Visa Inc., the world’s biggest payments network, fell as much as 5 percent after saying the U.S. Department of Justice may sue the company over a policy that bars merchants from charging extra to customers who pay with credit cards. “The department has indicated that it is considering filing a…
NEW YORK (AP) – Apple Inc. will hold a press conference on Friday to discuss the latest iPhone model amid complaints about its antenna and Consumer Reports magazine’s refusal to endorse it until the problems get fixed. Apple would not provide details on the nature of the event at the…
Organizers claim more than 30,000 people deleted their accounts on the world’s most popular social network service (SNS), a drop in Facebook’s half-billion-person ocean, but an important symbol. What did Facebook do wrong? They’ve been playing fast and loose with privacy. Every time Facebook restructures its privacy controls—say whether your…
AT&T Inc. acknowledged Wednesday that a security hole in its website had exposed iPad users’ email addresses, a breach that highlights how corporations still have problems protecting private information. A small group of computer experts that calls itself Goatse Security claimed responsibility for the intrusion, saying the group had exploited…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently filed a series of comment letters with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supporting that agency’s consideration of privacy and data security in the development of its Broadband Plan. The first of these letters,[1] dated December 9, 2009, highlights the extent to which federal agencies,…
Is text-messaging protected against surveillance by an employer? Currently, it is if the employer is a governmental entity. But for how long? The Supreme Court recently agreed to review the Ninth Circuit’s panel opinion in Quon v. Arch Wireless, 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008), cert. granted sub. nom. City…
A type of “driver’s license” for the Internet. Yeah. That’s what Craig Mundie, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, proposed this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It’s not as ominous as it sounds since Mundie was suggesting a simple solution for the complex world of cybercrime,…
The state’s high court said today that sexually explicit instant messages used by a Beverly man to arrange a sexual encounter with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl are not illegal under current state law. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed the conviction of Matt H. Zubiel, who in 2006…
China’s police are working with the country’s highest investigative organ and the Supreme People’s Court to release a judicial interpretation on hacking crimes, according to the People’s Daily, the official paper of the Communist Party, citing a Chinese police representative. The report gave no details, but such documents are used…
PITTSBURGH (AP) – A federal appeals court has revived part of a western Pennsylvania couple’s lawsuit against Internet search engine Google Inc. But the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling says Aaron and Christine Boring will have to prove the pictures of their home on Google’s “Street View” actually…