RapLeaf knows what you did last summer.

The Wall Street Journal continues its exploration of how our privacy is eroding on the Web in new article by Emily Steel — A Web Pioneer Profiles Users by Name. The article profiles the San Francisco startup RapLeaf, which defines its vision as follows.

“We want every person to have a meaningful, personalized experience – whether online or offline. We want you see the right content at the right time, every time. We want you to get better, more personalized service. To achieve this, we help Fortune 2000 companies gain insight into their customers, engage them more meaningfully, and deliver the right message at the right time. We also help consumers understand their online footprint.”

RapLeaf ties email address to profiles with information about people and uses the profiles to target advertisements for clients. The articles shows the information collected for one person, Linda Twombly of Nashua NH, and what some of the coded information means.

Rapleaf does allow you to see the information it has collected about you, but you have to create a RapLeaf account to see it. You might be surprised about how well it knows you. Visit this page to see if your browser has RapLeaf cookies. You can also use it to opt out your email addresses from the RapLeaf system.

To be fair, RapLeaf and other companies are not doing anything illegal and mainly collect information that people choose to make public on the Web. However, their use of cookies does allow them to aggregate and integrate information about individuals and to associate that information with email addresses, Facebook UIDs and dozens of other identifiers. The information can be used to help Web-based systems serve you better — but their idea of serving you better is likely to involve peppering you with targeted ads.

October 24th Weekly RSA Update! from UMBC_RSA on Vimeo.

 Dr. Antonio R. Moreira, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, visited the Senate. He discussed the Retriever Learning Center, the 24/7 learning center which should be ready by August 2011. The Retriever Learning Center will be located inside the library. In order to maintain a safe and secure area, there will be video camera surveillance and a swipe key access in order to enter the room. In order to make the room interactive and fun, he is also considering the idea of walls you can write on. He aims to make the study room very cozy and comfortable, just like if one was to study at home. The idea of security for students walking from dorms or from parking lots at night to this learning center was also discussed. Construction of the place is planned to begin in December. Please state your idea(s) regarding the design of the room or what you hope the room to be like, in the comment box below. He is really trying to get student input and feedback in the design of this room, as this room is for students. His goal is to make a cozy, safe, secure, and active learning place where students will actually go in order to study.

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications Manager: Science, Technology and Environment
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

Andrew Sears, professor and chair in the Department of Information Systems, and Constellation Professor of Information Technology and Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Each year, ACM, an international organization for computing professionals, recognizes select members who have made distinguished contributions as educators, engineers or scientists. These distinguished members must have had at least 15 years of professional experience.

Sears’ research focuses on human-centered computing and information technology accessibility. He is editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, a quarterly journal that publishes scholarly articles examining the impact of computing on the lives of people with disabilities, and he serves in an editorial role for four other scholarly journals.