Feeling poorly for some time. Saw a doctor a few weeks ago, who sent me to a specialist, who booked me into hospital for tests.

It’s cancer. - Tim Blair

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Feminists caught with double standards. Film at 11.

Via: IP

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This story went critical over the weekend:

Visiting Sears.com (and Kmart.com) a few weeks ago, I was offered a chance to join My SHC Community, for free, but what I received was, from a privacy perspective, very costly. Sears.com is distributing spyware that tracks all your Internet usage - including banking logins, email, and all other forms of Internet usage - all in the name of "community participation." Every website visitor that joins the Sears community installs software that acts as a proxy to every web transaction made on the compromised computer. In other words, if you have installed Sears software ("the proxy") on your system, all data transmitted to and from your system will be intercepted. This extreme level of user tracking is done with little and inconspicuous notice about the true nature of the software... An interesting note, the spyware Sears distributes is "genetically" related to software CA Anti-Spyware has detected for a few years by the name of MarketScore (and other aliases) and distributed by other websites. – Computer Associates Security Advisor Research Blog

• Sears Update: Privacy Policy, Scorecard, and Genetic Heritage

  In my blog post yesterday I reported that there was a significant change in how the privacy policy for My SHC Community reads - replacing straightforward language with vague legal language (see section: The Privacy Policy). What I have come to learn is that if you navigate to http://www.myshccommunity.com/Privacy.aspx.you could actually get one of two policies. One of these policies is what I referred to as the "old" policy and the other as the "new" - even though both pages share the same URL. Here is why you could get one of two policies from the same URL. If you access that URL with a machine compromised by the Sears proxy software, you will get the policy with direct language (like "monitors all Internet behavior"). If you access the policy using an uncompromised system, you will get the toned down version (like "provide superior service"). Both policies share the same URL and same look and feel - coloring, page layout, Kmart and Sears branding, etc. This makes it very difficult for users to get consistent, accurate information about the proxy software... ...They should receive the same information no matter what system they access it from.

• Sears Update: Response to Rob Harles, VP SHC Community
• 2nd Response to Rob Harles, VP of Sears' SHC Community

  Finally, while we can't draw any conclusions from this, an old comScore press release shows that before becoming VP in charge of Sears' tracking program, Rob was the senior vice president for comScore - the creator of the Sears spyware and the registrants of the domains to which the Sears spyware data is sent.

• Managemyhome.com: Another privacy issue for Sears

  This was obviously introduced to let me look at my own purchase history, but unfortunately the only information they asked for when I followed that button was a name, phone number, and address. To test this out, I put in my parents' information-I want to stress that this is the exact same info listed under their name in the phone book-and was rewarded with a list of their major Sears purchases running back almost two decades to when they first moved in to that house.

• Update: Records search disabled on managemyhome.com

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The MoD eventually confirmed it has a ban on troops wearing uniform in civilian airports, claiming it was because a small number of airlines ban all uniforms on flights for security reasons. – Daily Mail, "Afghan heroes home for Christmas forced to change out of uniforms on freezing runway before using airport terminal"

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