internet privacy

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Canada Says Facebook Breaks Privacy Laws

(Newser) - Facebook suffers from "serious privacy gaps" and must become more transparent about how personal information is handled to comply with the law, says a government watchdog in Canada. The report by the country's privacy commissioner marks the first time a government has found Facebook to be acting illegally, reports...

Swedish Pirate Party Scores EU Seat

(Newser) - Sweden’s Pirate Party scored a major victory last night, capturing one of the country’s 18 seats in the European parliament, AFP reports. The party—which advocates for the legalization of peer-to-peer file sharing, stronger digital privacy protections, and reforms in copyright law—was formed in 2006 and saw...

Facebook Photo Busts Student Charged in DUI

Pics of tequila-swilling 20-year-old incite judge's wrath

(Newser) - A 20-year-old college student awaiting trial on reckless homicide and DUI charges learned the perils of too-candid Facebook photos yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reports. Erika Scoliere is now sporting an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet after violating a court order not to drink while out on bail. “It appears the defendant...

How to Retrieve a Stolen Laptop
 How to Retrieve 
 a Stolen Laptop 
glossies
May 2, 2009 2:00 PM CDT

How to Retrieve a Stolen Laptop

(Newser) - When a burglar stole Joshua Alston’s laptop, there wasn’t much the police could do. But the Newsweek writer realized there was something he could do. Alston had installed a program on the laptop that allowed him to access it remotely. He had never used it all that much...

Pirate Bay Ruling Invigorates Pirates

(Newser) - Last week’s guilty verdict against the Swedes behind the Pirate Bay filesharing site not only hasn’t shuttered the operation—it’s boosted support for the cause of free information, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The affiliated Pirate Party, which advocates for copyright reform, has doubled its membership just...

I Say, Old Chap, Big Brother Is Watching Twitter

UK government weighs monitoring social sites for security threats

(Newser) - The British government wants to keep an eye on what people are doing on Facebook. On the lookout for terrorist plots, the Home Office has provoked an outcry from civil libertarians by floating a plan to track users of social networking sites, which were previously free of government monitoring, reports...

Street View Catches Britons in Compromising Positions

Google removes several pictures at resident's request

(Newser) - Google has scrubbed several embarrassing photos from its Street View map feature following the rollout of the service in the UK yesterday, the Telegraph reports. Google received numerous complaints about certain snapshots, including one of a man leaving a sex shop. Google noted that Street View has tools for the...

Facebook Changes Irk Users—Again

Twitter-esque feed makes site jumbled, members complain

(Newser) - The latest changes to Facebook are barely a week old and are already prompting the ire of users, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Updates from friends now appear on the homepage in a real-time, Twitter-esque feed, which users complain crowds out more important messages, like friend requests. A user group,...

Facebook: Uh, Never Mind That Last Update

Privacy protests result in a swift U-turn on terms of service

(Newser) - Facebook has done an about-face and withdrawn its new terms of service following a public outcry, CNET reports. The fine-print update appeared to give the site perpetual rights to users' content, prompting threats of a federal complaint from a major privacy watchdog and mass desertion from tens of thousands of...

New Facebook Fine Print Irks Users in Privacy Tug-of-War

Clause giving site permanent license to content slammed

(Newser) - An outcry over a terms of service change has forced Facebook's founder to reassure users that they still own and control their own information, the New York Times reports. The update—which remains unchanged—removed a provision that said users could delete their content at any time, and added a...

Yahoo Will Keep Searchers' Info Only 3 Months
Yahoo Will Keep Searchers' Info Only 3 Months
ANALYSIS
Dec 17, 2008 3:38 PM CST

Yahoo Will Keep Searchers' Info Only 3 Months

Search firm now holds information for less time than Google, Microsoft

(Newser) - Yahoo will shorten the amount of time it will keep users’ personal data, Stacey Higginbotham reports for GigaOm. The firm will scrub page views, ad views, and search data after 90 days, though it will keep data flagged as suspicious for twice as long. Google and Microsoft recently proposed changes...

Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google
Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google
ANALYSIS
Nov 4, 2008 2:31 PM CST

Watchdog Wants More Privacy From Google

Incognito mode should be default setting on Chrome browser

(Newser) - Nonprofit Consumer Watchdog is urging Google to make the “incognito” setting—which can limit the search giant’s ability to pin down users’ locations and keep tabs on their search and other data—the default mode on its new Chrome browser, Chris Thompson writes in the Big Money. It...

UK: Web Phone Service Gives Criminals Edge

Authorities want to expand their online snooping powers

(Newser) - Criminals and terrorists are using VoIP services like Skype to evade law enforcement, sources tell the Times of London, and officials are lobbying for increased access. Police often rely on phone records as evidence, but online calls often leave no trace. “Communications data forms an important element of prosecution...

You Can't Afford to Read the Fine Print

Actually reading online privacy policies would cost $365B per year

(Newser) - No one bothers to read websites' online privacy policies. But if Americans did—just once a year for each site they visit—it would take 200 hours per person, amounting to $365 billion worth of lost time, Ars Technica reports. That may all be theoretical, but the researchers behind the...

Jury Selection Turns to Facebook, Blogs, Data

Experts mine online profiles for background on jurors' views

(Newser) - Get called for jury duty these days, and you can expect attorneys to know a lot more about you than they let on. Trial consultants who used to specialize in legwork—visiting neighbors and friends to gather clues to potential jurors' views—are now expert Web surfers, tracing things like...

Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users
Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users
ANALYSIS
Aug 27, 2008 4:05 PM CDT

Explorer 8's Privacy Feature Boon to Users

... though advertisers surely won't like Microsoft's addition

(Newser) - The privacy features available with the next version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will appeal to users “paranoid or perverted,” Peter Bright writes on Ars Technica, but will “go some way to curtailing the power of large Internet companies to monitor how people are using the web....

Pirate Bay Treasure: Total Web Encryption for Privacy

Project could protect all data exchanged between computers from prying eyes

(Newser) - The founders of hugely popular torrent site Pirate Bay have announced ambitious plans to develop technology to encrypt all web traffic to ensure users absolute privacy, reports NewTeeVee. "Transparent end-to-end encryption for the internet"—or IPETEE—would protect all information sent from or received by a PC, including...

FTC Rejects Call for Internet Privacy Law

Google, others want ad guidelines; feds favor self-regulation

(Newser) - An federal official testifying at a Senate hearing today shot down calls for a federal law to regulate websites that track users' data for advertising purposes. The FTC doesn't think it's necessary to place a rule on the books—one that could quickly become obsolete—and instead encouraged "meaningful,...

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