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Groups ask FTC to investigate McDonald’s, General Mills over kids’ privacy law - 22 août 2012
Several privacy and children’s advocacy groups have written to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to investigate large companies such as McDonald’s and General Mills for using marketing techniques they say violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). The letter also names Doctor’s (...)
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Stepped-up computer monitoring of federal workers worries privacy advocates - 20 août 2012
When the Food and Drug Administration started spying on a group of agency scientists, it installed monitoring software on their laptop computers to capture their communications.
The software, sold by SpectorSoft of Vero Beach, Fla., could do more than vacuum up the scientists’ e-mails as they complained to (...)
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Smartphone campaigning has its pitfalls, privacy group says - 14 août 2012
Smartphones may be the coolest new tool for Election 2012, but users should think twice before taking advantage of the technology, privacy advocates say.
A report from the Electronic Privacy Information Center released Monday said that campaigns and voters should be aware of the security and privacy issues that (...)
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Google facing force of aggressive E.U. regulators - 24 juillet 2012
Europe may be a financial disaster and a faded military force, but in at least one arena it has emerged as champ : Regulators here are challenging the power of America’s technology titans. And they are winning.
Google is most squarely in the crosshairs as its officials negotiate furiously in hopes of avoiding a $4 (...)
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Facebook triples lobbying budget from last year, eyes White House - 23 juillet 2012
Facebook tripled its lobbying efforts in the second quarter of the year, spending nearly $1 million to influence Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and White House on their positions regarding online privacy and child safety protection. That’s also up from $650,000 in the first quarter.
The company is still (...)
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As Apple and Samsung vie over tablet patents, judge at center of a tech storm - 20 juillet 2012
As Apple and Samsung escalated a multibillion-dollar war over one of the hottest consumer gadgets of our time, the tablet computer, a little-known judge did for Apple what the company couldn’t do on its own : She shut down the competition.
The stunning move by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh to temporarily order (...)
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Cellphone carriers report surge in surveillance requests from law enforcement - 10 juillet 2012
Local, state and federal law enforcement authorities made more than 1.3 million demands for cellphone subscriber information last year, in a sign of their growing reliance on technology to aid criminal and emergency investigations.
The reports from carriers came in response to a congressional inquiry seeking to (...)
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HTC did not infringe Apple patents, judge rules - 6 juillet 2012
A British judge ruled Wednesday that smartphone manufacturer HTC has not infringed on patents held by Apple, and found that three of the four patents Apple tried to assert against the company were not valid.
The judge said that Apple’s patent for electronic photo management was a valid claim but that HTC’s (...)
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"˜Big data’ from social media, elsewhere online redefines trend-watching - 8 juin 2012
From a trading desk in London, Paul Hawtin monitors the fire hose of more than 340 million Twitter posts flying around the world each day to try to assess the collective mood of the populace.
The computer program he uses generates a global sentiment score from 1 to 50 based on how pessimistic or optimistic people (...)
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Facebook and kids : a business bet - 5 juin 2012
What’s the business opportunity for getting young kids on Facebook ?
Experts say it’s hard to determine if parents would be more willing to let their children under 13 sign up if Facebook changed its age rules. But the numbers offer financial promise for the social networking giant.
About 60 percent of 12- and (...)
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Facebook rumored to be eyeing more acquisitions, working on a phone - 29 mai 2012
Facebook is said to be looking at a couple of companies to add to its ever-growing list of acquisitions. Rumor has it that the company is looking at the Opera browser to pad out its mobile presence. The company’s Opera Mini mobile browser has a reported 170 million users, according to Reuters, and could give the (...)
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Google search practices draw scrutiny of European antitrust officials - 21 mai 2012
European antitrust officials announced Monday they have found four areas of concern in an investigation over Google’s search practices, saying the search giant had "a matter of weeks" to volunteer remedies.
The findings mean that the clock effectively starts ticking for Google to come up with solutions to the (...)
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Pentagon to expand cybersecurity program for defense contractors - 14 mai 2012
The Pentagon is expanding and making permanent a trial program that teams the government with Internet service providers to protect defense firms’ computer networks against data theft by foreign adversaries.
It is part of a larger effort to broaden the sharing of classified and unclassified cyberthreat data (...)
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Facebook IPO : How could privacy concerns affect revenue ? - 5 mai 2012
Now that Facebook has set its share prices, valuing the company between $77 billion and $96 billion, the question is whether it will be able to convince investors that it’s got a sustainable business model, can keep growing and find new ways to generate revenue.
And because advertising revenue is such a big part (...)
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Google engineer told officials Street View cars were collecting personal data, FCC report says - 30 avril 2012
A Google engineer knowingly created software that would collect sensitive personal information about people without their knowledge, according to an un-redacted version of a federal investigative report.
In a full version of a Federal Communications Commission report, an engineer shared e-mails with other Google (...)
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CISPA : Who’s for it, who’s against it and how it could affect you - 29 avril 2012
With the House’s passage of the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the bill’s proponents and opponents on both sides of the aisle are gearing up for a fight over the legislation as it heads to the Senate. Here’s a quick look at who’s for CISPA, who’s against it and why.
Facebook, Microsoft, the U.S. (...)
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CISPA passes the House, privacy battle moves to Senate - 28 avril 2012
The House passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) Thursday night, despite some controversy over how the bill addresses privacy and a threat of a veto from the White House.
The measure, designed to make it easier for the federal government and private sector to share cyber threat data with (...)
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Facebook, Microsoft strike a patent deal - 23 avril 2012
Facebook and Microsoft announced Monday that they have struck a deal for over 1,000 patents, including some of the patents Microsoft recently acquired from AOL.
According to the release, Facebook will pay around $550 million in cash for the patents. Microsoft and AOL announced their patent deal on April 9, with (...)
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Google announces privacy changes across products ; users can’t opt out - 25 janvier 2012
Google will soon know far more about who you are and what you do on the Web.
The Web giant announced Tuesday that it plans to follow the activities of users across nearly all of its ubiquitous sites, including YouTube, Gmail and its leading search engine.
"‰The annual CES exhibition in Las Vegas is a (...)
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Israeli hacker posts info about Saudis and others in retaliatory attack - 11 janvier 2012
An Israeli hacker has posted information online about hundreds of Saudis, Egyptians, Syrians and others "” a new salvo in the cyber war launched by an alleged Saudi hacker who leaked details about thousands of Israelis last week, an Israeli newspaper reported Wednesday.
The information was posted on the pastebin (...)
