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Honesty is the best policy--unless you're dealing with someone you can't trust.

The sad fact is, you can't trust anyone on the Web. Just ask the millions of people who signed up for Sony's PlayStation Network and who now must protect against possible hack attacks on their bank accounts and other private data lost due the recent data breach. CNET News reporter Erica Ogg explains the company's response to its customers in her Circuit Breaker blog.

Sony claims the credit card information was encrypted and did not include the cards' security codes; the company also … Read more

Note: We've been informed by the ESRB that download-only games have been getting ratings for some time, this news just changes the way these titles are assigned actual ratings. We've edited the post to reflect the correct story.

Starting today the ESRB will let publishers automate the ratings process for titles available on storefronts like Xbox Live Arcade, Nintendo Wii Shop, DSi Shop, and the PlayStation Network Store.

Publishers will be able to complete an online submission form that consists of multiple questions related to a game's content--a completely different process than traditional disc-based console games.

The … Read more

Metallica kicked off the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008, and Record Store Day is now celebrated on the third Saturday every April. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for Record Store Day, and hundreds of artists in the United States and in countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cookouts, body painting, meet-and-greets with artists, parades, and DJs spinning records.

Yes, it's easier and sometimes cheaper to buy music online, but brick-and-mortar shops offer a nice alternative. Who knows, … Read more

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Amazon.com offers a cheaper. ad-supported Kindle

Google launches a trivia page called A Google a Day

A U.S. Court of Appeals rules that the Winklevoss twins who sued Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Google plans to invest $168 million in a solar power plant in the Mojave Desert

New legislation may propose a sales tax on all online transactions

Sony introduces two new OLED monitors

A group of security researchers say they have found ways to trick online cashier systems into ordering items for free or at a discount.

Researchers from Indiana University and Microsoft Research found security holes in a software development kit from payment hosting provider Amazon Payments, Rui Wang, a Ph.D. student at Indiana University, told CNET in a recent interview. Amazon fixed the problems after being notified by the researchers, and integration bugs found in merchant shopping-cart applications and implementations on several retail sites have also been fixed.

The software they examined contained "logic flaws that can be exploited … Read more

Swedish phone company Hi3G Access wants to reach out and touch everyone with a new "Minority Report"-style video chat system through which its staff can shuffle graphics around with their hands.

As seen in the vid, 3LiveShop is a Flash-based multitouch system through which Hi3G staff can pull up images with the flick of a finger while video chatting with customers.

Developer B-Reel, a production company in Stockholm, says the system is the first of its kind in the world. The products are shown in a separate stream from the video for better resolution.

Staff can also create onscreen bills to show costs associated with phone models. After a customer selects a phone, it gets dropped into a cart for checkout in the e-commerce system.

The multitouch screens, developed with Teenage Engineering, include mirrors and high-end cameras. There are only three workstations with the system at the moment, but the company is thinking of expanding it to other countries if it's successful.

I think using a mouse would be a lot easier on the sales staff's arms, but of course it wouldn't look as cool. … Read more

Video game retailer GameStop is looking to generate more cash via Facebook.

The company announced today that it has partnered with social-commerce company Adgregate Markets to launch its own Facebook-based store, called ShopStore. Just like on GameStop's home page, customers can sift through gaming hardware and software, add them to their cart, and purchase them right from the Facebook app.

"Social commerce on Facebook is a natural complement to our trusted store and online networks," Kelly Mulroney, vice president of ecommerce at GameStop, said in a statement. "We have millions of customers already engaging with us … Read more

Shop Savvy Premium Barcode Scanner is certainly not the only bar code reader in the iTunes App Store, but it offers some unique features to make it a handy shopping companion when checking prices. Like other apps in the category, ShopSavvy lets you use your iPhone camera to "scan" a bar code then view the item and prices from various locations. The interface is set up to be as simple as possible, but it offers nice touches such as the ability to initiate a scan by swiping upward on the product display screen.

After a bar code scan, … Read more

eBay announced today it will acquire GSI Commerce, an e-commerce marketing services company, for $29.25 a share--which will likely come out to around $2.4 billion.

To put things into perspective, that's more than it paid for PayPal and only slightly less than it paid for Skype (which is has now sold off). The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter.

"We intend to lead the next generation of commerce innovation. The acquisition of GSI, which offers the most comprehensive integrated suite of online commerce and interactive marketing services available, will significantly strengthen our ability … Read more