Google is bowing to the demands of three European governments and says it will begin surrendering the data it improperly collected over unsecured wireless networks. Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, told The Financial Times in an interview in London that within the next two days, the company would share the data with regulators in…
Category: Business
Spyware Seller Settles FTC Charges; Order Bars Marketing of Keylogger Software for Illegal Uses
The Federal Trade Commission has put the brakes on the business practices of an operation that was selling spyware and showing customers how to remotely install it on other people’s computers without their knowledge or consent. The FTC is announcing a settlement that bars the sellers of the “RemoteSpy” keylogger from advertising that the spyware…
Web Start-Ups Offer Bargains for Users’ Data
Stephanie Clifford reports: As concern increases in Washington about the amount of private data online, and as big sites like Facebook draw criticism that they collect consumers’ information in a stealthy manner, many Web start-ups are pursuing a more reciprocal approach — saying, in essence: give us your data and get something in return. The…
Mobile Data: A Gold Mine for Telcos
Tom Simonite reports: Cell phone companies are finding that they’re sitting on a gold mine–in the form of the call records of their subscribers. Researchers in academia, and increasingly within the mobile industry, are working with large databases showing where and when calls and texts are made and received to reveal commuting habits, how far…