Congress looks to address privacy concerns over online ads
A Senate committee heard testimony from the online advertising industry on Wednesday, as it attempts to address worries that some practices may violate users' privacy.
Among those who testified Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee were representatives from Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. However, the majority of the Committee's ire seemed targeted at NebuAd. This Redwood City, Calif.-based firm offers technology that uses data culled from packets provided by ISPs, which offer clues as to browsing habits. In turn, this data is used to deliver more relevant ads.
Comcast and Vonage to work together on 'protocol agnostic' Internet
Common sense might tell you that Comcast's pledge to stop throttling Internet customers for the protocols they use would immediately help Vonage. But a new agreement may make sure Comcast's alternative doesn't end up hurting it.
In a remarkable agreement announced this afternoon, VoIP service provider Vonage and the US' largest Internet service provider Comcast will work together to improve the "network agnostic" management techniques that Comcast announced last March it would develop. Those techniques may help Comcast to regulate network traffic without implementing throttling techniques that, while benefitting Comcast, would hurt Vonage.
Verizon Wireless drops content provider over racism charges
A threatened boycott against Verizon Wireless has been canceled, after the wireless provider suspended a distribution deal with 1938 Media after complaints about an allegedly racially insensitive video.
Under the now defunct agreement, suspended last week, Verizon Wireless planned to distribute 1938's comedy skits about the technology industry over V CAST, its 3G EV-DO network for delivering audio, video, and games to cell phones.
P2P backdoor spills personal info on Supreme Court Justice
Personal data from over two thousand clients of a Virginia investment firm was obtained through a Limewire backdoor and made available for over six months before coming to light.
It took a reader of the Washington Post's Security Fix blog to point it out last month, finally alerting Wagner Resource Group that their clients' personal data had been leaked. Of the 2,000 clients listed, about 700 entries contained a name, birth date, and Social Security number; the rest of those listed had slightly less information. Affected clients include several "high-powered lawyers," and Clinton-appointed Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Qualcomm-Broadcom case renews fears of BlackBerry shortage
The prospect of a ban on imports of components for BlackBerrys and other 3G phones began all over again on Tuesday, as chip manufacturers Qualcomm and Broadcom entered an appeals court to replenish their long-standing patent battle.
Qualcomm will now try to convince a US Court of Appeals that imported Qualcomm chipsets, to be used in some high-end cell phones, do not constitute infringement of Broadcom patents. Back in June of 2007, the US District Court in Santa Ana, CA found otherwise, citing violations by Qualcomm around a total of three patents.
Flickr teams with Getty Images on licensing deal
The new partnership would allow users of Yahoo's photo sharing service to make their images available for licensing to clients of Getty's digital image service.
No timetable for the service's launch has yet been announced, however the images culled from Flickr would reside in a specially branded collection. Getty will invite select users to participate, and will select imagery based on the needs of its clients.
Google opens its 3D MMO; Facebook's in, almost
Google yesterday launched Lively -- its own version of the 3D, Avatar-based virtual world -- as an embeddable gadget. But social data barriers remain between Google and Facebook, which is granted separate but equal access to Lively rooms.
A Lively browser plug-in must first be downloaded for either Internet Explorer or Firefox, and Windows XP or Vista is required. Once running, the service asks for a Google ID or Gmail username and password to begin. From there, the user can create his own avatars and Lively Rooms (think of them as more of a series of graphically-enhanced chat windows than a cohesive metaverse.) which can then be embedded in other sites, such as Facebook.
Rogers caves, confusion remains over iPhone sales in Canada
The Canadian cellular provider is now offering a data-only plan for the iPhone which can be attached to any of the company's voice plans, while Apple may or may not be yanking its phone from its own stores in the country.
Customers who activate by August 31 on a three-year contract would be able to select a CAD $30 6 GB data plan for the iPhone, which then can be attached to a standard voice plan.
Standards board execs recommend ISO 29500 appeals be rejected
It's looking more likely now that Open XML will overcome perhaps its last hurdle on the road to publication as an international standard, as the leaders of both ISO and IEC have systematically disassembled four member countries' appeals.
The secretaries general of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Engineering Consortium, in a report to the technical and standards management boards of both organizations, recommends that those boards reject the appeals of representatives of Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela against the publication of the Open XML document format suite created by Microsoft, as ISO/IEC 29500.
Windows DNS bug fix can impair firewalls, including ZoneAlarm
BetaNews has confirmed through its own testing this morning that a critical patch, released yesterday by Microsoft as part of a worldwide DNS bug fix effort, can and does impact the functionality of software firewalls.
Multiple reports from users since yesterday afternoon have complained of systems incapable of contacting the Internet after having implemented patch KB951748. This patch makes a major change to the way the operating system handles DNS requests. Specifically, it implements a system that enables source port randomization -- a way to scramble the address from which a request is placed -- as a security measure to thwart malicious users from being able to craft false DNS responses, and thus "poison" the caches of DNS servers.
EA and Take-Two merger still incomplete
Despite earlier complaints from EA that the FTC was being "unnecessarily broad" in its requests for more information about the merger, yesterday it announced it had complied.
The US Federal Trade Commission now has until August 21 to complete its investigation of the proposed merger between Electronic Arts and takeover candidate Take-Two Interactive, maker of Grand Theft Auto IV. In an SEC regulatory filing, EA said it would not proceed with the acquisition before that date.
Siemens announces massive worldwide job cuts
German electronics and engineering company Siemens was rumored end of June to be preparing a large-scale workforce reduction. Today the company announced the precise number who will be affected.
Over 16,750 jobs will be cut worldwide, shrinking the company's workforce by about 4%. It is estimated that this will save Siemens about €600 million a year until 2010, or €1.2 billion.
Angry YouTube users boycott, Viacom seems to respond
Enraged YouTube users are protesting a controversial court ruling last week by uploading homemade "Viacom sucks" videos, and calling for mass boycotts of Viacom entertainment vehicles such as Paramount Pictures and MTV.
"Boycott Viacom! Fight back for your privacy rights!" proclaimed one video found by BetaNews on the YouTube site early this evening.
World saved: There will be Scrabble on Facebook
While hundreds of thousands of Facebook users have been playing an unlicensed online version of Scrabble called Scrabulous, Electronic Arts and Hasbro will finally roll out their version of the online game to Facebook later this month.
The new, licensed version of Scrabble will be available online for browser-based play, as well as through Facebook, and other social networks, and a licensed version is available now on Pogo.com.
Major fix to DNS vulnerability impacts Windows, Debian
A very serious flaw in the Internet's DNS servers may have been ripe for a significant exploit, though a familiar security researcher might have sounded the alarm just in time. Now, Microsoft and Linux vendors are responding urgently.
In what appears to be a coordinated effort to fix a well known, though still potentially critical vulnerability to the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol, patches are being deployed today for both Windows and Linux, by both Microsoft and Debian, respectively. These patches would enable a long suggested protocol for validating the source of DNS requests.
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