A coalition of industry leaders have put aside their differences, joining forces to create the Open Container Project (OCP), chartered to establish common standards for better interoperability.
A coalition of industry leaders have put aside their differences, joining forces to create the Open Container Project (OCP), chartered to establish common standards for better interoperability. As part of this initiative announced Monday, Docker will donate the code for its software container format and its runtime, as well as the associated specifications. The coalition will house the project under the Linux Foundation.
The long list of project participants reads like a who's who for the tech industry, from investors like Goldman Sachs to search engine Google. Among the others are Amazon Web Services, Apcera, Cisco, CoreOS, Docker, EMC, Fujitsu Limited, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Linux Foundation, Mesosphere, Microsoft, Pivotal, Rancher Labs, Red Hat, and VMware. The crew will create standards arounddigital container format and runtime for the project.
The OCP will remain independent from any company or company-sponsored project.Theimage format will become backward compatible with the Docker image format and apps, and will include efforts to become compatible with other container efforts.
The idea is that developers can package their applications in a container and feel confident it will run in any runtime, similar to the way TagMan, which acquired by Ensighten in 2014, built a container for ad targeting. Or the concept of Web services spearheaded by Microsoft. The Web services hold a set of software functions built into one model that companies can plug into a variety of platforms running on the Web. It would carry out the same function in one software as it did in another.
San Francisco startup Docker has popularized container technology during the past year, but there are no standards. The company cites eBay, and Yelp as two among many using their service.
Microsoft, Twitter, Google and Facebook all participate in the NSA's Prism effort. Photograph: Pichi Chuang/Reuters
Tens of thousands of accounts associated with customers of
Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo have their data turned over to US
government authorities every six months as the result of secret court
orders, the tech giants disclosed for the first time on Monday.
As part of a transparency deal reached last week with the Justice Department, four of the tech firms that participate in the National Security Agency’s Prism effort,
which collects largely overseas internet communications, released more
information about the volume of data the US demands they provide than
they have ever previously been permitted to disclose.
But the
terms of the deal prevent the companies from itemising the collection,
beyond bands of thousands of data requests served on them by a secret
surveillance court. The companies must also delay by six months
disclosing information on the most recent requests – terms the Justice
Department negotiated to end a transparency lawsuit before the so-called
Fisa court that was brought by the companies.
In announcing
the updated data figures, the companies appeared concerned by the lack
of precision over the depth of their compelled participation in
government surveillance.
“We still believe more transparency
is needed so everyone can better understand how surveillance laws work
and decide whether or not they serve the public interest,” said Google’s
legal director for law enforcement and information security, Richard
Salgado, in a post on the company’s official blog.
“Specifically,
we want to disclose the precise numbers and types of requests we
receive, as well as the number of users they affect in a timely way.”
In the most recent period for which data is available, January to June 2013 – a period ended by the beginning of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s landmark surveillance disclosures
– Google gave the government the internet metadata of up to 999
customer accounts, and the content of communications from between 9,000
and 9,999 customers.
Microsoft received fewer than 1,000
orders from the Fisa court for communications content during the same
period, related to between 15,000 and 15,999 “accounts or individual
identifiers”.
The company, which owns the internet video
calling service Skype, also disclosed that it received fewer than 1,000
orders for metadata – which reveals communications patterns rather than
individual message content – related to fewer than 1,000 accounts or
identifiers. Yahoo disclosed
that it gave the government communications content from between 30,000
and 30,999 accounts over the first six months of 2013, and fewer than
1,000 customer accounts that were subject to Fisa court orders for
metadata. Facebook disclosed that during the first half of 2013,
it turned over content data from between 5000 and 5999 accounts – a
rise of about 1000 from the previous six month period – and customer
metadata associated with up to 999 accounts.
Microsoft,
Facebook and Yahoo also gave the FBI certain customer records – not
content – under a type of non-judicial subpoena called a national
security letter. Since disclosure of national security letters is not
subject to a six-month delay under last week’s deal, Microsoft revealed
that it received up to 999 such subpoenas between June and December
2013, affecting up to 999 user accounts. Facebook’s National Security
Letter total was the same.
Yahoo received up to 999 national
security letters during the same period, affecting 1,000 to 1,999
accounts. Google received the same total, and disclosed that since 2009,
national security letters have compelled the handover of customer
records from as many as 1999 accounts every six months. Last week Apple disclosed
that between 1 January and 30 June 2013 it had received less than 250
national security orders – including national security letters and
other requests – relating to less than 250 accounts.
LinkedIn, the professional networking service, disclosed on Monday that it received the same total of generic “national security requests.”
Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, posted on the company’s blog
that “only a fraction of a percent of users are affected by these
orders”, and argued that “we have not received the type of bulk data
requests that are commonly discussed publicly regarding telephone
records.”
But the disclosures only apply to data requests turned over to the NSA and FBI as the result of Fisa court orders.
Documents
that Snowden disclosed to the Guardian, Washington Post and other
outlets show that the NSA also siphons communications and associated
data from information in transit across the global communications
infrastructure – without court orders, under authority claimed under a
seminal executive order known as executive order 12,333.
“Nothing
in today's report minimises the significance of efforts by governments
to obtain customer information outside legal process,” Smith said,
affirming that the company remained concerned about reports of
clandestine government hacking and would continue to press for more
transparency from the US government and others. Google data shows a significant growth in
internet content collection from its products by the NSA. Photograph:
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The data from Google shows a significant growth in internet content
collection from its products by the NSA. In the first six months of
2009, the company gave the government data from up to 2,999 customer
accounts, a figure that grew to between 12,000 and 12,999 customer
accounts by the second half of 2012 before dipping to under 10,000
accounts in the first half of 2013.
But the data does not provide
any indication of what accounted for the rise, beyond the growth in
popularity of Google email and other internet products.
Similarly,
Microsoft revealed that it gave the US government content information
on more than 12,000 customer accounts in the second half of 2011, a
figure that grew to over 16,000 customer accounts in late 2012 before
dropping to more than 15,000 in the first six months of 2013.
Kevin
Bankston, the policy director for the Open Technology Institute in
Washington, said the amount of information the companies were able to
detail about their roles in US surveillance was “far less than what we
need for adequate accountability from the government”.
“Lumping
all of the different types of surveillance orders together into one
number, then adding obscurity on top of obscurity by requiring that
number to be reported in ranges of one thousand, is not enough to
educate the American public or reassure the international community that
the NSA is using its surveillance authorities responsibly," said
Bankston, who like Google’s Salgado advocated legislation permitting the
additional disclosure of “specific number of requests issued under
specific legal authorities and the number of people affected by each”.
Nate
Cardozo, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said
the new information in the transparency reports was “a good first step”
but added that large questions remained. Cardozo said the national
security letters had all been “lumped together” and it was impossible to
see what legal framework had been used to compel the companies to hand
over information.
“It makes you question the government’s repeated assertions that it welcomes this debate,” he said.
Microsoft’s
Smith lamented that “despite the president's reform efforts and our
ability to publish more information, there has not yet been any public
commitment by either the US or other governments to renounce the
attempted hacking of internet companies.
“We believe the
constitution requires that our government seek information from American
companies within the rule of law. We'll therefore continue to press for
more on this point, in collaboration with others across our industry.”
•
An earlier version of this story stated in error that Google did not
disclose the number of national security letters it had received. This
has been corrected. It was further revised to remove an unsubstantiated
description of Microsoft being a "major surveillance partner for the
US government".
Summary:
The four large Internet service companies have asked the FISA Court to
allow them to publish certain aggregate data about FISA requests they
receive.
Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo! file motions in FISA Court
Summary: The four large Internet
service companies have asked the FISA Court to allow them to publish
certain aggregate data about FISA requests they receive. The government
will have to defend in court.
Today Microsoft, Google, Yahoo! and Facebook all filed motions
with the FISC (U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court) to allow
them to release certain aggregate data about the numbers of requests
they receive from the government.
Microsoft and Google filed such motions many weeks ago; the
proceedings were delayed at the government's request until just recently
as the parties negotiated. The negotiations have failed and the matter
will be heard in the FISC.
Today Microsoft and Google filed amended motions with more specifics on what they wished to disclose. They were joined by Yahoo! and Facebook which filed similar motions with the FISC.
The motions are all worded similarly, arguing that the government has
no reasonable claim that release of the data would compromise any
legitimate governmental interest, and that in any case the prohibition
is a violation of the companies' First Amendment free speech rights.
Facebook asks to be able to release:
The total number of FISA court orders it has received during a 6 month period, if any, under specific FISA authorities, such as:
Physical Search Orders
Business Record Orders
Wiretap and Pen Register/Trap and Trace orders
The total number of user accounts specified in such FISA orders
The total number of Directives it has received during the period under 18 U.S.C. § 1881a, if any
The total number of user accounts specified under such directives.
The number of requests that called for content of communications
versus those that called for transaction or subscriber information.
Yahoo!'s and Google's motions are identical as to what they request and are even more specific:
FISA orders based on probable cause (Titles I and III of FISA, and sections 703 and 704);
Section 702 of FISA;
FISA Section 12 Business Records (Title V of FISA); and
FISA Pen Register/Trap and Trace (Title IY of FISA).
Microsoft's is less specific, asking that the court allow them to:
… disclose, for each provision of FISA and/ or the FAA, pursuant
to which Microsoft may receive process, the following aggregate figures:
(1) the number of orders and/ or directives (if any) received that
require the production of only non-content data, and the number of
accounts affected by any such orders and/or directives; and (2) the
total number of orders and/ or directives (if any) received that require
the production of content and non-content data, and the number of
accounts affected by any such orders and/ or directives (together, the
"Aggregate Data").
All of the companies state that inaccurate reports in the press are
damaging their reputations and that greater disclosure would help them
to defend themselves.
note: I had this tacked onto my article called "Innovation" but my wife said it really didn't directly deal with "Innovation" so I decided to make it a separate article. If you want to read innovation here it is below. Just click the word button "Innovation".
The 1980 and then the 1981 double dip recession helped create Apple Computer and Microsoft. And from the many many companies like this came eventually the internet in the late 1980s and early 1990s. From this came first Yahoo, then Google, then Ebay, then Amazon, then Facebook and all the rest of the billionaires. And from this combination came Globalization which is the main reason that the U.S. and Europe and Japan are in a terrible economic fix now. So the innovation that spawned this recession now called "The Great Recession" was microcomputers and the internet.
So, there is no way to put the genie back into the bottle so to speak. It is going to move forward and now further innovations out of not only the U.S. but from all over the world will move the world forward now at a frantic pace.
Was the U.S. naive to invent microcomputers and the internet? Only history can answer this question. However, it is my guess that the whole human race has a better chance of surviving together what the world is going through at this time because of microcomputers and the internet. This is what I think. However, now the U.S. and Europe are going to have to reinvent ourselves just like the rest of the world is right now if we want to compete and be viable in the world as it is now and not just in a world the way we would like it to be. Because that world is gone forever now.
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