Twitter says it turns over user data to government agencies in the U.S. in 69 percent of the requests made for such information, according to a new transparency report released by the microblogging site. “It’s our continued hope that providing greater insights into this information helps in at least two ways: first, to raise public awareness about these invasive requests; second, to enable policy makers to make more informed decisions,” writes Jeremy Kessel, Twitter’s manager of […]

The clock to unlock a new mobile phone is running out. In October 2012, the Library of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the library provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on Jan. 26. Unlocking a phone frees it from restrictions that keep […]

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Google has been stealing more and more of your privacy for years,  with some simple work arounds, but those were always guesses. Now advertisers have access to not simply what you have looked at, but actually purchased. Google built its $38 billion business selling ads based on how people search and browse the Web. Facebook, too, uses what it knows about its one billion users to sell targeted ads. But when it comes to what many […]

The Department of Homeland Security says despite some fixes to Java, it continues to recommend users disable the program in their Web browsers, because it remains vulnerable to attacks that could result in identity theft and other cyber crimes. The Computer Emergency Readiness Team, part of the DHS, first took the unusual step last week of issuing an alert, warning users to disable Java, saying the program could be manipulated by criminals to trick users into visiting […]

Since his suicide, friends and admirers have cast free-information activist Aaron Swartz as a martyred hero hounded to his death by the government he antagonized. One newspaper columnist — whose piece on Swartz was accompanied by a photo showing him at his computer, his head encircled by a golden halo — even compared him to an Internet-age Martin Luther King Jr. But those closest to the 26-year-old Swartz say the hacker prodigy wasn’t out to […]

To the people of the Internet who knew his work, he was an “enormous intellect,” a “brilliant and determined spirit” and a “hero of the open net.” To federal prosecutors, he was a criminal. The suicide of Internet activist Aaron Swartz continued to send shock waves Monday throu Swartz, a digital prodigy who helped develop social-news site Reddit and RSS, the technology that allows websites to send updates to subscribers, was found hanged Friday in his […]

Kaspersky has uncovered a new, far-ranging cyberspying campaign that targets government secrets. The firm has tantalizing named the malicious software behind the attack “Red October,” a nod to the famous Tom Clancy novel. Red October has been attempting to steal critical, secret documents since at least 2007, Kaspersky said in a report posted to its website Monday.  It’s designed to defeat a common encryption scheme that’s used by NATO and government agencies, Kaspersky says. It’s also capable […]

It’s a fact that Watson, IBM’s massive AI project, is smarter than the average human. I mean, it kicked Ken Jennings’ ass on Jeopardy that one time. “Smart,” in that respect, meant the ability to pull knowledge from terabytes worth of Wikipedia data based on verbal clues. But Ken Jennings (and you and me) has Watson beat in one measure of intelligence: human language. Once that fact no longer holds true, well, we’re all in […]

If you were worried about an employer seeing those pictures from the big New Year’s party on your Facebook, don’t fret — a new law that’s taking place this year will prevent employers from requesting Facebook passwords. The law took effect at 12:01 a.m. January 1st in both California and Illinois. It states that employers can’t request social networking passwords or non-public account information from current or potential employees. Now if you are like me, you […]