Privacy and data protection

There's a quaint concept that seemingly every technology company dismisses as outdated.

It's called opting in.

Should you not be familiar with it, it's the notion that you ought to choose before, say, all the people in your address book are contacted by a company they've never heard of.

And wouldn't it be lovely to have a choice over whether your kids should have their irises scanned, as they get on their school bus?

The parents of around 750 kids in several Florida schools never got that choice -- because of what might be politely … Read more

Who understands the importance of performance better than an engineer?

Yet the pressures that come with performing to perfect levels can cause some engineers to cut corners, even obfuscate.

How tragic, then, that three apparently bright (or not quite so bright) young things studying engineering at Purdue University have been charged with using their skills to artificially jack up their grades.

I am not sure how sophisticated this alleged scheme was.

It all began to allegedly unravel at the end of 2012 when an engineering professor was suddenly struck by suspicion that the password on his computer kept changing. He … Read more

Verizon and T-Mobile USA have been a tad bit of a headache for the National Security Agency when it wants to collect data, according to a new report.

Because both Verizon and T-Mobile USA have owners that are based outside of the U.S., the U.S. government is not allowed to collect data directly from the carriers, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the collection.

But before you get too excited, be aware that this doesn't really mean much. According to the sources, while the NSA is not able … Read more

There has been much kvetching about the revelations suggesting that the National Security Agency might have obtained records of millions of phone calls over the years.

There has been less focus on the potential good this might have done.

No, I'm not talking about protecting the U.S.A. from bad people. I'm talking about giving you an alibi for a bank robbery.

For here is a man in Florida, Terrance Brown, who believes that the NSA should be forced to hand over any records it has of his calls forthwith.

As the Sun-Sentinel reports, Brown and five … Read more

Prosecutors in New York and San Francisco will announce a program dubbed Save Our Smartphones on Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

The new intiative would bring together law enforcement officials, politicians, and consumer advocates across the country to fight the growing wave of smartphone thefts. The group wants to exert pressure on smartphone companies and their stockholders to reduce the market for stolen phones. One goal would be to set up a "kill switch" that would render all such phones inoperative.

Later on Thursday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gasc&… Read more

The U.S. government had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China for years, says NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The former CIA employee stirred up a hornet's nest recently when he leaked details about PRISM, a National Security Agency program that collects certain user information from Internet companies and phone service providers in an effort to track down terrorists.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, Snowden said that PRISM actually extends to people and institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China. The NSA itself has been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and China … Read more

Google has detected what appears to be a spike in politically-motivated phishing attacks targeting Gmail accounts belonging to thousands of Iranians just days before a presidential election in the country.

The Web giant identified a "significant jump in the overall volume of phishing activity in the region" in the past three weeks originating from within the country. Eric Grosse, Google's vice president of security engineering, noted in a company blog post Wednesday that "timing and targeting of the campaigns" suggested political motivation ahead of Friday's elections.

Grosse explained how the campaign operated:

Incensed at revelations of U.S. government surveillance programs, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Reddit, and others have launched an effort called StopWatching.Us to marshal opposition to the secret programs.

"The revelations about the National Security Agency's surveillance apparatus, if true, represent a stunning abuse of our basic rights," the site says. "We demand the U.S. Congress reveal the full extent of the NSA's spying programs."

The site includes a petition that people can sign and send electronically. Other participants in the initiative include the American Library … Read more

The battle between privacy and security has reared its head again with the news that the National Security Agency gained access to the phone records of U.S. citizens. But a majority of people polled think this practice is reasonable.

Among 1,005 Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, 56 percent said they believe that tracking phone records is an "acceptable way" to investigate terrorists. Taking the opposite view, 41 percent consider the practice unacceptable, while 2 percent weren't sure.

Drilling further, 62 percent believe it's important for the government to … Read more