Privacy

Personal Identity technology (ID-tech) is the complex of devices and techniques by which the identity of individuals is established and/or verified. It largely consists of biometric systems, that is, automated technical systems that measure physical human characteristics, some of them dynamically and in real time. The biometric device matches the input sample against a stored template, in order to include or exclude an individual from some action or activity. It is used for verifying who you are (with smart card, username or ID number) or identifying who you are.

Some members of the social-purchasing site Blippy have gotten more than they bargained for. As recently as late last week, there are reports that credit-card numbers of several users were found in a Google search of that site.

When the search term "site:blippy.com + outstanding" was entered into Google, the credit-card numbers and recent purchases of some Blippy members showed up. On the site, members register their credit-card number, and nonconfidential information is then made available to designated friends, automatically showing what you're buying.

Facebook's new system for connecting together the web seems to have a serious privacy hole, a web developer has discovered.

Some people report that they are able to see the public "events" that Facebook users have said they will attend – even if they person is not a "friend" on the social network.

Splunk has issued a warning to some of its users that their passwords were accidentally exposed in clear text.

In a message sent to Splunk users, Lionel Hartmann, VP of support for the company, confirmed that some debug code was unintentionally implemented on the production splunk.com website which exposed a small number of passwords in its web server's error log.

An official at the Cyber Crime Unit at the Interior Ministry denied that Qatar was tapping phones, any other telecommunication devices or blocking political websites attacking the country.
Speaking to the Lakom Al Karar TV programme, Captain Ali al-Kobeisi, an officer at Cyber Crime Unit, who was answering a question whether the government was tapping Blackberry devices, said that the Interior Ministry did not establish the Anti-Cyber Crimes Unit for eavesdropping on people, but to protect them.

Privacy has long been a thorny issue for Facebook: Three years ago, the social networking site unveiled its Beacon advertising project, which resulted in a class-action lawsuit. December's privacy changes aimed at encouraging users to share more information publicly evoked plenty of criticism. And this week at Facebook's f8 conference, Facebook announced even more changes that affect users' privacy.

Since posting about Facebook's latest privacy rollback, we've received emails asking how users can protect themselves, and for clarification about what happened. Here, then, is a quick guide to locking down the new Facebook.

Want to hear some good news? We now know exactly how much your Facebook profile is worth on the open market: Between 25 and 45 cents, depending on whether you have more than 10 friends.

Imagine all your private e-mails, social security numbers and family records handed over to a stranger. CBS 2 Investigator Pam Zekman reports on what happened to two families when they went to have their computers fixed.

Kymberli Mulford took her computer to be fixed at CompUSA in Hoffman Estates. She needed help removing a virus that she thought was causing her computer to regularly shut down.

Yahoo is be headed for a legal showdown with the US government over monitoring of email accounts.

The company is party in a federal court case in which the government is asking the company to turn over user email archives which include messages that the account owner has already read.