Headline News Archive

2012

February

06

• Hospitals mine patient records in search of customers. When the oversized postcard arrived last August from Provena St. Joseph Medical Center promoting a lung cancer screening for current or former smokers over 55,…

03

• Why are we only finding out about the VeriSign security breach now?. “Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers” read the headline in Reuters yesterday. This is big news because, as the article casually points out, VeriSign…

02

• Options to Google’s search services, privacy policy. Over the past few weeks, there’s been quite an uproar over Google and changes to its search services and the privacy policies that govern how…

01

• Personal data’s value? Facebook is set to find out. Facebook, the vast online social network, is poised to file for a public stock offering on Wednesday that will ultimately value the company at $75…

• IRS tax fraud crackdown targets identity thieves. Dozens of suspected identity thieves and others pursuing fraudulent tax refunds have been arrested in a nationwide crackdown aimed at reversing a sharp increase in…

January

30

• FDA staffers sue agency over surveillance of personal e-mail. The Food and Drug Administration secretly monitored the personal e-mail of a group of its own scientists and doctors after they warned Congress that the…

28

• Google privacy policy: Who will be affected and how you can choose what information gets shared?. Two days after Google announced sweeping changes to its privacy policy, analysts are weighing on who might be most affected by it. Cecilia Kang reports:…

27

• What if a virus infected a virus?. What if two computer viruses got together on your computer and had a baby? It does happen, says security firm BitDefender, and the result is…

• Moves afoot to limit tracking of Web users. They may be battling each other tooth-and-nail to win over online advertisers. But Google and Facebook are on the same side when it comes to…

26

• FAQ: What is Google collecting?. Google announced Tuesday that it will integrate users’ information across Gmail, YouTube, search and 57 other Google services. Google privacy director Alma Whitten, who explained…

• Consumers in the middle of Google-Facebook battle. Google and Facebook might have finally gotten the average consumer riled up about privacy. For the past two years, each company has experimented with different…

25

• Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out. 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…

24

• Europe weighs tough online privacy law. Europe is considering a sweeping new law that would force Internet companies like Amazon.com and Facebook to obtain explicit consent from consumers about the use…

23

• Facebook timeline apps. Beware what you share. A look at the appropriate settings you'll need to protect your privacy while using Facebook's latest apps.

20

• For online privacy, click here. Something viewed online billions of times a month would seem to need no further promotion, but that assumption falls short when the something in question…

19

• Who do you trust more with your data: Facebook or a bank?. If you want to know how much Web companies know about you, talk to Max Schrems. The Austrian law student used European Union privacy laws…

18

• Visa’s digital wallet now available on some smartphones. Good news for people suffering from discomfort caused by sitting on a thick wallet full of credit cards and credit card receipts for a long…

• Teens swap passwords in show of affection. Young couples have long signaled their devotion to each other by various means — the gift of a letterman jacket, or an exchange of class…

17

• Google launches ad campaign to ease privacy concerns. Google Inc. under scrutiny from privacy watchdogs for changes it made to its search engine, is launching a splashy ad campaign designed to alleviate privacy…

• Wikipedia to go offline to protest anti-piracy bill. Most people probably haven't paid much attention to the huge corporations waging war in Washington over legislation designed to crack down on online theft of…

12

• Google personalized search changes set off uproar. It didn't take long for some to push back after Google widened its search-engine results this week. Twitter lambasted the changes as "bad" for consumers…

• 'Hactivists' decried as new breed of censor. Global affairs website Stratfor relaunched Wednesday, three weeks after hacktivists put it in the dark. The Statfor caper serves notice about a troublesome new strain…

11

• Cyberattacks likely to escalate this year. Cyberattacks fueled by ideological ire are likely to escalate this year and continue to bedevil corporations and governments, while putting innocent consumers at risk. That…

06

• New virus raids your bank account - but you won't notice. The best way to protect yourself from an online financial scam is to diligently check your bank accounts. At least, until now. Israeli-based Security firm…

05

• Obama appoints Cordray to head consumer watchdog bureau. In a bold act of political defiance, President Obama installed Richard Cordray as head of a new consumer watchdog agency Wednesday, bypassing Republican opposition in…