Annie Searle & Associates, LLC

These story picks from the staff of Government Technology are not necesarily the same as would be made on the private sector side, but they are certainly each worth reading about.

A sobering look at how much your personal data is worth on the open market. At least one study shows that 40% of those who receive pfishing emails will click through on a link and compromise their own data.

This article offers a mapping of the services that will be included in Google's new privacy policy, as well as the location of settings that allow the Google-ite to turn settings on or off. Just as with Facebook, it's probably a good idea to plan to spend time reviewing and adjusting your settings on a regular basis.

In the online chapter of Advice From A Risk Detective, I wrote about the enormous potential of social media for good, especially in helping to shoulder the communications load during disasters. Though Craig Fuguate, director of FEMA, is a walking example of how to effectively use social media, many in the emergency management profession still resist it. Here's a book, written especially for emergency managers, that could be persuasive.

Reading this article, I was struck by how few of us actually understand what is done with data we post on the Internet. Google+ is a service I signed up for but rarely use, at least at this point. But it is only one of a range of services connected with Google. When the new policy comes out, it will behoove each of us to read it.

The last piece in Pittman's article is the most significant: when data was rerun without the satellite data input, the forecast was off by 50%. That's a graphic demonstration of how valuable the satellites are in forecasting severe weather. Funding the program as it has been designed should be continued.

Every once in awhile an article comes along that nearly perfectly captures all of the issues around a single topic. This is one such article. Sommer has captured the key benefits and risks of bringing in a "big player."

Whether you're in the public or privat sector, you'll want to review this new FEMA document.

It's hard to see just yet what the effect of yesterday's technology campaign will be on members of Congress. At least it should be enough for them to reconsider both badly written antipiracy bills.

Take some time today to read the two anti-piracy bills as well as the reasons that so many organizations oppose both of time.

As I said yesterday, both anti-piracy bills are badly written and would cause un-thought-out consequences. Wednesday could be a lonely day on the Internet.

These are badly written bills, and this article lays out some of the ground that is being disputed in the discussion.

This is a major breakthrough. Storage and storage devices will become smaller and run with less power in the future.

Thousands, perhaps millions, signed up for Google+, but don't have time or energy to post to the site. Now Google is upping the ante with its new personal search tool. Add that to a standoff with Twitter as to whether or not tweets should be indexed, and you have a whole new playing field.

But is this enough for Facebook users to move to Google+? It's hard to remember that there is still a whole world out there that does not know how to use Facebook or Twitter. Those who do use those sites would have to significantly modify their habits to also post to Google+, or to use it rather than Facebook.

Using the "ideashare" tool, you are invited to agree or disagree or to add your own ideas to the National Preparedness Report developed by FEMA and its partners. For some, this is as close as you'll ever get to using a social media tool. I'm delighted to see FEMA using this approach to collect additional data, and hope that you'll consider participating.

The banking and financial sector has for years led other critical infrastructure sectors in this country where information security is concerned. It's been under seige for at least ten years from hackers, pfishers and now cyber-terrorists as well. The move to share information among institutions with a goal to reducing incidences of online theft is a logical next step.

Sydney Finkelstein did this research and published it in 2004. Forbes reprinted it recently, and it is as relevant today as it was then. On the basis of my own work, I have to say that I believe he has all seven of these habits right.

Our hope is that more people recognize "Get your free iPad here" as exactly what it is -- a form of spam.

One hardly knows what to make of this development, especially since it is government-sanctioned. It is certainly worth tracking.

Continuity Central is one of the world's most respected publications. Here, its editor David Honour makes big predictions for 2012.