There was speculation back in March that Google was going to launch a social network when it was announced that there would be no more private Google profiles after July 31st. The launch of Google+ solidified this stance as on Google’s public profiles page it states:
MI5 wrongly collected subscriber data on 134 telephone numbers as a result of a software error, according to the annual report by the interception of communications commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy.
A spreadsheet formatting error caused the service to apply for data on the identity of telephone numbers ending in 000, rather than the actual last three digits. "The subscriber data acquired had no connection or relevance to any investigation or operation being undertaken by the Security Service," writes Kennedy.
At the Office 365 launch, Gordon Frazer, managing director of Microsoft UK, gave the first admission that cloud data — regardless of where it is in the world — is not protected against the USA PATRIOT Act.
It was honestly music to my ears. After a year of researching the Patriot Act’s breadth and ability to access data held within protected EU boundaries, Microsoft finally and openly admitted it.
The question put forward:
In another major blow to 'governments of the world', a lone hacker or group operating under the 'AntiSec' banner has leaked the 2011 Australian Electorial data on The Pirate Bay.
The 5 part torrent release totals only 2.7GB of a staggering 70GB total data available as claimed by @f1esc via Twitter:
Personal data sent to India by companies outsourcing work to service providers in the country will not be covered under the country's stringent new rules for the collection of personal data, an executive of a data protection standards company set up by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said.
A German chemicals company said on Monday its managers have begun keeping their mobile phones in biscuit tins during meetings in order to guard against industrial espionage.
"Experts have told us that mobile phones are being eavesdropped on more and more, even when they are switched off," Alexandra Boy, spokeswoman for Essen-based speciality chemicals maker Evonik, told AFP.
"The measure applies mostly when sensitive issues are being discussed, for the most part in research and development," she said, confirming a report in business weekly Wirtschaftswoche.
The detailed records of thousands of University of Sydney students past and present are being stored online where they can be easily downloaded and read via an internet connection.
It is understood the university was told about this security threat in February 2007, but did not move to secure the information.
Names, email addresses and passwords were among the sensitive details of defence personnel stolen after website Defence News was hacked earlier this month.
Affected users would include military personnel and "defense decision-makers", according to the website's description of its reader base. Gannett Government Media alerted readers to the breach yesterday after it noticed the attack on 7 June.
Groupon, a leading daily deals store which entered into the Indian markets via acquisition of Kolkata based local deals shop SoSasta.com, suffered a “security issue” on their systems. The break-in happened over the weekend and it is highly likely that all usernames and passwords were stolen.
You know the biggest problem with online privacy? Online privacy policies.
As a concept, privacy isn't difficult to grok. People should have control over their personal information and how it is used. If they don't want it used, there should be a simple and permanent way to prevent that from happening. Period, full stop.
