France bans ‘recreational’ use of TikTok, Twitter, Instagram

France joins a growing list of states that say TikTok lacks sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/25/france-bans-tiktok-on-work-phones-of-civil-servants

GROUNDBREAKING NEW MATERIAL 'COULD ALLOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO MERGE WITH THE HUMAN BRAIN'

Technology could enable new health diagnostics and achieve Elon Musk's goal of integrating with artificial intelligence

Scientists have discovered a ground-breaking bio-synthetic material that they claim can be used to merge artificial intelligence with the human brain. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/artificial-intelligence-brain-computer-cyborg-elon-musk-neuralink-a9673261.html 

Outcry in Malaysia as government cracks down on video-making

Minister says all film-makers require a government licence to make videos, including those broadcast on social media.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/07/outcry-malaysia-government-cracks-video-making-200723114407557.html 

Surveillance is getting under our skin - and that should alarm us

We are at a watershed moment where surveillance is no longer limited to what we do, but how we feel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/surveillance-skin-alarm-200527135135268.html 

Trump tweets threat that 'looting' will lead to 'shooting.' Twitter put a warning label on it

New York (CNN Business)Twitter says President Donald Trump and the White House's official Twitter (TWTR) account have violated its rule against glorifying violence and has affixed a warning label to tweets on both, marking the first time such action has been taken against the accounts. 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/29/tech/trump-twitter-minneapolis/index.html 

Sri Lanka 'pornographers' outed in police crackdown The faces of dozens of...

GCHQ technology 'could be sold' The government's secret listening post GCHQ ...

GCHQ technology 'could be sold'

The government's secret listening post GCHQ could sell its technical expertise to the private sector under plans being considered by the government.

The government's secret listening post GCHQ could sell its technical expertise to the private sector under plans being considered by the government.

Although the cutting edge cyber-security and computer research carried out at GCHQ could potentially generate cash for the government any moves to involve the private sector would have to be handled carefully due to the highly sensitive nature of the signals intelligence material it handles.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11888602

UPDATE: The Case Against COICA In September, digital rights advocates and I...

UPDATE: The Case Against COICA

In September, digital rights advocates and Internet engineers helped to delay the Combatting Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA), a terrible bill that would have allowed the Attorney General to censor the Internet in the name of copyright enforcement.

To recap, COICA gives the government dramatic new copyright enforcement powers, in particular the ability to make entire websites disappear from the Internet if infringement, or even links to infringement, are deemed to be “central” to the purpose of the site.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/11/case-against-coica

Personal data could become commodity Companies that want to make use of the ...

Personal data could become commodity

Companies that want to make use of the personal information people put online should pay for it, the US Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has said. 

Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds New PCs could start...

Change to 'Bios' will make for PCs that boot in seconds

New PCs could start in just seconds, thanks to an update to one of the oldest parts of desktop computers.

The upgrade will spell the end for the 25-year-old PC start-up software known as Bios that initialises a machine so its operating system can get going.

The code was not intended to live nearly this long, and adapting it to modern PCs is one reason they take as long as they do to warm up.

Bios' replacement, known as UEFI, will predominate in new PCs by 2011.

The acronym stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is designed to be more flexible than its venerable predecessor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11430069

Brain works more like internet than 'top down' company The brain appears to ...

Brain works more like internet than 'top down' company

The brain appears to be a vastly interconnected network much like the Internet, according to new research.

That runs counter to the 19th-Century "top-down" view of brain structure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10925841

In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technolo...

In graphics: Supercomputing superpowers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm

Call for 'fuller' debate on Digital Economy Bill Opponents of the cont...

Call for 'fuller' debate on Digital Economy Bill

Opponents of the controversial Digital Economy Bill have urged MPs to give it "the debate it deserves" when it is discussed in the Commons later.

The bill includes plans to give Ofcom powers to cut off internet connections of persistent net pirates and measures which could see some websites blocked.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8603285.stm

Microsoft founders lead tributes to 'father of the PC' The "fath...

Microsoft founders lead tributes to 'father of the PC'

The "father of the personal computer" who kick-started the careers of Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen has died at the age of 68.

Dr Henry Edward Roberts was the inventor of the Altair 8800, a machine that sparked the home computer era.

Gates and Allen contacted Dr Roberts after seeing the machine on the front cover of a magazine and offered to write software for it. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8600493.stm

Internet restrictions curtail human rights, says US Many governments ha...

Internet restrictions curtail human rights, says US

Many governments have used the internet to curtail freedom of expression at home, the US state department says in its latest annual human rights report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8563084.stm

Celebrating 40 years of the net http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8...

Celebrating 40 years of the net

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8331253.stm

Call for limits on web snooping Governments and companies should limi...

Call for limits on web snooping

Governments and companies should limit the snooping they do on web users.

So said Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, who said that growing oversight of browsing could have a pernicious effect. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8144713.stm

US launches cyber security plan US President Barack Obama has announce...

US launches cyber security plan

US President Barack Obama has announced plans for securing American computer networks against cyber attacks.

He said that from now on, America's digital infrastructure would be treated as a strategic national asset.

He announced the creation of a cyber security office in the White House, and said he would personally appoint a "cyber tsar". 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8073654.stm

Bruce Schneier warns 'profits killing personal privacy' Personal privacy is ...

Bruce Schneier warns 'profits killing personal privacy'

Personal privacy is in danger of being killed off by the profit-making motives of firms which hold our data, security expert Bruce Schneier has warned.

While the death of personal privacy had been predicted for a long time, rapid technological changes posed a mortal danger to it, he said.

Mr Schneier urged lawmakers to do more to help preserve and protect privacy.

"Just because the technology is there does not mean that privacy invasions must happen," he said.

The difference now, he said, was that the falling cost of storage and processing power made it far easier to keep data such as e-mail conversations, Tweets or postings to a social network page than it was to spend the time managing and deleting the information.

Deciding what data we are prepared to surrender would be fine if people were given a proper choice, he said.

Unfortunately, he said, users of social networking sites or any online service were being presented with choices defined by priorities they did not choose.

The choices are filtered through the law, which is being outstripped by technological change, leaving people with only what net firms give them or can get away with.

"The social rules are being set by businesses with a profit motive," he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11524041

ANALYSIS-Gulf Arab BlackBerry row highlights security fears That has raised ...

ANALYSIS-Gulf Arab BlackBerry row highlights security fears

That has raised fears in security-conscious Gulf states, especially in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, that a lack of access could fetter their ability to ferret out potential spies, assassins or Islamic militants, analysts said.http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6790N4

UAE to block BlackBerry services T...

UAE to block BlackBerry services

The telecommunications authority in the United Arab Emirates has said it will begin blocking some services on the popular BlackBerry brand of mobile phones this October.

The ban, which will affect BlackBerry email, messenging and web applications, comes after the UAE and Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry phones, could not agree on a way to make the phones comply with local laws. 

As they stand, BlackBerry services allow users to "commit violations without being subject to legal accountability," the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) said in a statement on Sunday.

Some have accused the UAE of trying to censor BlackBerry phones because the government cannot easily monitor them.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's telecoms regulator ordered local operators to freeze certain functions for Blackberry users this month.

State-controlled Saudi Telecom confirmed the ban on the service, a board member, speaking on Al Arabiya television, said.

'A serious mistake'

After the TRA warned in July that BlackBerry phones posed a threat to national security, Reporters Without Borders accused the UAEof viewing BlackBerry services "as an obstacle to its goal of reinforcing censorship, filtering and surveillance".

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010811017479501.html

Two Gulf states to ban some Blackberry functions

Two Gulf states have announced bans on some functions of the Blackberry mobile phone, claiming security concerns.

Both nations are unhappy that they are unable to monitor such communications via the handsets.

This is because the Blackberry handsets automatically send the encrypted data to computer servers outside of the two countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10830485

Sri Lanka 'pornographers' outed in police crackdown

The faces of dozens of people accused of appearing in pornographic films, in violation of anti-obscenity laws, have been published by Sri Lankan media.

They appeared in a Sinhala-language paper, with a police notice asking the public to help trace those pictured.

A magistrate had told police to identify and arrest the people, and ordered the publication of the images.

Reports say the alleged porn actors could be fined and sentenced to six months in prison.

The police say that if they can apprehend those in the pictures, that will lead them to the pornography's distributors.

The authorities say pornography leads to sexual crimes, including rape.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11717315

Travolta extortion case dismissed Charges against two people accused of tryi...

Travolta extortion case dismissed

Charges against two people accused of trying to extort money from actor John Travolta, following the death of his son in the Bahamas, have been dropped.

Mr Lightbourne - a paramedic - and his attorney Ms Bridgewater were accused of threatening to release private information about Jett Travolta's death at the family vacation home in Grand Bahama.

It was alleged that Mr Lightbourne threatened to sell stories suggesting Mr Travolta was at fault over Jett's death.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11204669

John Travolta's teenage son dies

The teenage son of American actor John Travolta has died suddenly while on a family holiday in the Bahamas.

The actor's lawyer, Michael Ossi, said Jett Travolta, who was 16, suffered a seizure, and attempts to revive him at the scene failed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7809172.stm

India's unbearable lightness of being It is being called "Snow White sy...

India's unbearable lightness of being

It is being called "Snow White syndrome" in India, a market where sales of whitening creams are far outstripping those of Coca Cola and tea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8546183.stm

Your request is being processed... ...

Your request is being processed...

Dr. Conrad C. Murray, Jackson's Doctor, IDENTIFIED

Your request is being processed...Dr. Conrad C. Murray, Jackson's Doctor, IDENTIFIED

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/26/conray-murray-jacksons-do_n_221649.html

Michael Jackson's father files wrongful death suit

Pop star Michael Jackson's father has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctor charged with giving him a lethal overdose one year ago.

The civil suit from Joe Jackson accuses Dr Conrad Murray of professional negligence in administering the singer with a fatal mix of sedatives.

The suit was filed as fans around the world marked the first anniversary of Jackson's death at the age of 50.

Dr Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in his death.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10422660.stm

New US vein execution bid halted http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/82...

New US vein execution bid halted

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8264055.stm

Comment: Ghanaians and Wedding - Are We Losing Our Minds? The only thing that...

Comment: Ghanaians and Wedding - Are We Losing Our Minds?

The only thing that Ghanaians probably do better than everybody else on our planet is to adopt a foreign culture and try to outdo the originators of that culture.

http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/200908/34296.asp

Elisabeth Fritzl seeks refuge with children in a fortress The inhabitants ...

Elisabeth Fritzl seeks refuge with children in a fortress

The inhabitants of Village X have become fiercely protective of the Fritzl family

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5947460.ece

Exposing the colour of prejudice n later life, the six-week venture - d...

Exposing the colour of prejudice

n later life, the six-week venture - described in his book Black Like Me - was to expose him to the hatred and violence that underpinned that bigotry, too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8318628.stm