Google just avoided providing the government with person-specific search data, but has to lift the hood on their engine for them nonetheless (whatever the hell that means).

Meanwhile, the center of the internet universe (according to some) has been ordered by a Federal Magistrate to turn over some crook’s Gmail account data, including any deleted emails.

With the search stuff, who cares? Everyone looking for bad stuff on the net most likely already knows where to find it. But in the second regard, I’d say this is a nail in the coffin for free, web-based email services. Even those folks (like me) who use services like Gmail on a “POP only, Delete After Download” basis now get to wonder when and where all those emails they thought they deleted might…well…er…pop up again.

I suspect that for many, Gmail is the defacto address for every Craigslist communication and email newsletter they don’t really want, so its not a problem. But, if you use such services to correspond with the attorneys forming your irrevocable trust, or set up meeting times with the boyfriend or girlfriend your husband or wife doesn’t know about, I’d say you could get finely screwed (not that you aren’t already, in either case). If these services become useless for anything but cat and mouse games with internet marketers, I don’t see longevity in them.

Of course, if your surreptitious liaison schedule is already wrapped in one of those extremely long encryption keys you generated for the sender, you aren’t going to care who gets their hands on that email - you’ll be the one in the coffin before anyone gets around to reading it.

we have the largest rate of originating spam in the modern world. Now we can add spyware to the list as well.

And if that doesn’t pain you enough, the US also hosts more phishing sites than any other country with electricity.

So…it comes as no surprise to hear that there is a big spamware vendor down the street from AOL.

A few weeks back Spamroll led your way to a test of your ability to identify phishing attempts. This test was sculpted around some UK products and services (so obviously it was designed for the British), but that didn’t matter all too much.

Almost everyone failed.

I say “failed” because it only takes one phishing attempt to nab you. You spend the next six months of your life cleaning up your credit report while some crook is dancing around the streets, listening to music on the iPod he bought with your credit card.

According to this report, 93% of those surveyed in Britain would be changing their checking accounts; thats out of more than 11,000 polled. In the US, where a similar test has been circulating a little longer, more than 300,000 have taken it and roughly 96% of them would be staring at unknown credit card charges.

Its all about education folks, so time to go back to school.

The US Government is starting to put their foot down on the incidents of ID theft. Everyone is becoming aware of the fact that ID theft is not an isolated purvey of email phishers, so US regulators are asking financial institutions to develop appropriate notification measures (for their customers, that is).

ID theft results in losses that number in the tens of billions per year, and growing fast. I have seen numerous announcements at bank sites, warning customers of what to and not to do when utlizing online services. But the notification issue is a good additional step, if done right.

California has a notification rule, but gives institutions several weeks leeway before having to take action. Spamroll can’t say it enough…a couple of weeks is a crime in itself! Customers who may fall victim to ID theft, at the hands of lax security protocols inside an organization trusted with their personal information, need to be notified yesterday! (read Drug dealing is big business…so is Phishing and Spamroll: Data Stolen from UC Berkeley, again, if you still don’t get what I am saying).

Some say that data is already regulated, and safeguards are in place. Not quite true. Section 607 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act does provide impetus for those in possession of personal data to properly handle it, but seems a little outdated for our fast paced, picobyte level world. Section 607 is just a few paragraphs, for goodness sakes.

What I am exceptionally curious about is whether regulators will put their money where their mouth is, or simply their foot. Asking financial institutions to make “some changes” is a far cry from requiring the implementation of strict guidelines. With billions upon billions at stake, you would think financial institutions would accept this as a foregone conclusion, but you never know.

Read the whole story over at IT-Analysis: Identity Theft - U.S. banking regulators take action.

A recent article from Slate outlines the differences between European and American’s use of email. There are some interesting insights within.

Europeans are much more deliberate with their email. They take their time to carefully craft email correspondence. They don’t make immediate (and often off the cuff) replies, and don’t expect them in return either. In contrast, Americans are the masters of the two-word instant reply, and have to see their shrink if a reply isn’t recieved in thirty seconds.

The enveloping premise is Europeans treat email like letter writing, something worthy of their time, and with the expectation of being well received and appreciated. Americans liken email to the telephone - short, quick and immediate.

As the written word suffers from a lack of face to face contact as well as sound intonation, it isn’t the most effective means of communication to begin with. The fact that Europeans may use it as a replacement for other written communication, instead of a replacement for sound, makes sense. For the US, perpetrating the latter, it doesn’t.

I am curious as to whether any studies have been done to measure the effectiveness of email communication across societal boundaries, and whether email’s proper use (or misuse), has any correlation to spam problems.

See Euromail - What Germans can teach us about e-mail - ad supported for more information.

We hear a bit about home prices falling in the UK, and then the government pulls a tax rabbit out of the hat to spur more demand. Read SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | The change that will make some grin up north.

I wonder what politicians in the US could do to make home ownership more advantageous. Make mortgate interest a tax credit instead of a deduction? With interest rates on the rise, there isn’t much else left to subsidize the market.

It begs the question (again). Can residential price increases hold their own, without the persistently low cost of money advantages they enjoyed in the past?

What do copyright, patent and other intellectual property issues have to do with phishing? I don’t have a clue, but the US Senate seems to think they do. Sounds like stinky spin in order to convince the public that having a Utah Senator head some committee of whatevers is going to do some good (other than provide payback for all the grease they have received from Hollywood).

The Washington Post reported: Hatch to Head Senate Panel on Copyright. I frankly couldn’t care less about what they are up to, because it will only benefit a select few media moguls, and I am not one of them (and you likely aren’t either). But what I did find interesting was the reference by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to how they would be using the committee to address the issue of phishing.

If someone can find a direct correlation between stopping piracy of Britney Spears songs, and identity theft, please let me know.

For real opinions from a (mostly) well educated constituency, check out what the Slashdot crowd has to say at Orrin Hatch to Lead Senate Panel on Copyright, Patents