John Lister

The US government and court system asked Google to provide information about more than 33,000 people in the first half of the year. The figure was a new record. The numbers come from Google's twice-yearly "Transparency Report", which is designed to ... track trends in the number of requests and prompt debate about the balance between privacy and security. For the US alone, Google received 16,823 requests for data about 33,709 users (though it's possible this may include the same user being counted twice for multiple accounts. That compared with a total of 48,941 requests about 83,485 from ... (view more)

Google has confirmed its top search results misidentified the man responsible for the Las Vegas shootings. The automated results took the information from a controversial message board site rather than a mainstream media outlet. The information ... appeared in the results when people searched for the name of a man who was not responsible to or connected with the shooter. Instead the misidentified man shared a surname with a woman who had been named a "person of interest" by police and was in a relationship the actual shooter. Man Misidentified As Shooter When somebody searched for the innocent ... (view more)

A newly discovered Internet Explorer bug means rogue websites can track the next site a user visits, or even the next search the user makes. While it's not necessarily devastating in itself, the researcher who found the bug says it is a sign ... Microsoft isn't paying enough attention to its old browser. The bug means that a 'rogue' web page could access the content of whatever the user types in to the Internet Explorer address bar as soon as they press the Enter key. This would normally be another website address, but the way Internet Explorer works means it could also be a search term. Security ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed it will sell another standalone edition of the Office suite for people who don't want an annual subscription. It will receive updates, but only for an unspecified period. Despite the name, Office 2019 will come out in the ... second half of next year. It's described by Microsoft as both a "perpetual release" and a "perpetual update", which is a somewhat unwieldy way to distinguish it from Office 365. (Source: office.com ) Office 365 is a subscription model in which users get continuous updates for as long as they pay either a monthly or annual subscription, but when they ... (view more)

The content of video ads you see on YouTube could be personalized based on your online history, thanks to new advertiser tools. The video clips could automatically adjust based on sites you've visited, apps you've downloaded and even the places ... you've been. It's all possible thanks to Google offering a series of new tools for advertisers. One is known as "Custom Affinity Audiences," which means ads aren't simply placed next to (or before) relevant videos. Instead they are specifically targeted at users who are likely to find the content relevant. While the tool has already been ... (view more)

Microsoft claims Windows 10 performance is improving while glitches are less common. It appears one explanation may be a slowdown in the update rollout process. The claims come in a blog post comparing the two most recent 'major update' versions of ... Windows 10, the twice-yearly updates that bring new features rather than just fixing performance and security bugs. It cites figures collected in telemetry reports, in which it tracks the activity on computers, something that Microsoft says helps improve the system, but raises privacy concerns among some critics. Boot Time And Log-In Speedier ... (view more)

T-Mobile is reportedly to let users on "Unlimited" data plans use 50GB of data a month before getting any slowdowns. That will be more than double the soft limit of rivals, though still won't satisfy some linguistic purists. At one point it was ... almost impossible to find an unlimited data deal on mobile devices, but a combination of competition and growing consumer demand as both tablet computers and streaming video become more popular has led the major companies to all offer an unlimited deal. However, there's still a limit of sorts, often called a "fair use policy." With each ... (view more)

Users of the popular CCleaner optimization software have been urged to immediately update the program. The software was recently compromised by hackers for almost a month, though it does not yet appear they did any damage. The warning to update is ... particularly important because CCleaner doesn't automatically update - though it does tell users when a new version is ready. The compromised versions were the 32-bit editions of CCleaner v5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud v1.07.3191 . User who currently have these versions should uninstall them immediately, then get the latest copy from the website of ... (view more)

Microsoft is to give Windows 10 users more details about exactly what an app is able to do on their computer. It's a similar security measure to that available on some mobile device apps. Until now, apps only usually have to get a Windows user's ... permission when they want to access location data, for example in a mapping tool. That's changing with the 2017 Fall Creators Update, the next major twice-yearly feature update for Windows 10. Microphone and Webcam Access Need Permission The change means apps will need the user's permission to access key hardware components on the computer such as a ... (view more)

The majority of Bluetooth devices could be vulnerable to a malware attack. The attack, dubbed BlueBorne, can reportedly spread to devices without needing any action from the victim. The attack takes advantage of a bug in the Bluetooth technology ... itself rather than a specific operating system. At one point this summer an estimated 5.3 billion devices were at risk, running Windows, Android or Linux, as well as Apple devices running systems before the current iOS 10. Fixing the problem will require patches for specific devices and operating systems. Microsoft has patched the issue already, ... (view more)