Twitter sued for $50m after refusing to reveal anti-Semitic tweeter identities.

The Union of Jewish French Students (UEJF) has sued Twitter and is pursuing further court action after the social networking site declined to expose names of anti-Semitic tweet authors, despite a French court ruling commanding their identification.

The case began in October 2012, when #UnBonJuif (a good Jew) and # UnJuifMort (a dead Jew) became popular tags for posts on Twitter. Over 350,000 tweets were posted.

In January, the French Court decision decreed that Twitter was bound to hand over the names of the authors of the tweets. The UEJF demanded that it release the names so that police action could be taken against the authors for ‘hate speech’.

Twitter ignored the ruling, saying it was “currently reviewing the court’s decision” at the time of issue. It was given 15 days to either give up the names, or file an appeal. The ruling was exactly two months ago on Sunday.

It was said that Twitter would have to pay 1,000 euro (approximately US$1300) a day until it gave up the names. Given the time elapsed, it has left itself open to fines of around 44,000 euro (just over $57,000).

Action on this decision was still pending when UEJF filed the new $50 million lawsuit with a Paris correctional tribunal earlier this week. The lawsuit claims damages because of Twitter’s refusal to provide names.

North Korea - South & US responsible for Cyber attack?

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Friday blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down websites this week at a time of elevated tensions over the North's nuclear ambitions. Experts, however, indicated it could take months to determine what happened and one analyst suggested hackers in China were a more likely culprit.

Internet access in Pyongyang was intermittent on Wednesday and Thursday, and Loxley Pacific Co., the broadband Internet provider for North Korea, said it was investigating an online attack that took down Pyongyang servers. A spokesman for the Bangkok-based company said Friday that it was not clear where the attack originated.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency blamed the shutdown on the United States and South Korea, accusing the allies of expanding an aggressive stance against Pyongyang into cyberspace with "intensive and persistent virus attacks."

South Korea denied the allegation and the U.S. military declined to comment.

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Google now redirects Picasa Web Albums to Google+ Photos.

Google is once again trying hard to convince users of Picasa Web Albums to jump over to Google+ Photos.

The URL http://picasaweb.google.com no longer brings you to Picasa Web Albums but instead redirects you to Google+ Photos. As described by the Google Operating System Blog, which is unaffiliated with Google, you have to enter the URL https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/myphotos?noredirect=1 to sneak back into Picasa Web Albums.

You only need to enter that URL once, though. After you use it the first time, Google sets a cookie that turns off the redirection. So you can then go back to using http://picasaweb.google.com to access your Picasa photo album page.

Google has been touting Google+ as the "new home" for your photo albums. The search giant has already replaced Picasa Web with Google+ Photos in the navigation bar and has been redirecting individual photo albums to the Google+ interface, according to the Google Operating System Blog.

MORE HERE >>

YouTube Studios Aim To Increase Viewership

Published on 11 Mar 2013 : YouTube no longer shows mostly home videos of cute babies and pets. Recently, it opened high tech production studios in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The aim is to improve the quality of what's on YouTube at a time when the Internet is becoming the main source of entertainment for the younger generation in many parts of the world.

4G technoloy & smart glasses:

FRANCE 24 Tech 24 - Mar 9, 2013 : Digital technology is now at the centre of many important world events, impacting everything from politics to economics to culture.

Half of Parents Join Facebook to Creep on Their Kids.

Elisha Hartwig

Are you friends with your parents on Facebook? You might be surprised to find out that one in two parents join Facebook just to keep tabs on their kids. In our increasingly digital world, it is difficult for parents to monitor their children's activities — so perusing social media is an obvious solution. 

To give you more heebie-jeebies, 43% of parents check out their kid's profile daily — with special interest given to status updates and photos you are tagged in. So you might want to think twice before you tag yourself at that frat party doing a perfect keg-stand. 

This data is courtesy of Education Database Online, a resource designed to help current and prospective students learn about the many educational opportunities and higher degree programs available within the United States.

 

more here >>

Facebook Just Declared War on Google: Meet Your New Search Engine

Today's big bad Facebook revelation is a search engine—not for the web, but for your life. And it's just another step in Facebook's attempt to conquer the entire Internet. Meet Graph Search.

Facebook's search has been convoluted and weak for years until now—it's hard to expect what you get when you type anything in, even if it's your best friend's name. People, pages, maybe places. Boring and often broken. But with today's search monster, Zuckerberg isn't just offering you a way to find your friends (or college frenemies). And it's beyond just some attempt at a Google replacement. It's an attempt to do what Google failed at doing—pulling all the information that matters to you within the context of your social life, skipping the results that are popular to The Internet, in favor of the results that are popular within a group you actually give a damn about. Not a horde of strangers. Everyone you know uses Facebook, and now those people are going to work for you when you search.

For example: searching for a sushi restaurant won't just bring up a well-linked list a la Google. Instead, your restaurant query will be answered with a little help from your friends, presenting you with suggestions based on where your relations have checked in. Or if you're looking for music, the recent selections of your pals will inform the results. For any occasion, the answer doesn't lie with some invisible algorithm pointed out toward the web void, but at the people you know, who are doing or have done the thing you're talking about. Your friends' experiences will give you answers to what you're wondering. At least that's the idea. And if it works, we'll have all the reason to skip opening a new tab headed to Google.com—an enormous victory for Facebook, and a profound change in how we all use the Internet every single day.

from Gizmodo : Sam Biddle -  read more >>

The new YouTube app for iPad

From : The YouTube Team

Introducing the new YouTube app for iPad Get the new app now Improved search & faster loading More ways to share A sleek new design

Also available for iPhone and Android Update your app through the App Store. Update your app through Google Play. New features: Improved search New tools include auto-suggestion and the ability to browse for new videos while you watch More ways to share Share a video on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, email or text message — right from the YouTube app More videos Tens of thousands of videos now unlocked for your phone

Social media analyst: Internet censorship is a grave concern

Published on 2 Dec 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish : The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency of the United Nations responsible for international information and communication technologies regulations, is set to meet in Dubai to revise regulations for the first time since 1988.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Thomas Crampton, the Asia Pacific director of social media at the communications firm Ogilvy and Mather, says much is at stake in the negotiations.

Socware

Protecting yourself from Facebook malware

Published on Nov 13, 2012 by CNETTV : Forget e-mail spam -- that's old school. Now there are spammy messages propagating through your social networks. CNET's Sumi Das has more details on how to prevent yourself from falling victim to socware.

Windows 8: Is It Worth The Upgrade?

Windows 8 has been at the forefront of discussion for the weeks leading up to its launch on Friday. The company says that Windows 8 is the future – a world where traditional desktop computing and touch computing can live in harmony. A future where all your content is at your fingertips at all times. So is the future worth it?

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Internet & 'muslims' cupid service!

Half Our Deen Offline

Published on Oct 24, 2012 by ummahfilms : The reality is that Muslim Single events that use the speed dating process just don't work. Half Our Deen takes a revolutionary approach at helping Muslim get married. Instead of playing a game of musical chairs like other events, HOD Offline uses a series of activities to allow it's participants to learn about each other in a deeper way. The results speak for themselves.

U.S. thinks Iran behind cyberattack in Saudi Arabia

Panetta referred to the “shamoon” virus for the first time publicly, saying it erased critical files on about 30,000 computers at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.

The United States believes Iran was behind a major cyberattack on Saudi Arabia’s state oil company and a Qatari gas firm, a former U.S. official who has worked on cybersecurity issues said Friday.

In a major cybersecurity speech on Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued a veiled warning to Tehran that Washington is ready to take preemptive action to protect U.S. computer networks, the former official said.

U.S. government agencies have concluded that Iran orchestrated the “shamoon” virus that disabled tens of thousands of computers at Saudi Aramco and struck Qatari natural gas firm RasGas as well, said James Lewis, who has worked for the State Department and other government agencies on national security and cyber issues.

American officials had “more than a suspicion” that Iran was to blame for the August attacks, that also possibly included recent denial of service attacks on some U.S. banks, said Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“There’s generally a conviction that it was Iran,” he told AFP.

more from original here   |  13 Oct 2012  >>>>

Scary Facebook setting you have to change now!

Privacy concerns just never seem to end on Facebook. Earlier this week, a security researcher found what seemed to be a glaring flaw in Facebook's security. In many cases, it could allow a total stranger to find you and your mobile phone number.

All the person has to do is search for any mobile number using the site's mobile search function. If you have your number on Facebook - or have the Facebook app on your phone - your name will pop up.

When the security researcher went public with this information, Facebook said it's a feature, not a bug. That means it probably won't be fixed. Though Facebook might not care about your privacy, I do. So, I'm going to tell you how to stop it.

The problem lies with a simple privacy setting. By default, Facebook allows anyone to search for your profile by your mobile number. You can change this so strangers can't look you up.

Click the upside-down triangle in the right corner of your profile. Go to Privacy settings and then How You Connect. Set "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided?" to Friends.

You can remove your phone number from Facebook as well. However, this prevents you from using two-factor authentication on your Facebook account, which I do recommend. Plus, if you use the Facebook mobile app, your number is permanently attached to your account.

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Be Prepared for Ransomware Virus!

Oct 11, 2012  : After historic Internet protests in January the SOPA anti-piracy bill was defeated. However, this week several reports have pointed to a rather unfortunate SOPA comeback. Not in Congress, but as a nasty cryptovirus that locks up people’s computers and accuses them of distributing copyright infringing files. Infected users can get their data back after a payment of $200 – at least, that’s what the virus makers promise.

The Stop Online Piracy ACT (SOPA) was a major threat to the Internet. The bill introduced draconian censorship tools for the Government and copyright holders, that worried the public and many key Internet companies including Reddit, Google and Wikipedia.

After months of protest, the bill was eventually killed off following the Internet Blackoutearlier this year.

But that doesn’t mean SOPA is no longer a threat. This week ‘the bill’ was resurrected by a virus maker, who has been warning users of infected computers that their IP-address is on a blacklist after it was discovered distributing illegal content.

SOPA Ransomware

As a result, the SOPA virus holds all files on the host computer ransom.

“Your computer is locked!” the splash screen above warns, adding:

more from source  >>>

New Android virus could wipe out all of user's information

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WASHINGTON  |  1 Oct 2012  -- A security researcher says cell phones equipped with Google’s Android operating system are at risk of being disabled or wiped clean of their data, including contacts, music, and photos.

Opening a link to a web site or application embedded with malicious code can trigger an attack capable of destroying the memory card in Android-equipped handsets made by Samsung, HTC, Motorola and Sony Ericsson. That from Ravi Borgaonkar (BOR-gahn-car) of Germany’s Technical University Berlin. He wrote that another code that can erase a user’s data appears to target only the top selling Galaxy S III and other Samsung phones.

Borgaonkar says he informed Google of the vulnerability in June. A fix was issued quickly, he says, but it wasn’t publicized, leaving manyphone owners unaware the problem existed.

source here   >>>

Old Facebook posts haunt users - how to deal with it?

Published on Sep 26, 2012 by CNETTV : CNET's Sumi Das talks to reporter Donna Tam about the privacy fears Facebook users are experiencing as the social network continues the worldwide rollout of its Timeline feature.