Hasta La Gadget!

The online Aladdin’s cave and AMA forum Reddit has revealed a revamped privacy policy intended to make clear exactly how it deals with users’ data. Legalese is notably absent, with credit for that going to Lauren Gelman, a legal consultant who’s previously worked with the likes of the EFF — a member, like Reddit, of the Internet Defense League. Essentially, the new policy is geared towards allowing “your participation to remain as anonymous as you choose,” with the website stating that any of your data won’t be shared without consent, unless the law requires it. Even then, you will be notified, with the only exception being a court order that prevents it. Reddit also notes that deleting your account will remove your username from posts and comments, but they will remain on the site. As only the last edit performed stays on the servers, however, you could trek back through your history and strip everything out to finalize your departure. There’s much more in the announcement post and full policy document over at the source links, in case you wanna have a read before it all kicks in on May 15th.

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Source: Reddit (1), (2)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released its annual “Who Has Your Back?” report, ranking 18 companies by how well they protect user information from government eyes. Twitter and Sonic.net get high scores from the EFF, as they meet all six of the organization’s privacy guidelines, which include requiring a warrant for sharing content and telling users about government data requests. On the other end of the spectrum are MySpace and Verizon, both of which score zero out of six stars. Meanwhile, Apple and AT&T get one gold star each, and Google, Dropbox and LinkedIn are tied for second place. You’ll find the complete breakdown in the EFF ‘s comprehensive infographic (partially displayed above), and the full report is available via the source link.

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Via: Electronista

Source: EFF

Yahoo has made another acquisition, this time of time management service Astrid, which just made the announcement on its blog. Such a move comes at a time when Yahoo has been buying up a variety of services and apps, a move in part to bolster the company. Not many details about the deal were provided, but those we do know we have for you after the jump.

Says Astrid in the announcement, its team will be joining Yahoo’s mobile team. As a result of the acquisition, the company’s app is going to be shut down in 90 days, with the service effectively putting an end to new premium subscriptions starting today. In addition, it is aiming to make the transition for its users as gentle as possible.

Those who currently use the service will be contacted “shortly” with instructions on how to download their data, which needs to be done within the next three months, after which point it will be gone forever. Says Astrid, its app has been downloaded 4 million times, and that the company is grateful for all of its users, as well as its investors and mentors, which it specifies by name.

This follows Yahoo’s purchase of Summly back in March for the hefty sum of $30 million, one of many moves by the company to boost its mobile-centric goals. The purchase came in the form of 90-percent cash and 10-percent stocks. No financial data was provided on the Astrid acquisition, just a note that Yahoo will refund users who bought an annual subscription set to expire after the service goes down.

[via Astrid]

Yahoo acquires Astrid, plans to shut the service down is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While Google is expanding its Fiber internet service to Austin, Texas and Provo, Utah, that doesn’t mean other cities can’t join in on the fun. Omaha, Nebraska is getting its own gigabit internet without the help from Google, thanks to internet service provider CenturyLink, who will be updating its current fiber optics platform to provide higher speeds.

The company says that its faster fiber-optics internet service should begin rolling out to a select number of markets in Omaha next week, with availability to almost 50,000 of its customers to arrive by October of this year. This makes Omaha the fifth city in the US to receive gigabit internet, with Kansas City being the first.

The latest city to receive Google Fiber will be Provo, Utah, which was just announced last month, as was the announcement that Google’s gigabit internet would be coming to Austin, Texas. Even certain locations in Vermont will be getting fiber-based internet (not provided by Google Fiber, though). Based on this trend, we should see more cities crop up to challenge other cities for the fastest internet.

However, ISPs in these areas aren’t too happy about the deal that Google is getting with its Fiber service, and they’re fighting back with comparable services of their own. For example, AT&T announced that it would offer gigabit internet in Austin alongside Google Fiber. The war is officially on, and for once it’s not taking place in a court room.

Omaha, Nebraska to receive gigabit internet from CenturyLink is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

When it comes to gigabit internet, the headline buzz usually involves Google and some mid or south western American locale. But not today. No, today, the ridiculously high-speed internet spotlight falls on Omaha, Nebraska where local provider CenturyLink is poised to launch a pilot service. Starting Monday, the telco’s Lightspeed Broadband package ($150 a month for standalone service or $80 a month as a bundle) will go live for nearly 10,000 subscribers and continue to rollout to a footprint just shy of 50,000 residential and enterprise subs by October. Further expansion plans for the greater metro area all hinge upon whether CenturyLink can turn a profit on the service, but the company will continue to sign-up enterprise subs outside of this pilot zone for the next two years. The path forward — at least, to us — is pretty clear, Omahans: vote with your wallet if you want to preserve the gigabit bragging rights.

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Source: Omaha