This is so wrong, I barely know what to say. I sure hope this trend doesn't start to catch on, because a lot of people would give up the information when they're pressured instead of doing the right thing and refusing.

"Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc." the form reads. But Bozeman isn't simply interested in finding out where to look for potentially embarrassing personal details; the city wants full disclosure, since the form demands username and password information for each.

This is way worse than all those sickening social networking sites asking for your e-mail address password.

Update

Here is the contact information for the relevant people in the city if you want to ask them why they thought this would be a good idea.

And just in case someone were to change the form, here's a copy of the original found on their website:

This is for real... they actually expect you to give up your account details!

My in-laws asked me how this happened and I theorized, but didn't have a good answer at the time.

At the end of the video, they mention a website for more information which has a few more details about the experiment such as the fact that the FBI used similar technology to spy on organized crime families.

The main problem here is that by putting all those extra features and gimmicks into cellphones means that they're nothing short of hand-held computers (and with that comes all the computer vulnerabilities). However, they mention ways to protect yourself such as:

• Keep a close watch on your cellphone
• Use a password on your phone to prevent casual tampering
• Avoid high-end phones with internet and multiple networking capabilities
• Remove the battery from the phone when it's not being used

And by this point you're probably thinking the same thing I am, if you are the kind who wants a cool phone, how realistic is any of this? Not very.

Instead, their last recommendation, which is the same I was going to make is to get a pre-paid cellphone for better security. Why? It's just a phone. No gimmicks, no computers (and no contract!).

It would be nice if cell phone companies would be willing to cell simple phones with only a few basic features that we actually want (like voice-dialing), but until and unless that ever happens, your best security is with a pre-paid phone.

(H/T to Digg.com for the link)

Then comes this story which I felt deserved some attention. If you plan to involve Yahoo in any part of your business, you might want to think twice:

A few weeks ago, I got an email from Yahoo (which I used for hosting my business email, website, and blog). They told me I was violating their TOS (Terms of Service) but gave me no specifics whatsoever. After a bit of research, I found that my blog had been “hacked ? by someone who inserted hundreds of links back to their “drug related ? site among other things. Within 24 hours of receiving the email from Yahoo, I “cleaned up ? the “hacked ? blog – this took me about 3 hours of work to do. Then 24 hours later, without any warning, Yahoo DEACTIVATED my account. I lost all my business email, my website, my blog, my Yahoo groups that I was managing, etc. etc.

When I contacted Yahoo customer service, they said there was nothing they could do and that I would have to “email ? the Yahoo Abuse team. (An interesting process, especially since they had just TERMINATED my EMAIL account!) Despite my efforts to contact Yahoo Corporate, Yahoo Abuse Department, etc. – I was NEVER able to reach ANYONE at Yahoo that was willing to even talk to me. All communication was via email.

The net result – Yahoo said they would not reactivate my account, and would not give me back any of my data files. They said I had violated their Terms of Service (TOS) and even though someone else “hacked ? my blog, it was MY RESPONSIBILITY. And even though I immediately “cleaned ? the hacked blog, they claimed there was still something wrong with the blog – but would not tell me ANY DETAILS as to specifically what was still wrong.

Also note that Yahoo provides its customers access to a version of WordPress for doing “blogs ? – but the version they provide is very outdated, and the version they provide has significant security holes in it!!

If I had been hosting my other business website on Yahoo I would have immediately been “out of business ? and it would have cost me literally tens of thousands of dollars.

From a legal perspective, I see a possible violation by Yahoo of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair acts in trade and commerce in that Section 15 [Termination] of the Terms of Use is unfair to impute that unexpected technical or security issues or problems that I did not cause is a “Cause ? for termination. In addition, there may also be a violation of the Yahoo Privacy Policy under its section on Confidentiality and Security. There could even be a possibility of a Sarbanes Oxley securities issue.

My questions to Yahoo which still has never been answered:
1. How did I violate the TOS?
2. What section did I violate?

If Yahoo fails to return valuable data to me, then I believe I can find sufficient legal bases to convince Yahoo to release the data to me – but at what cost? I can’t really afford to go up against their big corporate legal team!

I hope someone (hopefully you?) can publish my story to at least warn other small business owners to NEVER use Yahoo hosting services for their business. The risk is way too high!

What appalls me the most is that I have been a loyal small business customer of Yahoo for over FIVE YEARS! And this is how they treat a “good customer ?? Seems like they’ve chosen to punish their good customers for the acts of unscrupulous hackers!

Is this the way Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder) is choosing to treat his customers? Perhaps he has more problems than just what the AllThingsDigital blog posted a few days ago:
“There are very real questions about whether Yang has the right talent and temperament for the job at hand … After all, the stock is in the basement, after Yahoo (YHOO) lost a lucrative bird in the hand in the form of a $31 per share offer from Microsoft (MSFT). Next, a weak economic environment is forcing it to cut deeply into the muscle of its many businesses, with slashing out 20 percent or more of costs, a worrisome trend if Yahoo hopes to grow when we all eventually emerge from the downturn. And, of course, more key executive departures, weak employee morale and an overall inability to clearly articulate the changes Yang has been trying to make at the company, such as its laudable open platform efforts. ?

Maybe we should add “atrocious customer service ? to the list of Jerry’s problems/issues?

The kicker here is that they are essentially holding HIM responsible for THEIR poor security.

Life imitates life does it not? (Homer Simpson Tries to Vote for Obama on E-vote Machine)

It's so weird though… How come no one realized that E-voting machines could be a problem?

Oh wait….

http://www.jeremyduffy.com/category/e-voting/
Florida E-Voting Study
New e-voting study shows it's really easy to steal an election
Researchers reveal 'extremely serious' vulnerabilities in e-voting machines

The scary thing is, this is just software, it's not a special phone. If you have software like this, what's to stop you from installing it in your girlfriend's phone or a business contact. Where's my "phone only" phone?

(H/T to Schneier's Blog for the link)

It bears repeating so here is a recent CNN article on the subject as a refresher.

(H/T to Privacy.org for the link)

These informercials are pretending to be news so you'll give them far more credibility that you would if you knew it was an informercial.

That's pretty low, but not unexpected from this type of company.