Andrew LaVallee

The Internet has been a boon to deaf computer users, giving them easy access to a wide variety of information and breaking down communication barriers. But many of those users feel left behind by one of the Internet’s fastest-growing segments: online video.

Though television networks and movie studios are rapidly expanding into Internet distribution, few online videos offer the closed captioning that companies are required by law to offer to TV viewers. The major networks provide full-length episodes of some of their most popular shows on the Web, including hits like “Lost” and “Survivor,” but none of them include captions. Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes store sells downloads of more than 200 TV shows, but doesn’t offer versions with captions, and the company’s popular iPod player doesn’t support them.

The absence of online captions has emerged as a hot topic in the deaf community. The media providers say they are held back by technological hurdles, and point out that online distribution of TV content is still in its infancy. But advocates for the deaf and hard of hearing say the lack of captions is a slight, since most programs have already been transcribed to comply with Federal Communications Commission rules. They are pushing to update government regulations to cover the Internet.

“It’s like history repeating itself from TV to Internet,” said Jim House, a spokesman for Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Inc., a Silver Spring, Md., deaf advocacy group. Groups lobbied networks to caption shows starting in the 1980s, he said. Regulations put in place in the 1990s by the FCC and Congress required TV manufacturers to make sets compatible with closed-captioning signals, and set a timetable for networks to include captions with their broadcasts. While captions are now common on U.S. broadcasts, it wasn’t until January of this year that they became mandatory for all English-language programs produced since 1998.

“I’m hoping we do not have to wait another 25 years” to bring captioning to Internet video, Mr. House said.

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New Services Help Safeguard Outbound Messages Against Forwarding and Tampering

People who want to open email from patent attorney Andrew Currier have to know the drill. First, they must answer a predetermined question, such as “Where did we first meet?” If they answer correctly, they will then be allowed to view the contents of the email — but they can’t alter it or forward it to anyone else.

Concerned about privacy, the Toronto-based lawyer has begun using a new service that encrypts his emails and tries to keep unintended recipients from reading the contents. The tool, developed by Echoworx Corp., adds a “send secure” button to his Microsoft Outlook email program. Unlike other email-security systems Mr. Currier has tried, this one doesn’t require recipients of his emails to download any software or use the same email program.

“I really need it to be easy for the client on the other end,” says Mr. Currier, who says that leaked information could be disastrous for one of their patent applications. “People don’t appreciate just how vulnerable email is.”

Amid heightened privacy concerns, a handful of technology companies are touting new services designed to make existing email programs, such as Microsoft Corp.’s Outlook, more secure, with features ranging from emails that can’t be forwarded to self-destructing messages that can be viewed only for a limited time. While most email programs by themselves guard against inbound attacks such as viruses and spam, they give computer users little control over the messages that are sent. So these third-party developers, which aren’t working directly with Microsoft or other email companies, aim to fill that hole.

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(Also appeared in AOL Money & Finance, Arizona Republic, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Bonita [Fla.] Daily News, Bradenton [Fla.] Herald, Contra Costa [Calif.] Times, Detroit News, [Toronto] Globe and Mail, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Seattle Times.)

In the wake of AOL’s recent leak of search queries from 650,000 customers, a new service has launched that says it masks computer users’ online activities. But unlike other so-called anonymizer tools, which have been around for some time, the Relakks service comes with a twist: The service and the company behind it are based in Sweden, where backers say stiff privacy laws make it more difficult for law-enforcement authorities and others to gain access to customer information.

Relakks, which costs €5 ($6.44) a month, has attracted about 21,000 customers – with two-thirds of them coming from the U.S. — since its debut last week, according to Labs2 Group AB, the Lund, Sweden-based broadband company that runs the service. “To be quite frank, we did not anticipate the hornet’s nest we stirred up,” said Jonas Birgersson, Labs2’s 34-year-old chief executive, who rose to prominence in Sweden during the dot-com boom when he founded Framfab, a large Internet consulting firm. That company has since been broken up; Labs2 is a remnant.

Many anonymization tools are aimed at helping users avoid being tracked as they surf from one Web site to another. Relakks takes a more comprehensive approach, setting itself up as the gateway for all communication between a user’s computer and the outside world.

Subscribers use their existing Internet connections to access Relakks’s encrypted network. Once connected, any Internet traffic, including email, Web browsing and online file sharing, is routed through the company’s computers in Sweden. The user’s local Internet service provider would see only the connection to Relakks, and wouldn’t have any record of the user’s online activities beyond that, according to Labs2.

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In advertisements on hundreds of blogs, visitors are being encouraged to join a lawsuit against Alltel Corp. over a new discount-calling plan from the regional cellphone company. The plan, called My Circle, allows Alltel customers to designate up to 10 phone numbers that can be called for free, regardless of the cellphone carrier they’re affiliated with.

“Have you been added to an Alltel My Circle without your consent? Join our class-action lawsuit and let our experience help to recover your losses,” reads one version of the ad.

The content of the ad seemed controversial and worried Walter Olson when it was submitted to his popular legal blog, Overlawyered. He recalls that when he first saw it, he thought, “It’d be the first time I’d have to reject an ad.”

Then Mr. Olson did some online digging and discovered that the ad was a spoof, part of an elaborate marketing campaign designed by the Little Rock, Ark., cellular company. The ads link to a Web site for the People Against My Circle Foundation – also an Alltel creation – while another faux site carries play-by-play reports from the court battle.

But the ad campaign may be too clever for its own good: Some bloggers have refused to carry the ads about the lawsuit, and others have been hesitant. Many blog visitors, meanwhile, have expressed confusion over the ads in online forums, with some asking: Who’s Alltel? (The company isn’t well known to consumers outside the states where it offers service.)

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For some time, banks and credit-card companies have been warning computer users about so-called phishing emails that link to counterfeit Web sites where customers are asked to enter their account numbers and other personal information.

Now, savvy con artists are adding a new twist dubbed “vishing.”

Customers of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust recently received emails telling them that their accounts with the company’s online banking system had been disabled after the bank detected unauthorized access. They were told to dial a telephone number (with a local, Southern California area code) where an automated voice prompted them to enter their account numbers, personal-access codes and other details. It’s not clear who was on the other end of the phone line, but it wasn’t Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.

The incident was among the latest in a string of vishing, or voice phishing, attacks. Security experts say such schemes are made possible by Internet-telephone services, which allow computer users to quickly establish phone numbers, often without undergoing some of the verification checks used by traditional telephone companies. Also, Internet phone companies dole out numbers with a choice of area code, regardless of where in the country — or world — the user is located. That can make it much more difficult to locate fraudsters.

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(This article also appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, [Toronto] Globe and Mail, Arizona Republic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, [Denver] Rocky Mountain News and AOL News.)

The videogame industry is locked in a battle with state and local lawmakers around the country who want to rein in access to what they see as increasingly violent and sexually explicit games.

At issue are the content ratings attached to videogames, and the steps retailers take (or don’t take) to make sure some games — like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which included hidden nude scenes — aren’t sold to young players. Critics of the industry say that even though major retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy have voluntarily adopted policies to restrict sales of such games, enforcement can be lax. Several states want to impose fines on underage sales. What’s more, some argue the ratings system needs to be overhauled because ratings are determined by a group created and funded by the game industry itself.

The videogame industry, meanwhile, is fighting back on two fronts. Last month, an industry trade group launched an initiative in cooperation with major retailers and three senators aimed at tightening sales policies for games. Less publicly, the group continues to aggressively challenge local legislative efforts in the courts, and has had success in getting some state laws overturned.

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