‘Facebook Ireland is under fire for allegedly creating “shadow profiles” on both users and nonusers alike.
The startling charges against the social-networking giant come from the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (IDC), which, Fox News reports today, is launching a “comprehensive” investigation against Facebook Ireland for extracting data from current users–without their consent or knowledge–and building “extensive profiles” on people who haven’t even signed on for the service.
Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, work information, and perhaps even more sensitive information such as sexual orientation, political affiliations, and religious beliefs are being collected and could possibly be misused, Irish authorities claim.’
Read more: Facebook Ireland Accused of Creating ‘Shadow Profiles’ on Users, Nonusers
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‘Computer networks proved their organizing power during the recent uprisings in the Middle East, in which Facebook pages amplified street protests that toppled dictators. But those same networks showed their weaknesses as well, such as when the Egyptian government walled off most of its citizens from the Internet in an attempt to silence protesters.
That has led scholars and activists increasingly to consider the Internet’s wiring as a disputed political frontier.
For example, one weekend each month, a small group of computer programmers gathers at a residence here to build a homemade Internet—named Project Byzantium—that could go online if parts of the current global Internet becomes blocked by a repressive government.’
Read more: Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets
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‘Reports pertaining to the censorship and takedown of personal websites continue to flood in.
First, YouTube meddled with the view counts of folks like Alex Jones over at Info Wars and Prison Planet. Then Flickr, MySpace and Facebook began censoring comments and material. Now an increasing number of independent online media is beginning to feel the sharp edge of the blade.’
Read more: The Next Phase of Internet Censorship Has Begun: Man the Battle Stations!
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‘At mid-day on Friday, September 23, 2011, the popular alternative news blog, ActivistPost.com, was taken offline. Activist Post receives over one million views per month and has been hosted by Google’s Blogger since its founding in June 2010.
“We remain puzzled as to why Activist Post was erased completely by Google,” said chief editor and co-founder Michael Edwards. “When we tried to load our back-up file into our secondary Blogger account, that was blocked as well,” he added.’
Read more: Activist Post Deleted! Google Erases Popular Alternative News Source
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‘Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site. Or you could be sent to federal prison if your boss told you to work but you used the company’s computer to check sports scores online. Imagine that Eric Holder’s Justice Department urged Congress to raise penalties for violations, making them felonies allowing three years in jail for each broken promise. Fanciful, right?
Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration’s wishes in the name of “cybersecurity.”
The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that “exceeds authorized access” to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.’
Read more: Congress Contemplates Draconian Punishment for Internet Lies.
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Quite obviously my coverage of Libya has a
lot of people upset. I had received a concerted barrage of attacks by
suspiciously similar accounts all tweeting 24/7 for weeks regarding
Libya, all overtly pro-NATO just before my account was suspended. I was
covering the Rixos Hotel and how even mainstream media admitted that
snipers were targeting the building and Qaddafi’s troops were attempting
to protect it. Despite this the media suggests the journalists are
“hostages.”
The troops have now, in fact, allowed them
to leave. This was yet another hoax, on par with the “Saif al-Islam”
hoax where a very much free and energetic Saif showed up to personally
dispel BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, NATO propaganda.’
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‘Researchers at U.C. Berkeley have discovered that some of the net’s most popular sites are using a tracking service that can’t be evaded — even when users block cookies, turn off storage in Flash, or use browsers’ “incognito” functions.
The service, called KISSmetrics, is used by sites to track the number of visitors, what the visitors do on the site, and where they come to the site from — and the company says it does a more comprehensive job than its competitors such as Google Analytics. But the researchers say the site is using sneaky techniques to prevent users from opting out of being tracked on popular sites, including the TV streaming site Hulu.com.’
Read more: Researchers Expose Cunning Online Tracking Service That Can’t Be Dodged
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‘Facebook’s marketing director has called for an end to on-line anonymity, saying internet users would ‘behave a lot better’ if everyone had to use real names when surfing or posting on the internet.
Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s marketing director and sister of multi-millionaire founder Mark, made the comments during a round table discussion on cyber bullying.
The ubiquitous social networking site, which has been at the centre of recent controversy over internet privacy and bullying issues, currently requires all its members to use’ their real names and emails when signing on.’
Read more: ‘It Has to Go Away’: Facebook Director Calls for an End to Internet Anonymity
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