Privacy a Concern as Google Links Plus With Its Other Sites

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By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News

Google’s work to integrate its Google+ social networking site broadly with its other services could raise red flags for users who want to closely guard their privacy.
Google wants Google+ to be more than a stand-alone social network. It envisions Google+ integrating with most, maybe all, of its Web applications and sites to provide social sharing capabilities and possibly a uniform online identity.

But there is a crucial difference between Google+ and other company services like Gmail, whose users have long been able to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy, if they wish. Google+ currently requires all members to use their real names — a policy on which it has said it will bend, but not how or when.

There may be a risk that people who use their real name in Google+ but use pseudonyms in other Google services may inadvertently expose their real identity by linking Google+ with those services.

Already there are glimpses of how Google+ integrations are altering identity elsewhere on Google. For example, Google has set up a tight integration between Google+ and its Picasa Web photo management service.

To read more, visit:

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Pizza delivery guy calls cops on customer who smoked marijuana

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By Will Ripley, InformationLiberation

AURORA – A man says he got much more than a large pizza when he called Papa John’s for delivery – he got a visit from Aurora Police.

The man was smoking medical marijuana just before the pizza arrived on Friday evening. The delivery driver smelled the marijuana and called the cops. The Papa John’s employee, who was not identified, was concerned because the customer’s 9-year-old daughter was in the house.

Officers performed a child welfare check and left without filing any charges.

To read more, visit:  http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=36780

Rather Than Protecting Free Speech, Media Protects Obama

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By Meredith Jessup, The Blaze

Why is Hank Williams Jr. being punished for having an opinion?

As we’ve reported, Williams came under fire Monday after criticizing President Obama and House Speaker Boehner’s recent golf match. The two ideologically opposed politicians meeting on the golf course was a mistake, Williams noted. “That would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu,” he said.

Note the actual comparison going on here: In no way is Williams saying “Obama is Hitler,” nor saying that the president is even like Hitler. In fact, since Williams does not clarify his remarks further, one could claim that Boehner was just as representative of Hitler in the hypothetical scenario.

Instead, the media was quick to (wrongfully) attack Williams for comparing the ideological rift between Boehner and Obama to Hitler and Netanyahu.

This 4th grade logic was apparently too advanced for most in the media, including Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson who were among the first to rebuff Williams. ESPN later pulled Williams’ Monday Night Football introduction and also quickly distanced themselves:

“While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight’s telecast.”

To read more, visit:  http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2011/10/04/rather-than-protecting-free-speech-media-protects-obama/

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Teacher penalizes students for saying “bless you”

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FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — A Northern California teacher says he doesn’t want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom.

He’s even lowering students’ grades if they say “bless you” after someone sneezes.

Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He’s banned saying “bless you” in his high school health class in Vacaville.

He even knocked 25 points from one student’s grade for saying the phrase in class.

Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time.

To read more, visit:  http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=8372183

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Scarlett Johansson Reminds Public: Actors Have Rights to Privacy Too

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By IB Times

Scarlett Johansson’s nude images, leaked on the Internet as a consequence of her private mobile phone being hacked, spiked an unprecedented hike on Web searches, according to reports furnished by Google Insight.

The actress, however, has a message for the public. She wants people to know that actors and celebrities have a right to their privacy.

Johansson, in an interview with CNN, said that celebrities deserved to keep their personal life protected, every bit as much as those who did not live in the public’s eyes.

“Just because you’re an actor or make films or whatever doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to your own personal privacy,” she told CNN, according to Reuters.

“If that is sieged in some way, it feels unjust. It feels wrong,” she continued.

To read more, visit:  http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/221826/20110929/scarlett-johansson-nude-photos-interview-cnn-privacy-public-personal-life-actor-fbi.htm

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Ground rules went too far, free speech expert says at Irvine 11 trial

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By Mona Shadia, Los Angeles Times

A UC Irvine professor overstepped his boundaries when he told students that no disruptions were allowed during the Israeli ambassador’s visit on campus last year, according to testimony given Wednesday in the so-called Irvine 11 trial in Santa Ana.

UC Irvine professor Rei Terada, an expert on the history and guidelines of free speech, told the Superior Court jury that fellow professor Mark Petracca, the event’s emcee, had no authority to set stringent ground rules.

Before bringing Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren to the stage on Feb. 8, 2010, Petracca told the audience that he expected the highest civility.

“This is, after all, not a street corner; it is a university,” Petracca said in a video of the event shown in court. “It is not the British Parliament; it is a university. And it is not even a joint session of Congress hearing the president of the United States. It is a university.”

Terada said that in her 20-year career she had never seen someone attempt to impose such rules during a politically charged event on a university campus, especially one that had been expected to attract protests.

To read more, visit:  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-irvine-eleven-20110915,0,5421091.story

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