Online data tracking service comScore siphons confidential information including passwords, credit card numbers and Social Security numbers from unsuspecting users, according to a lawsuit. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of two plaintiffs who downloaded comScore software, also says comScore scans all files on users' personal computers and modifies security settings, among other allegations.
Google's Android has overtaken Java Micro Edition as the most attacked mobile platform, McAfee said in its latest quarterly threat report. Out of about 1,200 mobile malware samples that McAfee Labs collected and analyzed in the second quarter of 2011, about 60 percent were aimed at Android, McAfee said in its 2011 Threats Report for the second quarter.
Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, began arguing its U.S. trade case that Android- based smartphones made by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. use technology derived from Microsoft inventions. In a trial that began before the International Trade Commission in Washington, Microsoft accused Motorola Mobility of infringing seven of its patents and requested a halt to imports of certain Motorola phones.
A New York district court handed EMI Group a mixed verdict in its multi-year lawsuit against MP3tunes, a San Diego music locker service founded by controversial technology entrepreneur Michael Robertson. The lawsuit, filed in November 2007, contended that MP3tunes and Robertson personally violated copyright law when they allowed users to find music online and add songs to an online locker service that let them listen to those songs from any Internet connection.
A White House aide previewed the administration's forthcoming approach to Internet consumer protection, saying it will provide "privacy law without regulation." "Businesses that are engaged in responsible privacy practices today ought not to face any additional burdens," said Danny Weitzner, associate administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) who's on assignment to the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The large record companies have filed an appeal in their long-running copyright case against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota woman who was found liable for illegal file sharing. In court documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says it is appealing several decisions made during the case, going back to 2008.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, called for a ban on so-called "supercookies" that allow companies to track online activity. "I find the most recent news of these so-called 'supercookies' disturbing and the fact that major websites like Hulu and MSN didn't know they were attached to their products is just plain frightening," Barton said in a statement.
Peter Dengate Thrush’s move from ICANN chairman to a company that plans to buy Web suffixes created by ICANN's plan, as well as the departure of another ICANN employee, have drawn criticism from government watchdogs. The U.S. government is considering adding a conflict-of-interest provision to the contract for domain-name system support performed by ICANN since 1998.
In the face of a lawsuit, a Missouri state senator defended a new state law that will prohibit teachers from communicating privately with students over the Internet. A teachers group filed a lawsuit contending the new lawsuit violates free speech and other rights, but the senator who sponsored it says it does nothing of the kind.
Yale University recently sent letters to alumni, faculty and staff informing them that the names and Social Security numbers of 43,000 people affiliated with Yale have been available to Google search engine users for the past 10 months. "A Yale computer file that contained your name and Social Security number was stored for 10 months in a way that left it accessible to Google Internet searches," the letter explained.
Facebook has sent notes of apology and is changing automated systems that blocked environmental activists and other people from posting on like-minded Facebook pages. The activists weren't victims of censorship, but rather an anti-spam computer algorithm that was impersonally doing what it was designed to do.
German data watchdogs ordered federal agencies to shut down their Facebook pages and remove "like" buttons from their Web sites, suggesting that anyone who uses Facebook will have their online activity tracked. "All institutions in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany [must] shut down their fan pages on Facebook and remove social plug-ins such as the 'like'-button from their Web sites," the German Data Protection Commissioner’s Office said in a statement.
Apple has moved swiftly and, until now, secretly to crack down on stores in the Chinatown section of Queens, New York, accused of selling knock-off Apple gear emblazoned with the company's distinctive logo, according to documents unsealed in Brooklyn federal court. Court records reveal that Apple has already seized unauthorized iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories sold by two stores in the Flushing neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, and is now demanding the names of its customers and suppliers.
The Metropolitan Opera, irked by regular disclosure of its programming, far into the future, on a Web site’s page, asked its operator to cease and desist. With nary a peep, the Web site’s author -- Bradley E. Wilber, a college librarian in upstate New York, film buff and crossword puzzle constructor -- graciously agreed to discontinue that page.
Gov. Bill Haslam says there are varying views among Tennessee's congressional delegation about the urgency for national rules governing the collection of online sales tax collections by retailers like Amazon.com. Haslam told reporters after a speech in Johnson City that he's hoping for a national solution within the next two years.
Facebook has won access to computers, files and emails it hopes will prove an upstate New York man's claim to own half of founder Mark Zuckerberg's stake in the world's largest social networking company is a fraud. A federal judge in Buffalo, New York ordered the man, Paul Ceglia, to turn over the materials by August 29 for review by Facebook's experts, including ink sampling.
With Western democracies and emerging authoritarian states alike facing new threats from the rise of the Internet and social media, the temptation to try and regain control through censorship may grow. Some experts say such attempts could backfire and jeopardize the legitimacy of governments, fuel fresh unrest and make it harder to gather intelligence and information.
Zynga, the San Francisco maker of popular online games such as "FarmVille" and "CityVille," is being sued for patent infringement by a Texas gaming startup. Agincourt claims Zynga is violating two of its patents related to systems for redeeming prizes in games.
Major websites such as MSN.com and Hulu.com have been tracking people's online activities using powerful new methods that are almost impossible for computer users to detect, new research shows. Hulu and MSN were installing files known as "supercookies," which are capable of re-creating users' profiles after people deleted regular cookies, according to researchers at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley.
A group of music publishers that joined a class action lawsuit filed against YouTube in 2007 have reached a settlement with Google's video-sharing site. The National Music Publishers Association as well as individual music-publishing companies, such as Cherry Lane Music Publishing Company, the Harry Fox Agency, and Murbo Music Publishing, joined a class action lawsuit filed against Google by The Football Association Premier League among others.
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