Hasta La Gadget!

After the Syrian Electronic Army took over several of CBS’s Twitter accounts recently, Twitter has focused its priorities on taking the hackers down, well at least their Twitter accounts. Twitter proceeded to shut down the SEA’s official Twitter account, and the hackers responded by creating another Twitter account named @Official_SEA. This quickly led to a back-and-forth ban/account-creation battle between the two entities.

At this point, the Syrian Electronic Army is up to their 6th alternative account, which has yet to be banned. However, the SEA didn’t stop just there. With their current Twitter account, they tweeted an image of a data dump that contained personal information belonging to Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, the President of FIFA, the international governing body of football. Blatter’s email address, phone number and fax number were all leaked.

Not only did they leak his personal information, the SEA made claims that it was the group that had hacked into Blatter and the FIFA World Cup’s Twitter accounts. On those accounts, the group released tweets saying that Blatter conspired with Qatar against the Syrian football team. Other tweets said that Blatter took bribes, and that he was going to step down from his position due to corruption charges.

A few days ago, the SEA hacked into several of CBS’s Twitter accounts, including its accounts for 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, and CBSDenver. The hackers tweeted things associated with President Obama and the U.S. being in bed with Al-Qaeda. The group is also responsible for hacking 3 of BBC’s Twitter accounts, NPR’s Twitter accounts, the website/Twitter account belonging to the Human Rights Watch and more. Many security officials have asked Twitter to implement a two-factor authentication system into its service to keep hackers like the SEA at bay.

[via Information Week]

Twitter and Syrian Electronic Army go to battle is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google Glass will spur an evolution in social etiquette, Google chair Eric Schmidt has predicted, though he argues users of the wearable have a responsibility to “behave appropriately” as well. The augmented reality headset has already been preemptively banned from bars, casinos, and other locations, over concerns that users might film their fellow patrons; however, Schmidt pointed out to BBC Radio 4, it’s also down to individuals to use Glass responsibly.

“The fact of the matter is that we’ll have to develop some new social etiquette” Schmidt suggested. “It’s obviously not appropriate to wear these glasses in situations where recording is not correct.”

However, while some commentary has suggested that the public should be wary of Google’s “wearable eye” recording them, as Glass becomes popular and more widespread, Schmidt refuses to take full responsibility for the potential privacy issues. “Companies like Google have a very important responsibility to keep your information safe” the executive chairman concedes, “but you have a responsibility as well which is to understand what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, and behave appropriately and also keep everything up to date.”

Keeping Glass up to date won’t be an issue, assuming the production version – which Schmidt says will arrive in roughly a year’s time – follows the same terms of service as the Explorer Edition already shipping to developers. One of the conditions Glass users must agree to is to allow the wearable computer to automatically update itself whenever Google pushes out new firmware; in fact, there is apparently no way to manual control the update process.

Similarly, Google will be capable of remotely disabling functionality on Glass units that is deemed unsuitable, such as if an app or service is found to contain malware or be used inappropriately. The headset will periodically check in on a “blacklist” of banned apps, services, and features, and removing any that are mentioned.

Nonetheless Schmidt argues that the same issues as are around Glass and privacy have been encountered for some time; “you have this problem already with phones,” he pointed out. Whether people will treat Glass differently, however, because it’s body-worn rather than handheld – and, as some involved in the project have discovered, is quickly overlooked by those around them – remains to be seen.

[via Telegraph]

A new age of Glass social etiquette dawns says Google’s Schmidt is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s been taking heat for a number of years since its Street View cars were found to be pulling WiFi data, and the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information has today hit the search giant with a 145,000 euro fine (almost $190,000) for its indiscretions. You may not remember this specific case in Germany — it was nearly three years ago that investigations began, after all — but it has now come a close with this fine and the ruling that El Goog illegally recorded personal data including emails, passwords and pictures, which have all reportedly been deleted. We know the company has enough cash to pay in full, so the ruling will likely make more of a dent to its image than its bank account.

Filed under: Internet, Google

Comments

Via: PCWorld

Source: Hamburg’s Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom

Tomorrow has been dubbed “Internet Blackout Day” by Anonymous. It has asked that many website owners blackout their websites on April 22nd at 6:00AM GMT in protest against CISPA. The protest will last for 24 hours, and will show the government the “unity and power of the internet they’re trying to exploit.” Along with making their websites go dark, website owners are asked to display a message on their site as to why they’re participating.

CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, was passed by the House on April 18th with a majority vote of 288 to 127. The bill will allow corporations to share their users’ personal information with the government without the government needing a warrant beforehand. The bill will kill any privacy contracts that companies have with their users, the same contracts that ensure users that they will not share their personal information with anyone.

Currently, the White House is concerned over CISPA, and may veto it because it invades the privacy of internet users. In a statement that it issued last Tuesday, it stated that even with its new amendments, CISPA,

“does not require private entities to take reasonable steps to remove irrelevant personal information when sending cybersecurity data to the government or other private sector entities. We have long said that information sharing improvements are essential to effective legislation, but they must include proper privacy and civil liberties protections, reinforce the appropriate roles of civilian and intelligence agencies, and include targeted liability protections.”

In order to encourage the White House to veto the bill, Anonymous, and the vast majority of the internet, will participate in the blackout to show their unified opposition against it. There were several petitions made that were signed by over 1.5 million users, however, it still wasn’t enough to get Congress to change their minds, or take the public’s opinion seriously. Senator Mike Rogers, Representative of Michigan, stated that many of those against CISPA were just “teenagers in their basements”, and that many powerful internet entities, like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, are in support of the bill. He says,

“The very companies that you say are uncomfortable with this support this bill. The people who are in the business of prosperity on the Internet think this is the right approach.”

With the blackout, Anonymous hopes that President Obama will see how strongly opposed the vast majority of the internet is against the bill, and hopes that he will be convinced to veto it. This internet blackout will be similar to the blackout that occurred last year in opposition of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), which garnered support from over 7,000 sites. If you have a website, and you plan on participating in the event, Anonymous has provided instructions on how to do so.

[via Huffington Post]

Anonymous calls for “Internet Blackout Day” April 22nd to combat CISPA is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After releasing Siri on the iPhone 4S back in 2011, Apple has finally disclosed how long it keeps all of those commands and hankering questions you have for Siri. The Cupertino-based company says that it keeps all Siri data for two years, but they state that all of the data from Siri that the company collects is completely anonymized.

Wired details the process of which Apple uses to anonymize all Siri data. Essentially, all Siri commands get sent to an Apple data farm, where Apple generates a random number that represents the user and associates the Siri commands with that random number. After six months, your random number is deleted, but the Siri data remains intact until 18 more months have passed, where the data will then get deleted.

Obviously, Siri isn’t two years quite yet, so all the data ever transmitted through Siri is still being stored, but come later this fall, Apple will begin deleting older Siri data. However, privacy advocates still aren’t happy, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) being one of them. They say that Apple’s privacy policy with Siri is still rather vague.

The ACLU says that “what you say to Siri could reveal sensitive things about you, your family, or business,” and they warn Siri-wielding folks that “Siri works for Apple, so make a note to yourself to really think before you speak.” In a day and age where privacy is a big issue, some users can still easily overlook how much data they’re giving away.

[via Wired]

Apple keeps anonymized Siri data for two years is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.