News

2012

February

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 Inc. “is ultimately responsible for the integrity of Web addresses…

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 and where the company can use your data. I wrote…

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 billion to $100 billion, cashing in on the fuel that…

• 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 crimes victimizing honest U.S. taxpayers, the IRS said Tuesday. Trying…

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 agency was approving medical devices that they believed posed unacceptable…

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: Google this week announced a shift in its privacy policies…

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 more mutant than mutt. The firm has taken to calling…

• 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 opposing new data-handling privacy laws fast-gelling in Europe and the…

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 the changes in a company blog post Tuesday afternoon, said…

• 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 ways to divine more and more about how people live…

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 to follow the activities of users across nearly all of…

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 of their personal data, delete that data forever at the…

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 — a turquoise triangle in the upper right-hand corner of…

19

• SOPA and PIPA: wrong tools to combat online piracy. My day job is to write about and report on technology. I get paid to create content. Original content. The people I write for make money off the words I commit to paper (or, you…

• 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 to obtain all the data Facebook had collected on him…

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 duration: Visa, the credit card company, said it supported making…

• 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 rings or ID bracelets. Best friends share locker combinations. The…

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 concerns. Google is rolling out the Good to Know campaign…

• 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 movies, music and other content. But the conflict will hit…