privacy

Facebook  has revamped the way its users share information with third-party applications and Web sites in an effort to make the process easier, the company said Wednesday.

With the changes, a new permissions box will pop up whenever a Facebook user installs a new application or first logs into an external Web site through their Facebook account, wrote Bret Taylor, the social-networking site's CTO, in a blog post.

About 550,000 applications work within Facebook and about 1 million Web sites are integrated with the site, Facebook said.

"In order for these applications and Web sites to provide social and customized experiences, they need to know a little bit about you," Taylor wrote. "We understand, however, that it's important you also have control over what you're sharing."

I say nothing. Just watch for yourself!

Millions of South Africans could be at risk of having their personal information hacked and misused, as SA moves from analogue television to a digital signal, warn industry experts.

The country is preparing for the global switchover to digital broadcasting in 2015. However, to watch the new signal, every one of the 10 million households that owns a television will need a decoder.

These decoders, or set-top boxes, not only have the ability to receive signal, but also to send information through a return path. Government's plan is for the boxes to be interactive, and allow citizens to fill in forms from their boxes, although it is unclear what types of forms this will include.

Google is changing the way it handles the unique identifier that accompanies each installation of its Chrome browser.

As noticed by H-Online, a Google white paper (pdf) says the company will now delete the unique ID after the browser updates itself for the first time.

A Florida woman yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit against Google Inc., charging that the new Buzz social networking tool set violates the privacy rights of users.

Eva Hibnick, a resident of Sarasota County, Fla., filed the suit in a San Jose, Calif., federal court on behalf of herself and the approximately 31 million U.S. users of Google's popular Gmail e-mail service. The lawsuit alleges that Google violated federal privacy and computer fraud laws by adding Buzz to the Gmail service last week.

A leading privacy group has urged US regulators to investigate Google's new social networking service Buzz, one week after its launch.

The Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) has made its complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It says that Buzz - which is part of Google's Gmail service - is "deceptive" and breaks consumer protection law. The search giant has twice made changes to the service to placate an outcry from users about privacy concerns.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook over changes that the social networking site made to its privacy settings last November and December.

Wow, this is crazy. This deputy director must be a lunatic. We are moving fast forward into a society where multicorporate companies safeguard my privacy data.

Because I should no longer expect anonymity.

All my personal secrets will be revealed and kept at safe storage at the local governmental office, and (notice - not OR) at any corporation that believes they need to cater my privacy.

"Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information."

And we all know just how safe corporations keeps my secrets. Like the TJX. And just about any other corporation out there.

I do not like it. I still want to keep my door closed when I go to the toilet. You see, I expect anonymity - even if you all know what I am doing in there. And I would like things to continue that way. So no thank you, Mr. Kerr, I will not leave my anonymity so you can control my privacy.

Thanks to Bruce who brought this news to my attention.

This weekend, you can enjoy your IP. Your IP will moan. You never thought it possible (at least I hope so), but your IP will do it's very best to be sexy. 

When you stop laughing (or moan), I suggest you read the small print in the bottom. There is a lesson to be learned!

Enjoy your weekend!