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FTC Wants New Rules to Protect Children's Privacy Online August 02, 2012 
The Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday that it was considering new rules to protect children's privacy online. Regulators called for tougher privacy protections to make it harder for advertisers and social networks to collect information about children without permission from the parents.
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Social Media Olympics Becoming Social Media Headache July 31, 2012 
Today in international tech news: London claims that the 2012 games are the first-ever "social media Olympics," but that boast has come with headaches. Elsewhere, investors appear to have taken note of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's rapid growth; Palestine is becoming a tech hub; more.
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Google Still Hasn't Cleaned Out Its Private WiFi Data Closet July 30, 2012 
Google has not deleted the sensitive data it collected from private wireless networks in 2010, according to a recent report. Earlier, the company had promised regulators it would dispose of the information. The search engine giant originally collected the data while it was mapping areas for its Street View services.
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Twitter Breaks the Cycle July 30, 2012 
Today in international tech news: Twitter traffic gets the blame for Olympic cyclists' transmitters not sending signals, which forced one TV commentator to use his watch to estimate times. Also, Bloomberg is still in Internet timeout over its report on a Chinese politician's wealth; Korea is hit with anther round of hacking; Google admits to hoarding info in the UK, and more.
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Skype's Server Upgrade Triggers Wiretapping Worries July 24, 2012 
Fears have surfaced that Skype may be eavesdropping on communications over its service. The concern is that supernodes Microsoft is introducing to Skype could make it easier to monitor calls, because they route the voice data in addition to initiating communications between parties.
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Facial Recognition Faces Congressional Scrutiny July 20, 2012 
A senate committee met on Wednesday to discuss the promise and pitfalls of facial recognition technology. Led by its chair, U.S. Sen. Al Franken, the committee questioned privacy advocates as well as representatives of the FBI, the FTC and Facebook, about how the technology is being used and what privacy issues it raises.
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Twitter May Face Sisyphean Challenge in Protected Speech Battle July 20, 2012 
Twitter indicated Thursday that it will appeal a decision by New York County Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. that the microblogging site must hand over a user's posts. The case stems from an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney regarding the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 -- in particular, one that occurred in October, when protestors blocked the Brooklyn Bridge.
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Ratcheting Up Your Web-Browsing Privacy July 19, 2012 
I've never taken that much notice of my privacy, or lack of, as I've been surfing the Web. However, after recent, obviously targeted advertising directed at me, where the ads blatantly reflected some product research I had just performed, I decided to investigate. Innocuous focused advertising, which can be informative, can simply feel like a violation. Other intrusions can be downright dangerous.
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DNSChanger: Just a Dress Rehearsal July 16, 2012 
Despite dire warnings, the Internet didn't break last week when the FBI pulled the plug on the server controlling the DNSChanger botnet. An estimated 300,000 computers are still infected by the malware that ties them to the botnet, which was designed for large-scale click fraud.
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Tehula Finds Friends Without Fuss but Flirts With Disaster July 16, 2012 
Tehula is brand new in the Apple App Store, and I've got to say, I haven't been so excited about an app in a long time. Faithful readers will likely recognize that I prefer simple apps that do one basic thing really well instead of bloated jack-of-all trade apps. And what does Tehula do? It locates your friends on a map.
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Yahoo Stuck Without SQL Injection Antidote July 14, 2012 
The term "SQL injection" sounds pretty scary -- kind of medical, painful, maybe even lethal. And it can be, for websites that fall victim to it. It involves tricking a site into forming a rogue SQL command that prompts a database to deliver its contents right into the hands of the attacker. If it's successful, a hacker can gain access to a ton of sensitive information.
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Yahoo Voice Crack Spills 400K+ Usernames, Passwords July 12, 2012 
The passwords and usernames of more than 400,000 contributors to the Yahoo Voices website have been stolen and posted on the Internet. The hack was carried out by an organization calling itself "D33Ds Company," which posted the data on the Web. The D33Ds Web page containing the data was down when checked at press time. However, the text file is reportedly available through torrents.
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The High Privacy Price of Auto Insurance Monitoring Discounts July 11, 2012 
Some of the largest automobile insurance companies are now using driving data obtained from GPS and other devices to create preferred pricing for those who submit real-time driving data. So, drivers with good habits may get discounts of as much as 30-50 percent. The economics may be very attractive. However the of loss of personal privacy may be an unintended effect of immense proportions.
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Law Enforcement Feasts on Cellphone Data July 10, 2012 
A congressional inquiry conducted at the behest of Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., found that law enforcement agencies made 1.3 million requests to cellphone carriers in 2011. They sought such information as individuals' text messages, their locations, and even lists of phone numbers they called when in the vicinity of a particular tower, whether they belonged to people under investigation or not.
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Samsung Declared Winningly Unhip July 09, 2012 
Today in international tech news: Samsung wins a ruling against Apple but is declared "not as cool" in the process. Also: Google launches a gay rights campaign; Germany backs off legislation that would allow local governments to sell sensitive information; and investigators rule that the infamous flaming Samsung phone had been microwaved.
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Twitter Channels Google, Issues Transparency Report July 03, 2012 
Today in international tech news: Twitter issues an extensive transparency report; Google sends a letter to Europe; Italy threatens Apple over the company's refusal to give free two-year warranties; and one day after announcing a deal with MasterCard, Deutsche Telekom reveals it is "in talks" with Google about mobile payments.
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Facebook Email Shenanigans Invade Users' Address Books July 03, 2012 
Facebook's email drama continues to unfold a week after it was revealed that the social network unilaterally switched its users' publicly posted email listings to their "@facebook.com" addresses. More recently, users have begun complaining that Facebook's mobile app seems to be swapping out information contained in their smartphones' address books.
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The Do-Not-Track Balancing Act June 27, 2012 
When Microsoft announced recently that Internet Explorer 10 will have its Do Not Track feature turned on by default, it seemed those concerned about online privacy would hail the move as a step in the right direction. Consumer advocates and other groups had been agitating for such a feature for some time.
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Facebook's Find Friends Feature Tiptoes In, Tiptoes Out June 26, 2012 
Facebook rolled out a new mobile social discovery tool recently, only to deactivate it hours later and pull it from its iOS and Android apps. The service, which Facebook called "Find Friends Nearby," was designed to help Facebook users find other users who were in the same vicinity.
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Microsoft Gives Hardware Partners Some Hard Knocks June 23, 2012 
Microsoft's slow crawl to the tablet market is nearly at an end. It's designed the interface of its next operating system, Windows 8, to be easy to use on tablets as well as desktops. It's created a special version, Windows 8 RT, especially for mobile ARM-based devices. It's even shoved out multiple free preview versions of the upcoming OS.
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