Cipher Issue 104, September 27, 2011, Editor's Letter

This is the time of year when we remind all researchers to consider submitting papers to the Security and Privacy Symposium. The deadline for this flagship conference of the IEEE Computer Society's Technical Committee on Security and Privacy is November 16. The conference program has been expanding during the last several years, a trend that will probably continue. Also, the popular "Systemization of Knowledge" papers are again welcome.

The Symposium is changing its location, for the first time since its inception it will not be held at the Claremont Hotel. The contract for a location in downtown San Francisco is all but final, and it will be announced soon. The change will allow the symposium to grow well beyond the 360 person limit that plagued the 2011 meeting.

The 2012 conference will have more workshops, and Sven Dietrich, as the chair of SPW (Security and Privacy Workshops) has been reviewing proposals and plans during the summer. Watch for announcements soon.

I have wondered recently if the continual assault of social media on our privacy has any longterm purpose. Although one motivation is to keep our interest, the financial motivation is to make advertising more effective. Is there some natural limit to consumerism? How much better can we be at buying stuff? If I have all the information in the world available to me, would I choose milk chocolate over dark chocolate? Probably not, some things are unchangeable.

  When you wish OnStar,
  Facebook knows who you are.
  Happy Autumn,
      Hilarie Orman