Articles on Privacy


Rocky Mountain Bank Accidentally Sends Confidential Customer Info for 1325 Customers to Unknown Gmail Address  679 Views (comments)
Recently an employee of Rocky Mountain Bank of Wyoming followed up on a request by a customer to email loan documents to a Gmail address. Unfortunately, after doing so, the employee realized that they had emailed the documents to the wrong Gmail address. Oops. Not only that, but they had accidentally included a file containing the identities, addresses, loan information, and tax identification information of more than 1300 Rocky Mountain Bank customers - 1325 to be exact. OOPS. All to a Gmail address belong to nobody-knows-who (presumably the error occurred when the Rocky Mountain Bank employee typoed the Gmail address).

Facebook Opens Up YOUR Inbox and the Email You Send to Others for Data Mining  2,184 Views (This article has 4 comments)
While this was announced last month, nobody really noticed it until this week. Facebook has created new features that allow developers to mine your Facebook inbox for data. In addition to the content of your email, it allows applications to make note of who are the recipients of a mail thread, and the time and date of the emails.

Facebook Sued Over Privacy Concerns  460 Views (comments)
A group of Facebook users has sued Facebook for violation of their privacy, and privacy law in general. The group, which includes two children under the age of thirteen, an actress, and a professional photographer, have sued Facebook in California Superior Court, alleging that Facebook's practices violate California online privacy laws which make it illegal to reveal users' private data for commercial gain.

Palm’s Pres Spying on Palm Pre Users and Reporting Back to Palm  782 Views (comments)
Holy privacy and security issue! A Palm Pre user who is also a securitygeekstud has discovered that Palm Pres (or should that be Palm Pri? Palm Prie? What is the plural of "Pre"?) are spying on Palm Pre users and on how they are using their Palm Pre, and reporting back to Palm!

How Google is Tracking Your Online Web Surfing Behavior and What It’s Doing with the Information  1,621 Views (This article has 1 comment)
In case you aren't aware of this, every time you visit a site that has Google Adsense on it, and every time you visit a site that uses the DoubleClick ad management system, you have the potential for being tracked via a cookie that is injected to your computer. The cookie is known as the DoubleClick DART cookie, and, in fact, there is a very good chance that you are being tracked by one of these cookies. This is so that Google and DoubleClick can better serve you, providing better ads which, in theory, you will find more interesting and enticing.

Researchers Use Facebook and Other Social Network Data to Hack Social Security Numbers  1,327 Views (comments)
As online society becomes ever more social, and cares ever less about personal security, the phrase "social security" seems more than ever an oxymoron. Perhaps nowhere is this more clearly brought home than in this week's announcement by researchers at Carnegie Mellon that they have cracked the social security code, and were able to predict with frightening accuracy many social sercurity numbers (SSN). In many cases, their hack was aided by information gleaned from such social networking sites as Facebook.

Google Earth Picture Used to Apprehend Twins Who Mugged Dutch Teen  1,460 Views (comments)
A Dutch boy who was mugged and robbed last year by a pair of 24-year-old twin robbers just happened to find an image of the moment before the mugging occurred, in the Google Street View on Google Earth.

City Job Application Demands Passwords to Your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Other Accounts  902 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Montana, once known as "Big Sky" state, just became the "Big Spy" state, with the revelation that those applying for jobs with Monatana's City of Bozeman are required to provide their username and password for any social networking site to which they belong, including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google, Yahoo, and others.

Real-Life Example: Picture of Children Filched from Blog and Made All-Too Public  1,148 Views (This article has 1 comment)
We've been telling people for years not to put pictures of your children up online on the Internet. Nobody ever believes us that perfect strangers will not only find those pictures, but do inappropriate things with them. Now here's a real-life example of this happening. In the instant case, Danielle and Jeff Smith are lucky that "all" that was done with the picture of their children is that it was blown up bigger than lifesize and used in an advertisement half-way around the world.

Facebook Using YOUR Updates and Info in Facebook Social Ads Advertising  933 Views (comments)
It's one of Facebook's dirty little secrets, even though it's been publicly available information for more than a year. Facebook takes information that you post, and sells it to advertisers who can use it in ads that are displayed to your friends. For example, if I posted "Eating Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream", Ben & Jerry's could then show an ad to all of my Facebook friends saying "Anne is eating Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream - shouldn't you too?" The service is part of Facebook's "Facebook beacons" service for advertisers, and the ads in which your Facebook info is displayed are called "Facebook Social Ads". And if you don't explicitly opt out of them, then you are fair game.

Worst Problem on the Internet is Stupid Users, Survey Says  4,259 Views (This article has 10 comments)
Stupid users are the worst problem on the Internet, according to this survey of more than 600 Internet users.

Criminal Defendant Ordered to Decrypt Own Hard Drive  1,179 Views (comments)
If Sebastian Boucher thought that encryping the data on his hard drive would protect him from prying eyes, he may have been right. But if the Derry, New Hampshire resident, who is originally from Canada, thought that it would protect his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination, he may have another think coming.

FlexiSpy Announces Cell Phone Tapping Software for iPhone  5,301 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Oh goody. The anti-privacy folks at Flexi Spy, who brought you cell phone tapping software for Nokia 60, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones back in 2007, have just announced a new iPhone cellphone spying software version of FlexiSpy. Whee!

SpyPig: Another Service to Spy On Whether Someone Read the Email You Sent Them  2,355 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Even though we've heard hardly a peep about email tracking software service Did They Read It since they first burst on the scene more than four years ago, another email read tracking service has bellied up to the email tracking trough in the form of SpyPig.

Find Out Who Obama’s VP Running Mate Will Be by Text Message  1,278 Views (comments)
Regardless of one's politics, or political party affiliation, one can't deny that Barack Obama has done a pretty good job of using the Internet. Barack Obama's website and other Internet fund raising efforts have raised him more than $200 million - again, that's just Internet-raised donations! Now, amid heightening speculation that threatens to reach fever pitch, Obama is signing people up in droves to be able to receive a text message announcing his choice for his vice-presidential running mate, with his "First to Know" Internet campaign.

"Complete Privacy Does Not Exist" Statement WRONGLY Attributed to Google in Lawsuit  1,667 Views (comments)
The Internet is all abuzz today with a line from Google's response in the invasion of privacy lawsuit filed against Google by Aaron Boring and Christine Boring of Pennsylvania. That line is "Complete privacy does not exist." There's only one problem - Google didn't actually say it.

The Phorm Phurore - Accessing User Browsing History to Serve Up Targetted Ads  1,448 Views (comments)
The controversial online advertising firm Phorm (pronounced "form") has, for much of this year, been in the middle of a maelstrom of criticism over its plans to serve up ads specific to the user's browsing history. Yet to go live, Phorm continues to sign up ISPs, mostly in the UK where their ISP partners cover 70% of the UK broadband market. Their early access trials, though, have been contentious, and the debate is far from over. How do you feel about having someone access your browsing history, the better to serve you relevant advertising? The good news, for savvy users, is that it can be blocked at the user's browser by permanently blocking cookies from the domain www.webwise.net.

Facebook Joins Ranks of Sites Scraping Your Address Book and Spamming Your Contacts - This Time It’s AIM  5,654 Views (This article has 4 comments)
The mega popular Facebook site has joined the ranks of social networking sites that trick you into providing your password so that they can steal your AOL , Yahoo, MSN, or other address book, and spam all of your contacts. Only this time it's with a twist - they are actually spamming your AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) contacts in your Buddy List! The spam starts out like this: "According to his Facebook status, Friend's Name (their username) is now "Friend's Nickname". Friend invites you to join Facebook and keep up with what he and your other friends are doing." What we want to know is WHY are AOL, Yahoo, and MSN continuing to let this go on?

Google’s New Web History - What “View and manage your web history” Means for Your Privacy on Google  4,461 Views (This article has 3 comments)
With very little fanfare, Google has unleashed their relatively new web history feature on their users. If you had any doubt that Google has the ability to store and track your every move you make - at least through them - let this put all doubts to rest. Here's what's really behind that "New! View and manage your web history" link you're seeing on the Google page.

Bust Your ISP! Test to Determine Whether Your ISP Is Injecting Their Own Ads Into Your Browser  4,015 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Is your ISP inserting their own ads into your browser, trying to cash in on your browsing experience? Now you can bust them, with this new way of testing it!

Upskirting Victims Not Entitled to Expectation of Privacy, Argues Upskirt Defense Lawyer  4,053 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Upskirting is an issue relating to the Internet for a couple of reasons. First, because upskirting - the act of surreptitiously taking a photo up someone's skirt - is usually done with a cell phone, part of the sport is posting the upskirt pictures you take to the Internet. Also "upskirting" is one of the most often-searched for phrase on the Internet. You might say that upskirting and the Internet go hand-in-hand.

FlexiSpy Cell Phone Tapping Software  84,325 Views (This article has 27 comments)
Forget plain old mobile phone tracking. FlexiSpy is a cell phone tapping and spying software that, once slipped on to your cell phone, sends all of the data from your cell phone to the person spying on you. It also allows them to turn on your cell phone's microphone so that they can remotely listen in on what you are doing, and on your calls! It currently works with all Nokia 60, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile phones, and, according to FlexiSpy, more phones are being added all the time.

Yahoo Sued Over Jailing of Chinese Journalist  2,299 Views (comments)
The mother of a Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was jailed for ten years by the Chinese government after Yahoo cooperated with Chinese authorities and revealed Shi Tao's identity and personal details to them, is suing Yahoo in U.S. Federal court.

Is Flixster a Big Fat Spammer? Are They Accessing Your AOL or Hotmail Address Book? The Answer to at Least One of These is Yes!  34,363 Views (This article has 61 comments)
Recently I started getting invitations to join Flixster from complete strangers. Obviously, this was spam, but why were these complete strangers sending it to me? And why were they always from AOL and Hotmail? Now people are asking - is Flixstr accessing your AOL and Hotmail contacts list and spamming them in your name?

Enormous Database of Wifi Routers - Including Yours! - Revealed by AOL and Skyhook Announcement  11,833 Views (This article has 49 comments)
Quite a few people have by now read about AOL's new Skyhook "Near Me" buddys plug-in. That's the plugin for the service which lets you know if any of your buddies are geographically near to you, and puts them in a "Near Me" buddies group. But what far fewer people realize is exactly how it works. How does it know when you are near one of your buddies? The answer may surprise - and concern - you.

New AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) Service Let’s You Know Your Buddies’ Location  5,491 Views (This article has 4 comments)
A new service announced by AOL, called Skyhook, adds a new "Near Me" buddy group to your AIM buddies. This is intended to show you your nearby buddies or local buddies. Based on where you and your AIM buddies are located, those who are within a certain number of miles of you will show up in your "Near Me" buddy group.

Towards a Nanny Internet  3,117 Views (This article has 5 comments)
Network neutrality, laws requiring dating sites to perform background checks and ISPs to rat out their users, laws banning anonymous posting, and cyber bullying legislation. Is it all part of a move towards a nanny Internet?

Proposed Law Would Require ISPs to Forward All Pornographic Images of Children - Including Drawings - to Central Agency  3,195 Views (This article has 4 comments)
A new law, called the the "Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online Act", or SAFE Act, proposed by Senator McCain and Senator Schumer, would require any ISP to report and forward to a central agency any image which came through or was hosted on their system which meets the Federal definition of child pornography. This includes drawings and cartoons of children, if they could be considered inappropriate, even if the children don't actually exist in real life, and ISPs that fail to report such images would themselves be subject to stiff penalties.

ParisExposed.com Website Peddling Paris Hilton’s Personal Effects and Data Slammed by Court  4,060 Views (comments)
A website exposing and selling personal information and personal items belonging to Paris Hilton, owned by Bardia Persa, has been ordered by a Federal judge to cease and desist from selling the items pending a hearing. The items were purchased by Bardia Persa for $10 million from Nabil and Nabila Haniss, who in turn had purchased them for a little over two thousand dollars. I'm betting that they purchased the items at a storage locker auction; and storage locker auctions are perfectly legal.

Don’t Like Eating Alone? Try a Virtual Family Dinner  3,010 Views (This article has 3 comments)
A company called Accenture has developed a system for a "virtual family dinner". The concept is simple enough. With people scattered across the United States, and around the globe, it's increasingly rare that a family sits down to dinner together around a table. So, goes Accenture's corpthink, let's have their loved ones sit down with them - wherever they may be. The virtual family meal system is aimed primarily at the elderly, whom are often shut in, or may have special dietary needs which could be monitored by family members on the grid of the system.

Your Cell Phone Can Be Used to Eavesdrop on You - Even When Turned Off!  26,023 Views (This article has 10 comments)
Did you know that your innocent-looking little cell phone can be used to listen in on your regular conversations - conversations which aren't even taking place on your cellphone but just in the room in which your cell phone is sitting - without you even knowing? Known as a "roving bug", this technology can be used for eavesdropping even when your mobile phone is turned off!

Filehound Lets Police Sniff Out Renamed Porn and Other Files on Hard Drives  3,412 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Filehound is software that allows law enforcement officials to quickly scan a hard drive and determine the true nature of the contents of an image file that has been renamed to appear to be something else.

VaporStream - Recordless Email that Disappears on Purpose  2,809 Views (This article has 4 comments)
VaporStream is a new product that offers recordless email that disappears after being read. And, it can't be forwarded, can't be printed, and can't be stored. But here's what I want to know: if you have to go through the trouble of logging in to someone else's server - and paying to do it - in order to not send a regular email, why wouldn't you just pick up the phone?

Reach Out and Track Someone - Sprint Offers the “Family Locator” Service  15,008 Views (This article has 9 comments)
The Sprint Family Locator is a new service being offered by Sprint that allows you to track up to four family phones via their GPS coordinates.

Computer Technician Busts Child Porn Enthusiast, and His Employer Gets Blasted for it!  11,283 Views (This article has 50 comments)
So this guy walks into the Quidnunc computer repair shop in Seattle, and says "my computer doesn't work - I can' t open certain image files; can you fix it?" The Quidnunc technician fixes it, and low and behold, he finds that those image files contain dozens of pictures of kiddie porn.

LocateCell.com, Others, Taken Offline  8,430 Views (comments)
LocateCell.com and other Internet sites which were known to be selling consumers' private cell phone records have been either taken off line by action by the Federal Trade Commission, or have taken themselves offline after seeing the handwriting on the wall.

High School Students Busted After Drinking Sessions are Photo Blogged  3,737 Views (This article has 6 comments)
As many as twenty high school students from East Grand Rapids High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan were busted by their school after it was discovered that they had been drinking. How were they discovered? Pictures of them drinking were posted on blogs.

Upskirting Photographer Photographed Upskirting  16,100 Views (This article has 4 comments)
Daniel Thurman was been caught in the act of upskirting, and now you can see the picture! Moral of this story? If you're going to up skirt (and please don't upskirt, but if you are going to up skirt), don't upskirt where there are security cameras!

High School Students Ordered to Remove Blogs from MySpace, Xanga  5,224 Views (This article has 20 comments)
A private New Jersey high school has issued a blog ban against its entire student body, and any students not removing their blogs, including at MySpace and Xanga, face suspension.

EFF Proves Secret Embedding of Machine Identification Codes in Xerox Printer Output  3,301 Views (This article has 3 comments)
The machine identification code of your printer may be being embedded on every single page you print, including the date, the time, and your printer's serial number. Is our technology spying on us?

Is Your Cell Phone Transmitting Your Location? Cell Phone Tracking, Location Privacy and e911  281,991 Views (This article has 171 comments)
Cell phone tracking via GPS and location privacy is starting to emerge as a big issue, especially with more GPS enabled cell phones on the market. e911 rules require that your cell phone transmit your location data when you make a 911 call. But some people are finding that their GPS cell phones are transmitting their location all the time.

Sex, Lies and Video Phones (Or Why Not to Make Sex Videos of Yourself with Your Cell Phone)  13,825 Views (This article has 1 comment)
A cell phone repairman has been busted for selling home sex videos which he found on his customers' cell phones.

CarChip and TeenArriveAlive - Monitor Your Child’s Driving Remotely  4,489 Views (This article has 1 comment)
TeenArriveAlive and CarChip are technologies designed to keep your teen safe behind the wheel by allowing you to remotely monitor their every driving move. Using GPS location in one case, and inviting strangers to report on the child's driving in another, TeenArriveAlive and CarChip are sure to be controversial.

Wherify Wherifone - Cell Phone with GPS Locator Lets You GPS Track Your Kids  34,576 Views (This article has 4 comments)
The Wherify Wherifone offers a simple pre-programmed cell phone with a built-in GPS locator, so that you can keep track of your child, grandmother, or employee.

Bluespammer Bluecasting Responds to Aunty with the “She Asked for It” Defense  2,898 Views (This article has 11 comments)
Bluecasting has been accused of Bluetooth spamming, and tries to explain why what they do is different.

Want to Know Where That Telephone Number is Located?  5,425 Views (This article has 6 comments)
Here's a pretty nifty website if you're curious about from where those telephone calls are really originating. It's called Fone Finder. The way that Fone Finder works is that you can enter any telephone number, anywhere in the world (if you are entering ...

Man Defended for Upskirting  5,038 Views (This article has 2 comments)
How would you like to be the lawyer who is known for defending a man on charges of upskirting? You may recall that upskirting and downblousing are the terms used for taking surreptitious pictures of people, in various states of undress, or under their ...

Google Throws Snit Over Being Googled  2,113 Views (comments)
This would actually be funny if it weren't so seemingly petty. No, wait, I take that back. It's funny anyways. Back on July 14th, CNet News reporter Elinor Mills wrote a story on Google and privacy. As an example of the ...

Giving New Meaning to “Searching for a Soulmate”  2,078 Views (comments)
According to a survey done by AdultMatchmaker.com (which begs the question, are there sites out there devoted to matchmaking for children?), as many a third or more of all online daters will do a Google search of their intended before going out on ...

National Online Sex Offender Registry Opens for Business  3,023 Views (This article has 1 comment)
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened their online National Sex Offender Public Registry for business. The controversial registry collates information from all of the online state registries, allowing for people to search all of the online databases at once to determine ...

Fly the Unfriendly Skies - Feds Want Broad In-Flight Internet-Tapping Anti-Terror Access for Fly-Fi  2,019 Views (This article has 2 comments)
Ever since the FCC approved wireless Internet access on U.S. flights, the promise of fly-fi on domestic flights has titillated U.S. passengers. Up until then, fly-fi had eluded domestic U.S. flights, although fly-fi has been available on European and Asian flights for ...

Identity Fraud Strikes One in Five Americans  1,788 Views (comments)
A survey of nearly 2,000 people by the Chubb Group of Insurance Agencies has found that one in five Americans believe that they have been the victim of identity fraud. According to a press release by Chubb, other findings include: "Twenty-seven percent of respondents reported ...

Wallet Lost or Stolen? AmEx Will Take Care of All of Your Cards, and More!  4,370 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Aunty just found out this week that American Express offers this great service called the Credit Card Registry. If you subscribe to the American Express credit card registry, and your wallet or purse (or wherever you keep your credit cards and ...

California “Identity Information Protection Act” Would Limit Use of RFID  1,893 Views (comments)
If California State Senator Joe Simitian gets his way, California will come to the fore of states passing laws which restrict the uses of the controversial RFID chips. South Dakota is presently considering a law which prohibits implanting an RFID chip ...

Security Expert Comments on 40 Million Credit Card Records Stolen and Customers Await Answers (News Release)  2,033 Views (This article has 2 comments)
Some interesting observations about the recent CardSystems hack in this news release: SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- A week after CardSystems Solutions, Inc. disclosed that thieves made off with credit-card information affecting up to 40 million cardholders, the company has ...

Canadian Adult Entertainers Unwilling to Bare All to New U.S. Rules  2,796 Views (comments)
It seems that adult-themed websites in the United States aren't the only ones up in arms over the new U.S. "Age Records" rule for adult content websites, which became a reality this week. Not only are adult industry performers in Canada concerned about the ...

What Everybody Ought to Know about Protecting Themselves from Credit Card Fraud and Identity Theft  2,205 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Protecting yourself from credit card fraud and identity theft has become even more important with the unrelenting succession of security breaches, such as last week's theft of 40 million credit card numbers. Here are seven specific things you can do now to help ...

Adult-Themed Websites and Surfers Take Double Hit  3,213 Views (comments)
Webmasters whose websites deal with adult content may soon have to start policing the ages of the models and performers who appear in content on their website, even if they did not generate or solicit the content - indeed even if the content ...

Ever Visit a Porn Site? Even Accidentally? Your Hard Drive Could Be Used as Evidence Against You!  18,124 Views (This article has 10 comments)
Have you ever visited a porn site, even accidentally? Sure, it really does happen by accident. Heck, it's happened to me!

Feds Set Sights on ISP Records, Vote to Protect Libraries and Book Stores from Patriot Act  2,139 Views (This article has 6 comments)
The United States House of Representatives has voted to restrict the Patriot Act so that it cannot be used to pry into the library borrowing and book purchasing of U.S. citizens. You would think that this would be a no-brainer - ...

Microsoft Admits to Censoring in China  1,719 Views (comments)
Earlier this week Aunty reported to you that Microsoft was censoring Chinese users of its new Chinese-based web and blogging portal. Today Silicon.com is reporting that Microsoft has confirmed this in an email to Silicon.com, in which Microsoft admits that it does maintain a ...

ISP Not Responsible for Policing Zombies Says Jury of ITs Peers  2,050 Views (comments)
A mock trial, in which ISPs were sued for damage done by a zombie network to a few fictitious companies' business and financial interests, found that a jury of IT professionals overwhelmingly held the opinion that the ISPs were not responsible for the ...

Don’t Drink and Carry Nude Pictures of Yourself on your Cell Phone  84,901 Views (This article has 11 comments)
Ah, a fresh entry in our "how to get yourself into trouble with your cell phone" archives, along with videoing yourself having sex and having it turn up in porn shops, and the guy denying a crime involving an AK47 just as his cell phone displayed a photo of him... holding the AK47, and, of course, the ubiquitous upskirting and downblousing,

ISP RoadRunner Must Give Up Identity of User Claimed to Slander Public Relations Society of America’s Bolton  2,720 Views (This article has 2 comments)
A New York judge has ruled that Internet service provider RoadRunner must reveal the identity of a customer who sent email to the Public Relations Society of America's board of directors, claiming that the Public Relations Society of America's executive director, Catherine A. ...

MSN Joins Google and Yahoo in Blocking Chinese Users from Accessing, Using Forbidden Terms and Content  2,237 Views (This article has 11 comments)
There's a hue and cry being raised about Microsoft's new MSN portal in China not allowing Chinese users to access or share certain "forbidden" sites and ideas on the Internet. In particular, Chinese users of MSN's blogging service, MSN Spaces, are forbidden ...

Net-Detective.com Now Has Records/Information on over 90% of all U.S. Residents (News Release)  5,399 Views (This article has 11 comments)
Net-Detective.com has become one of the most extensive online database resources in the United States, with information on over 211,400,000 U.S. residents, or 90% of all U.S. residents. Unlimited searches all for one flat price under $30. (PRWEB) June 10, 2005 -- Net-Detective.com has ...

Beware Google Archiving Your Entire Google Search History  3,338 Views (This article has 7 comments)
Google sure does a lot of nifty things with their search and archive capabilities! And one of those things is that it now archives your search history. Meaning that if you are logged in to Google, and perform a Google search, ...

Digital Bullying and Cyber Bullying on the Rise  2,181 Views (comments)
A new report out this week indicates that a phenomenon known as digital bullying, or "cyber bullying" is on the rise.

3.9 Million Citigroup Customers’ Data Compromised  2,076 Views (This article has 2 comments)
In the latest in a rash of incidents in which the personal data of customers of various institutions has been compromised, Citigroup has revealed that the personal account information of 3.9 million customers has gone missing. 3.9 million customers. Wow. In one fell swoop, the ...

Register All of Your Sex Partners at Shagster.net  3,310 Views (This article has 4 comments)
They are calling it the "Sex Degrees of Separation" website. Shagster.net is the Friendster or Linked-In of the intimate relationship. Slept with someone? Register them on Shagster.net. Slept with several, or several dozen someones? Register them all on ...

Corporate Espionage: International Giants Implicated in Israeli Industrial Spy Ring  2,412 Views (comments)
Talk about spyware versus spyware. Authorities in Isreal have arrested dozens of people, including high level executives of multinational corporations, in what increasingly is developing into the Internet Trojan spyware custerfluck of the year. Only on the Internet can a Trojan ...

How to Get Rid of Internet Cookies  9,196 Views (This article has 1 comment)
For some reason Aunty has had a lot of searches this week asking how to get rid of Internet cookies. It's really quite easy, but to make it even easier, Aunty is going to cover it for you here. The vast majority of ...

Feds Trying to Gain Wholesale Access to ISP Records Under Patriot Act - Again  2,503 Views (comments)
The Federal government is arguing, despite rulings by the court to the contrary, that under the Patriot Act they are, or at least should be, allowed to demand customer records and information from ISPs (Internet service providers) in secret, and without a court ...

Yahoo Sued for Failure to Remove Dirty Pictures of User  4,568 Views (This article has 13 comments)
According to Cecilia Barnes, men have shown up at her place of employment in Oregon expecting to be able to have sex with her. Which is odd, because she's not a sex therapist or a prostitute. Perhaps less odd, though, ...

Use Encryption - Go to Jail (And Watch that Search History Too!)  1,788 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Just when you thought that the state of the law with regards to the Internet couldn't get any more convoluted, a Minnesota appeals court has held that a defendant's use of the PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) program can be admitted as evidence against ...

Stanford Computer System Hacked - Personal Information of Thousands Compromised  1,748 Views (comments)
Stanford University has joined that special inner circle - no, not the top tier schools - those which have had their computer systems hacked and data compromised. Earlier this month a hacker broke in to the Stanford Career Development Center's computer, compromising ...

Website Outs Private Information of Public Officials to Demonstrate Privacy Problem  1,589 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Most of us are concerned about Internet privacy, or the lack thereof, but Betty "BJ" Ostergren is doing something about it. Ostergren maintains a webpage which outs the private personal information of public officials - all of which is available to anyone ...

Yahoo Using Web Beacons to Track Users Across the Web  3,910 Views (This article has 5 comments)
There is a hue and cry being raised across the web about Yahoo's use of web beacons, which some liken to "super cookies", and which allow the tracker to track a user's movements not only within their own website, but even when the ...

Many Companies Monitoring, Recording, Videotaping - and Firing - Employees (News Release)  3,597 Views (This article has 2 comments)
NEW YORK, May 18, 2005 - From computer monitoring and telephone taping to video surveillance and GPS satellite tracking, employers are using policy and technology to manage productivity and protect resources. To motivate employee compliance, companies increasingly are putting teeth in technology policies. ...

Circuit City Claims No Obligation to Protect Customer’s Most Personal Data  2,422 Views (This article has 3 comments)
How many people a day do you suppose go into a mega-electronics store like Circuit City and purchase a new computer? And how many of those people do you suppose have the store like Circuit City transfer their personal data from their ...

Yahoo Gives Slain Marine’s Family Access to Their Son’s Email  2,117 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Many of Aunty's dear readers will remember that around Christmas last year Aunty told you about the Ellsworth family trying to get access to their slain son's Yahoo email account, after their son Justin Ellsworth was killed in combat in Iraq. ...

You’ve Got Male: AOL Chat Room Monitor Seduces Young Chat Room Girl  5,202 Views (This article has 6 comments)
What's that old line about "who's watching the watchers?"? America Online (AOL) actually pays people to watch over their chat rooms, to make sure that nothing untoward happens to any of the underaged who like to hang out in the chat ...

Web Allows Britney Spears to Publicly Announce That She is Pregnant - But Should She?  1,780 Views (This article has 6 comments)
Britney Spears is pregnant. Hurrah. Huzzah. And isn't it a wonderful thing? With the advent of the World Wide Web, Britney Spears can, in one push of a button, announce that she is pregnant to millions of fans, cranks, ...

Student Eliazar Velasquez Suspended for Posting Photos of Principal Smoking on Internet  15,340 Views (This article has 17 comments)
Busting someone for smoking behind the school is usually a sweet moment for the principal. Unless, of course, the person being busted is the principal, and it's a student who busted her!

Identity Theft Insurance Now Available  4,554 Views (This article has 8 comments)
Identity theft insurance? It's obviously an idea whose time has come. In fact some would say that identity theft insurance is an idea whose time is long overdue. Just ask anyone whose personal data has recently been compromised by either ...

EU Hears that Implanting RFIDs and ICT in People is A-Ok - if Microchipping is Good Enough for Rover, Why Not Humans?  1,875 Views (This article has 6 comments)
Aunty has been talking about RFIDs to track people since last year, and the natural extension, implanting RFIDs or other miniature technology (or ICT, as it's often known in Europe) in people, is not a new concept. After all, we've been injecting ...

How’d They Know Where I’m Located? Geolocation by IP Address  5,433 Views (This article has 4 comments)
Ever wonder how someone on the Internet is able to tell where you are located when you visit their site? (You did know that people can tell where you are located, right?) It's done by geolocation - geographic location - of your IP address.

Update: AOL Admits Waiver of All Privacy in AIM Terms of Service is Problematic  1,690 Views (This article has 2 comments)
AOL has acknowledged that their updated Terms of Service for their AIM service is confusing and in places poorly worded. As Aunty reported earlier this week, the AIM TOS included such choice phrases as "You waive any right to privacy." "That's a phrase ...

All Your AIM Chats are Belong to Us - AOL New AIM Terms of Service Waives All Privacy, AOL Can Publish Your Chats  5,848 Views (This article has 19 comments)
Holy complete waiver of privacy, Batman! AOL's new terms of service for their AIM service includes that AIM users waive any right to privacy, and that the AIM user allows AOL to the right to reproduce and republish your chats anywhere, any ...

Jack Nicklaus’ Campaign Contributions and More  1,908 Views (comments)
Jack Nicklaus - one of the greatest golfers in recent times. In fact Jack Nicklaus has been called the "golfer of the century". Most sites offering information about Jack Nicklaus on the Internet would be providing things like Nicklaus' game stats, ...

Track Any Computer on the Internet Using its Clock Skew Fingerprint  5,674 Views (This article has 9 comments)
It is now possible to track and identify a computer anywhere it goes on the Internet by using its clock skew as a method for fingerprinting it. Clock skew is what a computer thinks the time is as compared to other time-keeping ...

Digital Peeping Tom Spies on Girls Through Their Own Webcams  27,757 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Remember the man who used his webcam and free webcam software to catch a burgler? In a twist, a peeping Tom has been caught spying on girls using their own webcams, connected to their own computers. He was able to do ...

Resistance is Futile - Microsoft Forces SP2 Update on All XP and XP SP1 Machines  21,533 Views (This article has 55 comments)
April 12th is the very last day. That's when the clock runs, and the deadline looms. And here you thought it was April 15th. Nope, it's the twelfth. Because we're not talking about the day your taxes are due. On ...

Another Slain Soldier’s Family Fights for Access to His Last Digital Words  1,837 Views (This article has 2 comments)
Some of you will remember that just before Christmas we wrote about the Ellsworth family, whose son was slain in combat in Iraq, and who were subsequently trying to get Yahoo to let them have access to their son's email account. Yahoo had staunchly refused, citing their privacy policy. Well, it's happened again, to another family, the Linn family of Midlothian, Virginia, who have found themselves pitted against Reno-based Internet service provider Mailbank.com.

When It’s Too Easy to Put Pictures on the Internet  10,684 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Everyone knows that you shouldn't drink and drive. A lesser known, but perhaps equally dire warning is "teenagers, digital cameras, and Internet access don't mix well". Consider the recent case of a group of cheerleaders from Thomas S. Wootton High School, in Rockville, Maryland. By all ...

Hacker Compromises 32,000 User Accounts  1,887 Views (This article has 2 comments)
A hacker has compromised the personal information and identification of as many as 32,000 users whose details were stored on computers at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia. The computer system which was compromised was that holding all of the information associated with university ...

No Warrant Needed to Search Employee’s PC, Rules Court  2,043 Views (comments)
A Washington state Court of Appeals has ruled this week that police do not need a warrant to access and search the contents of an employee's office-owned PC. All that is needed is the employer's permission. This in the case of ...

This Site Will Scare You, But In a Good Way  2,792 Views (This article has 1 comment)
AuditMyPC.com is a website which offers a host of free services designed to help you to secure your PC. Using readily available diagnostic tools and your Internet connection, the AuditMyPC.com site will tell you exactly what security holes you have open, Windows patches which ...

Yahoo Refuses Family Access to Slain Son’s Email  2,596 Views (This article has 2 comments)
There are just so many facets and angles to this story, it's almost impossible to determine if there is a right and a wrong, let alone who is which. Justin Ellsworth, of Wixom, Michigan, was killed last month while on foot patrol in Iraq. John ...

AOL Thief Can’t Plead Guilty, Says Judge  2,326 Views (comments)
Earlier this week Aunty told you that the former AOL employee who stole the email addresses of 92 million AOL users, and then sold them to a spammer for $100,000, was due in Federal court and was going to plead "guilty" to charges ...

Information Security Magazine Determines Top 39 Security Products  2,566 Views (This article has 1 comment)
Information Security Magazine, following extensive review, has published its list of the top security products for 2004. Evaluating products in a baker's dozen of categories, and with a first, second, and third place in each (gold, silver, and bronze, respectively), this is ...

Former AOL Employee Who Sold Email Addresses Facing Two Years in Prison  3,098 Views (comments)
Jerry Smathers, a former AOL employee who first made the news by stealing more than 92 million AOL user email addresses, and selling them to spammers, is now facing up to two years in prison for his misdeed. Due in court in New York ...

CEO of Online Auction Company Arrested for Home Porn Listed on Site  14,901 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Forget upskirting and downblousing. What do you call it when you take a video of yourself during an..um...intimate moment - with a camera phone for chrissakes? How about this one: what do you call it when you take a video of ...

Cameraphones plus Internet Could equal Prison  10,107 Views (This article has 3 comments)
Aren't those new camera phones so fun? Some of them are so tiny and cute! You can put them in your pocket, take them everywhere, take pictures of people without them even realizing... Whoops, hold on, because that latter can ...

Jigsaw - The Website that Encourages People to Sell Your Personal Contact Information  2,345 Views (This article has 2 comments)
Jigsaw - it's like the illegitimate love child of eBay and Linked-In. Jigsaw is a new start-up headquartered in San Mateo, California, that has decided that it would be nifty cool to incentivize people to rat you out by posting your personal contact information from your business card to the Jigsaw database, which seems to be the functional equivalent of the world's largest business card Rolodex, cross-referenced by name, address, area code, and for all one knows, shoe size. If you have ever given your business card to a Jigsaw user, odds are that your contact information is already in there.

Removing Cookies from Your System for All Browser Types  11,342 Views (This article has 2 comments)
Cookies. Everyone has them. And everyone wants to know how to get rid of them. While for some browsers it's fairly obvious and straight-forward, for others it's not so much. So, without further ado, here is a list of how to ...

RFIDs in Your Passport, State-Installed GPS Tracking in Your Car - Really.  7,613 Views (This article has 17 comments)
RFIDs embedded in your U.S. passport, encoded with your identity, and able to be read at a distance? GPS devices mandated by law, installed in every single new car, so that the state can monitor your every movement and tax you based on the milage you drive? It's not 1984, the Sequel. It's 2004, the Reality. Both of these measures seem likely before the end of 2005.

A Really Bad Idea: Register Your Child’s Email Address with the Michigan or Utah Email Child Protection Registery  3,173 Views (This article has 2 comments)
As stupid ideas go, this one is a doozy: people have long said that one of the downsides of a Do Not Email Registry is that it would be such an attractive target for spammers. Well how about this one: the states ...

“Did They Read It” Service Tells Senders Whether, When, and WHERE You Read Their Email  6,710 Views (This article has 16 comments)
Users of the "Did They Read It" ("DTRI") service run their email to you through the DTRI server, where a web bug is embedded in the email. When you open the email to read it, the web bug reports back to DTRI that you have opened the email, and where, geographically, the IP address you are using is located.

Gmail Ad Nauseum I: EFF Issues Gmail Alert  2,414 Views (comments)
For those playing along at home who are interested in, or even concerned about, the privacy issues being raised by Google's new Gmail service, the EFF raises some fairly thought provoking issues, to wit: with the advent of Gmail, along with a ...

Gmail: email Gspot or Gmen?  10,507 Views (This article has 17 comments)
Much has been made in the past dozen days about Google's announcement of their new service, Gmail. First, the press release was leaked on April 1st, leading to wide speculation: was it an April Fool's gag, or was it not? (It wasn't.) Then ...
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