"As a practical matter, Facebook already pays us for the information we entrust to them: they have to provide a good, enjoyable service. If they don't, we will quit updating our information and quit visiting their site. But I see where you're going with this: if Facebook was under contractual obligation to treat our information as confidential (haha!), then the government couldn't make the third-party holder, non-confidential argument to get access to our information without a court order. Interesting idea, though I don't think I agree with your implication that this confidentiality agreement would need to be supported by monetary compensation from Facebook to its users. There is other valuable consideration that could support the agreement, such as Facebook promising to store our information and make it available to those whom we friend."
- Brent Logan
"Those of us with our own websites are part of the mess, too. Everytime we pull in a service from elsewhere, be it Disqus, Google Analytics, Google Fonts, or (the worst) social media sharing buttons, we enable other companies to gather information on our visitors. It is this information that the NSA is sucking down."
- Brent Logan
"Our representatives cannot be said to have any reasonable oversight of FISA when, prior to last week, they have actively and intentionally remained ignorant as to the scope of the program. I.e.: Sen. Ron Wyden's amendment would not have taken away any of the NSA's powers, it just would have forced intelligence agencies to send Congress a report every year detailing how their surveillance was affecting ordinary Americans. Yet Congress voted to be purposely kept in the dark about a general estimate of how many Americans have been spied on. Source"
- Brent Logan
I took Con Law 26 years ago. It must have been a different country and/or a different constitution. :-( http://bit.ly/1beGQsX June 07, 2013 at 04:04PM
- Brent Logan
"Thanks! As a side note, you only love the pictures you saw, not *all* I took. I posted 9, but took 182. Even so, I probably should have been more brutal with the knife..."
- Brent Logan
"Yeah, it's kinda real "old school" blogging, before everyone got serious and limited themselves to a single topic and tried SEO to increase their page ranks. And thanks! I seem to remember someone else getting a Sunshine Aware in the same post. I'm looking forward to reading your ten random things. :-)"
- Brent Logan
"I'm a big fan of the ellipsis, use them all the time... ;-) I do try to use three periods and not just two. I also try to be consistent with my spacing around them. But that's just me... :-p"
- Brent Logan
"Hey, I'm all for getting more girls studying STEM. Whatever works. But I'm not convinced that Millennials respond to careers as calls to duty. How about presenting STEM careers as a fun and important field to work in: it's great to understand how the world works and use that knowledge to make cool products, solve serious problems, and teach the next generation."
- Brent Logan
"Pictures from planes are awesome! Clouds add to the fun. I've been known to pull out a camera below 10,000, but I'm not sure I'd post them on my blog... ;-)"
- Brent Logan
IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office - ABC News - http://abcnews.go.com/blogs...