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Written by Irfan
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BT should face prosecution for its "illegal" trials of a controversial ad-serving technology, a leading computer security researcher has said.
Dr Richard Clayton at the University of Cambridge made his comments after reviewing a leaked BT internal report.
The document reveals details of a 2006 BT trial with the Phorm system, which matches adverts to users' web habits.
"It's against the law of the land," he told BBC News. "We must now expect to see a prosecution."
But BT plans to push ahead with a further trial of the technology later this summer, the BBC has learnt.
"We have not announced a date yet; we are still planning - it will be quite soon," a spokesperson said.
Revelations about earlier trials have prompted some customers to organise protests in London to coincide with BT's AGM on 16 July.
'Small test'
The company did not inform customers that they were part of the original tests in 2006 and 2007, although 30,000 subscribers were involved.
Nearly 19 million web pages were intercepted during the 2006 tests, according to the leaked report, posted to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
BT described it as "a small-scale technical test".
During the trials adverts were stripped out of web pages served up to BT customers and replaced with more targeted ads, if available.
If none was available, adverts for one of three charities were inserted.
The report also reveals that BT believes that a large scale deployment of Phorm will be "operationally challenging".
It projected that it would require as many as 300 servers to roll out for all BT customers and added that BT was "unable to find hosting accommodation that will enable a deployment of this model".
However, the BBC now understands that the technology behind Phorm has been updated and large-scale trials are much more feasible.
Read full article @ BBC UK |
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Written by Irfan
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A Canadian privacy group has filed a complaint against the social networking site Facebook accusing it of violating privacy laws.
The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has listed 22 separate breaches of privacy law in its country.
Clinic Director Phillipa Lawson told the BBC that, with over 7 million users in Canada, "Facebook needs to be held publicly accountable".
Facebook rejects the charge, claiming some of the highest standards around.
The basis of the complaint, filed with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, states that Facebook collects sensitive information about its users and shares it without their permission.
It goes on to say that the company does not alert users about how that information is being used and does not adequately destroy user data after accounts are closed.
Minefield
"Social networking online is a growing phenomenon," said Ms Lawson.
"It is proving to be a tremendous tool for community-building and social change, but at the same time, a minefield of privacy invasion.
"We chose to focus on Facebook because it is the most popular social networking site in Canada and because it appeals to young teens who may not appreciate the risks involved in exposing their personal details online."
The 35-page action was lodged after students at the clinic analysed the company's policies and practices as part of a course this past winter and identified specific practices that appear to violate the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (Pipeda).
Harley Finkelstein, 24 and a Facebook user for the last three years, told the BBC:
"A great percentage of Canadians using Facebook are aged between 14 and 25 and that raises vulnerability issues.
"Some 14-year-old kid might not know that privacy settings exist or how to take advantage of them or appreciate the ramifications of having their private information disclosed to third parties."
Industry leading controls
In a statement, Facebook said:
"We pride ourselves on the industry leading controls we offer users over their private information. We believe that this is an important reason that nearly 40% of Canadians on the internet use our service.
"We've reviewed the complaint and found it has serious factual errors, most notably its neglect of the fact that almost all Facebook data is willingly shared by users."
Read full story @ bbc UK |
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Written by Irfan
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For most people using a computer means using Windows and over the years Microsoft’s operating system has become easier to use.
However, there is always room for improvement, so in this feature we have compiled 50 of the finest tips for Windows XP and Vista. These can help to make Windows even better, easier to use and faster. Most don’t even require you to install any extra software, so if you want to make your copy of XP or Vista better, it’s possible to get started immediately.
1 Access My Documents from the Taskbar (XP and Vista)
Right-click an empty section of the Taskbar and select toolbars, then New Toolbar. Navigate to the My Documents (XP) or Documents (Vista) folder and click the OK or Select Folder button. In its default position to the far right of the Taskbar, the toolbar provides menu access to the entire contents of the folder.
2 Extra speed with Readyboost (Vista)
Plugging in a USB memory key is one of the easiest ways to speed up Vista. When the Autoplay menu appears, select ‘Speed up my system’, or right-click the drive in Computer and select Properties. Move to the Readyboost tab, tick ‘Use this device’ and use the slider to choose how much space should be given up. Not all USB memory keys are fast enough to provide this boost.
3 Save folders after a crash (XP)
If you have lots of folders open in Windows XP, when one of them crashes, they will all close. This can be avoided by using a hidden option. Open the Control Panel, then choose Folder Options. Move to the View tab and scroll down through the list of options until you get to one called ‘Launch folder windows in a separate process’. Place a tick next to it, then click OK.
4 Disable Aero Glass (Vista)
Vista’s Aero Glass transparency effects may look great, but they also drain a computer’s processing power. To speed up a struggling computer, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Click the link ‘Window Color and Appearance’ at the top of the screen and untick the ‘Enable transparency’ box before clicking OK.
5 Save memory (XP)
When you run programs, Windows XP stores files known as DLLs in memory. When you close the programs, it usually leaves them there for later use but this can slow down the computer. If you are fine editing the Windows Registry, this can be fixed – but make suitable backups first and take great care. Click Start, then Run, type regedit and press Enter.
Click the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then SOFTWARE, then Microsoft, Windows, and Current Version. Select the Explorer folder. Click Edit, then New, then DWORD Value. Name the new entry AlwaysUnloadDll, press Enter, then double-click the item and assign it a value of 1. From now, DLL files will be removed from memory when programs are closed.
6 Partition a hard disk (Vista)
Vista makes it possible to divide a hard disk into two or more partitions that Windows sees as separate disks. Click Start, right-click Computer and select the Manage option. Select Disk Management from the left-hand pane, right-click the disk that is to be split and select Shrink Volume. Enter a new size for the partition and click Shrink.
Now right-click the drive space marked as Unallocated and select New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard to create and format the new partition.
7 Make room for Start menu favourites (XP)
The Start menu includes space for six shortcuts to the most frequently used programs, but this can be increased if it is not enough. Right-click the Start button, select Properties and click the Customize button. In the Programs section in the centre of the dialogue box, use the up arrow button to increase the number of icons that should be displayed and then click OK.
8 Restore a deleted Recycle Bin (Vista)
If you right-click the Recycle Bin, there’s a Delete option – this makes it easy to accidentally remove the bin from your desktop. To get it back, right-click the desktop, select Personalize and then click ‘Change desktop icons’. Tick the box next to the Recycle Bin option and click OK – it will reappear on the desktop.
9 Automatically log in to Windows XP
If your PC has only a single user account, it might seem silly to type in a password every time you start it up. To avoid this, click Start, then Run, and type control userpasswords2 before pressing Enter. Select your account and untick the box labelled ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’. Click OK, enter the password when prompted and click OK again.
Read full article @ ComputerActive |
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Written by Irfan
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Software giant Microsoft has dropped its three-month-old bid to buy internet firm Yahoo because the two sides cannot agree on an acceptable sale price.Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer formally withdrew the offer in a letter to Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang.
Mr Ballmer said Microsoft had raised its original offer from $44.6bn to $47.5bn (£24.1bn) - $33 per share.
But he added that Yahoo had insisted on at least $53bn, or $37 a share - more than Microsoft was prepared to pay.
The software giant had wanted to do a deal to be able to compete with Google, which dominates the lucrative market for internet advertising.This market was worth $40bn in 2007 and is predicted to double to $80bn by 2010.
'Distraction'
In his letter to Mr Yang, which has been posted on the Microsoft website, Mr Ballmer said: "We continue to believe that our proposed acquisition made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo and the market as a whole.
Read full story @ BBC |
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Written by Irfan
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Spam - the scourge of every e-mail inbox - celebrates its 30th anniversary this weekend.
The first recognisable e-mail marketing message was sent on 3 May, 1978 to 400 people on behalf of DEC - a now-defunct computer-maker.
The message was sent via Arpanet - the internet's forerunner - and won its sender much criticism from recipients.
Thirty years on, spam has grown into an underground industry that sends out billions of messages every day.
Statistics gathered by the FBI suggest that 75% of net scams snare people through junk e-mail. In 2007 these cons netted criminals more than $239m (£121m).
Statistics suggest that more than 80%-85% of all e-mail is spam or junk and more than 100 billion spam messages are sent every day.
The majority of these messages are being sent via hijacked home computers that have been compromised by a computer virus.
Quick complaint
The sender of the first junk e-mail message was Gary Thuerk and it was sent to advertise new additions to DEC's family of System-20 minicomputers.
It invited the recipients, all of whom were on Arpanet and lived on the west coast of the US, to go to one of two presentations showing off the capabilities of the System-20.
Reaction to the message was swift, with complaints reportedly coming from the US Defense Communications Agency, which oversaw Arpanet, and took Mr Thuerk's boss to task about it.
Despite Mr Thuerk's pioneering spam it took many years for unsolicited commercial e-mail to become a nuisance.
It took until 1993 before it won the name of spam - a name bestowed on it by Joel Furr - an administrator on the Usenet chat system.
Mr Furr reputedly got his inspiration for the name from a Monty Python sketch set in a restaurant whose menu heavily featured the processed meat.
Read full story @ BBC |
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