Congresswoman Proposes Ban On Armed Drones In U.S., Regulating Surveillance
With the looming threat of faceless drones buzzing around American cities, congress has proposed banning armed drones and regulating their use for law enforcement surveillance. The Preserving American Privacy Act introduced by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CrunchGov Grade: A) would require warrants for unmanned aircraft systems to collect personally identifiable information and a public notice to collect information in public areas.
At least one state, Virginia, has already proposed a two-year moratorium on drones, while lawmakers can craft sound policy regulating their use (i.e. so they can figure out what to do with this crazy new technology).
On the one hand, drones give law enforcement an important life-saving surveillance tool. They were reportedly used to catch elusive cop killer, Christopher Dorner. “the thermal imaging cameras the drones use may be our only hope of finding him. On the ground, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” said one unnamed police source to The Express.
But, Trevor Timm of digital civil liberties watchdog group, The Electronic Freedom Foundation, tells TechCrunch in an email, “Drones provide law enforcement with many of the modern privacy-invasive tools, all in one place. They have high definition cameras that can also be fitted with infrared, heat sensing, or facial recognition technology. They can be equipped with fake cell phone towers that can potentially intercept your text messages, phone calls, and lock onto your GPS. And soon the small police drones will have the ability to stay in the air for hours or days at a time.”
Currently, he claims, there are no laws to prevent round-the-clock surveillance. At a Google+ Hangout yesterday, President Obama dodged questions about the use of drones on U.S. soil, only to say that no American has ever been targeted by one within the U.S.
Many of these types of bills die in congressional subcommittees before they even get a fighting chance, so its unknown how likely it is to pass. Click here for point-by-point sections of the bill [PDF].
Go here to see the original: Congresswoman Proposes Ban On Armed Drones In U.S., Regulating Surveillance
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1M User Strong, PlanetSoho Makes it Easy for Small Businesses to ‘Get Paid’ On-the-Go
Last week, SohoOS, celebrated hitting its 1M user milestone by rebranding as ‘PlanetSoho.com‘.
Originally designed as a utility for SOHO (small office, home office) businesses — main features being Invoicing, Web Presence and Contact Management — the rebranding also represents a shift from pure utility to a community hub for micro-businesses.
Today the company is announcing a new iPhone app called ‘Get Paid‘ (iTunes link), designed to help small businesses get paid on the go by being able to invoice and collect payments at customer locations.
(Android users hold tight, you will not be neglected. A version is in the works and the company expects to release it sometime in Q1 2013.)
The current version lets PlanetSoho users collect payments in the forms of cash, check and PayPal. Credit card payments are on the way and will be facilitated via card scanning using the iPhone’s camera (powered by Flint.com), as well dongle (the company declined to comment on which maker’s).
I got to play with the app this week and if I were a small businesses owner, especially one with out-calls, I’d find it pretty useful for two main reasons:
The first, managing invoicing is central. Users can quickly issue a new invoice, but even more importantly for small businesses, the app makes it really easy to manage overdue ones. The entire ‘back-office’ experience is designed for mobile so it’s effortless to see which invoices are Due, Overdue and Paid.
Subtle CRM features are the second app highlight for me. See, the web version of PlanetSoho revolves heavily around the customer ‘entity’ (CRM first, invoicing second). The app, however, flips that on its head and revolves around the invoice. Instead then of a list of customer accounts with related actions such as Email, Call and SMS, the app attaches these to the invoice status. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but sometimes you don’t need ground-breaking UX to make an app really useful — and this is a case-in-point.
Ron Daniel, CEO, explained that the company will continue to heavily target the Accounting, Finance, Computer Services, Construction and Retail verticals. He expects the new app to go a long way in helping users get the most out of their clienteles.
Finally, as with the last time we wrote about the company, it’s still at a pace of adding 1500 new (global) businesses every day.
Read more from the original source: 1M User Strong, PlanetSoho Makes it Easy for Small Businesses to ‘Get Paid’ On-the-Go
Facebook Brings Back Pinterest-Style “Collections” Feature In Test With 11 Retailers Like Fab And Etsy
Facebook’s Pinteresque Collections feature began its second phase of testing today after debuting in October and disappearing 17 days later to be redesigned. As part of the test, 11 retailers are sharing product photos that users can Want, Save, Add, Collect or Wishlist, depending on the version of the test they see. Facebook wants to collect data on which design people like best before fully launching Collections.
Now anyone can try Collections by checking out the news feed posts from the Pages of retailers Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teens, West Elm, Michael Kors, Fab.com, Belk, Etsy, Macy’s, Old Navy, Mark & Graham, Wayfair.com. You can see a Collection in the wild here at Pottery Barn’s Page.
If you click the Want, Save, Add, Collect, or Wishlist button on a product photo from these Pages, it will be placed on the Pinterest board-style Collections area of your profile, and friends will see a news feed story about your activity. Facebook is hoping to make itself indispensable to e-commerce by helping to turn their products viral. When you collect something, the Timeline and news feed stories create opportunities for your friends to discover products and either Like their creator or click through and buy them.
Facebook tells me that “The goal of this test is to understand how people are interacting with and sharing items from a Collection in their news feeds…We’ve seen that businesses often use Pages to share information about their products through photo albums. With this test, people will be able to engage with these Collections in the news feed and share things they are interested in with their friends.”
Pinterest’s incredible growth over the last two years has demonstrated that people love to nest online. Facebook doesn’t want your digital home to be anywhere else. Along with soaking up engagement as people meticulously manicure their Collections, the feature could also pull in ad spend from retailers. With a high viral coefficient, it’d make sense for them to pay for Promoted Posts so more of their fans see each of their Collections posts.
If Collections sounds fun to you, try it soon. Facebook tells me that the test has an end date but didn’t specify when that would be. And if you do try it, don’t get too attached to your Collections until it comes out of beta. When Facebook ended the first test, everyone’s existing Collections were deleted.
Air Traffic Controller Website | Elance Job
This WordPress website will collect information entered into a complex form with validation. Information entered into the database will be shown on a separate page where the public can view all the entries entered in for a specific airport. Airpor…
Category: IT & Programming > Web Programming
Type and Budget: Fixed price ( $1,000 – $5,000) Escrow
Time Left: 14 d, 23 h (Ends Dec 20, 2012 16:48 pm ET)
Start Date: Dec 5, 2012
Proposals: 2 (High $5,000, Low $2,200, Avg $3,600)
Client: daytonanetworks (1 jobs posted, 0% awarded, $0 total purchased, Payment Method Verified)
Client Location: , United States
Preferred Job Location: Anywhere
Desired Skills: MySQL CSS HTML PHP WordPress
Job ID: 35785795