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Lawmakers ruffling Facebook feathers again

Two members of the U.S. House of Representatives are putting the pressure on Facebook to say more about its plans to share more user information with third parties: On Thursday, U.S. Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) published a joint letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in which they request "information about Facebook's recently announced, and subsequently postponed plan to make its users' addresses and mobile phone numbers available to third-party Web sites and application developers."

Facebook announced last month on its developer blog that it would be delaying but eventually continuing with … Read more

Microsoft to fast-track private clouds

Microsoft today announced several enhancements to its Windows Server platform, aimed at giving IT buyers hardware and software configurations ready for use as part of a private cloud.

The new platform additions, which were announced as part of Microsoft's annual TechEd event going on this week, are dubbed Hyper-V Cloud. This is essentially a blueprint for the software and hardware configurations that Microsoft's customers and partners can use to get a private cloud set up quickly and without changing hardware buying habits.

These configurations are highlighted in a new program called Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track, which sets each … Read more

Report: Hurd told contractor about EDS buy

Sexual harassment, inaccurate expense reporting, and now disclosing inside information?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd revealed confidential company information to former contractor Jodie Fisher, whose claim that he sexually harassed her led to his resignation from the company this summer.

That bit of information reportedly came out of a letter written to Hurd by Fisher's lawyer Gloria Allred on June 29, which is what set off the board investigation into Hurd's activities. In the letter, Allred accused Hurd of sexually harassing Fisher, and that "Hurd told her of HP's … Read more

How new Congress will tackle privacy, Net neutrality

Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said yesterday that this week's elections will provide "an opportunity for our Republican principles to shine through our policies."

But what that means for privacy, Net neutrality, and other regulatory areas that affect Internet companies isn't entirely clear.

The Contract from America, a set of grassroots-derived governing principles signed by some incoming Republicans and backed by dozens of Tea Party groups, stresses evaluating the constitutionality of government programs but doesn't specifically address technology. Neither does the Republican Party's 2010 Pledge to America.

This should … Read more

Facebook defends privacy practices to Congress

Facebook offered a pointed defense of its data protection practices in a letter to two members of Congress released today, saying recent reports of a privacy breach are "false" and misunderstood.

Marne Levine, the company's vice president for global public policy, said a widely circulated Wall Street Journal article last month was largely mistaken because it incorrectly claimed that the sharing of Facebook user IDs was a "privacy breach," when it did not "involve the sharing of any private user data."

In fact, Levine wrote (PDF), a Facebook UID "at most enables … Read more

Politicos press Facebook CEO over privacy flap

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is, once again, being forced to fend off pointed privacy questions from Washington politicians.

In a letter sent this week to the 26-year-old executive, two prominent members of the U.S. House of Representatives demanded answers about the company's latest privacy breach, which allowed third party applications to gather personally identifiable information.

It's not clear, as CNET noted, that Facebook knew that some of these third-party companies, including extremely popular ones like FarmVille manufacturer Zynga, were allegedly selling data to advertisers and tracking companies in violation of Facebook's terms of use. That was … Read more

Democrats push for FCC power over Internet

A group of four Democratic politicians claims that a proposal announced last week by Google and Verizon does not give the federal government enough authority to regulate the Internet.

The companies' Net neutrality proposal does not grant the Federal Communications Commission sufficient "oversight authority" and should permit the agency to slap new regulations on wireless services, the politicians said in a letter on Monday.

It was addressed to FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, a fellow Democrat, who has been left in an awkward position after a federal appeals court slapped down the agency's attempt to punish Comcast.

Since … Read more

Politicians press Google on Street View Wi-Fi flap

Google's accidental interception of some Wi-Fi transmissions is, for at least a few politicians, the gift that keeps on giving.

A trio of U.S. House of Representatives members wrote a letter (PDF) to Google CEO Eric Schmidt on Wednesday asking a dozen detailed questions about the Street View flap, including whether the inadvertently intercepted data were destroyed and whether an outside review of privacy practices will take place. It was signed by Henry Waxman (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Joe Barton (R-TX).

The letter comes exactly a week after Markey and Barton called on the Federal Trade Commission … Read more