Google has taken a dim view of the CyanogenMod Installer, an app that makes it easier to install alternative firmwares on Android phones, leading its developers to pull it from the Google Play Store.The installer was the first major undertaking by Cyanogen Inc., the Seattle company recently formed to promote CyanogenMod, its open-source alternative Android build for Read more about Google to CyanogenMod: Git yer warranty-voiding ass outta our store[…]

Wikileaks releases the text and positions of a trans Pacific version of ACTA, another way to erode internet rights through patents. http://webwereld.nl/beveiliging/80102-wikileaks-vs-dringt-antipiraterij-op-via-geheim-verdrag?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Webwereld+%28Webwereld%29

Feedly has done an evil thing: it is now demanding anyone who uses the service to log in via a Google+ account – thereby helping the Chocolate Factory to scrape yet more data from netizens. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_insists_on_google_plus_sign_in/ Update: Feedly is rolling this back, 1000s of users quit using Feedly http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_kills_google_plus_login/

Aside from the fact that these dabases leak all the time and it’s a major breach of privacy, this will only help track a few hundred suspected terrorists. Coming two weeks after launching AlertOnline, an initiative raising awereness of the dangers of online activity, this seems a bit wry. http://webwereld.nl/overheid/80037-opstelten-reisgegevens-miljoenen-nederlanders-opslaan?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Webwereld+%28Webwereld%29

Feedly has done an evil thing: it is now demanding anyone who uses the service to log in via a Google+ account – thereby helping the Chocolate Factory to scrape yet more data from netizens. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/08/feedly_insists_on_google_plus_sign_in/

An identity theft service that sold Social Security and drivers license numbers — as well as bank account and credit card data on millions of Americans — purchased much of its data from Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, according to a lengthy investigation by KrebsOnSecurity. http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/10/experian-sold-consumer-data-to-id-theft-service/

Opslag van vingerafdrukken is illegaal, zegt EU Hof – Webwereld. You can have them on the passport, but not in a centralised or distributed database. Yay privacy!

For the first time in one report, the Brennan Center takes a comprehensive look at the multiple ways U.S. intelligence agencies collect, share, and store data on average Americans. The report, which surveys across five intelligence agencies, finds that non-terrorism related data can be kept for up to 75 years or more, clogging national security Read more about What the Government Does with Americans’ Data[…]

Because they don’t have to germ a court order to make you decrypt and unlock your mobile any more http://webwereld.nl/beveiliging/79276-politie-blij-met-vingerafdrukfunctie-iphone-5s?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Webwereld+%28Webwereld%29

The only way to get your tweetdeck will be through the webbased version. Boo! Engadget

Privacy is a vague, undefined term which can be used very broadly. Obscurity is much more narrow, which means it can be more practically used to define preferable outcomes when it comes to protecting privacy. Obscurity: A Better Way to Think About Your Data Than 'Privacy' – Woodrow Hartzog and Evan Selinger – The Atlantic.

Adam Harvey creates fashion items that keep Big Brother off your back. He has experimented with hairstyles and makeup that confuse facial recognition. He has a pocket that blocks all transmissions to and from your cellphone. A hijab that thwarts thermal imaging technology. The ultimate in good looking tinfoil hats. Anti-Drone Camouflage: What to Wear Read more about Stealth wear – anti surveillance fashion[…]

Apparently he invented tiny incremental improvements on paper and used a trick to delay the patent submitting process so that he could incorporate existing technologies into patents filed ages ago. He also made the patents huge, vague and filed them again and again after refusal. Then he started to sue and sue and sue. The Read more about The Patent King: has a staggering 558 patents, costing companies around the world some $1.5 billion in licensing fees. But what did Jerome Lemelson actually invent?[…]

Oracle has lost a court case, where the Dutch government asked specifically for SAP software in their tender. The judge ruled that as the Dutch .gov allready uses SAP, they can ask for it and rule out other vendors if they want. Oracle won’t dispute the ruling, as it works out well for them: the Read more about NL judge votes for vendor lock in[…]

A case story of a programmer employee who’d outsourced his job to China for 1/5th of his wages, allowing him to surf the web and chill out all day for at least 6 months before his employers discovered that there were regular VPN sessions coming in from Shenyang, China. Verizon Business Security Blog » Blog Read more about Outsource your job to China for fun and profit[…]

Ubuntu, a widely used and influential GNU/Linux distribution, has installed surveillance code. When the user searches her own local files for a string using the Ubuntu desktop, Ubuntu sends that string to one of Canonical’s servers. (Canonical is the company that develops Ubuntu.) To make matters worse, they also install adware, inserting Amazon promotions in Read more about Ubuntu inserts spyware[…]

It will be a crime not to. Dutch gov't: suspects must decrypt computers.

Incredibly the US has managed to let Apple patent this shape. The prior art is allready there for tablets, but couldn’t someone have just shown the patent examiners a table top? Apple is granted a patent on the rectangle. No, really • The Register.

Cisco locks customers out of their own routers, only lets them back in if they agree to being spied upon and monetized – Boing Boing.

Jamming Tripoli: Inside Moammar Gadhafi's Secret Surveillance Network | Threat Level | Wired.com.

It turns out that there are pleny of studies out there that debunk the “facts and figures” the industries throw about when talking about IP theft and the costs of piracy. Here is a selection of some interesting other studies. What Various Studies Really Reveal About File-Sharing – Slashdot.