A new system to police privacy abuses by companies that track consumers' Web-surfing habits for ad targeting will be launched in coming months by groups whose members include heavy users of this type of information -- Internet companies such as Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. and advertising companies like WPP PLC.
The company that oversees Web addresses ending in .org said on it was introducing extra security measures to guard against identity theft. .Org, which is monitored by the Washington-based Public Interest Registry, is the first generic domain name system to adopt the extra measures, but others, such as .com and .net, are expected to follow.
A group of public interest groups, foreign lawmakers, academics and others released a statement outlining what they describe as numerous flaws with a draft agreement aimed at curbing counterfeiting and piracy being negotiated by the United States and several countries.
A request by the North Carolina Department of Revenue for personally identifiable Amazon.com customer data that could be linked to purchases is unconstitutional because it violates Internet users' rights to privacy and free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union said.
Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube for copyright infringement has been dismissed. In a decision, United States District Court Judge Louis L. Stanton granted YouTube owner Google's motion for summary judgment that it qualifies for "safe harbor" protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
After accusing HTC of infringing on 20 of its iPhone patents in March, Apple has expanded its suit. Apple has tacked on two more patents that it claims the Taiwanese handset manufacturer is in violation of using, according to a legal filing in U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Google Inc. asked a federal appeals court to reverse a lower court's order blocking online financial news service Theflyonthewall.com Inc. from issuing immediate reports of banks' stock upgrades and downgrades. The March ruling by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in New York could impair the distribution of factual information over the Internet and have a negative impact on a wide variety of online services, Google, joined by Twitter Inc., said in a so-called friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York.
An Australian government report into cybercrime has recommended that internet service providers force customers to use antivirus and firewall software or risk being disconnected.
Apple Inc. is now collecting the "precise," "real-time geographic location" of its users' iPhones, iPads and computers. In an updated version of its privacy policy, the company added a paragraph noting that once users agree, Apple and unspecified "partners and licensees" may collect and store user location data.
U.S. regulators are holding talks with phone and cable companies about a compromise that would give the government authority over Internet lines without adopting controversial new rules the industry opposes. Edward Lazarus, the chief of staff at the Federal Communications Commission, and other senior FCC staffers are holding closed-door meetings with a small group of lobbyists representing Internet providers, including AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, and Internet services companies such as Google Inc. and Skype Ltd.
The United States will go after foreign websites that pirate American music and movies as part of a new national strategy to stop sales of counterfeit and pirated goods, Vice President Joe Biden said. "This is theft, clear and simple," Biden said at a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other Cabinet officials to discuss the new strategy, which also includes steps to reduce piracy and counterfeiting within the United States.
The Obama administration plans to release the latest draft of its strategy for identification and authentication in cyberspace, said Howard Schmidt, White House cybersecurity coordinator.
A Federal Trade Commission representative delivered a stern indictment of current privacy laws, saying they fail to protect American consumers and instead place too much of a "burden" on them. The existing constellation of privacy laws, which relies heavily on disclosure of data collection and use practices and informed consumer choice, "in some very basic sense isn't working," said Kathryn Ratte, a senior attorney in the FTC's consumer protection bureau.
In a significant victory for email marketers, the California Supreme Court said that Vonage didn't violate a state anti-spam law by using more than one domain name. "An e-mail with an accurate and traceable domain name makes no affirmative representation or statement of fact that is false," the court wrote.
The Google Books case drags on with no hint of when the six-year dispute might finally be settled, four months after a final hearing was supposed to decide the issue once and for all. Google and the plaintiffs -- representatives of authors and publishers -- agreed to settle the massive case in October 2008 but delays after delays have prevented Google from offering out-of-print yet copyright-protected books in its Google Book Search product.
Just as the intelligence and law-enforcement communities rely on tips from vigilant citizens, enterprises too must broaden their approach to information security, former Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a speech. Enterprises that relegate their security operations to a siloed department cordoned off from the rest of the organization do so at their own peril, Ashcroft warned an audience of IT security professionals at the Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office will lead a multistate investigation into Google's unauthorized collection of personal data from wireless computer networks. Connecticut and states including Massachusetts and Illinois are demanding information on what Google calls the inadvertent gathering of data from wireless networks, such as e-mail and passwords, as it took pictures of streets and houses for its Street View service.
The British Phonographic Industry, the trade group for the music industry in Great Britain, has requested that Google remove links to some popular file-sharing sites, including Megaupload.com, 4shared.com, Zippyshare.com, and Mediafire.com. "We have identified the following links that are available via Google's search engine," the BPI wrote to Google in a June 11 letter, a copy of which was obtained by the blog Chillingeffects.org.
"Textual harassment" has become a growing aspect of dating violence at a time when cellphones and unlimited texting plans are ubiquitous among the young. Harassment is "just easier now, and it's even more persistent and constant, with no letting up," says Claire Kaplan, director of sexual and domestic violence services at the University of Virginia, which became the focus of national attention in May with the killing of 22-year-old lacrosse player Yeardley Love.
Wi-Fi traffic intercepted by Google's Street View cars included passwords and email, according to the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty. CNIL launched an investigation last month into Google's recording of traffic carried over unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, and has begun examining the data Google handed over as part of that investigation.
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The GigaLaw Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their brands online, using domain name dispute policies – such as the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) – and other legal tools available to copyright and trademark owners on the Internet.