Popular social networking site Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding on to users’ personal information indefinitely, a report has concluded. An investigation by Canada’s privacy commission found the US-based website also gave confusing or incomplete
information to subscribers. Facebook says it is aiming to safeguard users’ privacy without compromising their experience of the site
Cash machines offer an ever-growing menu of services beyond merely dispensing money. For tampering criminals, this now includes a squirt of pepper spray in the face. The extreme measure is the latest in South Africa’s escalating war against armed robbers who target banks and cash delivery vans. The number of cash machines blown up with explosives has risen from 54 in 2006 to 387 in 2007 and nearly 500 last year. The technology uses cameras to detect people tampering with the card slots. Another machine then ejects pepper spray to stun the culprit while police response teams race to the scene. But the mechanism backfired in one incident last week when pepper spray was inadvertently inhaled by three technicians who required treatment from paramedics
Senator Stephen Conroy is a man on a mission. Undeterred that his absurd plans to filter the Internet have earned him the dubious title of Internet Villain of the Year, he is now promising to find a solution to the file-sharing problem
by bringing parties together who are already at war, or have little respect for him and his plans
Tough new laws aimed at clamping down on identity fraud are being drafted by the NSW government. Almost half a million Australians lost a combined $997 million to personal identity fraud in the last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS attributed the crime wave to the rapid expansion of internet technology, and electronic data sharing and storage
The mobile phone company Nokia is being hit by a growing economic boycott in Iran as consumers sympathetic to the post-election protest movement begin targeting a string of companies deemed to be collaborating with the regime. Wholesale vendors in the capital report that demand for Nokia handsets has fallen by as much as half in the wake of calls to boycott Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for selling communications monitoring systems to Iran
The French Senate has once again approved a reworked version of the country’s controversial three strikes
bill designed to appease the Constitutional Council. Instead of a state-appointed agency cutting off those accused of being repeat offenders, judges will have the final say over punishment. Meanwhile, New Zealand is ready to reintroduce the three-strikes
rule that says that everyone in your household will be denied Internet access (and all that goes with it, from education to civic engagement to health information) if one person is accused of infringing on copyright
Stephen Conroy’s mandatory internet filtering plans have earned him the title of Internet Villain of the Year at the 11th annual Internet Industry Awards. The Internet Villain category recognises individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development — those whom the industry loves to hate. As Australia’s communications minister, and supporter of one of the world’s most ambitious internet censorship plans, Senator Conroy beat out tough competition from the likes of the European Parliament and French President Nicolas Sarkozy
The surviving workers from the Bletchley Park cryptography unit are to be honoured, nearly 70 years after the unit was formed. The Bletchley Park code breakers, known as Station X during the Second World War, were never officially recognised for their invaluable work in deciphering German, Italian and Japanese military codes — work this is thought to have shortened the war by more than two years and saved millions of lives
A Telstra business service will once again call Australia home after complaints were raised by customers. A Telstra spokesman on Wednesday said the Philippines-based service, which had operated for about six months, had not satisfied Telstra’s Australian customers
Shares in the online ad firm Phorm have fallen by more than 40% after BT said it had no immediate plans to use the service that tracks online behaviour. Phorm serves up adverts related to a user’s web browsing history, which it monitors by taking a copy of the places they go and search terms they look for
The Venice free wi-fi project [Google translation] was announced by the deputy mayor, Michele Vianello, and represents the beginning of a series of further steps for the development of digital citizenship
and to make Venice an engine for development of innovation based on collaboration. Residents can access the wireless network using the user name and password obtained by registering on the site www.cittadinanzadigitale.it
It was the story of an e-mail heard around the world. You may remember Jérôme Bourreau-Guggenheim who expressed opposition in an e-mail to his member of parliament. That e-mail went back to his employer, TF1, who then promptly fired him because of his political views back in May. Now, Bourreau-Guggenheim is suing TF1 for discrimination
The Italians are using the SabattiniCars’ Thunder Tiger Neptune remote controlled submarine to install the ADSL cable [Google translation] into the drainage system. The physicist Christopher Massari employee in the province of Milan notes that thanks to this system the rollout is possible without any excavation and a considerable saving of costs and human resources
Hoping to protect its top-secret operations by decentralizing its massive computer hubs, the National Security Agency will build a 93,000m² data centre at Utah’s Camp Williams. The years-in-the-making project, which may cost billions over time, got a $181 million start last week when President Obama signed a war spending bill in which Congress agreed to pay for primary construction, power access and security infrastructure. The enormous building, which will have a footprint about three times the size of the Utah State Capitol building, will be constructed on a 200-acre site near the Utah National Guard facility’s runway
Optus today confirmed it will launch its D3 satellite, which will be used to provide more pay-TV channels, in mid-August. The director of Optus Satellite Paul Sheridan said the new satellite will significantly increase its capacity. Foxtel will be the largest customer of the new satellite, which will carry its new suite of HD pay-TV and other channels. Foxtel has previously said it intends launching more than 20 new channels this year
An Indian court today decriminalised homosexuality — but only in the country’s capital, Delhi. The Delhi high court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime was a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s constitution. The ruling is the first of its kind in the deeply conservative country
Amazon cut ties today with its business affiliates in Rhode Island to protest a provision in the draft state budget that would force the company to collect sales tax. Rhode Island is now the second state where affiliates in the program, known as Amazon Associates, have been cut off over the sales tax issue. Earlier this month the Seattle-based online retailer also closed its affiliates’ accounts in North Carolina
Two senators plan to introduce a bill that would bar foreign companies that sell technology to Iran from receiving federal contracts. Senators Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Lindsey Graham, R-SC, said they wrote up the legislation after the Wall Street Journal reported on June 22 that a joint venture of Nokia of Finland and Siemens AG of Germany had sold a sophisticated Internet-monitoring system to Iran in 2008. Schumer and Graham’s bill would require the Obama administration to identify foreign companies that export sensitive technology to Iran and ban them from bidding on federal contracts, or renew expiring ones, unless they first stop exports to Iran
Trading virtual currency for real goods has been banned in China, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity at risk. In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services. Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes prepaid cards of cyber-games, according to a joint release issued by China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday
Britain is hiring former computer hackers to join a new security unit aimed at protecting cyberspace from foreign spies, thieves and terrorists, the country’s terrorism minister said. Alan West said the technology-savvy staff would join efforts to trace the source of — and prevent — cyber attacks on Britain’s government, businesses and individuals. The country also will develop its capability to wage cyber warfare against the country’s foes, he said
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