association with the second season of the History Channel series Shootout. The games will be released online simultaneously with specific upcoming Shootout episodes, and let players step in to three famous battles—Iwo Jime, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Tet Offensive—to relive history. The online games will be available for free, supported by advertisers—the games will offer sponsors both in-game ads and ad placement surrounding the games.
Everyone wants to be an insider, and you can be one too! Choose your poison: sign-up for our Newsletter, join us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. Do all three and you'll be swimming in the the latest news, reviews, videos and more gadget goodness!
Become a DT soldier! Join us on Facebook and share the best news, guides, videos and other cool information directly with all your friends. Some might even thank you for it!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Facebook.
Do you like information in small snippets? Then our Twitter feed is just for you. Follow Digital Trends and you'll be able to catch up daily on our latest content, or even interact directly with our team. Tweet Tweet!
Join the thousands and follow the best of us on Twitter.
That’s Right, Sign-up For Our Monthly Random Prize Drawings and You Could Be That Winner.
