Facebook Denies Poaching Your Text Messages On Android High performance access to file storage Facebook has dismissed allegations in The Sunday Times that the web giant's Android app can hoover text messages from phones as "creative conspiracy theorising". Flatly denying the claim published by the broadsheet at the weekend, the social network's UK office said its app's ability to access text messages was open and transparent, and that Facebook isn't actually looking at text messages anyway. “The Sunday Times has done some creative conspiracy theorising," the rep said in a statement: "The suggestion that we're secretly reading people texts is ridiculous. The permissions page for the Facebook app on the Android App Marketplace does clearly state this feature of the app: Facebook added that although its app does have the permission to read, send and edit text messages in a user's phone, it's not something it does. However, other than some very limited testing, we haven't launched anything so we're not using the permission.
Sebastian Seung: A Neuroscientist Reverse-Engineering The Brain hide caption A map of neurons of the mouse retina, reconstructed automatically by artificial intelligence from electron microscopic images. A. Zlateski based on data from K. Briggman, M. Helmstaedter, and W. Denk/MIT/Seung A map of neurons of the mouse retina, reconstructed automatically by artificial intelligence from electron microscopic images. Our brains are filled with billions of neurons, entangled like a dense canopy of tropical forest branches. How these neurons interact with each other — and what the wiring is like between them — is key to understanding our identity, says Sebastian Seung, a professor of computational neuroscience at MIT. Seung's new book, Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are, explains how mapping out our neural connections in our brains might be the key to understanding the basis of things like personality, memory, perception and ideas, as well as illnesses that happen in the brain, like autism and schizophrenia. Interview Highlights On connectomes
Voice - Inbox Voice For businessSign in Google Voice Smart voice calling on all your devices Not in US? For business A smarter phone number A Voice number works on smartphones and the web so you can place and receive calls from anywhere Save time, stay connected From simple navigation to voicemail transcription, Voice makes it easier than ever to save time while staying connected Take control of your calls Forward calls to any device and have spam calls silently blocked. Get Voice Apple, the Apple logo, and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. PrivacyTermsAbout GoogleGoogle Products Help What lawful access is all about and why it matters The Canadian federal government is expected to table its latest iteration of "lawful access" legislation in Parliament this week. This is a BIG DEAL. First, let's set the record straight: Assuming this bill is roughly the same as the last one that fell off the order paper, it will NOT allow warrantless access to the contents of any online communications. They can't read your email or watch you surf the internet, unless they get a warrant. But it is expected to set up a system under which the police can get a huge list of non-content personal information without a warrant. Ask yourself this: Should the police be able to get access to the names and addresses of anyone who shows up at a G20 protest? The Internet is not quite like the real world. Every device on the network has an IP address. It's just the nature of how networks work. Every mobile phone regularly chirps out its location so that the phone company can route calls to your device. Don't get me wrong ...
The most beautiful death - StumbleUpon Brave New World novelist Aldous Huxley was diagnosed with cancer in 1960, at which point his health slowly began to deteriorate. On his deathbed in November of 1963, just as he was passing away, Aldous — a man who for many years had been fascinated with the effects of psychedelic drugs since being introduced to mescaline in 1953 — asked his wife Laura to administer him with LSD. She agreed. The following letter — an incredibly moving, detailed account of Aldous's last days — was written by Laura just days after her husband's death and sent to his older brother Julian. Transcript follows. 6233 Mulholland Highway Los Angeles 28, California December 8, 1963Dearest Julian and Juliette:There is so much I want to tell you about the last week of Aldous' life and particularly the last day.
Google Privacy Change Provokes Outrage - Security - Privacy One user profile and privacy policy to rule all of Google's services. Simple, or evil? Google says it will soon alter its privacy policy and terms of service to reflect the fact that it is now combining data from its various services into a single user profile. In blog post published Tuesday, Google privacy director for products and engineering Alma Whitten announced the upcoming change, characterizing it as a way for Google to offer a better user experience. "Our new Privacy Policy makes clear that, if you're signed in, we may combine information you've provided from one service with information from other services," Whitten explained. By connecting data gathered from various services, Google might be able to target Google Offers based on where you use your Android phone or present ads influenced by information in Google Calendar entries, for example. [ Google's competitors don't like the way Google is tying its services together. It's no longer a matter of if you get hacked, but when.
Google tracks consumers across products, users can’t opt out Google has already been collecting some of this information. But for the first time, it is combining data across its Web sites to stitch together a fuller portrait of users. Consumers won’t be able to opt out of the changes, which take effect March 1. And experts say the policy shift will invite greater scrutiny from federal regulators of the company’s privacy and competitive practices. The move will help Google better tailor its ads to people’s tastes. Consumers could also benefit, the company said. But consumer advocates say the new policy might upset people who never expected their information would be shared across so many different Web sites. A user signing up for Gmail, for instance, might never have imagined that the content of his or her messages could affect the experience on seemingly unrelated Web sites such as YouTube. “Google’s new privacy announcement is frustrating and a little frightening,” said Common Sense Media chief executive James Steyer. Added Rep.
Uploaded.to Blocks US Visitors After MegaUpload Shutdown Uploaded.to, one of the most popular file-hosting sites in the Internet, has closed its doors to US visitors. The move is most likely a response to the FBI crackdown on MegaUpload two days ago. US visitors of Uploaded.to currently get the following message. “Not Available: Our service is currently unavailable in your country. Sorry about that.” The site has yet to release an official statement on the “block.” Uploaded.to’s decision is just one of the many changes the major cyberlockers have made during the past days. Uploaded.to
No Warrant Needed for GPS Monitoring, Judge Rules | Threat Level A Missouri federal judge ruled the FBI did not need a warrant to secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to a suspect’s car to track his public movements for two months. The ruling, upholding federal theft and other charges, is one in a string of decisions nationwide supporting warrantless GPS surveillance. Last week’s decision comes as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the issue within months in an unrelated case. The ruling from Magistrate David Noce mirrored the Obama administration position before the Supreme Court during oral arguments on the topic in November. Noce ruled: (.pdf) Here, installation of the GPS tracker device onto defendant Robinson’s Cavalier was not a ‘search’ because defendant Robinson did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the exterior of his Cavalier. The GPS tracking in 2010, Noce continued, “corroborated that Robinson’s employment time sheets were false.” Photo: aaronparecki/Flickr
When you share with Facebook friends, you share with all the apps they use Raganwald describes a Facebook privacy-leak that's creepy even by Facebook standards. When you sign up for apps, the app-maker has the power to extract all your friends' personal info, assuming they've shared it with you. So anything you share with your friends can be hoovered up by any app they trust. Here’s an app that purports to help people build their “professional network:" If you share your work history with friends and they use this app, you’ve just silently shared your work history with the people who built this app.