John Markoff reports: In less than two months after a group of University of Washington computer researchers proposed a novel system for making electronic messages “disappear” after a certain period of time, a rival group of researchers based at the University of Texas at Austin, Princeton, and the University of Michigan, has claimed to have…
Last major PC makers ditch Chinese Web filter
Owen Fletcher reports: Some of the few PC makers who offered a controversial Web filtering program mandated by China have reversed those plans, dealing the latest blow to China’s efforts to deploy the software nationwide. Lenovo, Acer and Sony have all stopped bundling the program, named Green Dam Youth Escort, with PCs sold in China,…
Netflix’s Impending (But Still Avoidable) Multi-Million Dollar Privacy Blunder
Paul Ohm, who has highlighted the problems with supposedly anonymized data, has published a forceful commentary on Netflix’s recent announcement of their new contest. Ohm writes, in part: Although I give Netflix a pass for its past privacy breach, I am astonished to learn from the New York Times that the company plans a second…
Hyatt Hotels puts binding corporate rules in place for data transfers
Out-Law.com reports that Hyatt Hotels has become just the fifth company operating in the UK to use a complex process that allows it to send personal data around the world without breaking EU rules. It has signed up to use Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs). They explain the background: The European Union’s Data Protection Directive prevents…