Microsoft founder Bill Gates has officially joined Twitter and is amassing followers quickly.
The 54-year-old Gates, who stepped down from full-time duties at Microsoft last year to concentrate on philanthropical efforts, had more than 150,000 followers in his first 13 hours on the site. As of this writing, he had nearly 200,000.
Gates' first message was "Hello world," a common phrase used by computer programmers learning a new language.
There have been numerous Gates imposters on the site, but the new account is verified as official.
Gates, who still serves as Microsoft's non-executive chairman, says he plans on "sharing cool things I'm learning through my foundation work and other interests" in his bio.
More > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/01/20/bill-gates-microsoft-twitter.html
Canada's privacy commissioner is launching a series of public consultations to investigate online data collection through social networking and consumer profiling.
Jennifer Stoddart will examine the privacy risks associated with the online tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers in the lead-up to a review of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Canadians are among the world's most prolific Internet and social networking users and Stoddart's office says there's concern that personal information is being abused.
More > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/01/18/privacy-online-data-100118.html
Canada's Privacy commission probing Facebook again
Canada's privacy commission is again investigating Facebook after receiving a new complaint from the public regarding how the website handles users' data.
The complaint addresses a tool implemented by the social-networking site in mid-December that allegedly makes users' information more readily available than before. New default settings, which users were asked to review at the time, have actually taken a step backward, the complaint said.
More > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/01/27/facebook-privacy-complaint.html
All eyes at the Consumer Electronics Show will be on Google, Apple and Microsoft
The Microsoft question
The world's biggest software company and main CES supporter kicks off the event with a keynote from chief executive Steve Ballmer, his second after taking over for the retired Bill Gates. Microsoft is floundering in the mobile phone business and has lost some of its momentum in video games to Nintendo and a resurgent Sony. Rumours emerged last week that the company is looking to tie its video game and mobile phone strategies together. CES could also provide Microsoft with an opportunity to make some concrete announcements regarding Project Natal, the prototype motion-controlled video game system it showed off last summer.
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/01/04/ces-electronics-show-preview.html
A U.S. federal appeals court has upheld a $290-million US judgment against Microsoft Corp. in a patent case launched by Toronto-based i4i Inc., and issued an injunction that will prevent the sale of its popular Word software.
The court injunction is set to go into effect Jan. 11. The injunction is only against U.S. sales of the program on or after that date, and does not affect copies of the programs sold before the injunction goes into effect, Microsoft noted in a release.
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/12/22/microsoft-i4i-appeal.html
PALO ALTO, Calif. — December 9, 2009 —Setting a new standard in user control, Facebook announced today that it is calling on its more than 350 million users to review and update their privacy settings—a first among major Internet services. In addition, Facebook will be rolling out easy-to-use tools to empower people to personalize control over their information—based on what the content is, why they are sharing it, when, and the audience they seek to reach.
“Facebook is transforming the world’s ability to control its information online by empowering more than 350 million people to personalize the audience for each piece of content they share,” said Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Communications, Public Policy and Marketing. “We’ve always designed Facebook to enable people to control what information they share with whom—it’s the reason our service continues to attract such a broad and diverse group of users from around the world. We’re proud of the latest evolution we’re announcing today and we will continue to innovate to serve users’ changing needs.”
More: > http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=133917
Google has announced a service that it says will speed up web surfing and prevent browser redirection by malicious programs or internet providers.
The service takes aim at how the web addresses users type in, such as www.cbc.ca, are translated into the internet protocol numbers that computers use to communicate with each other. This Domain Name Server (DNS) resolution service is like the "switchboard of the internet," said Google product manager Prem Ramaswami in a blog post Thursday.
Typically, when a user types a web address into their browser, their internet service provider automatically translates it and connects them to their desired website. That connection, however, can sometimes be hijacked by malicious code on the user's computer, whereupon they can be redirected to a harmful website. Some ISPs also redirect users who have mistyped an address to a website they themselves operate.
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/12/03/google-dns-web-address.html
Facebook says it is boosting privacy by giving users control over who sees each bit of information they put on the social-networking site, and by doing away with regional and group networks.
"We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in an open letter posted on the site late Tuesday. "In addition, we'll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings."
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/12/02/facebook-privacy-settings.html
More: > http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=190423927130
Google Inc. is allowing publishers of paid content to limit the number of free news articles accessed by people using its internet search engine.
The concession follows mounting criticism of Google's practices from media publishers — most notably News Corp. chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch — that argue the company is profiting from online news pages.
In an official blog posted late Tuesday, Josh Cohen, Google's senior business product manager, said the company had updated its so-called First Click Free program so publishers can limit users to viewing no more than five articles a day without registering or subscribing.
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/12/02/googel-free-news-limit.html
Industry Minister Tony Clement, responding to accusations that an international anti-counterfeiting agreement will criminalize everyday activity by Canadians, says any such pact will be "subservient" to copyright rules created domestically.
Clement said suggestions that Canada will lose its copyright sovereignty to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a deal being negotiated largely in private by the European Union and a number of countries — including the United States, Canada and Australia — is "fear-mongering."
More: > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/12/01/clement-copyright-acta-ndp.html
Mininova, one of the biggest torrent file-sharing websites in the world, has removed links to all copyrighted content that it does not have official agreements for.
Thursday's move is a win for the entertainment industry as users of the site are now cut off from a major source of torrent files, which link to downloads of television shows, music, movies and other copyrighted content. The victory is likely to be short-lived, though, as peer-to-peer file sharers move on to other torrent sites and new technology.
More > http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/11/26/mininova-removes-torrents.html
After bogging down in the recession, internet advertising is regaining the momentum that has made it the decade's most disruptive marketing machine.
The signs of an online revival are emerging even while advertising in print and broadcasts remains in a slump that has triggered mass layoffs, pay cuts and other upheaval.
Internet advertising was just about the only bright spot in the third-quarter reports of two major U.S. newspaper publishers, Gannett Co. and McClatchy Co.
Meanwhile, the companies still are dealing with steep declines in print ads — an imbalance most analysts predict will take years to address.
More: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/21/online-advertising-rebound.html
Tiny Eolas Technologies is taking tech giants and major customers to court claiming they infringed its patents for working with online interactive content.
Eolas has filed suit against Adobe Systems, Apple, Google, Sun Microsystems, YouTube, Blockbuster, JP Morgan Chase, JC Penny and Playboy Enterprises, among others.
The company, which has chosen the litigant-friendly US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to fight the case, claimed the companies infringed on two of its patents.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/07/eolas_browser_microsoft/
U.S. authorities are using the threat of big fines to force bloggers to disclose their relationships with the companies they write about, but jurisidictional confusion means no similar mechanisms exist or are under consideration in Canada.
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday announced new rules that require bloggers in the United States to disclose "material connections" — or "connections that consumers would not expect" — with the subjects they write about. The connections can take the form of outright payments, advertisements or free products given to the blogger by the subject.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/10/05/ftc-blogger-disclosure-standards-fines.html
Two ongoing scams are tricking Google and other search engines into prominently displaying millions of compromised webpages that attempt to hijack end users' computers or steal their credit card numbers, researchers said.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/01/mass_compromise_google_results/
The Pirate Bay saga took another twist Tuesday as one of the appellate judges set to hear the appeal of the co-founders’ criminal copyright convictions was removed over concerns of bias.
The Swedish judge in question, Fredrik Niemela, owns an unstated number of stock options in the music streaming service, Spotify, which has content deals with members of the Recording Industry Association of America.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/piratebaysaga/
Social website Facebook yanked a poll this week about assassinating President Barack Obama after being contacted by the U.S. Secret Service.
On Monday, Facebook dropped a question that asked voters whether the U.S. president "should be killed."
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/29/obama-poll-secret-service-facebook.html
Microsoft's free antivirus program, Security Essentials, became available for download from the company's website Tuesday.
Microsoft bills the software as providing "high-quality protection" against viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware and other malicious software. It updates and upgrades automatically.
Microsoft said its free program is not meant to cut into the business of commercial antivirus programs, by companies such as McAfee and Symantec, but will appeal to people who don't already have security software on their computers.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/29/tech-computer-windows-antivirus.html
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
A federal judge fundamentally misinterpreted a patent asserted against Microsoft Word, an error that should require a $290m infringement penalty to be overturned, attorneys for the software giant argued Wednesday.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/23/microsoft_i4i_patent_hearing/
Facebook says it will shut down its controversial marketing feature Beacon, an application that broadcasts users' activities, including purchases, on other websites to their Facebook friends.
The feature was adopted in November 2007 and immediately drew complaints from Facebook users who said it invaded their privacy.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/09/21/tech-internet-facebook-beacon.html
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