EU gets tough on internet data protection

Published on 25 Jan 2012 by Euronews - The EU has unveiled tough new rules on protecting internet users personal data that have far-reaching implications for web giants such as Google and Facebook. The proposals would significantly boost regulators' data protection powers. 

Companies could be fined up to one percent of their global revenues for violating the rules. 

Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "Citizens will have to know how their data is processed. Second: a consent to use data will be necessary, to be given the explicit consent by the citizens."

An ACTA of war: Secret censor tool to shake up world wide web.

A demonstrator with ACTA stickers on his mouth takes part in a protest against Poland's government plans to sign international copyright agreement ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), in front of the European Union office in Warsaw on January 24, 2012 (AFP Photo / JANEK SKARZYNSKI)

As cyberspace turns its attention to the SOPA and PIPA bills in the US, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, has been quietly signed or ratified by most of the developed world and is arguably the biggest threat to Internet freedom yet.

ACTA has – officially – been in the works since 2008, and was signed by the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea in 2011. All negotiations were held behind closed doors, and it is mostly thanks to Internet hacktivist groups like Anonymous that news of the potential damage ACTA could cause has spread.

Most recently, Anonymous turned their attention to Poland, where officials announced that they will sign the controversial treaty on January 26. A number of government website attacks has left them paralyzed for two days, and several Polish websites have since announced they will go dark in protest at the treaty, echoing recent unprecedented actions by Wikipedia, Redditt, BoingBoing and many others.

However, Polish officials have said they will sign the agreement as planned. Government minister Michal Boni said "The ACTA agreement in no way changes Polish laws or the rights of Internet users and Internet usage,” after a meeting with Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The irony of that statement is that ACTA will do exactly that. It will surpass the sovereign laws of participating nations, especially in the matter of ISP monitoring.

ACTA's reach is far more global, with countries like the US, Switzerland, Japan and all European Union members in its grasp. It is allegedly being introduced "to create new legal standards of intellectual property enforcement, as well as increased international cooperation, an example of which would be an increase in information sharing between signatory countries' law enforcement agencies." But in reality, the measures that have been worked on by behind-the-scenes politicians and media industry moguls are just shy of draconian.

RT 24 Jan 2012   | read full report 

What Is ACTA ?

Uploaded by 1TheRevolutionIsNow on Jan 18, 2012 - ACTA - 'The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement' is a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement in Europe.

ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that would create its "own governing body outside existing international institutions" such as - the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.

An open letter signed by many organizations, including Consumers International, EDRi (27 European civil rights and privacy NGOs), the Free Software Foundation (FSF), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASIC (French trade association for web 2.0 companies), and the Free Knowledge Institute (FKI), states that "the current draft of ACTA would profoundly restrict the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens, most notably the freedom of expression and communication privacy."

US Senate postpones anti-piracy law

SOPA & PIPA : Anonymous - Don't Mess With Us

Uploaded by bioniKAnon on 19 Jan 2012 - A New Era Has Come, Anonymous is no longer playing nice, and we do not intend to ever play nice.

We have seen you Corrupt our People, Corrupt our country and we will not sit and watch while you allow bills such as SOPA and PIPA to be passed.On January 19, 2012 a popular sharing website named Megaupload was taken down. We were not hesitant and reacted quickly. Remaining to our word, we took down their main sources (??), MIAA and FBI are down.

Our Power is too strong and soon they will have to listen to the people. This is a time of action. We as a nation must come together and fight the tyrants!

Do not sit and watch Do not sit and cheer! Use your powers.Artists be creative, Singers be lyrical, writers spread our word! We will not be silenced!

U.S. shuts Megaupload.com, hackers retaliate.

By Jeremy Pelofsky and Jim Finkle

Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:42am EST

(Reuters) - The U.S. government shut down the Megaupload.com content sharing website, charging its founders and several employees with massive copyright infringement, the latest skirmish in a high-profile battle against piracy of movies and music.

The Department of Justice announced the indictment and arrests of four company executives in New Zealand on Friday as debate over online piracy reaches fever pitch in Washington where lawmakers are trying to craft tougher legislation.

The movie and music industries want Congress to crack down on Internet piracy and content theft, but major Internet companies like Google and Facebook have complained that current drafts of the legislation would lead to censorship.

A Justice Department official said the timing of the arrests was not related to the battle in Congress.

New Zealand police on Friday raided a mansion in Auckland and arrested Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, 37, a German national with New Zealand residency.

Full report from : reuters

US shuts down MegaUpload as founders are arrested.

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 20 Jan 2012 - The US government has shut down one of the world's most popular file-sharing websites for allegedly violating piracy laws, as police arrested MegaUpload.com's co-founders and another staff member in New Zealand.

Working with US authorities, police in the New Zealand's city of Auckland detained co-founders Kim Dotcom, also known as Kim Shmitz, and Mathias Ortmann, as well as the website's chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, after a raid on a luxury mansion.

... about SOPA and PIPA.

Boing Boing editor speaks to Al Jazeera

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 18 Jan 2012 Numerous US-based websites, including Wikipedia, Boing Boing (Rob Beschizza, the managing editor speaking)and Reddit have gone offline as a protest against two US laws that they say limits important freedoms that the internet has brought people.

The two laws are called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the "Protect Intellectual Property Act" (PIPA).Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL have all spoken out against the proposed legislation.

nano tech for more memory energy efficient computers.

Researchers unveil new nano-data technology

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 14 Jan 2012 - Researchers at IBM have created the world's smallest magnetic digital-storage device, using just 12 atoms to hold a single data bit of information.

The discovery could lead to a new class of memory chips that would make smaller, more energy efficient computers.

Tablets at Annual Consumer Electronics Show.

Published on 12 Jan 2012 by Euronews - The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is, say the organisers, gadget heaven. They expect around 150,000 people to visit the show for a first look at some of the new gadgets being shown by around 2,700 exhibitors.

Intel is hoping to corner a new market with their "Ultrabook." An ultraportable laptop, it's very small and light but boasts standard performance by using low-power Intel processors.

Web addresses up for sale

Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish on 12 Jan 2012 - Web addresses like dot com, dot org, or dot UK have shaped the way we navigate the web, but now that is about to change. Anyone can now apply for an address using pretty much anything in any language and script.

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organisation which manages the addresses, says the changes will open the internet to the world. Applying for the suffix though is not cheap; you will have shell out a whopping $185,000 to buy an internet domain name ending in any word you like. Big corporate are expected to be first in line to register their brands.

What FACEBOOK and GOOGLE are Hiding from world.

Uploaded by thoughtawakening on 14 Sep 2011 :-

How to disable facebook timeline 2012.

Uploaded by YourFavourite Bobby on 2 Jan 2012:
Like this PAGE on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/pages/YourFavouriteBobby/125948130856309

This video tutorial is about how to remove/disable facebook timeline.A lot of People has been asking me to help them to remove timeline. so i made this video for them.

 For Mozila firefox users:- STEPS-
1-First open your Firefox Browser and goto TOOLS then Go to Add-ons.
2-Now you will found Add-on settings and then search "User Agent Switcher" in top search bar.
3-install this Add-on(user agent switcher).
4-now restart your Firefox Browser then go to TOOLS..
5-Now click on Default User Agent Switcher Button and then select Internet Explorer 7.
6-Now Login to Facebook and you will see your old profile back. (if you again want your facebook timeline account simply goto TOOLS, click add-ons,set user agent switcher=disable.)

For GOOGLE CHROME users:- STEPS-
1-Before Opening the Chrome browser Right click on the chrome icon and choose Properties.
2-Now Look for the Target box and add the following code after 'chrome.exe'. (leave space after chrome.exe) --user-agent="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)"
3-Now click 'Apply' and then 'ok'.
4-Restart Chrome.
5-Now open your facebook and you will see your old Profile back.

(if you want your timeline account again then right click on chrome before opening - goto properties, look for the target box and remove the code after chrome.exe, click apply then ok.)

New Facebook worm threatens user security

Published on 5 Jan 2012 by Euronews - More than 45,000 Facebook accounts - mostly in the UK and France - have been compromised. A computer worm - dubbed Ramnit - has stolen login credentials and sent malicious links to users' friends. Security experts recommend users run their anti-virus software to be sure their computer has not been infected.