removal

Google's refusal to remove YouTube videos of a politician has created trouble for its head of operations in Brazil.

A Brazilian judge has ordered the arrest of Google executive Fabio Jose Silva Coelho because the company didn't take down videos that slammed a mayoral candidate, the Associated Press reported today.

Judge Flavio Peren last week ordered Google to remove the two videos -- which included negative remarks about Alcides Bernal, who's running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande -- and initiated a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and its video-sharing site.

CNET has contacted Google … Read more

ARO 2012 is the latest version of a longstanding Registry cleaner and optimizer. The look is familiar, but ARO 2012 offers several upgrades over previous versions, such as improved browser cleaning and user-friendlier settings as well as new tweaks that can yield better NTFS performance, faster startups, and improved CPU utilization. ARO 2012 also backs up and optimizes the Registry. You can schedule automatic cleanings, too.

ARO 2012's installer informed us that it would scan our PC as soon as it closed. The first scan is always important with software like ARO since it establishes a baseline, and ours … Read more

The 2013 updates to the Kaspersky protection suites bring to consumers some of the most advanced security technology currently available. It involves introducing an exploit prevention engine as part of the security suite, but also a Safe Money banking protection tool that you can interact directly with. The suite's scans aren't the fastest, but it definitely will protect you.

Installation Installing Kaspersky has been dramatically simplified over the past two years. Following on 2012's fuss-free install, the installer for 2013 will remove conflicting security programs and any detected malware automatically.

You're still on the hook for … Read more

Comodo Internet Security is a free antivirus and PC security solution that combines a number of effective security tools into one easy-to-use package. It's one of the latest challengers to enter the expanding field of free security bundles, with which it shares some important characteristics, such as cloud-based virus scanning and behavior analysis to counter zero-day threats, a sturdy firewall, sandboxing, and anti-spyware -- all controlled from a single access point that takes the guesswork and program-swapping out of the security equation. Each strives to satisfy advanced users and absolute beginners alike. Comodo Internet Security passes all those checkpoints … Read more

Facebook is finally getting around to deleting those embarrassing photos you thought you had already deleted.

For years, the social network had been unable to remove deleted photos from its servers, meaning that even though such a photo wouldn't be viewable on users' profiles, it would still be accessible on the Web via direct URLs to the image. However, that seems to have been resolved.

Facebook says its new photo-storage systems are in place, allowing for images to be permanently removed from its content delivery network (CDN) in a timely fashion. Images will not stick around on servers any … Read more

How many times have you been frustrated by a browser message something like "waiting for pain-in-the-ads.com" while your browser spins its wheels, unable to finish loading your site because it's linked to an ad server somewhere? More than a few programs have been written to suppress, prevent, and kill banner ads in Web browsers, instant messaging programs, and social networking apps. Major Share's RemoveAds is an ultrasimple tool that actually works. It blocks banner ads from loading, preventing the adware from trying to contact its home server, so pages load more quickly than they would … Read more

Twitter released its first ever Transparency Report detailing statistics on international requests for user data and content removal today, the same day news came out that it would have to hand over user information in a court case in New York.

The Twitter Transparency Report breaks down the countries from where such requests come and specifies how many requests it has received, what percentage it complied with, and numbers of user accounts affected, all spanning the first six months of this year.

The company has received more government requests in the first half of this year than in all of … Read more

We happen to like Facebook's Timeline feature, but we know firsthand that there are plenty of people who don't. TimeLine Remove is a Firefox extension that can make both your own and other people's profiles appear in the old, pre-Timeline style. We think it's a good choice if you find yourself unable to get used to the new two-column layout.

TimeLine Remove installed easily and was ready to go without a browser restart. We went to Facebook and found that the extension worked as promised; we checked both our own profile and those of several other … Read more

Google is removing URLs from its search function, but before anyone cries foul, it's letting people know about it.

The tech giant released a new edition of its Transparency Report today, which shows who is requesting URLs be taken down, the copyright owners, and all the targeted domains since July 2011. Everything that's being deleted is allegedly copyrighted or pirated material -- mostly from software and entertainment companies.

Google has been releasing the Transparency Report for the last two years, but before today the only available information was government requests to remove content and disruptions in the search … Read more