The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has passed rules requiring broadband providers to receive opt-in customer permission to share sensitive personal information, including web-browsing history, geolocation, and financial details with third parties.The FCC on Thursday voted 3-2 to adopt the new broadband privacy rules, which also include requirements that ISPs promptly notify customers of serious data breaches.Broadband customers need transparency and control over how their data is used, said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of three Democratic commissioners voting for the rules. Broadband providers are increasingly sharing customer data with third-party companies such as advertising networks and analytics firms, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has passed rules requiring broadband providers to receive opt-in customer permission to share sensitive personal information, including web-browsing history, geolocation, and financial details with third parties.The FCC on Thursday voted 3-2 to adopt the new broadband privacy rules, which also include requirements that ISPs promptly notify customers of serious data breaches.Broadband customers need transparency and control over how their data is used, said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of three Democratic commissioners voting for the rules. Broadband providers are increasingly sharing customer data with third-party companies such as advertising networks and analytics firms, she said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google has acquired a 3-year-old eye-tracking company for virtual and augmented reality headsets, signaling the tech giant's interest in the immersive technologies.Eyefluence, founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneurs Jim Marggraff and David Stiehr, develops eye-interaction technologies to control VR and AR headsets. "Eyes can instantaneously transform intent into action, enabling communication as fast as you can see," the company says. The deal with Google was announced Tuesday. "With our forces combined, we will continue to advance eye-interaction technology to expand human potential and empathy on an even larger scale," Eyefluence said in a blog post.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Worldwide IT spending should rebound in 2017 with a 2.9 percent increase over 2016, after a slight decrease this year, according to Gartner projections.Spending on software and IT services should drive the 2017 growth in global IT spending to US$3.49 trillion, the market research group said Wednesday. Gartner projects IT spending will drop by 0.3 percent between 2015 and 2016, with the U.K.'s Brexit vote to leave the European Union swinging IT spending from a modest increase to negative numbers.Driving the spending growth in 2017 will be businesses' efforts to expand, John-David Lovelock, Garter's research vice president, said by email. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Photographs of nearly half of all U.S. adults -- 117 million people -- are collected in police facial recognition databases across the country with little regulation over how the networks are searched and used, according to a new study.Along with a lack of regulation, critics question the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms. Meanwhile, state, city, and federal facial recognition databases include 48 percent of U.S. adults, said the report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. The search of facial recognition databases is largely unregulated, the report said. "A few agencies have instituted meaningful protections to prevent the misuse of the technology," its authors wrote. "In many more cases, it is out of control."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Photographs of nearly half of all U.S. adults -- 117 million people -- are collected in police facial recognition databases across the country with little regulation over how the networks are searched and used, according to a new study.Along with a lack of regulation, critics question the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms. Meanwhile, state, city, and federal facial recognition databases include 48 percent of U.S. adults, said the report from the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law. The search of facial recognition databases is largely unregulated, the report said. "A few agencies have instituted meaningful protections to prevent the misuse of the technology," its authors wrote. "In many more cases, it is out of control."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A "state actor" has cut off internet access for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the transparency activist organization said Monday.Assange's internet link has been "intentionally severed by a state party," WikiLeaks said in a Monday morning tweet."We have activated the appropriate contingency plans," the organization added.In recent days, WikiLeaks has published thousands of leaked emails from the account of John Podesta, chairman of U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. Clinton's campaign, along with President Barack Obama's administration, have accused WikiLeaks of cooperating with Russian hackers in an effort to raise questions about the legitimacy of the upcoming U.S. presidential election.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A "state actor" has cut off internet access for Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, the transparency activist organization said Monday.Assange's internet link has been "intentionally severed by a state party," WikiLeaks said in a Monday morning tweet."We have activated the appropriate contingency plans," the organization added.In recent days, WikiLeaks has published thousands of leaked emails from the account of John Podesta, chairman of U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign. Clinton's campaign, along with President Barack Obama's administration, have accused WikiLeaks of cooperating with Russian hackers in an effort to raise questions about the legitimacy of the upcoming U.S. presidential election.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Four U.S. lawmakers are questioning a Department of Justice decision to appeal a July court decision quashing a search warrant that would have required Microsoft to disclose contents of emails stored on a server in Ireland.Last Thursday, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed an appeal of the ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Four U.S. lawmakers are questioning a Department of Justice decision to appeal a July court decision quashing a search warrant that would have required Microsoft to disclose contents of emails stored on a server in Ireland.Last Thursday, Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, filed an appeal of the ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. government has issued an emergency ban of Samsung's exploding Galaxy Note7 devices from all airline flights, urging users to take advantage of the company's exchange and refund offers.Owners of Galaxy Note7s may not transport the devices on their person, in carry-on baggage, or in checked luggage, Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration said. The smartphones also cannot be shipped as air cargo under the ban, which goes into effect Saturday at noon Eastern Time.Passengers who attempt to evade the ban by packing their phone in checked luggage are "increasing the risk of a catastrophic incident," the agencies said in a press release. Anyone violating the ban could face criminal prosecution and fines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A bipartisan group of 48 U.S. lawmakers wants two government agencies to explain a surveillance program in which Yahoo reportedly scanned all the messages of its email users on behalf of the FBI.After recent news reports of the email scanning program, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence need to brief Congress about the efforts, the lawmakers said in a letter to the two agencies.The first news reports about the program contained "conflicting reports about which legal authority was used" for the email scans, said the letter, organized by Representatives Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, and Ted Lieu, a California Democrat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A bipartisan group of 48 U.S. lawmakers wants two government agencies to explain a surveillance program in which Yahoo reportedly scanned all the messages of its email users on behalf of the FBI.After recent news reports of the email scanning program, the Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence need to brief Congress about the efforts, the lawmakers said in a letter to the two agencies.The first news reports about the program contained "conflicting reports about which legal authority was used" for the email scans, said the letter, organized by Representatives Justin Amash, a Michigan Republican, and Ted Lieu, a California Democrat.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. government will invest tens of millions of dollars in smart-city technologies and in small-satellite broadband as part of a US$300 million package focused on innovation.The package of new investments, announced Thursday, will include $65 million in government funding and $100 million in private funding for smart cities technologies. Two new government grant programs will focus on easing traffic congestion and on creating new on-demand mobility services, including smartphone-enabled car sharing, demand-responsive buses, and bike-sharing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, hearing arguments in a long-running Apple and Samsung patent dispute on Tuesday, seemed to question a 19th-century law that allows huge infringement damages in design patent cases.Questioning lawyers for the two companies, the justices repeatedly referred to a law that instructs courts to award patent damages based on the total profit from the infringing device, instead of from just the infringing pieces of the device.The total-profit rule for design patents may work for simple products, but not for complex ones like smartphones, Justice Stephen Breyer said. "For wallpaper, you get the whole thing," he said, according to Fortune.com. "A Rolls-Royce with the thing on the hood? No, no, no you don’t get profits on the whole car."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. appeals court has reinstated a US$119.6 million award for Apple in a long-running smartphone design patent dispute with rival Samsung.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that two Apple smartphone design patents, one related to a slide-to-unlock feature, are valid and Samsung infringed a third patent related to helping smartphone users find phone numbers.The case goes back five years, when Apple first filed a series of patent lawsuits against Samsung, alleging infringement of several Apple's iPhone design patents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will push forward with controversial privacy regulations that would require broadband providers to get customer permission before using and sharing geolocation, browsing histories, and other personal information.Broadband providers have complained the proposal puts stronger privacy rules in place for them than for internet companies like Google and Facebook. But FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has scheduled a final vote on the regulations for Oct. 27.Broadband customers should have the ability to make informed decisions about their privacy, and the rules are designed to help them, FCC officials said in a press briefing,To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hacker Guccifer 2.0 now claims to have hacked the Clinton Foundation, but the documents posted show Democratic campaign data from organizations already compromised.Guccifer 2.0, believed by some security experts to be a Russian team of hackers, posted several documents Tuesday that he claims to have taken from servers at the Clinton Foundation, the charity founded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, husband of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Earlier this year, Guccifer 2.0 claimed to have hacked both the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the new documents appear to be more of the same. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hacker Guccifer 2.0 now claims to have hacked the Clinton Foundation, but the documents posted show Democratic campaign data from organizations already compromised.Guccifer 2.0, believed by some security experts to be a Russian team of hackers, posted several documents Tuesday that he claims to have taken from servers at the Clinton Foundation, the charity founded by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, husband of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.Earlier this year, Guccifer 2.0 claimed to have hacked both the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and the new documents appear to be more of the same. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the U.S. presidential election just weeks away, questions about election security continue to dog the nation's voting system. It's too late for election officials to make major improvements, "and there are no resources," said Joe Kiniry, a long-time election security researcher.
However, officials can take several steps for upcoming elections, security experts say.
"Nobody should ever imagine changing the voting technology used this close to a general election," said Douglas Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa. "The best time to buy new equipment would be in January after a general election, so you've got almost two years to learn how to use it."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Grant Gross