Laws which require that all company and personal data be stored in their native country are opposed by Google, and other major Internet businesses since they claim that these type of laws hurt rather than help businesses and individuals. The New York Times reported that in November 2013 that Richard…
Continue Reading Is Data Localization a Threat to Privacy or the Cloud?
A report that NSA’s collection of bulk phone records did not lead to any “known terrorist plot or the disruption of a terrorist attack” and since it is illegal, the NSA program should be shut down. The New York Times reported that the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (which…
Continue Reading Congressional Privacy Oversight Board Reports NSA Program is Illegal
In 2012 Google consolidated more than 60 privacy policies into 1 which led to complaints that the new privacy policy breached French laws and has now resulted in a fine of $205,000 (€150 000). French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL) issued the fine on January 8, 2014 which…
Continue Reading Google Fined for French Privacy Law Violation
The Amazon public cloud is the largest in the world and so the recent reports that Amazon hosts more malware than any other cloud provider is not a surprise given all the recent publicity about the rise of malware. The Washington Post reported that the IT security firm Solutionary stated…
A member of Anonymous, the loose collective of hackers, took credit for knocking cloud storage provider Dropbox offline and sending error messages, when in fact Dropbox claims it was merely any error on their part. Dropbox was down on Friday evening, January 10, 2014 for a few hours…
One more court ruled against Google’s claim that when Street View collected unencrypted Wifi data between 2007 and 2010 that it was “readily accessible to the general public” so the collection was not a violation of the Wiretap Act. In December 2013 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Google’s…
Continue Reading Google Loses Another Battle on Wifi Collection
Search engine competitors in the EU released an e-konomica report critical of Google’s October 2013 settlement offer claiming it provides “a way for the company to grow its advertising revenues by increasing paid advertising space and decreasing space dedicated to organic search results.” The Wall Street Journal reports that Google…
Verizon’s challenge to the FCC’s authority to regulate Net Neutrality is still pending in court and many observers expect a ruling against the FCC in January 2014. The Washington Post reported that one of the three Judges who heard the argument “appeared intent on overturning the regulation” and…
Continue Reading VIDEO – FCC’s Authority to Regulation Net Neutrality Pends
Crowdfunding portals are “websites that enable large numbers of individuals to support financially a project or company…” however not all investors are happy since much of the capital goes to inexperienced inventors and project managers. Nonetheless Deloitte reported that crowdfunding raised $3 billion in 2013 which was twice the 2011…
We can expect simultaneous failure for weeks of “power, the Internet, cash machines, broadcast media, traffic lights, financial systems, and air traffic software” which is included in a report from the National Intelligence Council (NIC) entitled “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds.” The NIC report also includes these observations:…
