Privacy

iPhones that have been password-protected and have voice dialing deactivated can still make FaceTime video calls, as well as disclose basic information about a person's list of contacts.

The security loophole, which is present in the latest version of Apple's iOS 5.0.1 software, was discovered earlier this week by Canadian tech writer Ade Barkah, who posted details about it on his blog. CNET confirmed it working on three different iPhones, including the iPhone 4 and 4S.

A "Greyhat" hacking group announced this week that it had successfully hacked contract manufacturer Foxconn and released usernames and passwords for vendors that could be used to place fraudulent orders for companies like Apple and Microsoft.

Swagg Security published a statement on Wednesday taking credit for hacking the company's servers. The group cited "the hilarity that ensues when compromising and destroying an infrastructure" as the reason for its actions.

In late January, the European Commission published a proposal "on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data."

Hackers aligned with Anonymous have exposed hundreds of e-mail messages from the webmail server of Syria's Ministry of Presidential Affairs, the support ministry for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Among the exposed e-mail messages was a set of talking points for Assad's interview with Barbara Walters in December 2011.

A security flaw in web-connected home security cameras made by Trendnet, which distributes in Australia, is allowing internet users to spy on the private video feeds of thousands.

Trendnet, a US company, issued an update to fix the flaw on February 6 but it requires owners of the cameras to take action, which has led to some speculating that many will not install the fix unless they are made aware of the flaws.

Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after Ars first brought attention to the topic. The company admitted on Friday that its older systems for storing uploaded content "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," but said it's currently finishing up a newer system that makes the process much quicker.

Austrian student activists say they expect to meet Facebook representatives in Vienna next Monday in an attempt to resolve their disagreements over the social-networking site's privacy policies.

The student group Europe v. Facebook filed complaints about Facebook with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in August and September last year. Coincidentally, the privacy regulator was already planning an audit of Facebook's privacy policy when it received the complaints.

Google is not holding up its "end of the bargain" with customer privacy, according to noted security researcher Moxie Marlinspike.

Marlinspike, who now works for Twitter having sold his mobile security firm Whisper Systems to the micro-blogging firm in 2011, said Google's recent changes to privacy were not "fair."

In honor of National Data Privacy Day this Saturday, Jan. 28, we've put together a list of the 15 worst Internet privacy scandals of all time.

These high-profile privacy scandals involve many underlying technologies, from search to social media, e-mail to voice mail, mobile phones to Webcams to GPS. But at the heart of all of these privacy scandals are companies collecting personal data without the user's knowledge or consent and then either sharing it with third parties or simply failing to keep it safe.

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is planning to develop an application that can track the public's postings to Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, in order to aid how it predicts and reacts to criminal behaviour, including public disorder and terrorism.

An FBI request for information document has been published, asking potential contractors to contact the bureau by 10 February. The FBI wants respondents to the document to outline how they would build such a system and how much it would potentially cost.