IP Anonymity as regards P2P and Criminal Activity

It appears as if systems are far less robust, in regards to tracking users, than is perceived. A now "ancient" Cambridge study (from 2005) Anonymity and Traceability in Cyberspace by Richard Clayton concludes that the data stored by ISPs, while useful for business purposes, are less conclusive for criminal proceedings.

One should not be surprised that systems maintained by ISPs to provide traceability to ISP accounts become less precise once one is no longer using them for ISP purposes and start trying to trace back to actual people.

The authors stresses that not only would the traceability evidence have to be accurate enough to stand up in court but the prosecution would also have to account for numerous blocking and diversionary scenarios put in place "by the real" criminals and not necessarily the individual being charged with the crime.

If you're at all interested in the subject of internet privacy this paper is a worthwhile read.

A Brave New World - Is it Time To Freak Out

The following article was in TechCrunch earlier this month.

Is it officially time to freak out in Apple’s general direction?

Not only does Apple remove applications from the App Store—I Am Rich was taken down yesterday, for example—but it’s now emerged that the company can remotely disable applications from individual iPhones.

Obviously, Apple should be able to protect itself and its users from malware - but should it have gotten rid of "I am Rich?" From a public relations perspective the answer is "hell yes;" and from a general business perspective the answer is "of course." Any business from a small mom and pop to Walmart can determine what is and what is not sold in their store. They may make a mistake in allowing a product in, surely they have the right to correct their mistake.

There may be times when a company bows to public pressure but is that necessarily a bad thing?

A Brave New World

One of the beautiful things about increased computer power and bandwidth is the development of new apps and the ease by which one can add new technology for fun, life and business. One of the bad things is that others (hackers, companies and government) can know what you are doing. Your applications can be monitored without your knowledge or permission, with others knowing where you are and what you are doing in real time.

In time will purchased applications be removed or edited without your permission? Will newspapers, books and video be edited without your knowledge? The keeper of this knowledge (the company from which you download the information – and the government which has over site) can alter this data at whim. Without real care we can create a 1984 dystopian society.

I am very positive about the future of technology but we must take care to make certain that we keep our privacy, that the concept of people being “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” applies to on-line data as implied in the 4th Amendment. Computer companies (Microsoft, Apple) are now having their devices call “home” to detect piracy and malware. While I completely approve of this we must keep in mind potential problems that may come in the not too distant future.

Should External Links Open into a New Browser?

I’ve been having a debate with a client who wants all external links to open up in a new window. The reasons were two-fold. First it was a personal preference - he liked to have each website in its individual browser. (Why?) And second he didn’t want his site visitors confusing his site with someone else’s. (Huh?)

Here’s the interesting aspect of this conversation – the client is an intelligent, educated man, reasonably technologically adept who has been using computers since the 1980s and has been on the internet for over 10 years. And yet – he thinks this way?

Here’s what Jakob Nielsen has to say:

Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management).

Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user's machine, the strategy is self-defeating since it disables the Back button which is the normal way users return to previous sites. Users often don't notice that a new window has opened, especially if they are using a small monitor where the windows are maximized to fill up the screen. So a user who tries to return to the origin will be confused by a grayed out Back button.

Links that don't behave as expected undermine users' understanding of their own system. A link should be a simple hypertext reference that replaces the current page with new content. Users hate unwarranted pop-up windows. When they want the destination to appear in a new page, they can use their browser's "open in new window" command — assuming, of course, that the link is not a piece of code that interferes with the browser’s standard behavior.

The only exception to this would be when linking to .pdfs or .xls files or some sort of non-html file.

Designers and site owners should not think that it is their business to decide when users should have a new window. It's their computer, their decision to make. Furthermore the whole point of hyperlinking is the seemless linking from one point to the next. Opening up another window breaks the connection between sites.

Another reason, less important simply because opening new windows is a bad idea, but very important in the coming few years is the increasing use of cellphones with small screens. Mobile devices don't always support multiple windows and even when they do the user experience is quite limited in keeping track of the open windows.

Coupon Codes, Should we use them?

I've had a series of discussions with a client today regarding the use of coupon codes. He loves them, saying that they are a major marketing tool. I agreed that they were quite useful in building customer loyalty but had issues with two points being raised.

First, I felt that link from the email should contain the customer code; that way the customer wouldn’t have to go back to his email and enter the code. There was relatively no extra coding work so we could ease the customer experience at no cost to the client. The argument raised against this was the same raised by many retail operators – that the retailers count on customers not mailing in the rebate coupons; or forgetting to mention the coupon to the cashiers. The customers come to the store for the sale and end up purchasing the item at full price.

My second point was that customers seeing the coupon code, and the missed sale, would be alienated. It would be better for the coupon code to be invisible to new customers and instead display notices pointing out that if they signed up they could participate in future sales.

Unfortunately my points were overruled and a new clunky customer code system was developed.

Meta Tags and Title Tags

There is no magic bullet in getting your site to be ranked higher. It is doubtful that either the keyword or description tag helps with any major search engine. The tags were abused by spammers to such a point that, as far as page ranking is concerned, they are ignored. There is still some debate as to the value of title tags in page ranking. That tag, as with the meta tags are also being abused.

The value in the tags come, if at all, in the higher clickthrough from the search pages.

Content Management Systems cannot write useful META and TITLE tags without input from the user. Google and the other search engines start to ignore the META and TITLE descriptions when too many pages display the same information. Your CMS can be modified to help in the creation of these descriptions based upon directory information and other information given to the system. But even the most well-thought out system requires someone to tweak the final result.

Facebook and Third-Party Apps

I have my problems with Facebook, but the one thing they do very well, and for me the most appealing aspect of the site, is their incorporation of third-party applications. There are many options to choose from and it is constantly expanding: quizzes, travel maps, feeds and much, much more.

This willingness to add more functionality, especially third-party apps, gives me confidence that they will not go the way of Friendster. Looking at the popularity of Facebook's Travel apps; their willingness to accept 3rd Party apps; noticing that Google's PicasaWeb is superior to what Facebook has yet done; knowing that Google is becoming an App superstore; it's not unthinkable that the day will come when Facebook and Google will combine forces. Or one will swallow the other.