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New York, 4:47 AM
Mon Dec 21
19 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Alfisted Alfisted
    12/18/09

    In reply to The Complete Inflight Wi-Fi Cheat Sheet
    You can get it on AirTran but no amount of Internet content will make up for several hours of sitting on one of their patented cushionless seats.
     Reply
    Edited by Alfisted at 12/18/09 6:29 PM Alfisted was starred Alfisted was unstarred
    Image of philibuster philibuster
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    This just in: Most men are closeted lesbians based on their netflix viewing preferences.
     Reply
    philibuster was starred philibuster was unstarred
    Image of Curves Curves
    12/18/09

    @philibuster: So true...........
     Reply
    Curves was starred Curves was unstarred
    Image of archercc archercc
    12/18/09

    In reply to The Complete Inflight Wi-Fi Cheat Sheet
    Im actually on the Gogo on a Delta flight right now and its pretty snappy.

    I think the numbers are off though, its a 5 hour flight but it was supposed to be $10 (used the free trial code) instead of $13.
     Reply
    archercc was starred archercc was unstarred
    Image of dimsum4u dimsum4u
    12/18/09

    In reply to The Complete Inflight Wi-Fi Cheat Sheet
    Thanks for the breakdown! I'm flying a lot in the next few months with CES, NRF and a bunch of other trade shows/deployments so this is good to know who I should fly with.
     Reply
    dimsum4u was starred dimsum4u was unstarred
    Image of Dacker Dacker
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    I don't know if Dan's reporting is precise, but he wrote, "...alleges that her identity could be divined...".

    That's could, as in, there is a potential.

    In other words, there has been no harm, no foul, and no grounds for a lawsuit.
     Reply
    Edited by Dacker at 12/18/09 11:26 AM Dacker was starred Dacker was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    If she wins this will open the floodgates for lawsuits from single, childless men who watched the Hillary Duff movie.
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of atrus123 atrus123
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    In suing Netflix, she's just drawing attention to herself, making it even more likely for people to figure out her identity.

    Besides, it's not like straight people don't watch movies with homosexual themes. Netflix on demand has some great documentaries covering GLBT issues. If anyone ever did figure out who she was... unlikely as that is, she could just claim she wanted a different perspective. Or she could just be honest with herself and her peers and come out.
     Reply
    Edited by atrus123 at 12/18/09 8:12 AM atrus123 was starred atrus123 was unstarred
    Image of ShadRS ShadRS
    12/18/09

    @atrus123: You're right, straight people do occasionally watch movies with homosexual themes. However if you can divine which IMDB reviews are her's, you could perhaps use the comments she made and the IMDB movies she didn't review to draw conclusions. Though to be honest that sounds like an aweful lot of effort to find out some random chic is in the closet.
     Reply
    atrus123 promoted this comment ShadRS was starred ShadRS was unstarred
    Image of johnwonderbread johnwonderbread
    12/18/09

    @atrus123: I'm no lawyer (yet)... but I'm pretty sure that's why she's doing it anonymously.
     Reply
    atrus123 promoted this comment johnwonderbread was starred johnwonderbread was unstarred
    Image of korybing korybing
    12/18/09

    @atrus123: That's what I was thinking. I'm very interested in sexuality and GLBT issues and Netflix has a lot of really great movies and documentaries on the subject, yet I don't identify as a homosexual.

    I guess I don't understand how someone could figure out her identity unless they really really really wanted to (which seems unlikely unless she's made a lot of internet enemies (which is very possible, I suppose) ), and bringing attention to herself through this lawsuit just makes me think that her identity will likely come out.

    The choice to be in the closet is a choice, and if she feels she has reasons to stay in the closet she has the right to do so, but to me, this seems counter-intuitive to keeping her privacy. How is she filing this lawsuit without her family finding out?
     Reply
    atrus123 promoted this comment korybing was starred korybing was unstarred
    Image of atrus123 atrus123
    12/18/09

    @johnwonderbread: My point was more that, now that she's bringing up the lawsuit, she's more likely to be exposed, whether she's bringing the suit anonymously or not. If news of this spreads too wide over the internet, I'm sure all the kids at 4chan will start their own investigation. Within a few weeks, her photo will become the latest meme.

    Well, maybe it won't go that far, but she is opening herself up to a lot of potential scrutiny, which is pretty much what she seems to be interested in avoiding. If this lawsuit never existed, she's still be a nobody from nowheresville. Now she's Miss Anonymous (for now) suing a massive corporation.
     Reply
    atrus123 was starred atrus123 was unstarred
    Image of Deckard Deckard
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    My father in-law rented Brokeback Mountain, thinking it was about modern day cowboys. "They were hugging and wrestling, and then he spit in his hand...I didn't know what the hell was going on!"
     Reply
    Deckard was starred Deckard was unstarred
    Image of Poop Cooper Poop Cooper
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    So.

    I started writing a rant about this when I decided to do some research. In the future, I recommend not doing this. It only keeps you up hours after forgetting why you were so passionate to begin with, and now I know a ton of useless facts about this case. Facts that I will share with you now, because there were a ton of unanswered questions and I didn't want them unanswered anymore.

    Basically, back in 2007 Arvind Narayanan and Vitaly Shmatikov publish a paper called "How To Break Anonymity of the Netflix Prize Dataset." In it, they say that even though Netflix replaces all of the user info with anonymous data (i.e. "Poop Cooper" is replaced with "User #23486") if you happen to already know someone's identity and a few of the movies this person liked or disliked, "you can use the Netflix dataset to find their entire movie ...."

    So, let's say one day I tell myself, "Self, I need to know every movie Jane Doe has watched since 2005," all I would need to know are 6 obscure movies Jane Doe liked and disliked, when she rated those movies. And have a copy of the Netflix data set. And Jane Doe needs to have been part of the limited data set that was released to the public. Oh, and Jane Doe needs to have also given me her username so that I know which one the info correlates to, otherwise once I find out User #23486 is Poop Cooper, it'll still be useless until I know Poop Cooper is Jane Doe. See? Totally not anonymous.

    Now, note that that this Netflix info can't determine your sexual preference, political affiliation, y'know, none of that. But with this Netflix info I can cross reference those Netflix movie preferences with IMDB movie preferences! And if there's match, then ho-boy! Now I can know what Jane Doe has been writing on her profile at IMDB! At least, I know what a user at IMDB who likely-is-but-might-not-be Jane Doe is writing. And if this user at IMDB who may-or-may-not-be (but, I mean, it could be and probably is) Jane Doe writes in one of IMDB's forums, "I am totally gay for women and a democrat in Ohio," then bingo! I totally now know that Jane Doe is gay for women and a democrat in Ohio.

    I mean, at the very least, the IMDB username that has the same preferences as the Netflix username that I assume is Jane Doe is gay for women and a democrat in Ohio. And by the transitive property of gayness, there's little chance that this can be wrong.

    So nothing happens for 2 years.

    Then this past August, Paul Ohm declares Netflix anonymity dead in a paper entitled "Broken Promises of Privacy: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization." In it, he writes a lot and pretty poorly, but cites Narayanan and Shmatikov on the basis that their paper is good because, and I shit you not, because it's been "cited by other researchers." (pg 20) And then in September writes a blog post explaining the entire premise for Jane Doe's lawsuit against Netflix, stating that "Netflix has many reasons to know better, including in part, my paper and the publicity surrounding it."

    Suddenly, 3 months later, there's a lawsuit! Unprecedented! Ohm must be a fucking seer! Or! Or maybe.... no, that would be crazy.

    It's almost seems as if after Ohm wrote his blog post, someone came along and followed all of the instructions he outlined.

    So Jane Doe, hear me out for a second. Lawsuits like this are frivolous, a waste of my money as a taxpayer and may even adversely affect the price of the Netflix service for everyone else.

    Don't take the easy lawsuit some asshat outlined for you because you think it's easy money. I know this isn't about how someone might figure out you're gay, because if you really are that paranoid that someone would go through all of this particular effort to find that out, then first of all A) they probably already have their suspicions anyway, and B) you wouldn't have filed a lawsuit that begs bored bloggers to figure out who you are.

    And if those bored bloggers do eventually figure out who you are, it won't be because you rented Snow Dogs.
     Reply
    Poop Cooper was starred Poop Cooper was unstarred
    Image of crackel crackel
    12/18/09

    @Poop Cooper: this level of insight is worth sharing with the defense team.
     Reply
    crackel was starred crackel was unstarred
    Image of Geisrud Geisrud
    12/18/09

    @Poop Cooper: Wait, so...you're gay?
     Reply
    Geisrud was starred Geisrud was unstarred
    Image of johnwonderbread johnwonderbread
    12/18/09

    @Poop Cooper: When you said researched the situation I thought you simply meant some basic entry-level journalism, but this is a gold mine. As good as a read as the article itself here on Gizmodo.

    @crackel: You don't think Netflix's billion dollar attorney team won't be able to figure this out? What Poop Cooper did was a great service to us, but I'm sure the Netflix attorney team is already 20,000 leagues ahead of him on this one.
     Reply
    crackel promoted this comment johnwonderbread was starred johnwonderbread was unstarred
    Image of The5thElephant The5thElephant
    12/18/09

    @Poop Cooper: And they say the internet will destroy journalism.

    Excellent work and a good read.
     Reply
    The5thElephant was starred The5thElephant was unstarred
    Image of crackel crackel
    12/18/09

    @johnwonderbread: still worth sharing. If he's loyal to their cause, a quick email to legal@netflix.com can save them some time.
     Reply
    crackel was starred crackel was unstarred
    Image of Crim Law Geek Crim Law Geek
    12/18/09

    @Poop Cooper:
    Very insightful post. The only flaw I find in it is that you assume that Jane Doe's Netflix and IMDB usernames are something anonymous like "Poop Cooper". What if her username on those services is JaneDoe or JDoe?

    That, plus any previous "evidence" someone may have that Jane is gay (i.e. they saw her come out of the Saphic Bar or something) could out her.

    There may be a good reason for Jane to want to stay in the closet. Perhaps she is in the military, or maybe she's going through a divorce. You bet your ass a sleazy private investigator would love to get his hands on someone's video rental records.

    Of course, none of that matters. Even if it wasn't possible to easily correlate user names to people, if Netflix violated the video rental privacy laws, then they absolutely deserve to get sued over it.
     Reply
    crackel promoted this comment Crim Law Geek was starred Crim Law Geek was unstarred
    Image of crackel crackel
    12/18/09

    @Crim Law Geek: If she expects to remain anonymous about her being a lesbian, she shouldn't have telling usernames in the first place. Pooper made what I think to be a safe assumption.
     Reply
    crackel was starred crackel was unstarred
    Image of Crim Law Geek Crim Law Geek
    12/19/09

    @crackel: Except it's her choice to be a closet lesbian with telling username, just like it's your choice to be an out heterosexual* with a non-telling username.

    What the heck gives Netflix the right to expose people's viewing habits without permission, quasi-anononimized or not?!

    *yes, I'm assuming you are straight.
     Reply
    Crim Law Geek was starred Crim Law Geek was unstarred
    Image of Curves Curves
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    This is sad, actually. For the record, I dont care if youre gay, not gay, closeted or flaming, tall, short, black, white, or druid. If you pay taxes, you are the same as me.
     Reply
    Curves was starred Curves was unstarred
    Image of drewdrawscriticism drewdrawscriticism
    12/18/09

    @Curves: A closeted lesbian bitch looking for a easy payout?
     Reply
    drewdrawscriticism was starred drewdrawscriticism was unstarred
    Image of Curves Curves
    12/18/09

    @drewdrawscriticism: I am not a lesbian (as far as I know) and I NEVER do things the easy way.
     Reply
    Curves was starred Curves was unstarred
    Image of drewdrawscriticism drewdrawscriticism
    12/18/09

    @Curves: I see what you did there...

    *steps away carefully*
     Reply
    drewdrawscriticism was starred drewdrawscriticism was unstarred
    Image of berribrand berribrand
    12/20/09

    @drewdrawscriticism: Wired: "The suit seeks more than $2,500 in damages for each of more than 2 million Netflix customers."

    The woman didn't start the lawsuit (she joined an already existing one as a Jane Doe party). She's also not suing for millions for herself. You might want to read up before making assinine assumptions.
     Reply
    drewdrawscriticism promoted this comment berribrand was starred berribrand was unstarred
    Image of drewdrawscriticism drewdrawscriticism
    12/20/09

    @berribrand: I'm just going to assume, based on your overreaction to the comments here and complete lack of humor, that you are, in fact, Jane Doe from Franklin County, Ohio (or her lawyer), who is joining the lawsuit individually and not representing any class action as the other 3 plaintiffs are (and therefore, is seeking personal damages).

    It also seems to me there's more likelihood of her being "outed" as a lesbian through this suit than the original Netflix data release, unless she spends lots of time in IMDB LGBT forums, which seems irresponsible anyway if she feels that the consequences she discusses are real for her family, livelihood and children.

    I'm not against a suit which seeks to protect privacy, but the facts of Jane Doe's involvement seem odd, unnecessary and questionable.

    And, as I'm sure @Curves recognized (but you didn't), it was a joke, ferchristssake.
     Reply
    drewdrawscriticism was starred drewdrawscriticism was unstarred
    Image of Jacubious Jacubious
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    Brokeback Mountain for a lesbian? I'd bet 5 dental dams she rented every season of The L-Word.
     Reply
    Jacubious was starred Jacubious was unstarred
    Image of Hearthatvoiceagain Hearthatvoiceagain
    12/18/09

    In reply to In-the-Closet Lesbian Sues Netflix for Releasing Her Movie Preferences
    What exact movie preferences are there that scream LESBIAN. Or is it that she wrote "As a Lesbian I think this film is..." in her reviews and that what she's worried about."
     Reply
    Hearthatvoiceagain was starred Hearthatvoiceagain was unstarred
    Image of sfokevin sfokevin
    12/18/09

    @Hearthatvoiceagain: If Mom rents D.E.B.S. and return it three weeks late she's a Lesbian...
     Reply
    omgwtflolbbqbye promoted this comment sfokevin was starred sfokevin was unstarred
    Image of Nikkoli Nikkoli
    12/18/09

    @Hearthatvoiceagain: She only rents from the GLBT section? ./shrug taking a wild guess only
     Reply
    Hearthatvoiceagain promoted this comment Nikkoli was starred Nikkoli was unstarred
    Image of Hearthatvoiceagain Hearthatvoiceagain
    12/18/09

    @Nikkoli: As I am from the UK I have no idea if Netflix has a GLBT section.
     Reply
    Hearthatvoiceagain was starred Hearthatvoiceagain was unstarred
    Image of Gundem Gundem
    12/17/09

    In reply to Microsoft and Palm Treading Water While Other Mobile Platforms Grow
    Only MS and their shitty WinMo is able to decrease.

    Congrats idiots.
     Reply
    Gundem was starred Gundem was unstarred
    Image of Deckard Deckard
    12/16/09

    In reply to Microsoft and Palm Treading Water While Other Mobile Platforms Grow
    RIM is kicking Apple's butt, almost 2x. I wouldn't say Microsoft is hardly doing any business. Typical slant for this blog.
     Reply
    Deckard was starred Deckard was unstarred
    Image of Abarnum Abarnum
    12/16/09

    @Deckard: RIM sells multiple devices. If you average in the sales with the unique items at hand, Apple is technically kicking RIM's butt.

    As for Microsoft, I think they have been on a steady decline for quite some time when it comes to mobile. I find it hard to believe its a "typical slant for this blog" since not only Gizmodo has posted these articles. Similar posts can be seen on Business Week, Silicon Alley Insider, Fortune 500, Forbes and even PC favored magazines such as "PC Magazine".
     Reply
    Deckard promoted this comment Abarnum was starred Abarnum was unstarred
    Image of Deckard Deckard
    12/16/09

    @Abarnum: See, this is what I mean.
     Reply
    Deckard was starred Deckard was unstarred
    Image of Abarnum Abarnum
    12/16/09

    @Deckard: That isn't a typical slant though. This is basically common sense in a business related matter. It's the same when you compare Nokia to RIM.

    If this site were the only site stating these comments, then it'd be one thing. But when it's an entire business network of over 10 major fortune 500's, its fact.
     Reply
    Abarnum was starred Abarnum was unstarred
    Image of missionary position missionary position
    12/17/09

    @Deckard: And RIM have been making cellphones how long? Give it another couple of years and I bet that graph will be a lot closer than it is now. And I wouldn't be surprised if Apple overtook RIM at some point in the near future.
     Reply
    missionary position was starred missionary position was unstarred
    Image of Covertghost Covertghost
    12/17/09

    @missionary position: They won't if the iPhone stays locked to AT&T, I guarantee that.
     Reply
    NorwoodIsMyHero promoted this comment Covertghost was starred Covertghost was unstarred
    Image of NorwoodIsMyHero NorwoodIsMyHero
    12/17/09

    @Covertghost: Excellent point. Apple is not on some smooth path to domination in the phone OS market. Especially since Google is entering the scene and is pretty much willing to sell to anyone.

    Apple will not just need to get unlocked, I think they'll have to come up with a less expensive variant. Something akin to the Nano. Not just smaller internal memory, but less functionality at a cheaper price. The market they are competing in is the highest of high end smartphones. There are several lower stratifications (especially outside the states) where Apple could probably pick up some market share if it made a device that was not as powerful as the iPhone, but also not as expensive.
     Reply
    NorwoodIsMyHero was starred NorwoodIsMyHero was unstarred
    Image of Louis Wang Louis Wang
    12/17/09

    @Deckard: You obviously can't read graphs. We're observing the growth (or change) between months.
     Reply
    Deckard promoted this comment Louis Wang was starred Louis Wang was unstarred
    Image of Deckard Deckard
    12/17/09

    @Louis Wang: Obviously
     Reply
    Deckard was starred Deckard was unstarred
    Image of Louis Wang Louis Wang
    12/19/09

    @Deckard: Then what's the problem?
    1) Microsoft is flat, as title indicates.
    2) Palm is flat, as title indicates.
    3) All other platforms are growing, as title indicates.
    4) Apple and RIM are booming, as the article indicates.
     Reply
    Louis Wang was starred Louis Wang was unstarred
    Image of Monty Monty
    12/16/09

    In reply to Microsoft and Palm Treading Water While Other Mobile Platforms Grow
    The market is very young, and this information is very interesting, but given how rapidly things are changing - we will not truly have a picture of how everything is playing out for another year. A chart of a few months of 2009 is hardly statistically relevant.

    Android: Um, ignore these numbers since they do not even factor in the Droid release. Come back and talk after we see how that did.

    Microsoft: We all know they will not be a player in this market until their "pink" (or whatever they call it) product is released. Yes, they look like they are going backwards because they are just stalling until they have something to show.

    Palm: They need a new carrier before we will know how their product fares. The "P" products look interesting, but very few people are on Sprint or are willing to switch to Sprint to try them. Either find a new carrier or sell your company to Microsoft or Nokia.

    RIM: Continuing to kick-butt because Apple and Android refuse to play in the business world. The products are passable, at best - but without enterprise level quality product competition, they will continue to gobble market share. Oh, and you crazy tech geeks up north need to release a slide-out keyboard model of the Storm 2. That on-screen keyboard is ridiculously bad.

    Apple: Damn it, Steve - release a BES-like server and make a business controllable device. Help me out, man! Oh, and stop releasing patches that show you are lying about encryption and kill iPhone access to Exchange Servers. Hard to believe, but that is not making friends. One last thing - I still love you even if you refuse to make a phone I can give to my producers, buddy.

    Enough worthless rambling. I have to run for a date at the Cyclops. My wife and I are celebrating our tenth anniversary, and being the generous soul I am, I am making her come with me to a geek round-up in Seattle. Yes, I know - I am a romantic.
     Reply
    Monty was starred Monty was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/16/09

    @Monty: First, congrats!

    Second, I agree with you for the most part, especially about Palm. The Pre is a really nice piece of equipment, but they chose an even worse carrier than Apple did, and are paying for it dearly. Not even Candice Bergen with God powers can save it there.

    RIM amazes me with its "crackberry" users that are flat-out addicted to them, but the Storm really does need that keyboard. A relative of mine has one and I tried it out. Man do I hate it.
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of plusEric plusEric
    12/16/09

    @Kaiser-Machead: It would really seem it's your opinion sprint is worse than AT&T. Consumer Reports doesn't seem to agree.
     Reply
    NorwoodIsMyHero promoted this comment Edited by plusEric at 12/16/09 11:52 PM plusEric was starred plusEric was unstarred
    Image of NorwoodIsMyHero NorwoodIsMyHero
    12/17/09

    @plusEric: AT&T may have worse customer service, but their network is better than Sprint's. Personally I think those two should merge to better fight Verizon, but thats just me.
     Reply
    NorwoodIsMyHero was starred NorwoodIsMyHero was unstarred
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