Twitter selectively gags the little blue bird
Twitter has gained something of a reputation for standing up for internet users against institutional authority, for instance in fighting a gag order in the Wikileaks case.
Google faces Norwegian public sector ban
Norwegian public sector organisations will be banned from using Google Apps after the Norwegian data protection authorities ruled that the service could put citizens’ personal data at risk.
The data protection authority said Google Apps did not comply with Norwegian privacy laws because there was insufficient information about where data was being kept. The decision came from a test case in Narvik, where the local council had chosen to use Google Apps for their email.
Facebook’s release of 60 new lifestyle apps that let users track the recipes they cooked, the dresses they bought, and the trip to Paris they want to take, are turning the social network into a personal online scrapbook.
The apps, plus Facebook’s opening of its platform to any developer that wants to build on it, are clearly aimed at diversifying the experiences people can have on the site – to stem boredom, and to keep people participating. That’s a sensible business move ahead of the company’s IPO, as it keeps engagement rates up, and that keeps marketers optimistic and spending money.
But is seamlessly sharing the most minute details of daily life truly a way to stay connected with people, even within the limited confines of the internet?
This screen on the left is what greeted visitors to Wikipedia on Wednesday, as the online encyclopedia site began its ‘blackout’ protest of two controversial intellectual property bills currently being discussed in the US Congress.
For 24 hours starting from 5am GMT on Wednesday, Wikipedia blocked users from viewing or editing all of its English-language pages except for the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act, the bills it is protesting against.
Facebook names alleged Koobface gang
Facebook has taken the unusual step of making public the names and personal details of five men it believes to be behind the Koobface computer worm that attacked hundreds of thousands of computers through the social network’s profiles.
The alleged gang appear to be living in St Petersburg and were tracked by Facebook and a team of researchers over three years.
Wikipedia confirmed that it would black out all English language versions of its website around the globe this Wednesday, in opposition to two proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.
More than 1800 “Wikipedians” discussed various protest actions they could take to stall the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), and late on Monday, settled on the 24-hour blackout, to begin at 5 a.m. UTC/GMT on Wednesday.
Wikipedia users will not be able to read or edit English pages, though articles about SOPA and PIPA will remain accessible to readers.
Wikipedia’s anti-SOPA blackout will go ahead on Wednesday
Wikipedia is planning an online “blackout” on Wednesday, in protest against proposed US legislation intended to stem web piracy.
Almost everything about the introduction of new internet domain names stinks of self-interest. Politicians, pornographers, regulators and big business have been dragged into the suffix wars, as Icann – the internet naming organisation – tries to add new tags to the familiar handles in the web’s current system, such as .com and .org.
The whole controversy sounds very Web 1.0. I thought domain-name investment had peaked a decade or more ago, when unlikely sums were spent on generic names such as business.com (once part-owned by the Financial Times). That bubble burst along with many of the dotcom companies.
Twitter’s displeasure with Google’s “Search plus Your World” may have been the most loudly heard reaction, but tech commentators also took to their blogs to criticise Google’s latest enhancement to personalised search this week.
Google admits bad behaviour in Kenya
Google has admitted that employees in its Kenyan office have pillaged a local rival’s database to try to sell their competing products to its customers.
In an embarrassing lesson for any company that is growing fast internationally, Google – motto: Don’t be evil – was caught out by its victim, Mocality, in a sting operation.
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