By Adriana Lee |
The Senate began debating a new immigration reform measure recently, and it has privacy hounds up in arms. The legislation involves creating a national database of biometric information on every adult in the United States. What exactly do they mean by “biometric information”? Well, in…
By Adriana Lee |
Generally speaking, techsters don’t really like too many limitations. After all, there’s a reason why open-source, or freely available software code, has so many fans. Google and other companies have been advocates of an open Internet, doing their best to persuade closed nations and regimes…
By Adriana Lee |
Tech users may be more blasé than ever about privacy matters and tracking features, but even the most indifferent might feel ill at ease if they lived in India. The country, which is responsible for much of the talent that has become modern technology’s lifeblood,…
By Todd Haselton |
Several government agencies have started to gravitate away from RIM’s BlackBerry smartphone for other alternatives, and the latest is the National Transportation Safety Board. According to AllThingsD, the agency has decided to ditch BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone 5 on Verizon Wireless because RIM’s…
By Adriana Lee |
As if we needed yet another sign of RIM’s slipping status in the smartphone market — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has declared that it is leaving the BlackBerry platform for iOS. According to ICE, which will purchase iPhones for 17,600+ employees for…
By Adriana Lee |
We use Facebook for all sorts of things, both brilliant and inane. And while it may be our favorite news resource, social gathering place or general time waster, it’s also something else, something potentially very dangerous, says the United Nations: It reports that the social network…
By Adriana Lee |
Given the way technology is going, are we headed toward a day when every living person gets tagged with barcodes at birth? If so, says SciFi author Elizabeth Moon, that would be a grand thing. In BBC’s “60-second idea” programme, she says, “If I were…
By Noah Kravitz |
The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act otherwise known as CISPA (HR 3523) passed through the House of Representatives Thursday by a vote of 248 to 168. The bill now moves on to the Senate, where it needs a simple majority to make it to…
By Maximum PC |
Do you own a .com domain? If so, the U.S. government can seize it at any time. The same applies to .net, org. .biz, and other top-level domains (TLDs), and it doesn’t matter where you live. You could reside half way around the world. You…
By Killian Bell |
Doctors in the U.K. will soon begin prescribing their patients with smartphone applications along with their drugs that will allow them to monitor and manage their health conditions. The Department of Health is hoping the move will put patients “in the driving seat,” with more…
By Todd Haselton |
Research In Motion has long prided itself on the security of its mobile platform and smartphones, but now the U.S. General Services Administration is allowing 12,635 government workers to choose an iPhone or Android-powered device instead of a BlackBerry. According to Bloomberg, the GSA spends more…
By Maximum PC |
Hey, are you “overly concerned about privacy” online or use anonymizers and Web portals? Do you like to check your ISP-provided email account on the road? How about talking to your cohorts in PC games? Yeah? Well, here’s some bad news: according to the FBI…
By Adriana Lee |
If you read Noah Kravitz’s illuminating post, “This is SOPA. You Might Want to Protest It,” turned on the news or hit your favorite website to find it offline or not updated, then you’ve got an inkling about the online protest that occurred today across…
By Sean P. Aune |
Outside of the insanely easy convenience of doing your shopping online, the next best thing has to be the fact that in the majority of instances you pay no sales tax. Well, leave it to the federal government to want to rain on that parade.…
By Adriana Lee |
Needless to say, the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile is kicking up a lot of suspicion and skepticism. Not only does the U.S. government want to block it, now long-time opponent Sprint has upped the stakes by throwing down its own lawsuit to stop…
By Killian Bell |
Following recent cyber attacks on News Corp, Sony, and even the Pentagon, I’m sure you’re already aware of the “hacktivist” group known as Anonymous. Its next attack, named “Operation Facebook” and scheduled for November 5, promises to “destroy” the world’s largest social network and the…
By Adriana Lee |
If you’re into iOS jailbreaking, then you may have noticed a spiffy new item recently: Browser-based JailbreakMe 3.0 was just released this week, and it can handle the long-awaited untethered jailbreak of the iPad 2. That’s right — it hacks all iPads, as well as…
By Adriana Lee |
Lulz Security, a griefer group largely credited (blamed?) for its unwavering Sony attacks, was back at it again this week. Following its hacks of the U.S. Senate website, the group has claimed responsibility for two high-profile incidents: the packet-flooding (and crash) of the CIA’s website…
By Adriana Lee |
Love him or hate him, there’s one sure thing about President Obama — he’s indisputably the tech-savviest president we’ve ever had. So it should surprise no one that there is an iPhone app to keep fellow Americans in touch with the White House. This week the…
By Tom Moccia |
With the economy in shambles the last few years, much of the blame has gone to the banking industry. Poor business decisions and bad loans culminated in throwing good money after bad, attempting to keep the house of cards from crashing down. In wake of…
By Tom Moccia |
Over the last five years or so, ever since the economy went south, state and local governments have been looking for ways to cut costs and make ends meet. Virtually everything has been cut: Cops, firefighters, school transportation and pretty much anything else you can…
