The Associated Press reports that an Oregon teenager hacked into two female college students’ social networking accounts and then demanded nude photos to unlock the accounts. The unnamed youth may face computer crime and theft by extortion charges. The boy reportedly admitted hacking into the accounts of the two women, both of whom he grew…
Category: Online
Can’t spell “Ixquick?” Try “Startpage”
IxQuick, which bills itself as “the world’s most private search engine,” has changed its name to the much-easier-to-remember Startpage. Startpage is a meta search engine that’s tried to differentiate itself from the pack by using privacy as a marketing feature. In 2006, shortly before the mistaken release of three months of AOL search data, the…
Obama’s cyber plan raises privacy hackles
Andy Greenberg of Forbes discusses the initial concerns and reactions of privacy advocates to Obama’s cybersecurity plan. Concerns kicked into higher gear last week with news about NSA involvement in monitoring government traffic on private sectors and the Einstein 3 program. Greenberg reports: While the concerns over privacy and the NSA are valid, they could…
What does “sensitive data” mean?
Douglas MacMillan blogs about the definition of “sensitive data” over on BusinessWeek. As pointed out previously, at least some privacy advocates have noted that the online behavioral advertising industry’s proposal for self-regulation does not go far enough in restricting what types of information would not be collected and used. The definition in the self-regulatory program…