Privacy is important. There is no doubt about it. When apps send entire address books, unencrypted, without permission, people have every right to be upset. I am not denying that.
But what has stunned me is something that happens almost every time a company, such as Facebook, changes anything. And that is the amount of people that will instantly call it a privacy concern, or likewise, begin acting like it’s a public outrage that things as simple as Timeline have been made.
Image: Dimitar Nikolov/Flickr (Creative Commons)
The European Commission has announced sweeping reforms in privacy and data protection laws within the union – including a single legal framework, and stronger penalties to make sure companies abide by these new rules.
The little Wii gets a bit more intimate with a brand new game, Mortal Kombat banned in Australia and the MacBook Pro gets a little hardware revamp – and we make a big deal about it and the new Thunderbolt. Wait, what? That’s all this week on the TECHGEEK Weekly podcast with the return of James Wilson plus one guest – Matt Rossi.
Image: chispita_666/Flickr
Vodafone dealer Communications Direct has sacked up to 40 jobs in its call centre after the mobile provider severed its relationship with the company in response to an investigation revealing misuse of the Vodafone customer database.
While James and Stewart are out, we get Tom Wood – a former host of a former TECHGEEK Podcast incarnation – to help us dissect the news that Playboy is going to the iPad uncensored, the University of Sydney having a privacy headache and Steve Jobs has gone on medical leave – again.
Image: chispita_666/Flickr
An investigation by the Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that information of its past and present students are available online.
The breach is a flaw in how the university handles HECS – the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, which means that the Government pays for the university course taken and it is repaid by a person’s income via tax at no interest.
Image: chispita_666/Flickr
Vodafone has said in a media statement that it has terminated several employees in response to revelations by a Sydney newspaper that customer data were publicly available on the internet and compromised.
The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim, has announced that he will be investigating allegations made yesterday by the Sun-Herald that Vodafone has made the personal information of its customers publicly available on an internet site, rather than on an intranet.
An investigation by the Sun Herald, the Sydney Morning Herald’s Sunday paper, has revealed that personal details of Vodafone customers, including names, addresses, driver licence numbers and credit card details, have been made available on the internet.
2010. What a year to end a decade. From political uncertainty in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, the leaking of important US documents – from Afghanistan to diplomatic cables – and even a possible upheaval of our classification system to finally allow a R18+ rating in Australia, bringing it in line with other western nations.
Google’s collecting of personal data, including full emails and passwords to sites, while its Street View cars were driving around cities has been described to be a “significant breach” of privacy in the UK by its information commissioner.
Yes, that’s right.. Terence is on holidays in Rome! So everyone at TECHGEEK.com.au is partying like crazy. We talk about the new Windows Phone 7, The Android ‘dude’ problem, #newtwitter, the iPhone app that allows you to spy and much much more.
Yes, apparently Google is into shooting photos of dead people as photos of the dead appeared on Google Street View. Ouch. As well, Motorola gets sued by Microsoft, Facebook lets you download everything you ever uploaded or wrote on Facebook, and MySpace brings out a craptastic new logo.
Thought that message about you cheating on your test was within your Facebook friends? Or maybe you took a HIV test and found out negative (or positive), or just want to shout out that you have lost your virginity. Well, get ready to learn something harsh. Your status messages are public, and now they are searchable. Yes, just like Google, I can type something in Openbook and find out what you and the over 300 million people on Facebook are talking about – unless you are smart and lock down your account.
And when you thought Facebook couldn’t take any more heat, leaked instant messages published online appear to show Zuckerberg mocking users joining the social networking site (then called The Facebook and was limited to Harvard students) in 2003, and is very brutal on the people who published photos and addresses and was willing to give them out to people when asked.