Security

The White House is seeking comment on a draft plan for establishing a trusted identity system online, with the goal of making Internet transactions more secure and convenient.  read more »

The folks on Capitol Hill are the latest to take an interest in Apple. According to a report in the Washington Post, Representatives Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and Joe Barton (R-Texas), who co-chair the House's privacy caucus, have issued questions to Apple CEO Steve Jobs over Apple's policy on collecting private information.  read more »

Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) are asking tough questions of Apple CEO Steve Jobs about recent changes to the company's privacy policy. The two congressmen sent a letter to Jobs on Thursday asking the company to explain its privacy changes and how they comply with user privacy safeguards built into Section 222 of the Federal Telecommunications Act.  read more »

A coalition of security companies and researchers have agreed on guidelines for how security software products should be tested, which may help put an end to long-running disputes about different testing methodologies.  read more »

About 60% of Facebook users are considering quitting the social network due to concerns over whether the site adequately protects the privacy of their posts.  read more »

Facebook is opening up new and interesting ways for you to share information, links and other items online with new features like its universal like button and Instant Personalization. But at the same time, Facebook's tendency to make more and more of your previously private information public continues to be a troubling habit of the popular social network. Concerns over Facebook's treatment of user privacy recently led the Electronic Privacy Information Center and 14 other consumer advocacy groups to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over Facebook's stance on privacy.  read more »

A bug allowed Facebook users to view their friends' chat sessions on the site, prompting the social-networking company to disable its internal instant-messaging service. The bug also let people see their friends' pending friend requests.  read more »

Privacy advocates' criticism over recent moves by Facebook and Google Buzz begs the question: Is privacy possible in a social network? And, if so, which social-network service does it the best? To answer this question, this month I donned my privacy goggles and pored over the two social networks that my professional peers seem to use the most: Facebook and LinkedIn. I also asked all my Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections to tell me which they thought did privacy better. (I didn't look at Buzz because I admittedly don't know anyone using it.) What did I find out?  read more »

A new Yankee Group study of enterprise cloud computing services finds cloud contracts full of disclaimers, ambiguous uptime guarantees, and uncertain privacy policies and compliance claims.  read more »

Zambia has become the first country in eastern and southern Africa to introduce multipurpose electronic national registration cards that will be used for voting, accessing banking services and as driving licenses.  read more »