Internet

Edward Snowden thinks you should avoid using popular cloud storage service Dropbox . In a recent interview with United Kingdom news source The Guardian, Snowden suggested that the information stored through Dropbox is not secure. As a former systems ... administrator with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Security Agency (NSA) , Edward Snowden made headlines last year when he released documents unveiling the United States government's invasive PRISM program . The U.S. Department of Justice then charged Snowden with violating the Espionage Act, which prompted him to flee to ... (view more)

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg says that a basic Internet service should be free of charge to everyone. He likened it to phone services where calling 911 (used for emergencies) carries no cost. Zuckerberg discussed the topic in a Wall Street Journal ... article in which he promoted Internet.org, a project trying to expand Internet access around the world . The group is made up of Facebook, browser maker Opera, and several leading tech hardware and communication firms. (Source: internet.org ) The group's aim is for everyone in the world to have Internet access, something that only one-third of ... (view more)

Facebook is making negative headlines once again - this time for a 'data experiment' which was carried out on approximately 600,000 of its members without consent. The experiment reportedly took place two years ago, though only came to light in ... recent days. According to reports, Facebook toyed with the minds of more than half a million users by altering the wording of their News Feeds. Specifically, the social network employed a special computer algorithm that cut or added words associated with positive or negative emotions in order to influence those reading the feeds. A news feed is ... (view more)

Facebook has altered its privacy policy and it's unlikely the change will be popular with the social network's 1+ billion members. In the next few weeks, Facebook will begin tracking user activity outside of it's own web site, so that it can ... generate 'more appropriate' advertisements tailored towards its members. In the past, Facebook kept close tabs on what its users posted to their profiles in an effort to bring forth more relevant advertisements. But the social network only monitored user activity on the Facebook website itself, including the pages they liked and the links they clicked ... (view more)

US Marshals are to auction off almost 30,000 Bitcoins, a controversial "virtual currency." The coins have a current market value of around $18 million dollars. The government confiscated the virtual currency when it raided an underground online ... trading site named Silk Road. Silk Road was not part of the ordinary World Wide Web, and could only be accessed using special web browser software. That made it extremely difficult to trace anyone using the site and their activity. The site was well known in the digital underground community for buying and selling services of both a legal and ... (view more)

Facebook is facing a serious backlash over a new feature that allows it to listen in on its smartphone users. When activated, the feature uses the device's microphone to detect a user's activity and automatically updates their "status" accordingly. ... For example, if a user is listening to a new U2 album on their stereo in the background, Facebook will use a smartphone's microphone to update a user's status to "Listening to U2". It can also detect movies and television shows and update a user's status to read "Watching Iron Man" or "Watching ... (view more)

Facebook wants its users to carry out regular 'privacy checkups' in hopes of winning back trust. The privacy checkup features allows users to choose how much of their personal information is visible to the general public, including photographs, ... email addresses, and smartphone numbers. According to The New York Times, Facebook's new privacy checkup is a response to user and investor concerns that the social networking site's privacy settings are too complicated , making it difficult for many users to protect their personal data. Privacy Checkup to Include Walkthrough of New App ... (view more)

It appears as if one of the largest cable and home Internet service providers in the United States is planning to reinstate monthly bandwidth limits on its many customers. The news is raising new and old questions about net neutrality , Internet ... fairness, and bandwidth usage caps in general. Recently, Comcast executive vice president David Cohen told a New York audience that his company plans to reinstate monthly bandwidth caps sometime in the next five years. Bandwidth Cap System More Fair, Says Exec Bandwidth is loosely defined as is a measurement of available or consumed data communication ... (view more)

Iowa Democrats are considering using online voting in primary elections for 2016. It follows two separate moves to increase online voting in Utah. The Iowa Democrat officials raised the idea during a meeting of the Democrat National Committee. They ... want to introduce online voting for the primaries, in which local Democrat supporters indicate which candidates they want to represent the party in the presidential election. The Iowa officials believe adding online voting could help involve people who are state residents but can't vote in person, such as military staff away on service or those ... (view more)

Popular video streaming service Netflix has announced plans to raise its monthly service price. Meanwhile, Amazon says it has acquired the rights to HBO (Home Box Office) shows for its Amazon Prime streaming service. For the past three years, ... Netflix has offered its video streaming services to customers for $7.99 per month -- an affordable price that has helped Netflix generate revenue of $1 billion. Netflix's total profits for the first quarter of 2014 are an estimated $53 million. (Source: bbc.com ) Premium Content Means Higher Prices, Netflix Says Netflix chief executive officer Reed ... (view more)