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Feb 17, 2009 | 3
Facebook is once again facing a loud chorus of complaints from its faithful over how their personal information is used. Earlier this week, news of a February 4 change to the site's terms of service trickled out to users courtesy of The Consumerist, a Consumers Union blog. That change, according to The Consumerist, meant that Facebook could now use information you upload "in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." (Here’s a link to the Facebook terms of service.)
Facing a public relations crisis, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg clarified his company's position, writing, "Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with."
Jan 28, 2009
Seems that undeleted information stored on discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices has a habit of re-surfacing and biting its previous owner in the backside, especially if that owner is the U.S. military. The U.S. Defense Department now has to figure out how a an MP3 player containing 60 Army files that included the names and details of American soldiers found its way to an Oklahoma pawn shop, New Zealand broadcaster TVNZ reported this week.
A 29-year-old native New Zealander bought the player for $18 and found that it contained lists of soldiers based in Afghanistan, those who have fought in Iraq, and cell phone numbers for soldiers based there and at other U.S. posts overseas, TVNZ reported. The station said that neither the U.S. Army nor the American embassy in New Zealand would comment on the situation.
Jul 11, 2008 | 2
The wait is over. Apple's new iPhone 3G goes on sale today, promising to download information twice as fast as its predecessor, featuring a built-in global-positioning system (GPS) and running hundreds of new software programs, including one from the Associated Press that uses the GPS to determine the iPhone owner's location and automatically send him or her local news articles. Other software includes eBay Mobile, which allows iPhone users to shop and to track bids on any items they are selling as well as programs from Facebook, MySpace, Sega and Travelocity specifically designed to work on the device's touch screen. Also, unlike its predecessor, which debuted in June 2007 retailing at $599, the new iPhone will cost a more reasonable $199 for the eight-gigabyte model and $299 for the 16-gigabyte model, if your sign a two-year contract with network provider AT&T (the only phone company licensed to support the iPhone in the U.S.).
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