An interview for my book done by a BCS journalist for Information Security Now. He mixed up something I said on the WoW part with something that I said on Second Life, but apart from that it gives a good idea of what my book is about 🙂
Tag: publications
Aggregate and anonymised data
I referred to a case in Scotland in a comment made on a post concerning IP addresses seen as personal data in Germany. In subsequent comments I mention a court case in Scotland… here is the court case I was referring to, it is taken from my book:
“Aggregate data is information that is grouped for analysis, typically stated in percentages. An example is that 87% of children use the computer regularly in Sweden. Anonymous data is information that is not personally identifiable because it is not linked directly or indirectly with any unique individual and could be that it has been stripped of unique identifiers. This can be data that has had the PII stripped to convert it into aggregate data.
How anonymous the data really is after stripping PII is open to discussion. For example in July 2008 the House of Lords overruled the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision to allow the release of anonymised regional medical statistics, saying that the data were still private and thus covered under the UK’s Data Protection Act. The controversy stems from a request by a Scottish parliamentary researcher for leukaemia data related to children in the 0–14 years of age group from a specific postal region. The Lords’ ruling was based on the low rate of incidents, which could have made it possible to correlate the data with individuals in spite of the fact that the data had been anonymised (OUT-LAW.com 2008).”
PII is Personal Identifiable Information
book ranking at 7/100 under privacy
Very interesting and fun, my book is today ranking at 7/100 for “best sellers” on amazon.co.uk under “privacy”. I guess this is only possible because of pre-ordering, as the book is not actually out yet. If you have pre-ordered, thanks!
Virtual Shadows book – price £14.95
Just been talking to the publishing house and my book should be available before Christmas 🙂 The price on amazon.co.uk has popped up during the last couple of days at £14.95 and it is possible to place a pre-order.
Book cover
Hey friends, I have something to share with you. My book can now be found at Amazon.co.uk although not much info there right now. Publish date is set for January 2009, but you can ignore that, it is planned to be out towards end of November 2008 🙂
To the right is an image of the book cover, great job by BCS Publishing!
I had lots of support in writing the book, there is:
- Hannah Greenham who shared the story of how her online communications changed her life, i.e. she met her husband
- Moira Sawbridge also known as the ‘Silver Surfer’ as a pensioner and a power user of online communications and sharing
- Arun Rajagopal a blogger from the Middle East, contributed to the first known ‘blook’. “The Age of Conversation“. Arun also let me include his photo.
- Kjell Ostman who talks about building online relationships in the days of Digital Equipment
- Heather Armstrong (alias Dooce) who makes a living for her and her family just with advertising revenue generated by her blog, thanks for letting me use your photo.
- For a picture of Salam Pax another Middle East blogger thanks to Chris Usher Photography & Associates for sharing a great picture taken of this interesting guy.
- Jessica Hagy for letting me quote her poem and use her sharing picture. This lady is quite talented. Check out her blog. She also contributed to the same blook as Arun.
I will post more during the next couple of months :-), still haven’t got all permissions finalised. Still awaiting permissions from Privacy International for a picture and I am missing permissions and picture of Justin Hall (known as the founding father of blogging). So Justin if you happen to pass by, would love to know how I can contact you. There is also Andy McKee (an acoustic guitarist). I also want to hear from Shi Hengxia, alias Hibiscus Sister. These guys I’ve had problems finding contact details with and they are all mentioned in the book. Oh also Jacob Peter Dokter, I lost your email address, pls email me, I need your permission too for a quote 🙂
Book again
Book is now in the hands of the publishers. Book launch beginning of November if all goes to plan. So just keep watching this space 🙂
Identity Linkage and Privacy – digital version online
My article that was originally published by ISSA (April 2007) and since reprinted by the Privacy Advisor (July 2007), the newsletter for IAPP -International Association of Privacy Professionals is now available online stored on one of the servers at a company called Hi Software. Not sure that this is a violation of copyright, anyhow whilst it is there, check it out on the above link if you are interested to read it!
Identity Linkage and Privacy article reprinted in IAPP
My article originally published by ISSA (April 2007) is now available as a reprint in the Privacy Advisor (July 2007) which is the newsletter for IAPP -International Association of Privacy Professionals.
It is the first time I’ve read their newsletter which itself looks pretty good. (Apart from the fact my article with my photo is on the front page :-)) It is full of latest information on legislation concerning privacy… and not just in the US but in the copy I had, for Australia, Canada, EU, France, Spain, UK and Australia. I expected it to be US bias but it was in fact not.
IAPP are worth considering for membership if you are pursuing a career in the area of privacy -if you have not done so already.
3 reasons why privacy is a Hot Topic
Identity Linkage and Privacy
I’ve published an article in ISSA (April 2007). If you are not a member of ISSA and want an electronic copy -of just my article- leave a comment on this posting.
In the article I’ve discussed the problem of privacy as regards to each of us as individuals. Particularly as today we are posting publicly personal information on ourselves our friends, family, etc. I’ve tried to formalize this problem by introducing a model that depicts how information residue that we leave out on the Internet can at some time have an impact on our reputation in the physical world. I’ve called this problem the ‘identity linkage continuum’.
It’s just a start, maybe there is some research being done in this area. Would be interesting to know…..