Internet Privacy - Infoworld

EPIC sues FTC over Google's planned privacy changes

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:52:23 +0000

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, asking a court to force the agency to take action against Google over planned changes in the company's collection of personal data.

Google to pay users to track their movements online

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:28:54 +0000

Amid widespread concern about its new privacy policies, Google is now facing criticism over an offer to give users Amazon gift certificates if they open their Web movements to the company in a program called Screenwise.

Google says the program launched "near the beginning of the year," but the company's low-key offer was disclosed Tuesday night on the blog Search Engine Land.

It's time to regulate Facebook

Robert X. Cringely — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:52:30 +0000

Yes, I know. That headline alone will cause anti-regulation conservatives to burst an artery and libertarians to swallow their tongues. Overall, our government does a poor job regulating technology, in large part because many of our elected representatives are still searching for the "any" key (or having their aides do it for them). But hear me out.

Update: Trustwave admits issuing man-in-the-middle digital certificate

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:36 +0000

Digital Certificate Authority (CA) Trustwave revealed that it has issued a digital certificate that enabled an unnamed private company to spy on SSL-protected connections within its corporate network, an action that prompted the Mozilla community to debate whether the CA's root certificate should be removed from Firefox.

FTC: Background checking apps may be against the law

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:26:51 +0000

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent warning letters to the makers of six mobile apps used for background checks, saying the apps may violate a consumer credit protection law.

Security lab: Something fishy about Google Chrome's Safe Browsing API

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:00:35 +0000

From the start, Google's Safe Browsing API was designed to spot malicious Web pages so users wouldn't get trapped in them. Google identifies these sites through its own algorithms and user notification.

Google won't delay new privacy policy despite E.U. concerns

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:52:24 +0000

Google does not plan to delay its new privacy policy despite calls from Europe's data protection watchdog.

Microsoft researchers say anonymized data isn't so anonymous

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:10:47 +0000

Data routinely gathered in Web logs -- IP address, cookie ID, operating system, browser type, user-agent strings -- can threaten online privacy because they can be used to identify the activity of individual machines, Microsoft researchers say.

At the same time, analysis of such data when anonymized can help detect malicious activity and so improve overall Internet security, they add.

Feds say Megaupload user content could be deleted this week

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:33:38 +0000

Federal prosecutors say that two companies hosting Megaupload's servers in the U.S. could begin deleting all user content on them as early as Thursday.

But one of the companies today denied it had access to any data on Megaupload's servers and said it has no mechanism for returning data to Megaupload's users.

FBI seeks Big Brother-'Minority Report' hybrid

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:42:47 +0000

Recognizing just how powerful a tool social networking sites have become in orchestrating protests, rallies, and riots in the United States and beyond, the FBI is in the early stages of designing a complex system for monitoring tweets, Facebook status

15 worst Internet privacy scandals of all time

admin — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:36:01 +0000

In honor of National Data Privacy Day this Saturday, Jan. 28, we've put together a list of the 15 worst Internet privacy scandals of all time.

These high-profile privacy scandals involve many underlying technologies, from search to social media, email to voice mail, mobile phones to Webcams to GPS. But at the heart of all of these privacy scandals are companies collecting personal data without the user's knowledge or consent and then either sharing it with third parties or simply failing to keep it safe.

How does Google's new privacy policy compare?

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:40:28 +0000

Some politicians, privacy advocates, and pundits have been stirred into a frenzy in the wake of Google's newly announced overarching privacy policy.

Google stirs up privacy hornet's nest

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:59:23 +0000

Google has whipped up a privacy brouhaha with a blog post announcing that the company is rewriting its privacy policy, consolidating user information across its services.

Google to combine users' data across its services

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:15:44 +0000

Google will be able to combine data from several Google services when a Google Accounts user is signed in, as part of a rewritten set of privacy policies that the company announced on Tuesday.

The E.U.'s cynical campaign against U.S. cloud providers

David Linthicum — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

The U.S. government continues its attempts to quell controversy about U.S. jurisdiction over cloud data that U.S. companies store overseas. This "can be traced at least in part to early efforts at a sort of digital protectionism in the form of [E.U. member] state efforts to promote European cloud companies over their U.S.-based competitors.

Security alert: Why compliance and privacy matter

Roger A. Grimes — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

One bit of IT security dogma that's gone unquestioned over the years is the notion that every technology belongs to one of three pillars: confidentiality, integrity, and availability, also known by the abbreviation CIA. Traditionally, a security team is doing its job if it manages to protect the technologies that fall into those three buckets.

Foreign cloud privacy concerns dismissed by U.S. officials

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:51:18 +0000

A pair of senior Obama administration officials on Wednesday sought to tamp down recent stirrings of controversy over the privacy protections under U.S. law surrounding content stored in the cloud residing in data centers in foreign jurisdictions.

U.S. State Department investigating Huawei on Iran concerns

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:36:03 +0000

The U.S. Department of State said on Wednesday it is investigating Huawei Technologies for allegedly providing censorship and mobile phone tracking technology to Iran, following a request from six U.S. lawmakers.

The Department of State "shares the concern of any potential export of technology to Iran that is to be used specifically to disrupt, monitor or suppress communication of the people of Iran," said department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin in an email.

New AIM instant messaging client poses privacy risks, says EFF

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:45:06 +0000

Digital rights watchdog Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is advising users of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) not to upgrade to the next version of the instant messaging application because its features expose them to privacy risks.

2012 tech predictions: From IDG's editors worldwide

Galen Gruman — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:00:00 +0000

What is 2012 likely to bring to the tech industry and its users? IDG -- the publisher of InfoWorld, Computerworld, Network World, CIO, CSO, ITworld, PC World, Macworld, and other tech publications throughout the globe -- surveyed its editors to gaze into their crystal balls and predict a key trend or development for 2012, as well as select their key story for 2011. The death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs and the rise of social media as a tool of protest topped a diverse roundup of nominees.