privacy

A stealth start-up on Monday plans to take the wraps off a new advertising data exchange designed to connect publishers and advertisers so they can target ads to Web surfers. The privacy pitch: consumers can tweak the advertising data held about them.

The start-up, Bellevue, Wash.-based BlueKai, is taking a novel approach in an otherwise crowded new market for Internet advertising technologies. Many start-ups, ad networks, and Net media giants are honing technologies to leverage vast troves of data about people online so that they can tailor ads to their behaviors, preferences, or demographics--so-called behavioral ad targeting. One targeting … Read more

In today's show, Rafe joins us for a discussion of useless video blobs, the implications of, uh, Internet "shopping," the NPD numbers that read Tom's mind, and the U.S. Senate's "enormous gift" to Big Content (per Ars Technica). Also, we rouse the Buzz Militia from their stupor to launch an attack on Apple's arbitrary and annoying App Store approval process. Save Podcaster!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Committee amends, approves 'enormous gift' to Big Content http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080911-committee-amends-approves-enormous-gift-to-big-content.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10039745-38.html… Read more

A good password-manager is absolutely essential, and most users of RoboForm would agree it's one of the best. (CNET certainly does: Check out the five-star review.) The program remembers your passwords for various sites and automatically fills them in when you visit. It can also auto-fill Web forms for you, generate robust passwords, and even sync with your Palm or Windows Mobile phone.

Alas, the free version of RoboForm has some serious limitations, which is why most users spring for the $29.95 Pro version. Here's your chance to save nine bucks: Deal-of-the-day site Yugster is offering RoboForm Pro for $20.95. … Read more

The iPhone is recording everything users see and do on their devices for caching purposes, an iPhone hacker says.

The device records screenshots of a user's most recent action so that it can achieve that cool effect of applications fading away when the home button is clicked, according to Jonathan Zdziarski, who wrote the forthcoming book iPhone Forensics: Recovering Evidence, Personal Data, and Corporate Assets.

The screenshots are presumably deleted after the application is closed, but they can be recovered with forensics techniques just like data deleted from most any storage device can be reconstructed for purposes of law … Read more

Google announced on Monday that the company will be reducing the amount of time that it will keep sensitive, identifying log data on its search engine customers. To the naive reader, the announcement seems like a clear win for privacy. However, with a bit of careful analysis, it's possible to see that this is little more than snake oil, designed to look good for the newspapers, without delivering real benefits to end users.

In a post to the company blog on Monday, the company announced that it will be significantly reducing the amount of time that it hangs onto … Read more

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama isn't a terrorist...or a porn star.

A malicious spam e-mail is spreading that claims to have a link to a sex video of Obama but is instead spyware that steals sensitive data from the computer, security firm Sophos warned on Wednesday.

The subject line says "Obama sex video!!!" and the e-mail appears to come from "infonews@obama.com, Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, says on his blog.

Clicking on the link downloads an executable file that plays an amateur … Read more

Digital copies of death certificates have been removed from the Web site of Maricopa County in Arizona because they could be used for identity fraud, The Arizona Republic reported on Wednesday.

"There is so much personal information on them: a mother's maiden name, what they died from," said Helen Purcell, recorder for Maricopa County, which covers the state capital, Phoenix.

The county had received complaints from people about the posting of the information for years and removed them last month, she said. The state has one of the highest identity fraud rates in the country.

The County … Read more

Under pressure from European regulators, Google is halving the amount of time its stores Internet Protocol addresses.

In a blog post, Google said it would keep IP addresses on its server logs for 9 months before anonymizing them, down from the 18 months it had previously stored the data.

A European Commission advisory body issued an opinion paper earlier this year urging search engines to delete data collected about their users after six months.

At the time, Google said the proposals could have an impact on its ability "to provide quality products and services for users, like accurate search … Read more

SAN DIEGO--For most of us, if we lose our cell phones our mobile data is at risk of exposure by whoever finds or steals the phone.

Maverick Mobile announced a new application at DemoFall on Monday that helps people locate their lost or stolen phone, as well as track the phone, retrieve the phone book, and disable the device remotely.

If the SIM card is replaced, the application sends information about the new account, as well as call logs and messaging history, to a remotely controlled reporting device that helps the owner track down the phone.

All the contacts can … Read more