In The News

Facebook Deletes Accounts Purporting to Be From North Korea

Jun Yang August 25, 2010
It’s unclear if Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts claiming to represent North Korea are truly from the isolated nation. Facebook, insisting that the social networking site is for real people aiming for real connections with real identities, deleted two suspect accounts. “The move comes as South Korea, which bans its citizens from communicating with the North, clamps down on Twitter Inc....

Iranian Activist Sues Telecoms Firm Over “Spying System”

Saeed Kamali Dehghan August 24, 2010
Mobile phone networks connect people and the exchange of ideas on issues small and grand. Isa Saharkhiz, activist and journalist, was arrested during Iranian post-election protests in summer 2009. His interrogators admitted to using Nokia Siemens Networks equipment to monitor his mobile phone calls, and a lawsuit has been filed against the corporation in US courts on his behalf. The company...

Google, CIA Invest in “Future” of Web Monitoring

Noah Shachtman August 19, 2010
Spies have long studied publicly available news reports or cultural events to gather data. Recorded Future is a new firm that tries the same with the internet, explains Noah Shachtman for Wired magazine, by analyzing connections, plotting momentum and trends, and predicting the future while studying websites, blogs or Twitter accounts. Google has joined the Central Intelligence Agency in...

BlackBerry Challenges May Spread as Governments, RIM Collide

Anthony DiPaola, Hugo Miller August 12, 2010
Business people on the go, in need of instant contact and information, appreciate mobile devices and can’t imagine doing without smartphones like the BlackBerry. A major feature of the BlackBerry includes high-level security around communications, with encrypted messages and delivery through protected equipment in Canada and maker Research in Motion. “However, the system also makes it harder for...

Sites Feed Personal Details to New Tracking Industry

Julia Angwin, Tom McGinty August 10, 2010
Internet users are under constant surveillance, warns the Wall Street Journal after an investigation of 50 popular websites accounting for nearly half of US page views. Wikipedia.org was the only site without tracking devices, while other sites together included more than 3000 sensitive devices to track user interests behind every click. Analysts build profiles as trackers collect keystrokes and...

YouTube Banned by Russian Court

Tom Parfitt August 3, 2010
Hundreds of thousands of official and amateur videos from around the globe from cooking to music, fitness, pets, business, and politics are uploaded to YouTube daily. Users, like Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, even create their own YouTube channels. Purportedly targeting a single nationalist video, a Russian regional court took the extreme step of blocking the popular website among local...

Iranian Exiles Struggle to Stay Involved

Neil MacFarquhar July 30, 2010
The reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009 sparked some of the worst social unrest in Iran since the1979 Islamic Revolution. Using popular networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, protesters mobilized quickly on streets and university campuses. Swift government repression ensued causing some protesters to seek refuge abroad. Away from home, using internet...