Information Law Possum (discontinued)

David Weinberger reports that Polar Rose is working on a new face-recognition-and-search software for the web (and other image databases). The tool tries to render faces in three dimensions, thus promising much higher accuracy than existing 2D biometrical software. The database matching names and faces will essentially be created by users who recognize a face on a picture and tell who it is. A beta release is scheduled for Q1 2007.

My previous concerns about biometrical web search tools can be read here.

And, according to the same author, Pluto’s downgrading is still contested.

As you might know–or certainly guess–, the Swiss TV landscape is heavily regulated: On a national level, private TV stations usually cannot compete against public TV for more than a couple of years. Regional stations are typically owned by large publishing houses and are being subsidized for their “service public”, i.e. local coverage.

The Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) regulates this “market” and assigns terrestrial frequencies. In its recent newsletter, it makes an interesting statement:

“In the regional TV market, competition, and thus the inefficient use of subsidies, should be avoided.”

I don’t feel like being sarcastic now, and accordingly, I abstain from any comment.

My friend and colleague Thomas Hautle has added an interesting antithesis to my earlier post on self-erasing paper: He basically argues that the employees of many companies handle hardcopies containing sensitive information very carelessly, e.g. by throwing them away on their way home. As long as that happens, he goes on, self-erasing paper can mitigate these information security risks.

So here’s an attempt for a synthesis:

• If a company has a sound information security policy, and has taken the necessary steps to enforce it, self-erasing paper creates an additional security risk, which can be tackled without difficulty, given the company’s information security culture.

• If information security isn’t a big issue for the management of a company (i.e. if a company has a bad management), self-erasing paper might well lower the company’s risk exposure.

To conclude, this isn’t just a question of whether the glass is half-full or half-empty, but self-erasing paper adds to the complexity of corporate information management, but — luckily — not in a way that is necessarily detrimental for those who are unable to manage that complexity.

“I have nothing to hide, of course. But still, that’s no one’s business.”

(Paul-Henri Steinauer, in: Hommage à Henri Deschenaux, 1988, 20.)