• Cellphone Software Company Accused Of Logging Users' Keystrokes
    Software that comes preinstalled on Android, Blackberry and Nokia phones might secretly be logging every keystroke users make, according to researcher Trevor Eckhart. The "rootkit" software, made by Carrier IQ, logs nearly everything users type in to their devices, Eckhart reports.
  • Copyright Office Proposal Could Prove Costly To Web Publishers
    When copyright enforcement outfit Righthaven began suing small publishers whose users had reposted news articles in online forums, some publishers were surprised to learn that Righthaven would bring suit without first sending a takedown notice.Those publishers -- and many others -- took for granted that they would be protected from liability for users' posts, as long as they removed infringing material upon request. In fact, however, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbors only protect publishers who have jumped through certain administrative hoops. Now, the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed adding another clerical requirement. That extra red tape could prove …
  • Schumer Asks FTC To Weigh In On Shopping-Mall Tracking
    This past Black Friday, two shopping centers decided it would be a good idea to track shopper's physical locations via their cell phones. The malls -- Promenade Temecula in California and Short Pump Town Center in Virginia -- put up small signs notifying people of this plan and telling shoppers that they only way to avoid the tracking was to turn off their cell phones.
  • Business Software Alliance Backpedals On Piracy Bill
    The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act lost some key support this week when the Business Software Alliance said that "much work" remains to be done on the proposal.
  • Consumers Revise Lawsuit About iPhone Tracking
    Late last year, Apple was hit with a flurry of lawsuits over reports that the iPhone and iPad unique identifiers -- 40-character strings that identify phones -- were transmitted to app developers and their affiliates.
  • Google Lawyer: Piracy Act Would Enable Copyright Trolls
    Last week, Google lawyer Katherine Oyama told a House panel that one reason to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act is that the bill makes it more likely that so-called trolls will be able to get other people's lawful content removed. That's because the bill gives people -- including those with suspect motives -- "a simple avenue for cutting off legitimate companies from payment processing and advertising services," she testified.
  • More Lawmakers - Including Pelosi - Come Out Against 'Dangerous' Piracy Bill
    House minority leader Nancy Pelosi has added her voice to the list of lawmakers who have lined up against the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act. "Need to find a better solution than #SOPA," the Democrat from California tweeted Thursday in response to a question about her position on "Internet censoring" and the bill.
  • Amazon: Actress Has No Legal Right To Conceal Age
    A 40-year-old actress who says she looks "many years" younger than her age recently sued Amazon for posting her true date of birth on her public Internet Movie Database profile. The actress, who brought the case under the pseudonym Jane Doe, alleged that Amazon used information from her credit card to discover her true date of birth and then appended it to her IMDB.com listing
  • Rockefeller To Question Facebook About 'Alarming' Privacy Report
    Sen. Jay Rockefeller said today he intended to summon Facebook to a hearing to answer questions about its ability to track users as they surf the Web."No company should track customers without their knowledge or consent, especially a company with 800 million users and a trove of unique personal data on its users," the Senate Commerce Committee said in a statement. "If Facebook or any other company is falsely leading people to believe that they can log out of the site and not be tracked, that is alarming," the Democrat from West Virginia continued.
  • Web Companies Warn Anti-Piracy Proposal Threatens Innovation
    A coalition of Web companies including AOL, Google, Mozilla and Zynga are warning lawmakers that anti-piracy proposals in the House and Senate would jeopardize "law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies." "We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity," the companies said in a letter to lawmakers sent Tuesday, on the eve of a House Judiciary committee hearing. Other companies to sign the letter were eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Yahoo.
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