We all know a cell phone is more than a device to make and receive calls, especially a smartphone. Your phone can paint a pretty detailed picture about your life, who your friends are, where you have been, who you have talked to or texted and the websites you have visited amongst others. The long time debate has been how much of this information is protected under user privacy laws....
One of the biggest benefits to online shopping is the illusion you don’t have to pay taxes. True, in most cases you don’t pay sales tax up front, but states still require you to pay a “Use Tax”, which is a whole ugly thing onto itself, but initially everyone basks in the glow of paying no sales tax. The current laws are written that a company must only pay sales tax to it if they have...
In late Oct., Twitter laid out some new rules for how people could use its name, trademarks and so on. One of those included rules was in regards to using the words “Twitter” or “Tweet” in a domain or product name, but thus far the company has taken no action against anyone. It was beginning to feel like it was one of those rules that exists just in case they need it, but all of that...
It would appear that the United States government was on a bit of a tear this past week with seizing domain names of sites that traffic in illegal goods. From counterfeit designer items to sites that link to BitTorrent sites, everything was up for grabs it seems. The issues are that one of the sites was nothing more than a search engine and the second problem is that not even their...
Getting yourself into debt is a stressful situation to begin with, and it is one that people usually like to hide from their friends and family. No one wants other people to know that they have gotten themselves into this situation. Unfortunately, in this interconnected age of social networking, it has become all too easy for debt collectors to discover exactly who your loved ones are...
It seems that the United States government has come to the conclusion that laws regarding the use of cell phones while driving aren’t working, so it may be time for it to take that temptation right out of your hands. Speaking with MSNBC show Morning Joe, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spoke about the potential of putting cell phone scramblers in cars with Joe Scarborough and Mika...
We’ve all heard stories about how employers are now checking out social media profiles of applicants, and last year there was even a story about how the city of Bozeman, MT was asking potential hires for their passwords so they could really dig deep. In general people have reacted negatively to these stores, but what if it was someone being hired to protect you and your family, say a...
Nearly three million Cablevision subscribers in the New York area have been living without Fox programming for almost three weeks now. Just to refresh, Fox has pulled its broadcast from Cablevision in the ongoing dispute in which Fox is demanding Cablevision pay $150 million for the right to broadcast their channel, where in the past it was a mere $70 million. This has been a much...
I very rarely read newspapers anymore, be it the physical or online versions, and frankly, don’t really miss it. What I do miss is keeping up to date on the crime rate in my town by reading the police blotters. It’s not the most “feel good” section of the paper but it gives me a sense of what’s happening in my town on the public safety front. To my surprise, while at a City Council...
The state of North Carolina has been after Amazon for some time now to turn over detailed customer records so that they can can charge residents of the state appropriate “use tax” on every item they’ve ordered from the retailer. While Amazon doesn’t have to charge state taxes in locations where it doesn’t have a physical presence, consumers are supposed to report each item purchased...