Internet companies know practically everything about their users. And servers never forget. Advertisers, ID thieves, insurance companies, and others are trying to get this data. But “law enforcement” around the world can simply bully its way to it. Now Microsoft confessed: even your data and conversations on its encrypted services that you thought were secure aren’t because, upon request, it gives the crypto keys to governments around the world.
Information Age
H-P’s Big Investors Finally Can’t Take It Anymore
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on H-P’s Big Investors Finally Can’t Take It Anymore
Investors are fuming. But traders, the lucky ones who got the timing right, love it. So do Wall Street firms that shuffle companies around. For decades, Hewlett-Packard did what they wanted it to do: swallow other companies, whole or in pieces, spit out some mangled limbs, and dump tens of thousands of employees. But someone ended up holding the bag.
Facebook, Coolest Cutest Corporate Welfare Queen Of Them All
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Facebook, Coolest Cutest Corporate Welfare Queen Of Them All
Last year, the government extracted $1.1 trillion in taxes from us individual taxpayers. But now it will pay, along with the states, $429 million of our taxes to the coolest Silicon-Valley beauty queen: Facebook. In net tax refunds! Part of a vast package of juicy corporate welfare programs. Facebook isn’t just hogging our data; it’s gobbling up our money.
Is The “Self-Promotion-And-Envy Spiral” Taking Down Facebook?
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Is The “Self-Promotion-And-Envy Spiral” Taking Down Facebook?
Facebook isn’t over the hill, exactly. Last October, it announced that 1 billion people a month used it, in a world of 7 billion. Leaping from one milestone to the next. But in key markets, such as the US where it derives most of its revenues, it is plateauing, and a shudder-inducing D-word has snuck into polite conversation: declining. Now we have a new reason.
Windows 7 & Internet Explorer: Privacy Settings and Cleanup
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Windows 7 & Internet Explorer: Privacy Settings and Cleanup
Here are some easy tricks that I found to be very helpful in maintaining at least some sort of privacy and security for life on the internet (Note: This is in addition to keeping Windows, anti-virus software, Java, Flashplayer, etc. updated). Smartphones: If you use a smartphone (and a lot of apps) for everything…
Big Brother Everywhere
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Big Brother Everywhere
A friend, who was installing Skype on a new computer, was baffled when Skype suggested contacts that weren’t on his Skype contact list but in his address book. Turns out, apps are gateways that pilfer voluminous personal information, not only address book data but also … sexual preferences. Nothing is safe. And not just of the user but also of his or her friends. And now the government is trying to catch up in the race to get our information.
Huawei (or China) Slams into US National Security Concerns
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Huawei (or China) Slams into US National Security Concerns
Huawei is a prime example of Chinese companies scaling the value chain through innovation and technology transfer—top priorities in China’s five-year plan. But its efforts to become a major player in the US give the US government, and anyone concerned about national security, the willies. And now, these concerns dissolved another deal, yet the root problem remains.
Can’t Even Urinate in his own Yard Anymore
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Can’t Even Urinate in his own Yard Anymore
While some people were fretting over Google’s new “privacy” policy that took effect March 1—“Calling this a ‘privacy policy’ is Orwellian doublespeak,” said John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog—others were counting Google AdSense dollars from their blogs. Ka-ching. Just then, an insidious and at once funny information-age issue erupted in France, or more precisely in a tiny village in Maine-et-Loire.
Broke California: Give Us The Facebook Manna Now
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Broke California: Give Us The Facebook Manna Now
California is broke again. The “balanced” budget last summer turned into a pile of overoptimistic assumptions. Out-of-money date is March 8. $3.3 billion must be dug up, pronto. Last fall, California had to borrow $21 billion to make it to April. Now all eyes are on Facebook. Its IPO will singlehandedly solve all budget problems forever—just like Google’s IPO had done.
Facebook: The Value of Information in the Information Age
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Facebook: The Value of Information in the Information Age
With IPO hype blowing like a maxed-out hairdryer into my face, I Googled … Friendster—the shining star of social networking that everyone had drooled over. Turns out, in 2009, Friendster was bought for a pittance by MOL Global, a Malaysian company. In 2011, it discontinued social networking activities and rebranded itself as a gaming site. But there is one valuable asset it still has: user information.