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Gator CPO at the Department of Homeland Security
pcidevel writes "D. Reed Freeman, the "Chief Privacy Officer" of Claria Networks (formerly Gator), the creators of the pervasive spyware package GAIN, has been appointed to the Department of Homeland Security's "Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee"."
Really. Spyware? You dont read ALL the license agreement?
Jeez, with a headline like that I thought I was on the Onion for a second there...
In other news, Dr. Jack Kevorkian has been appointed National Director of Health and Human Services, Kenneth Lay was appointed Director of the Treasury and Bill Gates was appointed CIO of the whole Federal Government.
M
Isn't this like putting a fox in charge of the security for a henhouse?
Honestly... DHS doesn't need to be worrying about this sort of tripe- they've got bigger fish to fry. Why in the HELL are they bothering with this when the things they're doing right at the moment wouldn't have done a damn thing to prevent 9/11 from occuring and wouldn't prevent a repeat?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Ex-GAIN employees in the "Integrity Advisory Committee"??? That's like Richard Stallman working for the Patent Office!
Governor of New Jersey to head Environmental Protection Agency
Oh, wait...
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
Who knows more about data privacy than somebody who has compromised the privacy of millions?
=\/\/= If it's too loud, turn it down.
"Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee"
"War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength."
no, there are some times when you want things done righ the first time, like an surgeon operating, or food testing, or sex...
If this is for real (and I do trust Salon) this falls into the O.M.F.G. category. Someone slap me.
I recently listened to a documentary on CBC radio about pervasive irony in today's world. It was an interesting program because they were suggesting that the political scene these days is like a living satire. It's just too weird... and this news about a spyware marketer being appointed to a privacy committee is just insane. I see four fingers!
I miss those heady days of yore, when there was still room for more outrage in my life. When I could stil be surprised by new examples of indifference, incompetence, and outright evil.
These days, I am no longer surprised at no longer being surprised by the ghastly things this Administration routinely does.
Salon.com requires a soul-sucking registration link.
Here's CNET News.com's version of the story:
Adware maker joins federal privacy board
Published: February 23, 2005, 5:19 PM PST
By Declan McCullagh
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
TrackBack Print E-mail TalkBack
An executive from Claria, formerly called Gator, will be one of 20 members of the committee, the department said Wednesday.
"This committee will provide the department with important recommendations on how to further the department's mission while protecting the privacy of personally identifiable information of citizens and visitors of the United States," Nuala O'Connor Kelly, the department's chief privacy officer, said in a statement.
Claria bundles its pop-up advertising software with ad-supported networks such as Kazaa. Recently, the privately held company has been trying to seek credibility by following stricter privacy guidelines and offering behavioral profiling services to its partners.
In an e-mail message to CNET News.com, Kelly defended the inclusion of a Claria representative on the committee. "I am proud of, supportive of and grateful for those individuals in the public and private sector who are willing to take on the hard tasks, fight the good fight, and who surprise us with creative, fresh and unconventional thinking, and who make change where change is needed through their hard work and personal dedication," Kelly said.
In the past, Claria's pop-up ad software has riled some users who claimed it was annoying, installed without permission, and not easy to delete. Publishers also were irked about pop-up ads for a rival's product appearing next to their own Web sites. Catalog retailer L.L. Bean sued Gator for alleged trademark infringement.
Claria's representative on the Homeland Security privacy board is company Vice President D. Reed Freeman, a former Federal Trade Commission staff attorney. Other members include executives from Intel, Computer Associates International, IBM, Oracle and the Cato Institute.
Kelly said Freeman will "bring his courage and conviction to the board, and will contribute productively--and constructively--to the board's and the public's dialogue on privacy and homeland security."
The committee is tasked with providing "external expert advice to the secretary and the chief privacy officer on programmatic, policy, operational and technological issues that affect privacy, data integrity and data interoperability."
In February 2003, Gator settled a high-profile case brought by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Dow Jones and other media companies. Terms of that deal were quiet, but Claria appears to have stopped delivering pop-ups to those publishers' sites.
Claria did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CNET News.com's Stefanie Olsen contributed to this report.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
Actually, "Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee" sounds much more like Ministry of Truth.
A spyware company has a "chief privacy officer?!" What's next, a security-obssessed government that makes us less secure? Oh, wait...
Seriously, though, I can almost see the logic in this appointment. One thing spyware companies know is computer security. They defeat it all the time. I'm surprised the fine folks from Cool Web Search weren't appointed.
On the other hand, the more cynical side of me sees how reminiscent this is of early 20th century American politics, when the government appointed Big Business leaders to commitees on workers' rights. Money and connections will buy you anything.
All your base are belong to Claria.
StrayByte.Net
All I see posted are stupid remarks about how ironic this is... but nobody seems to want to do anything about it.
/. has enough people reading it to destroy the bandwidth of half the servers out there, but it looks like nobody is going to take this as a serious threat to privacy and call up their congressman or write a letter/email to major news networks, or anything else that will change things...
It's a sad day seeing this article exist, but it will be an even sadder day when 90% of these comments are scored "Funny" and we are doomed to sit idly by our world is taken away from us... thanks guys, i appreciate it.
What do you expect? George Tenet got a medal for being wrong about WMDs in Iraq; Paul Bremer got one for ignoring warnings about the Iraqi insurgency; and Condaleeza Rice got promoted for ignoring warnings about Al Qaeda and being wrong about Iraq. This administration rewards incompetence and duplicity while punishing competence and honesty.
"If it's real, then it gets more interesting the closer you examine it. If it's not real, just the opposite is true." -
Mr freeman probably thinks he's arrived in heaven. he gets to keep on doing what he's best at, the spyware business, but this time it's for the government, so no more hassles from all those pathetic anti-spyware whiners.
The D.H.S.'s own "chief privacy officer" used to work for DoubleClick.
They hired a deputy CIO who did not have a degree. More accurately she had a degree from on a non accredited diploma mill check it out it looks like a church.
Normally I'd have no problems with a deputy CIO not having a degree but apparently the dept of homeland security did not check out their deputy CIO carefully enough and now they had to "put her on leave".
Now we find out they are putting the fox in charge of the hen house.
Something is seriously askew at this dept. How can we trust these guys to safeguard our country when they have shown such awful judgement?
evil is as evil does
This might almost make sense if this guy had served in a technical capacity with Claria/Gator, but here's his job description, from a press-release they put out upon hiring him:
Claria Corporation, www.claria.com, today announced that D. Reed Freeman, Jr. will assume the position of Chief Privacy Officer and Vice President of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs for the company. Mr. Freeman, a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC, will spearhead Claria's continued commitment to industry-leading online advertising privacy practices. He will also represent Claria's interests both in Washington and internationally, coordinating Claria's efforts on policy matters.
In other words, he's a lobbyist. He knows fuck all about the inner workings of spyware software, and this isn't at all analogous to hiring an ex-hacker to evaluate your security.
Yeah, uh...
My suggestions:
Hannibal Lecter for the national food and agriculture comission.
Osama Bin Laden for air transport dept.
Saddam Hussein for human rights jury.
Michael Jackson for child abuse prevention network CEO.
And of course Bill Gates for president of ISO.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Mr. Osamma Bin Ladin is appointed the head of the homeland defence department.... I mean, who better to tell us how a terrorist thinks?
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
A former Corporate data gatherer of consumer information being appointed to "Data Privacy" Czar?
Why, that would be like appointing a Torture Advocate to Attorney General...oh wait...Alberto Gonazales
That would be iike appointing a person that misadvised a Nation to start a war that broke down International Relations to a postion that requires her to Strengthen International Relations...oh wait...Condeleeza Rice
That would be like having a former CEO of company that derives it's revenue from war be elected to a political office that can Strongly influence War Power making decisions...oh wait...Dick Cheney
To answer your question, no they aren't shitting you. They are shitting ON you. All of us, actually.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Unfortunately, I think quite a lot of patent applications cover ideas that any expert can think of in three hours but were never used before because no one apart from the applicant bothered to use them, which means they probably have no prior art. A patent examiner cannot do much more than an ordinary citizen when the problem lies in the law itself rather than its enforcement.
Members appointed for the inaugural term of the DHS Privacy Advisory Committee are:
Joseph Alhadeff, Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer, Oracle Corporation, Washington, DC
Ramon Barquin, President, Barquin International, Bethesda, MD
J. Howard Beales, Associate Professor, The George Washington University, Arlington, VA
D. Reed Freeman, Chief Privacy Officer and Vice President, Claria Corporation, Arlington, VA
James W. Harper, Editor/Executive Director, Privacilla.org & Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute, Washington, DC
Kirk Herath, Chief Privacy Officer & Associate General Counsel, Nationwide, Columbus, OH
David A. Hoffman, Group Counsel and Director of Privacy, Intel Corporation, Hillsboro, OR
Lance Hoffman, Distinguished Research Professor, The George Washington University, Washington, DC
Tara Lemmey, Chief Executive Officer, Lens Ventures, San Francisco, CA
Joseph Leo, Vice President, SAIC, Vienna, VA
John Marsh, Distinguished Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law, Winchester, VA
Joanne McNabb, Chief, Office of Privacy Protection, California Department of Consumer Affairs, Sacramento, CA
Charles Palmer, Department Group Manager, Security, Networking & Privacy, IBM Corporation, Yorktown Heights, NY
Richard Purcell, Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Privacy Group, Nordland, WA
Paul Samuel Rosenzweig, Senior Legal Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, DC
John Thomas Sabo, Manager, Security, Privacy, and Trust Initiatives, Computer Associates, Herndon, VA
James Sheehan, General Counsel, Milton Hershey School, Hershey, PA
Lisa Sotto, Partner, Head of Regulatory Privacy & Information Management Practice Group, Hunton & Williams, New York, NY
Michael Turner, President and Senior Scholar, Information Policy Institute, New York, NY
Samuel Wright, Senior Vice President, Government Relations, Cendant Corporation, Washington, DC
I can't say I like Freeman being on the committee, but a quick glance at the rest of the list makes me feel a lot better.
"The newly born animals are then whisked off for a quick run through a giant baking oven." --heard on Food Network
"...even though the original Gator software can be considered one of the original plague carriers of the spyware blight -- be careful about calling it that. The company has repeatedly threatened its critics with libel lawsuits for dubbing it "spyware.""
Of course Gator isn't "spyware!!!" It is a perfectly fine way of business. Excuse me, I'm off to break into homes, hide, and pop up out of nowhere to sell viagra and insurance. Maybe I'll bug some phones for marketing information while I'm there.
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: that you are dreadfully like other people. - James Russell Lowell
I get it. It's like when a company hires a black hat to help them figure out where the holes are so they can plug them...
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
I'm sure you'll appreciate the opportunity to abandon 'community' for 'market', once you see the incredible opportunity it affords for profits! Besides, we have already managed the deal for you!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
And people wonder why HST blew his brains out.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
So, for those who would like to take the initiative to tell these fuckers something: Email: privacy@dhs.gov Phone: 202-772-9848 Fax: 202-772-5036 It might matter, it might not. But writing an email and picking up the phone is easy as hell. I'll take both, thank you.
"I am proud of, supportive of and grateful for those individuals in the public and private sector who are willing to take on the hard tasks, fight the good fight, and who surprise us with creative, fresh and unconventional thinking, and who make change where change is needed through their hard work and personal dedication," Kelly said. Kelly said Freeman will "bring his courage and conviction to the board, and will contribute productively--and constructively--to the board's and the public's dialogue on privacy and homeland security."
What I find most outrageous is such talk typical of this administration to lie, and lie, and lie; So now a software that installed itself without permission, was not easy to delete, and annoyed the hell out of people is something to be praised for and proud of as testimony of "courage and conviction", "willingness to take on the hard tasks", "willingness to fight the good fight", "creative, fresh and unconventional thinking"?
What about thieves? They're pretty much the same; are we going to admire trespassers and looters?
Damn this kleptocracy; damn it!
...And George W. Bush for president of the USA.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
I will grant the right of Slaon to supply content under terms of their own choosing. I will grant that if we dislike those terms we are free to go elsewhere instead - as in fact I do.
However I do not enjoy registration pages, and see no reason I should be required to enjoy them. Nor do I see any reason why any of us should be required or even expected to approve of a business model that is based upon supplying personal information to spammers, mass-marketers and other spies.
The issue of "hyper rich media congolmerates" is a red herring. there are many sites that provide qualiy content without requiring registration. Others (the New York Times springs to mind) undoubtedly fall into that cateory and yet still collect such information. I do wonder why anyone would spread such FUD. I can only assume that given the topic of the OP, the shills and astroturfers are out in force today.
To summarise: I don't like registration screens, I am never going to like registration screens, and I shall continue to publicly disapprove of them as I see fit.
Maybe you should learn to deal with it.
Don't let THEM immanentize the Eschaton!
GAIN acually happens to be one of the less malevolent pieces of adware. It does not install itself, it doesn't do pop-ups, it doesn't hijack your machine. It's a legit piece of advertising that software authors use to make money off their programs. (Kazaa for example) If you don't want it, read your EULA's before installing those free screen savers.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
Note to Mods: NOT A FLAME, NOT A TROLL!!!!!!
Mod1: Hey Phil, you see that post from the guy telling Americans to rise up?
Mod2: Yeah, I was just about to mark it "Flamebait."
Mod1: And I was gonna mark it "Troll." But check it out: it says "Note to Mods: NOT A FLAME, NOT A TROLL!!!!!!"
Mod2: Yeah, in all caps.
Mod1: And with no less than six exclamation points.
Mod2: And when you've been on the internets as long as we have, you know that anyone who uses all caps and multiple exclamation points just has to be sincere.
Mod1: You certainly do, Phil.
Mod2: I'm marking this one "Informative."
Mod1: And I'm marking it "Insightful."
Mod2: It's a good thing he told us how to moderate his own post, or we could have made a huge mistake.
Mod1: You're certainly right about that, Phil.
Mod2: I think I'll start using heroin.
Mod1: Courtney Love said it makes you cool and moody.
Mod2: She certainly did. (Dies of overdose.)
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
No the Secret Service will stop you if you try that.
Slashdot, home of supporters of free software, free music, and free speech.Except for Moderators that disagree with you.
Not customer, consumer. A customer expects service. A consumer just devourers whatever is shoved down his throat.
Seriously, this country is so fucked. There are so many people, mostly pretty extreme religious folk, who listen to anything Bush says as long as he sprinkles his speaches with the words "God," "Faith," etc. Oh, and don't forget, "crusade!"
It doesn't matter that he's lied. It doesn't matter that the VP's former company is given illegal no-bid contracts. It doesn't matter that the new AG is a supports the use of torture. There is nothing they can do that is evil enough to make the religious right turn away.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
If all the Slashdot readers called or filled out a form, we might make a difference. Even if nothing changes, at least DHS will know people are aware of this ridiculous act.
The Ukraine?
I have news for you. The Ukraine election was rigged by the US to put its puppet in charge to further its goals of forcing Russia and China back into a Cold War with the US.
No, I'm not joking. Read up on the Ukrainian challenger and who his supporters were and their connections to the US and Russian oligarchs.
There is NOTHING US citizens can do about the US government - unless they're prepared to pick up a gun - which they're not because they're too brainwashed and submissive after two centuries of bullshit about "American democracy". The state is the state and this is the way all states behave.
You want to do something about it. Advance the rate of technological progress - especially nanotech - so I can obtain the tools I need to provide a Final Solution to these morons.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!