Posts Tagged ‘advertising’

2010 Superbowl: Megan Fox in a bathtub

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- “I wonder where Annie Leith (right) is today and what she thinks of her appearance?” – I said in p2pnet last summer. “Does she believe it was right for Apple and Pepsi to hold her and her friends up to be falsely accused by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA as criminals in front of hundreds of millions of people in a warped iPod commercial?” – I asked, going on: “The iTunes /RIAA / Pepsi advertising connection has been forgotten by most people. But the RIAA is still trotting out kids and their parents as thieves. “And it’s still getting away with it.” The occasion was the 2004 Super Bowl and it’s that time again — but without the deeply perverted Apple – RIAA – Pepsi campaign. This time around, “YouTube delivered on its promise to upload all the Super Bowl Ads as soon as they aired today, with users voting to choose which one will grace the YouTube front page on Thursday,” says Mashable , adding: “The tech and web ads were a mixed bunch: Both the established GoDaddy ‘Too Hot for TV’ schtick and Motorola’s decision to put Megan Fox in a bathtub stuck to the ’sex sells’ mantra, while Monster.com returned with a ‘Fiddling Beaver.’ Intel went for a quirky ‘lunch room’ ad while Vizio chose star power in its Beyonce (beyonce) commercial. We don’t know what inspired Boost Mobile’s ad, meanwhile, but the humor appears to miss the mark.” Mashable has them all — except, for some reason, the beer ads. Not that it didn’t try. But “This video has ben removed by users”, say the GooTube embeds. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi p2pnet – Apple, Pepsi and the RIAA SuperBowl scandal, July 5, 2009 Mashable – Super Bowl Ads 2010, February 8, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Dell users’ victory

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P:- In 2004, Ian Andrews purchased a Dell laptop computer for $1,700. About 2 1/2 years later, the computer began to malfunction, periodically shutting down unexpectedly. Stuck with a problem computer that was past the standard warranty period, Andrews complained to Dell. The computer giant responded that the online contract governing the initial purchase required him to resolve the dispute by arbitration. Andrews recognized this was not a realistic approach, later stating that, as a university student, he was not in a financial position to retain counsel to support an arbitration claim. Instead, he chose a different course of action, suing the company as part of a class-action lawsuit that brought together thousands of consumers experiencing similar problems. Dell challenged the class-action suit, but last month the Ontario Court of Appeal sided with Andrews, ruling that it could proceed. The case raised a wide range of legal issues, from the impartiality of the proposed arbitration provider (a U.S. firm that had ceased accepting new consumer arbitrations after allegations of “serious impropriety”) to the applicability of an Ontario consumer-protection statute. But the heart of the case was whether consumers can click away their class-action rights when they agree to online contracts mandating that disputes be resolved by arbitration. The use of such clauses has been commonplace among many businesses that are willing to trade the higher costs associated with a handful of individual arbitrations for the threat of a big payout in a class-action suit. From businesses’ perspective, the math makes sense: class actions hold the prospect of bringing together thousands of aggrieved consumers who may individually receive less, but collectively could cost the company far more. Although quite common, contracting out of class-action rights has long been a source of frustration for consumers and consumer advocates. Conventional contract analysis posits that businesses and consumers have an equal opportunity to negotiate a satisfactory contract. Yet, the practical reality is that online contracts are rarely, if ever, the product of actual negotiation. Rather, businesses present the lengthy terms and conditions – often buried behind a link or unreadable fine print – and consumers have little choice but to accept if they want the product or service. The Ontario government recognized the inequity of the business-consumer relationship in 2002, when it enacted the Consumer Protection Act, which outlawed mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts. The reasoning was simple: individual consumer disputes are rarely financially viable as independent legal actions and only make sense if aggregated as a class action. Applying the law to Andrews’ situation and those similarly facing the Dell arbitration clause, the unanimous court was clearly persuaded that arbitration was not an option, concluding “the choice is not between arbitration and class proceeding; the real choice is between clothing Dell with immunity from liability for defective goods sold to nonconsumers and giving those purchasers the same day in court afforded to consumers by way of the class proceeding.” This latest case represents a major win for Canadian consumer groups, who have tangled with Dell before in a case that ultimately went to the Supreme Court of Canada. Businesses operating online may understandably prefer to limit their likely liability through arbitration, but the resounding response from the Ontario legislature and courts indicates that it should not be possible to force consumers to click away their class-action rights. Michael Geist - Michael Geist’s Blog [Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist @ uottawa dot ca ] - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi February, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

The World According to Google

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- “Sometime in the middle of October, Google silently launched a new net domain — a barely-disguised doppelgänger to the familiar google.com — and according to the latest stats from the site watchers at Alexa, this mystery domain is now visited by nearly three per cent of all net users, making it the 44th most visited domain on the interwebs.” Yeh? Yup. “In other words, it’s bigger than AOL, Apple.com, or the BBC,” says The Register . By an amazing coincidence, almost exactly four years ago, “It seems Google, the world ’s largest advertising company, was “lusting for its own personal and private global internet,” said p2pnet , going on to quote Times Online as saying > > > “Last month, Google placed job advertisements in America and the British national press for ‘Strategic Negotiator candidates with experience in…identification, selection, and negotiation of dark fibre contracts both in metropolitan areas and over long distances as part of development of a global backbone network’. “Dark fibre is the remnants of late 1990s internet boom where American web companies laid down fibre optic cables in preparation for high speed internet delivery. Following the downturn in the technology sector during the early 2000s, the installation process for many of these networks was left incomplete. This has resulted in a usable network of cables spread across the United States that have never been switched on. By purchasing the dark fibre, Google would in effect be able to acquire a ready made internet network that they could control.” Google already owns a large telecom interconnection facility in New York and “it’s believed from there, ‘Google plans to link up and power the dark fibre system and turn it into a working internet network of its own’,” we said, adding: “It was also reported in November that Google was buying shipping containers and building data centres within them, possibly with the aim of using them at significant nodes within the worldwide cable network.” Sebastian Stadil, founder of the Silicon Valley Cloud Computing Group, note “1e100.net translates to ‘Google Network’ – the ever-growing Google private infrastructure that spans nearly forty custom-built data centers worldwide”, says The Register, adding:” “According to a recent company presentation, Google intends to expand this private interweb to between one million and 10 million servers, spanning ‘100s to 1000s’ of global locations.” ‘ … all that information could be made available to the authorities’ “If you’re worried about giant online advertising company Google getting your personal data,  you must be doing something you shouldn’t be doing, reckons Google boss Eric Schmidt,” said p2pnet a while back when Schmidt announced > > > If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities. Then we posted Part II of Google Sneak Views in which we point out your privacy is just another ‘product’ hook for Google. It’s scary, we went on,  and, “Am I the only one that’s not eating the ‘Google Red Pill’?” asked Gubatron.com , continuing > > > If you’re not scared it’s my intention to shake you up a little bit. Let’s see what Google has done and what it’s trying to do. Google controls over %70 of the Web Search Traffic, and over 57% of all advertising on the internet Google started as a Search company and they’re supposedly great at it (until someone else can show us better) so everyone uses their search and that means Google knows what everyone wants on the internet, therefore giving it one hell of an advantage over everyone else when it comes to decision making of any kind. What technologies to build, What websites are successful (which services should they buy or compete against). They know about all trends of all kinds. From lottery ticket search, to medicine search, to what new website is being searched for. Their great search capabilities made them hit gold when they started advertising next to search results. They made so much money that they were able to buy lots of ad networks including very powerful ones like DoubleClick ($3 billion, April 13 2007) which together with Adsense control 57% of the market share of Internet advertising. Just know that pretty much almost every ad printed on the web puts money in Google’s Pockets, the company that controls search. I wonder if their PageRank algorithm also includes the eCPM of the ads shown on the target sites, if not, it’s a direct consequence of being on the top search results that you’ll get more visitors thus making your CPM pay higher… it’s all a little fucked up the amount of control they have. And let’s not to forget that the little publisher on Adsense Gets Pwned with probably less than 10% of the cost of the click (Google gets $2 a click, you get less than $0.20 for that click), a percentage that is never shown to the publisher, a percentage that Google can adjust to their liking however they want. If you can sell your own ads, do so (and then tell me how). On top of that, there’s tons of money to make on statistics for all of that search data. You may want to read about a company called DemandMedia.com , in short they buy a lot of search engine data (probably Google’s included in there) so that they can generate a list of the things people want to know about every day, then they match that data to marketing databases (to see what the highest priced keywords are, data which may come from Google Adsense statistics) and they make a list of about 4,000 video titles, which they shoot and distribute EVERY SINGLE DAY. Internet Video YouTube… owned by Google, gets close to 100 million unique visitors every month. They’re the most influential video service on the internet. There are companies that exist and thrive (making millions a year) only because youtube is there (think again if you believe youtube is not making money). Oh and they know what you’re watching. Privacy Stuff Let’s forget about Search and Ad Monopoly, that’s their money maker, let’s start thinking about the creepier stuff, power. GMail alone as of July 2009 had an approximate of 146 million unique users during one month. That’s a lot of conversations being tracked in one way or the other. Can’t imagine all the money they make on Gmail alone, since it’s one of the applications that people keep open most of the day, and that’s a lot of contextual ads right there, plus a lot of tracking on clicks to external sites linked inside the emails you read. So they did Email great, you gotta give them that, but then they also have Groups, GTalk (instant messaging) and more recently they were talking about redefining email with Google Wave (which has been in my perspective a total failure, nobody is ever logged in or replying to the waves, it needs to integrate with email in order to replace it, maybe that’ll be the key and since they’re smart they should know this but they’re waiting for the right time…) This year Google has gotten super scary with all the announcements they’ve made, one of the scariest is Google Public DNS, the service that converts a domain name like “google.com”, into an IP address so that your computer can connect to it. Boasting on their excellence and good performance they’re trying to convince system administrators to switch over to Google Public DNS. What do we know if already our local ISPs have turned off their own DNS servers and just redirected all requests to 8.8.8.8 (Google’s DNS) to save on costs and to have one less thing to manage?. This is pretty scary because Google now would know where you go, even if you don’t use Google.com Another really scary thing is having this company also build for you the web browser. Not only they control all the traffic, but they want to control the application that you use to browse the web. They already own Firefox (a nice +$50 million dollar/year tax deduction) whose default search is, you guessed it… Google, and now they even want to make an Operating System that runs only their browser with the purpose of having you log in with your Google Account every time you turn on your computer (currently aimed at Netbooks, please install Ubuntu Netbook Remix and be safe) If their plans go accordingly, they’d be controlling everything, from every request that comes out of your internet connection (DNS), to the kernel and browser in your computer, to your email, to your documents (Google Apps), to where you go (Google Maps), to where you are (Google Latitude). And if that’s not enough, they want to give you a phone number (Google Voice) and transcribe your conversations and voice messages… but wait I forgot they’ve also built an operating system for your phone, Android, and next month they will sell their own phone. Are you scared yet? Other Services: Google Healthcare (They want your medical records too) Google URL Shortener (They want to track all the clicks inside Twitter and Facebook, they couldn’t let other companies deal with this, bit.ly FTW! ) Google Finance (They also know what stock quotes a lot of people are looking for) Google Reader (They know what news and feeds you’re reading) Google News (They want to control what news are read) Google Blogger (They know what you write about, and bank on you) Picassa (They want your pictures) Google Maps and Driving Directions on Android (They want to know where you’re going) Google Product Search (They wanna know what you’re shopping for) Google Checkout (Do they have your credit card number yet?) GMail (They know your contact list, who you talk to, who you do business with, what you want, what you hate, everything) And so many other scary things… they must be so pissed they don’t own Facebook. Way to go Mark. The scariest part however is that everyone is just looking at how convenient all this free services are, praising Google but not thinking if there’s a hidden agenda, it’s like nobody could ever suspect the real intentions. At least with Microsoft you knew what to expect. Doesn’t it all sound like an internet monopoly? It’s becoming impossible to compete with such a big monster… however like a friend said “History repeats, all Giants fall eventually” Google wants every byte coming in and out of you, they own every major piece of the action, it’s all becoming like big media and newspapers, like the food industry which is controlled by only a handful of corporations and we really have no choice in what we eat because everything is so cheap and convenient. Google at this pace will own the internet, or should we call it The Googlenet. By way of a kind of footnote, in Google Sneak Views: p2pnet, Part II, “Google used to be a ‘good beats evil’ business,” we quoted Umair Haque, director of the Havas Media Lab, in Harvard Business , as saying, going on: “But that was yesterday. Today, ‘increasingly, Google is an “evil subsidizes good” business,’ says  Haque. ‘It’s not so different from Coke. The historic, globe-spanning bad stuff Coke does — selling toxic sugar-water to kids and the poor — subsidizes a threadbare patch of good stuff: a handful of spare change for charitable giving and public partnerships. “Increasingly, the evil stuff Google does — supporting censorship , selling more and more toxic ads , squeezing suppliers and turning a blind eye — subsidizes a shrinking green patch of good stuff, like investing in the Mozilla Foundation.” Stay tuned. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi The Register – Google doppelgänger casts riddle over interwebs, February 8, 2010 p2pnet – Google wants its very own Net, February 3, 2006 Times Online – Rumours mount over Google’s internet plan, February 3, 2006 a while back – Only wrong-doers worry about online privacy, December 8, 2009 ‘product’ hook – Google Sneak Views: p2pnet, Part II, December 14, 2009 Gubatron.com – The Internet is becoming The Googlenet, December 14, 2009 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. 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Welcome to the Monkey House

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Freedom | P2P:- The net can never have too much of blogs focusing on “the RIAA, the entertainment industry in general, and any other douche bags who think that suing people, disconnecting internet service, or other measures against file sharers is a good idea”. The words are p2pnet regular Monkey D. Luffy’s, and they appear on his new site — Monkey House , billed as the “ugliest p2p news site! Monkey says he was mulling over the shortager of dedicated pro-p2p news site so, “I decided to roll out Monkey House”, he says, going on > > > I figured considering how hostile the main stream media has been towards p2p, one more site representing the other side can’t be a bad thing. Nope. Can’t be bad. His first two post centre on Jammie Thomas-Rasset and ACTA. Good luck — and all the best, Monkey. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi February, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Tim Hortons bans complaining coffee lover

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Off Topic:- Tim Hortons coffee outlets rule in Canada. Founded in 1964 in Hamilton, Ontario, the company merged with Wendy’s International in 1995, but its “biggest drawing card remains its legendary Tim Hortons coffee”, it boasts. However, decaffeinated coffee served at an outlet in St Andrews, New Brunswick, “was like brown, burnt water,” according to devotee Jimmy Craig. “I almost, you know, got sick in the sink”, the CBC has him saying. So Craig isn’t welcome there any more. He’s also been banned from the Tim Hortons in nearby St Stephen, says the story, going on, “Craig said he voiced his concerns to the store manager and corporate office, then got a meeting with the owner, Edwin Dow. “That’s when Dow served Craig with a letter banning him under the province’s trespass act.” Now, “he can only return to the Tim Hortons if he’s on the job as a paramedic, responding to a medical emergency”, the story adds. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi CBC – Tim Hortons bans complaining customer, February 8, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Black Hawk Safety Net down

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Politics:- The Black Hawk Safety Net, said to be China’s largest hacker training website, has been shut down, and three of its members arrested. The site “taught hacking techniques and provided malicious software downloads for its 12,000 members in exchange for a fee, says the Wuhan Evening News newspaper, quoted by Blogtactic . Hacking from China is on the front burner, thanks to Google, which said it was pulling out of the country following hack attacks . “The website was shut in late November and three of its members arrested on suspicion of criminal activity, the newspaper reported, without saying why the news was only released now,” says the story, going on > > > Wuhan happens to be home to the Communication Command Academy, which trains hackers, according to U.S. congressional testimony by cyber expert James Mulvenon in 2008. The popularity of hacking in China, and hackers’ use of multiple addresses and servers, in Taiwan and elsewhere, makes it hard to prove how or by whom they are coordinated. Would-be hackers in China don’t have to look far to “figure out how to do it, thanks to a healthy hacking industry and sites such as Black Hawk Safety Net (www.3800hk.com), which was unavailable on Monday”, Blogtactic adds. - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi Blogtactic – Black Hawk Safety Net Shutdown by China, February 7, 2010 hack attacks – Google’s China about-face, January 19, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

iPad ‘hoopla’ falls flat: study

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- Apple is still taking a hammering over its new iPad computer. “Criticism of the iPad centred on the following features – or lack of them,” said Britain’s Daily Mail recently, ie: No multitasking No camera No Flash Touch keyboard Lack of input Closed applications Small screen Not only but also, “Some female bloggers wryly commented probably didn’t have any women on its marketing team and ‘iTampon’ quickly became a cheeky trending topic on the micro-blogging site Twitter,” said the story, adding: “A YouTube clip from 2006, now enjoying a fresh surge of popularity, shows the term ‘iPad’ has been ridiculed for years. In the comedy skit shown on the Fox TV channel, two women discuss an Apple period-maintenance device called the iPad.” Now, a follow-up Retrevo Pulse study “indicates a failure to convince any new buyers to consider the iPad,” says the Retrevo blog, continuing Apple failed to “convince new buyers” and may also “have lost many potential buyers who now say they don’t think they need an Apple tablet computer”. Say it ain’t SO !!! Retrevo “asked consumers whether or not they had heard about the tablet before the tablet was introduced and again after the announcement,” it says, going on: “The word definitely got out as the number of respondents saying they had heard about the tablet rose from 48% shortly before the announcement to over 80% after the media frenzy on January 27th. “Unfortunately for Apple, the number if respondents saying they had heard about the tablet but were not interested in buying one, doubled from 25% before the announcement to over 50% following the announcement.” Could the famed Jobs Reality Distortion Field be failing? - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi taking a hammering – The Wonder that is iPad!, February 1, 2010 Daily Mail – You cannot be serious!, January 29, 2010 Retrevo Pulse – Apple iPad Hoopla Fails to Convince Buyers, February 5, 2010 Reality Distortion Field – The Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field, May 12, 2009 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? - Apple iPad Hoopla Fails to Convince Buyers

BlackBerry: on sale in China

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Mobiles :- BlackBerry phones will soon be on sale in China. Canada’s RIM, the handsets’ maker, has signed a cooperation agreement with Digital China, says China Tech News . “Commenting on the cooperation with RIM, Digital China’s president of consumer strategy, Wang Huamao, said after becoming the Chinese reseller of BlackBerry handsets, it will sell these mobile phones via its nationwide channels; and even telecom operators need to get BlackBerry handsets from Digital China,” says the story, adding: “In addition, Chinese telecom operator China Telecom will apparently officially start to provide BlackBerry 9530 mobile phones as well as BES and BIS services from March 1, 2010, at the package prices of CNY189, CNY289, CNY389, and CNY589. In May 2008, a new type of mobile phone, BlackBerry 9630, will also be available from this operator.” - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi China Tech News – RIM, Digital China Sign Agreement For BlackBerry Promotion, February 8, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -

Apple tells devs that location-based advertising is a no-no

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

In a recent post to its iPhone Developers news site, Apple warned developers not to use location data to serve location-specific ads in their apps. The move comes shortly after Apple acquired its own mobile advertising firm , Quattro Wireless. Apple wants developers to use CoreLocation, the API that allows developers to find your location based on GPS coordinates and other data, to give users “beneficial information.” This concept is at work when Yelp shows you nearby restaurants, or when RunKeeper tracks your jogging progress on a map. However, the company warns, “[i]f your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.” Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to location-based targeted advertising in principle. It has filed patents for location-based targeted advertising, especially in relation to offering currently playing songs or videos at a particular location for purchase via iTunes . It may be that Apple merely wants to avoid giving out iPhone user’s location data to third parties, especially without permission, with no guarantee about how the data is used. But it also stands to reason that Apple may be planning its own location-based advertising service based on its recent acquisition of Quattro Wireless. It would be unfair of Apple to keep that data all to itself, however. The company did not respond to our request for comment this morning.

Google hooks up with US spy agency

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // p2p

p2pnet view Politics | Advertising:- The arrogance which is giant US advertising company Google knows no bounds. It has its own political arm, it has minions carefully placed in middle and senior positions in the Obama administration, its executives routinely whine and I dine powerful political figures, it’s in the process of corralling the world’s books and now, “Google links up with US spy-master to thwart threats to cyberspace” as a Times Online headline sums it up. Thwarting threats to cyberspace? That looks dire. But it’s all about getting USA taxpayers involved in funding its continuing efforts against China, whose hackers recently (and effortlessly, with Microsoft’s help ) breached its security fences. Thanks to its pals in the US government, it’s felt free  to rope in  spy unit the National Security Agency for “technical assistance”. EPIC (The Electronic Privacy Information Center) has already filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the NSA for records on the relationship between the two. “The EPIC FOIA request also seeks NSA communications with Google regarding Google’s failure to encrypt Gmail and cloud computing services,” it says, pointing almost a year ago, it’d filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission urging it to “investigate the adequacy of Google’s cloud computing privacy and security safeguards”. Members of the NSA’s information assurance unit, aka The Blue Team, “went to Google at the company’s request several weeks ago to discuss details of the attack,” says Bloomberg News , quoting an anonymous source,  and going on: “The NSA plans to return to the company to continue to share information, the person said.” But so far, “the NSA hasn’t discovered much beyond what the Mountain View, California-based company’s own cyber-security officials had found”. Nor, apparently, is Gargoyle the only company US taxpayers are helping out via the NSA. “The NSA was responding to Google in much the same way it has to requests from other companies to look over the work they’ve done following a cyber attack, the person said, declining to name the other firms,” says the story. Says ConsumerWatchdog ’s John Simpson > > > NSA, of course, is the agency that taps all sorts of electronic communications around the globe. They’re also the outfit that broke the law and engaged in warrant-less interception of Americans’ phone calls and emails after the 9/11 terrorist attack. Cyber security is a huge issue that is downplayed by the online industry.  Google was right to go public when it was attacked, but the proposed Google-NSA deal raises huge concerns. Undoubtedly Googlers can learn something from NSA’s master-spy eavesdroppers, but how much of consumers’ data will Google share with the spy agency? So far Google and NSA aren’t commenting on the details of what’s under consideration. “It’s incumbent on both parties to be completely transparent about what kind of information is being shared,” says Simpson, adding: “Sadly, NSA has already demonstrated a willingness to flout the law. If Google wants to maintain any shred of trust from consumers it needs to do more that pledge, ‘privacy is important’ and fall back on the ‘Don’t be evil’ mantra. Tell us exactly what you’re doing with NSA’s cyber spies.” - … .. … and identi.ca More First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi Times Online – Google links up with US spy-master to thwart threats to cyberspace, February 5, 2010 EPIC – EPIC Seeks Records on Google-NSA Relationship, February 4, 2010 Microsoft’s help – Internet Explorer ‘vector’ in Google China attacks, January 15, 2010 Bloomberg News – Google Said to Seek Spy Agency’s Advice After Attack, February 4, 2010 ConsumerWatchdog – Google asking spy agency for help, February 4, 2010 Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. Subscribe to - | | rss feed: http://-/feed -? -



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