Privacy and data protection

Google's Schmidt: The Internet needs a delete button

NEW YORK--The Internet needs a delete button, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said Monday.

Actions someone takes when young can haunt the person forever, Schmidt said, because the information will always be on the Internet. He used the example of a young person who committed a crime that could be expunged from his record when he's an adult. But information about that crime could remain online, preventing the person from finding a job.

"In America, there's a sense of fairness that's culturally true for all of us," Schmidt said. "The lack of a delete … Read more

Samsung Galaxy S4 earns Pentagon security nod

Samsung is now clear to start pitching its new flagship phone to the government.

The handset maker announced Friday that its Knox-enabled mobile devices have been approved by the Pentagon for government use. Samsung's Knox software offers high-level encryption, a VPN feature, and a way to separate personal data from work data. The software also enables IT administrators to manage a mobile device through specific policies.

For now, the Galaxy S4 is the only Samsung device equipped with Knox. But the company promises that other smartphones as well as tablets will receive the security software.

The thumb's up … Read more

Smartphone safety lagging, Consumer Reports finds

Sometimes, you are better off with a dumb phone.

That way, you aren't exposed to all the potential risks of carrying a smartphone. As Consumer Reports shows today in its annual "State of the Net" report, carrying a modern mobile phone is a heckuva convenience but creates all sorts of problems that go beyond what most people realize.

The magazine interviewed 1,656 adult smartphone users and extrapolated the results nationally:

Many users don't secure their phones. Almost 40 percent don't take even minimal security measures. Malicious software is a real threat. Last year, 5.… Read more

Apple, Verizon earn poor marks in EFF privacy report

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is warning that some companies should not be trusted with your data -- but some should, and actively fight on the user's behalf.

Out of the 18 major Web and technology companies listed in the latest report from the U.S. privacy and civil liberties group, only six firms had five out of six stars rating how far they will go to either protect users from the government or even fight on their behalf in court.

The report published by the EFF (PDF) ranks the selected firms based on their privacy policies and law enforcement … Read more

Airbnb starts verifying user profiles

Airbnb, which helps people find vacation rentals all around the world, today will start verifying the identity of all users by asking for their real-life papers, the company announced on Tuesday.

Airbnb is asking both travelers and those who have property listings to provide two forms of identification for a new verification process. The company will take people's IDs from Airbnb reviews and social media sites, like LinkedIn or Facebook, and will ask users to fill in information only they would know or scan a photo ID to confirm a match.

For now, the company plans to require 25 … Read more

Twitter warns of additional hacks, threats

Twitter knows that many high-profile accounts have suffered at the hands of hackers in recent days, but is putting much of the onus of responsibility on the account holders themselves.

On Monday, Twitter sent a memo to major media and news outlets about the threat -- if they hadn't known already or at least reported on some of them -- and noted that it believed these "attacks will continue." (Buzzfeed posted the memo in full.)

Twitter acknowledged that the "incidents" appear to be "spear phishing attacks that target your corporate email," that appear … Read more

LivingSocial hacked; 50 million affected

Daily deals Web site LivingSocial is the latest database target for hackers, who have compromised the personal information of more than 50 million people.

In internal LivingSocial e-mails obtained by AllThingsD, the unknown culprits appear to have made off with the names, e-mails, birthdates, and encrypted passwords of what appears to be the vast majority of LivingSocial customers.

The Washington, D.C.-based site, owned in part by Amazon, claims around 70 million customers worldwide. The company's divisions in the Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, and Thailand remain unaffected because they are hosted on different servers.

To put this breach … Read more

Google: More government takedown requests than ever before

Requests by governments worldwide to remove content from Google's services have hit an all-time high, according to the company.

Between July and December 2012, Google received 2,285 government requests for the removal of content on its services. In total, 24,179 pieces of content were asked to be removed by the government entities, setting a new record, according to Google. In the first half of 2012, Google received 1,811 requests to remove more than 18,000 pieces of content.

Google's release, which is part of the company's Transparency Report launched three years ago, indicates that … Read more

Germany fines Google $189K for Street View Wi-Fi data breach

Germany's privacy regulator has fined Google 145,000 euros ($189,000) after the search giant illegally collected private Wi-Fi network data, including usernames, passwords and Web site results.

It amounts to a minor bluff for Google, but an overall win, as the fine represents about 0.002 percent of its total net profit in 2012.

This is despite it being "one of the biggest data protection rules violations known," according to Hamburg data regulator Johannes Caspar in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg, claiming that Google's "internal control mechanisms must have severely failed."

It's … Read more