IdeaStorm
Over 19,078 ideas submitted. 741,232+ votes. 98,025+ comments. 537+ ideas implemented.
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The Tyler Group Internet News Review, Yahoo latest to disclose user data requests from US law enforcement agencies
Jun 20, 2013
1 Vote
Status: New
Source TechLife | 18 Jun 2013 : Yahoo has received between 12,000 to 13,000 requests for user data from law enforcement agencies in the US between 1 December and 31 May this year, the company said Monday. The most common of these requests concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and general counsel Ron Bell wrote in a blog post. The company did not disclose how many of the requests for customer data were under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which has been at the center of a controversy after reports surfaced that the government was collecting data from a large number of users under the Act, including call metadata from telephone customers of Verizon. "Like all companies, Yahoo! cannot lawfully break out FISA request numbers at this time because those numbers are classified; however, we strongly urge the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue," the executives wrote. The Internet company joins other companies like Apple, Facebook and Microsoft that disclosed similar numbers over the weekend in a bid to convey greater transparency to their users, after reports in the Guardian and the Washington Post alleged that the US National Security Agency has real-time access to content on the servers of Google, Facebook and other Internet companies as part of a surveillance program called Prism. The companies have denied their participation. ? Following widespread criticism of the US government's surveillance programmes and the role of the Internet companies, Facebook, Google, Twitter and Microsoft last week called for greater transparency in disclosure of data on government requests for customer information. In a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Robert Mueller, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond, for example, asked that the company should be allowed to publish in its Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including disclosures under FISA, in terms of both the numbers received and their scope. Government restrictions on disclosure of the information has fueled speculation "that our compliance with these requests gives the US government unfettered access to our users' data," Drummond added. After obtaining limited permission from U.S. authorities, Facebook and Microsoft released data on requests from the government, but both didn't say how many were related to national security. Facebook said it had received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests from all government entities in the US including local authorities for the six months ending 31 December. The company, after discussions with security authorities, is allowed to include in a transparency report as part of an aggregate number and as a range all national security-related requests including FISA as well as National Security Letters, which was prohibited earlier. Microsoft said it had got between 6,000 and 7,000 requests affecting 31,000 to 32,000 consumer accounts for the same period. Apple said that from 1 December to 31 May, it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from US law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters, it said. Yahoo said Monday it plans to issue later this summer its first global law enforcement transparency report, which will cover the first half of the year. Other companies like Google already provide such updates, though Facebook's General Counsel Ted Ullyot said in a post last week that the company had not issued a transparency report in the past, as it would be incomplete and misleading because of the government restrictions on disclosure. Orders by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court often come with a gag order preventing those receiving the order to publicly discuss it. The order from the court that authorized the US National Security Agency to collect telephony metadata from customers of Verizon in the US also came with a gag order.
Categories: Environment,
Asia Global Energy Solutions: Research and Markets: Global Waste to Energy Technologies Market 2012-2016
Jun 19, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
According to the report, the increasing demand for energy is one of the major drivers in the Global Waste to Energy Technologies market. Since traditional power generation techniques lead to increased carbon emissions, various governments across the globe are shifting their focus to recycled energy generation methods such as waste to energy technologies. This is in turn increasing demand for WTE technologies because they emit less harmful gases when compared to fossil fuel-based power generation plants.
Categories: Environment, Service and Support,
The Green Dell
May 3, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
A website where home gardners and small farmers can put up their crops that they are planning, planting, growing, harvesting - and see, by "locality," what others are planting in their neighbourhood. The idea is that they can then perhaps change their minds and plant something no-one else is growing, leading to greater diversity of foods available in their region. People can then either opt to buy these direct from the grower, or trade them for something that they grow themselves, and the idea is to make every region able to grow good local food. The "locality" should be an area that makes sense for local food, i.e. not much more than 20 - 50 miles, to encourage people to use less fuel transporting food around.People should be able to "pledge" either a certain percentage of a planted or harvested crop, or pledge some labour on the grower's property (sort of like community gardening) or tools and materials (wire netting, compost scraps, etc) in exchange for some of the crop. Additionally, users should be encouraged to share their experiences of what grows well locally, what needs special techniques, and so forth. Within a few years, a site such as this should be able to even out local food production, provide detailed, locality-based advice on what can be grown and how to grow it, and (if advertisers are chosen carefully and with relevance, i.e. home handyman, gardening, nursery, and so forth) be able to produce an income by presenting locally-targeted advertising to users, who can use these ads to find the best local services and materials.It would be a crowdsourced agricultural and GIS dataBASE, as well. This can be stripped of identifying data, and sold/donated to research foundations and government departments to provide detailed knowledge of soil and weather and local plants etc on an ongoing basis. The information provided would give valuable knowledge to such organisations about the health of the ecosphere and the weather systems.On the purely humane side, it would allow a much wider audience to have access to local food, thus strengthening local economies and reducing food miles and handling costs. I think an idea such as this is one of theose things where a large company has nothing to lose by devoting a few resources to it and advertising / publicising it, and then if the site doesn't take off, it's a relatively small loss. If it does take of though, it would establish the green credentials of the company and give them some very good publicity!
Categories: Education, Environment, IdeaStorm,
environmental solution to used electronic equipment
May 1, 2013
2 Votes
Status: Acknowledged
I always have a big question mark that Dell has been collecting tons of used electronic equipment but how these equipment are being treated or they go straight to secured landfills??
Categories: Accessories (Keyboards, etc.), Environment,
Cave Mall
Apr 25, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
I just thought of a mall in a cave. tunnels, fish tanks cable cars etc. that will be a best tourist attraction.
Categories: Environment, Retail,
un exhaustable power source
Apr 19, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
we can run electriccity powerd auto mobile continuely with out a power scarcitywe can extract solar power by itroducing solar pannels at every side of a tele phone towerand we can generate that energy trough wireless electric signals so automoblie runs contenuesly as the {tower} coverage is possible we are not using even 10% of solar energy so ithink this is the best idea for eco friendly transportation and a good news for power and commercial companies
Categories: Environment, IdeaStorm,
Expense Reduction and Going Green
Mar 23, 2013
2 Votes
Status: Acknowledged
I have always paid my DFS account by pre-authorized cheque, and I presume that this is standard payment method at Dell. That being the case, why do you send me/us an empty envelope with every monthly statement of the DFS account? The envelopes are not only a waste of paper, but also an unecessary expense. How many envelopes do you send out each month that go unused? Why do you send a monthly statement? Surely Dell can do all of this online. The cost of paper, postage, etc., etc must be considerable. Dell has got to cut costs! You can stop the waste of money, paper, postage, etc., by simply stoping sending envelopes that are not used, and by DFS putting all accounts on line.Frank
Categories: Environment, Service and Support,
Space bound garbage
Mar 6, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
I once saw on a documentary the idea of a low-orbit space station that is tethered to the ground. Orbiting in sync with the planet, this tether would eliminate the need for rocket fuel propelled vessels to carry objects into orbit. I purpose that if this space station is possible, than why couldn't we send all of our waste into space. This could have a signifigant impact on the enviroment here on Earth.
Categories: Environment, Service and Support,
DLP Phlatlight led light engine in mainstream projectors
Feb 22, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
The color gromet as well as the energysmart rating is much superior than traditional configurations. I have a xxx brand dlp tv with phlatlght tech and there is no compairison of color saturation compaired with my dell 1510x projector. I think the tv uses 118 watts for a 56' tv. The smaller pico projectors use a dlp white led engine and a colorwheel not a red, green, blue led.
Categories: Environment, IdeaStorm,
Deep ocean gas creation to move up ballons with power generating turbines behind?
Feb 14, 2013
1 Vote
Status: Acknowledged
Excuse me, this is just a pre-sketch. However, I'm not a specialist and I dont have time for gaining necessary knowledge.Maybe you can tell me if it makes sense somehow.It's very simple general idea:- use some chemical process to create gas (o2?, h2?) under ocean, so that it could accumulate despite the pressure- make it filing some form of ballon- attach appropriate turbines and energy transmision/storage systems (eg. the ballon on cable?)- release the ballon when it is ready to be pushed with pressure- (turbines could have rotation comaprable/better then average wind-turbines?)- improve every detail to make it cheap and safe and large-scaleEnjoy energy :)
Categories: Environment,