Not the most efficient way to protect your computer. Photo: Domenico / Kiuz

After I had stopped making fun of my colleagues, I asked them why they hadn’t locked their USB sticks so that they were “read only”. All I got in response was confused stares.

I insisted there was slider on each stick that would turn it to read-only mode, similarly to what you could do with floppy discs in the olden times. They insisted I was wrong. When we checked, we discovered, that none of the sticks that we had in the office had such a slider. The same was true when I looked in a computer store later.

But when I went home and looked at all my old sticks (16 MB – 64 MB), they had such a slider. Apparently, at some point over the last four or five years, someone decided that this was unnecessary. What I’d like to know is: why? Surely my colleagues are not the only ones who’ve came back with a virtual STD after a conference.

The obvious answer would be costs. But I find that hard to believe since costs for this feature should be negligible and  I’m sure that many companies would be prepared to spend an extra 10 cent per stick to better protect their IT infrastructure.

If anyone knows the answer, please share it in the comments!

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What Google Web History is not supposed to do is to continue to log searches from a computer that you haven’t been using in months!

Spying with Google Web History

Here is what happened: About six weeks ago I logged into Web History when I noticed some strange entries. Apparently I had searched for a Siemens mobile phone and an electromagnetic induction stove. For a few minutes I could make neither head nor tail of this, when I suddenly realized that I was looking at my parents searches. Apparently I had logged into Gmail while I was at their place and had forgotten to log out. The problem is, that at that point, three months had already passed since I had last visited my parents!

Obviously, no login should be that persistent and Google realizes that. On Google History there is a note saying:

To help protect your privacy, we’ll sometimes ask you to verify your password even though you’re already signed in. This may happen more frequently for services like Web History which involves your personal information.

Password change = no change

But it got even worse: Since I don’t have direct access to my parents computer (and since I didn’t want to freak them out) I decided to change my password for all Google services. Surely that would put a stop to it, even if I had accidentally told my parents computer to store my password (very unlikely, since I’m very security-conscious, but  not impossible).

However that didn’t make any difference either. Below are my mothers search results from November 27 – that is 4.5 months after I was logged into that computer the last time and six weeks after I changed the password!

My mother's Google Searches - she is planning a trip to Turkey.

Obviously there is something seriously wrong there. I haven’t tried to replicate the problem, but the fact that my mothers queries are still being logged under my account after I changed the password really floored me.

The privacy implications are of course massive. Consider how much your search history says about you – it’s almost like a stream of your consciousness. Would you want other people to be able to see that? Could I enable web history at a colleague’s computer and spy on him? If this behaviour can be replicated and is not just a fluke, then I most certainly could.

I’m pretty certain that this behaviour would have stopped if my parents had a Google account of their own and would have logged in with that at any time. But that is no excuse.

Update (1 December 2009): I contacted Google’s Matt Cutts through Twitter. Here is our brief exchange of messages. I still think it’s a bug that should be fixed.

@timolue if your parents continue to search often without ever signing out, we probably can’t tell if it’s you vs. them at the keyboard.

@timolue I’d ask them to sign out of Google or clear their cookies; either should work.

@mattcutts Thx. But shouldn’t I be logged out automatically and asked to log in again after a few months? Like with Gmail?

@timolue not sure; it’s a question of convenience vs. forcing re-logging in.

Related posts:

1. Why this isn’t “just a job”: An amazing story from Ivory Coast

In this list I am focusing on courses that offer specific skills for humanitarian aid workers and not on more general courses that can also be useful for people working for an international organization or NGO, such as general administration, photography etc..

1. Humanitarian relief, peace and security operations at the Peace Operations Training Institute

The Peace Operations Training Institute focuses on everything you might need in a so-called “complex emergency.” Here you find courses in Mine Action, Civilian Military Coordination, Global Terrorism or Ethics in Peacekeeping, to name  just a few. If you are working for a non-profit than you can take most of these courses for as little as 50 USD.

2. Diplomacy at UNITAR

The United Nations Institute for Research and Training (UNITAR) offers three strands of e-learning coursesat irregular intervals: Public Finance and trade, Multilateral Conferences and Diplomacy and Governance in Urban Sanitation. The courses take up to eight weeks to complete and many of them are free. The most expensive course I found was 400 USD. You will  have to apply and explain why you should be admitted to this course.

3. Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace

No, this is not a bunch of hippies getting together. The University for Peace is a UN mandated graduate school for peace and conflict studies. UPEACE will accept applications for their distance learning programme from January 2010. There is no information about the costs yet, but I expect that the UN will offer the course at a very attractive fee.

4. Development Studies at the University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham offers two distance learning courses: “Poverty Reduction and Development Management” and “Public Administration and Development”. You can either enrol into a masters programme or do a postgraduate diploma. The MSc takes two years to complete. As you can imagine, this doesn’t come cheap. The courses start at 6,000 pounds (~ 10,000 USD).

5. Logistics at the Fritz Institute

The Fritz Institute offers three courses, all of which have something to do with logistics: “Humanitarian Logistics”, “Humanitarian Supply Chain Management” and “Humanitarian Medical Logistics Practices”. I’ve only heard good things about these courses. Prices vary and the Fritz Institute offers some scholarships for individuals.

6. Human Rights with the Human Rights Education Associates

HREA organises a large number of specialised human rights trainings via distance education for human rights practitioners and development workers. The courses cost 725 USD. In addition to English many are available in French and Russian. I even found one course in German.

7. How to care for a Swine Flu victim at the International Red Cross Red Crescent

Last but not least, my employer has recently launched an e-learning platform that is open to the public. Among the free courses are one that teaches you how to care for a sick family member (it’s built for H1N1 but is just as useful for the normal flu) and one course  (40 hours) that introduces you to the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. The courses are free, more courses will be added over the next year.

What other distance learning or e-learning programmes and courses do you know that should be part of this list?

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