Headline News Archive

2012

January

04

• Hackers reveal personal data of 860,000 Stratfor subscribers. A computer hacking group has revealed email addresses and other personal data from former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger,…

02

• New 'geofencing' apps offer deals and services. Geofencing creates a digital perimeter around a location -- which could be a building, school or entire city -- that enables merchants or others to…

01

• Consumer protection made big gains in 2011. The last year was a remarkable one for consumer protection. Among the wins: A new watchdog agency opened for business, regulators cracked down on a…

2011

December

31

• Anonymous exposes 75,000 credit card numbers. Hacker collective Anonymous has just dumped 200 GB of names, email addresses and passwords for around 860,000 Stratfor users. Anonymous also exposed credit card numbers…

29

• Cloud storage sites by Amazon, others compared. If you've ever had your laptop stolen, watched your toddler baptize your PC with Pepsi, or had your MacBook come to a cold, dead stop,…

28

• Your cell phone is out of your control. Here's the takeaway from the Carrier IQ fiasco: Mobile phone owners have no clue what data-gathering tools are running on their devices, and little ability…

26

• Hacking victims targeted after speaking to media. Victims of a data breach at the security analysis firm Stratfor apparently are being targeted a second time after speaking out about the hacking. Stratfor…

24

• Logging in with a touch or a phrase. Passwords are a pain to remember. What if a quick wiggle of five fingers on a screen could log you in instead? Or speaking a…

22

• Facebook agrees to privacy changes in Europe. Facebook has agreed to make several changes to its services to improve transparency and better protect the personal data of its millions of users outside…

19

• As patient records are digitized, data breaches are on the rise. One afternoon last spring, Micky Tripathi received a panicked call from an employee. Someone had broken into his car and stolen his briefcase and company…

• Sprint's decision to stop using carrier IQ. Sprint’s decision to disable Carrier IQ software on its handsets and no longer collect data from the service is good news for people who have…

• Consumers will lose $10M to cyber crime this holiday season. Online shopping around the holidays has increased 10 percent since the same time in 2010, to around $30.9 billion dollars spent thus far in the…

15

• Carrier IQ faces federal probe into tracking cellphone data. ederal investigators are probing allegations that Carrier IQ software found on about 150 million cellphones tracked user activity and sent the information to cellphone companies…

13

• Firms caught up in identity theft offer little help to victims. Victims of identity theft will tell you: The shock of being defrauded isn't the worst part. What really stings is having to spend days or…

12

• Online privacy policies are long, complex and show alarming trends. While nearly 100 percent of websites today include a privacy policy, existing policies are highly complex, lengthy and written in language that is confusing for…

08

• Facebook glitch reveals private photos -- including Zuckerberg's. A glitch in the system used to report inappropriate images on Facebook briefly allowed users to view others' private photos. No one's pictures were safe…

• White House pushes vote on consumer agency chief. The White House has undertaken an extraordinary push this week to promote the confirmation of a director for the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, despite…

07

• Stealth commercials masquerade as TV news. Alison Rhodes is passionate about child safety, and in hundreds of TV news interviews, the self-styled “Safety Mom” has talked up products designed to increase…

02

• Security researchers find privacy leaks in fundamental pre-installed Android apps. Though phone manufacturers have been distancing themselves from the Carrier IQ furore, there are plenty of other pieces of software that could be tracking you,…

01

• Cybersecurity bill could harm privacy rights. Leaders of the House intelligence committee have crafted bipartisan legislation aimed at fostering the exchange of online information between the private sector and the government…

November

29

• Hard to stop telemarketing calls from 'Rachel'. Howard Cohen has received dozens of calls from "Rachel" at "card member services." At first he thought they must be from his credit card issuer.…

23

• Malls track shoppers' cell phones on Black Friday. Attention holiday shoppers: your cell phone may be tracked this year. Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls --…

22

• Firms crack down on shopping at work. If you have small children, a full-time job and an interest in keeping up fashionable appearances -- prepare for some bad news: The era of…

21

• The dirty dozen of security-vulnerable smartphones. Which smartphones pose the biggest security and privacy risks to consumers and corporations? Security firm Bit9 has pulled together what it calls its "Dirty Dozen"…

• Facebook falls into 'Do Not Track' debate. In recent weeks, Facebook has been wrangling with the Federal Trade Commission over whether the social media website is violating users' privacy by making public…