Tag: data
Facebook changes terms of service, outcry ensues
A couple of weeks ago, Facebook changed its terms of service so that users won’t be able to delete their data if they leave the site. The blogosphere immediately erupted with criticism and it prompted a blog post from Mark Zuckerberg himself on who owns the data.
Facebook had been criticized for allowing a situation where someone could take a photo of you, upload it to the site, and then neither of you would be able to stop Facebook from using it for whatever purposes they like. You essentially waive all rights to the data.
Zuckerberg’s response to concerns is basically ‘chill out – we’re not going to take the piss here’. He doesn’t apologize, or even offer to soften the language – just asks users to trust the company. But how can users trust a company slowly eroding their rights?
Sure, odds are that Facebook isn’t going to suddenly abuse millions of people’s personal info, but if that’s the case, then why not retain the original language? Facebook has a history of communicating changes badly, and this is just another in a long line of screwups that include the profile redesign and the “Beacon” fiasco.
Internet comes of age – social networks more popular than porn sites in the UK
Times were, back in the old days when the internet was mainly for “hobbyists,” easy access to vast reserves of pornography was the big seller of PCs and, you might argue, was instrumental in the uptake of broadband. It was in my house, at least. But not any more.
Web traffic counter Hitwise reckons traffic to social networking sites out-stripped that of porn providers for the first time in the UK late last year. Hitwise says it’s all women’s fault, with 55% of social net traffic coming from lady browsers uploading photos of cats to Facebook, and, as a result, they’re spending…
VIDEO: Worldwide air traffic over 24 hours
Click play on the video. Now watch as the world’s aeroplanes cross continents and oceans. It’s strangely relaxing in the same way that watching a trail of ants in a garden on a warm summer’s afternoon is relaxing. One thing that’s worth looking out for – compare Europe at the start of the video to Europe at 0:45 – the flight volume changes dramatically between day and night.
Seen a similarly fantastic depiction of data? Post it in the comments below. I love stuff like this, so if you’ve got a favourite visualization of information then I want to see it too.
Nitmesh (via @damiano)
Related posts: First photo of Hudson air crash surfaces on Twitter | No phones on planes please, we’re British, survey finds
Biggest data breach ever at Heartland Payment Systems – 100 million transactions at risk
Although we’ve seen some whoppers in the UK, you can always count on the Yanks to do things bigger and better. One payment processing company, the brilliantly-named “Heartland Payment Systems” processes transactions for a quarter of a million businesses in the USA and has found some monitoring software on its servers, sending data to an external machine.
“We found evidence of an intrusion last week and immediately notified federal law enforcement officials as well as the card brands. We understand that this incident may be the result of a widespread global cyber fraud operation, and we are cooperating closely with the United States Secret Service and Department of Justice.” said Heartland president Robert Baldwin
In the USA, unlike the UK, companies have to disclose when data breaches occur. It’ll be interesting to see if Europe implements a similar law, but the UK government is opposed to such a move.
(via Out-Law.com)
Related posts: WPA Wi-Fi security gets cracked | Security watchdog the ICO is currently looking at 277 “data breaches” in the UK
Which? magazine's solution to data privacy – a big hammer
Most people, when selling on a computer second-hand, wipe the data by just deleting it. That’s not quite enough. A simple delete just removes the references to the data on the disk – rather than wiping it clean. Software available free on the net can recover it relatively easily, as long as it hasn’t been overwritten.
Which? bought eight computers on eBay and recovered 22,000 ‘deleted’ files from them in this way. Some of those files contained personal data, which could be used by identity thieves to steal your… etc etc. Yawn. You know all this.
Of course, there’s programs that’ll hard-delete data, too, but Which? prefers another solution. A big hammer. They recommend pulling it out of the PC and whacking it very very hard, until the thing’s in pieces. While I don’t doubt the effectiveness of that method, it’s a lot easier to use a program like SuperShredder to accomplish the same thing. Plus you won’t get bits of disk platter in your eye. Bonus.
Related posts: Which? takes on Davenport-Lyons for “excessive bullying” | Which? Computing names high street shops selling violent games to 15 year-old girls
Last.fm mashup maps every artist ever
This beautiful cloud represents the entirety of music. Every single artist tracked by Last.fm is marked as a point on the map, and ‘similar’ artists are connected by a grey line. The size of each point reflects the popularity of the artist, and different colours represent different genres.
It’s the creation of Budapest University PhD candidate Nepusz Tamas, who hammered Last.FM’s servers for over a week with a request every five seconds. Unfortunately, the only way to interact with the map is to pinpoint your favourite bands, and you can’t zoom in, but it’s still a beautiful representation of the world’s listening habits.
Reconstructing the structure of the world-wide music scene with Last.fm (via Listening Post)
Related posts: Last.fm gets a makeover – and a few new features | Viacom wins right to sift through YouTube user data, all four terabytes of it
Stat-counters of the world reveal the best-selling video games of the last three months
What’s been the biggest-selling game around the world over the last three months? You’re probably thinking GTA IV or Mario Kart, or perhaps you’re being clever and thinking it’s something weird for girls and old people like Ubisoft’s mind-numbingly odd Imagine: Interior Designer?
If you are, you are WRONG – the best selling game around the entire world is Electronic Arts’ Madden 08, the latest annual update in the long-running US football sim. It shifted a ludicrous 2.994 million copies to inhabitants of Earth, beating Wii Fit (!) into second place, with the bizarre balancing exercise “game” amazingly managing to convince 2.089 million people that what they really need to start getting into is video game yoga…
Orange to offer Eee 901 with 3G for £25 a month
Cautiously speaking, this looks like a good deal. If you’ve been thinking about getting a netbook then you’re probably familiar with the Eee 901, which is one of the best on the market. Well, Orange are poised to start selling the Eee for £25 a month on a two year contract with a 3GB-a-month data cap.
It’ll only be available in black and pink, but you also get the ability to send 100 texts from the device, too. The only problem? The device will probably be looking very long in the tooth in two year’s time, given that it’s nearly a year old already, and data will be considerably cheaper by then, too. Plus £25 a month over 24 months is £600. That’s a lot of cash for a machine that Asus are phasing out.
Orange (via Electric Pig)
Video games set to outsell video and music in the UK this year, thanks to FIFA, GTA and your mum
Huge launches like FIFA 09, GTA IV and Mario Kart Wii have already made 2008 a landmark year for video game sales – and the total cash blown on gaming could out-do music and video for the first time this year.
Projecting a total spend of £4.64bn on video games software and hardware by the end of 2008, Verdict Research says this figure will, for the first time, overtake traditional fun purchases of music and video, which will come in at £4.46bn…
WAR ROOM UPDATE: Google Chrome has seized 3.5% of our readers in its first week
We have no idea what Google was aiming for when it launched its homage to Opera and Firefox last week, but Chrome seems to be doing OK for itself.
Among you lot, the Tech Digest-reading gadget illuminati of Europe, Chrome has amassed a 3.5% following – quickly catching the 4.4% of you currently operating under Safari regulations…
