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Chrome getting Flash cookie protection | Deep Tech – CNET News

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For privacy fans or others who want to keep their computers free of traces of what they’ve been doing online, Google’s Chrome browser is getting an option to make sure Adobe Systems’ Flash Player isn’t getting in the way.

Web sites often store details about a user in small text files called cookies that can record details such as usernames, browsing history, and advertisements that have been seen. But storage abilities in Flash mean that even if a person deletes regular cookies, a Web site could reconstruct particulars from Flash data. There are other storage mechanisms arriving in browsers, too, leading to the term “evercookie,” but Adobe is trying to take care of its responsibilities with a beta of Flash Player 10.3 that lets browsers delete that data.

Now Chrome is getting a checkbox to take advantage of that feature.

via Chrome getting Flash cookie protection | Deep Tech – CNET News.

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What Does Your Phone Know About You? More Than You Think – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I plugged my phone into my computer and opened an application called Lantern, a forensics program for investigating iPhones and iPads. Ten minutes later, I’m staring at everything my iPhone knows about me. About 14,000 text messages, 1,350 words in my personal dictionary, 1,450 Facebook contacts, tens of thousands of locations pings, every website I’ve ever visited, what locations I’ve mapped, my emails going back a month, my photos with geolocation data attached and how many times I checked my email on March 24 or any day for that matter. Want to reconstruct a night? Lantern has a time line that combines all my communications and photos in one neat interface. While most of it is invisible during normal operations, there is a record of every single thing I’ve done with this phone, which also happens to form a pretty good record of my life.

Figuring that I’ve got nothing to hide or steal, I’d always privileged convenience over any privacy and security protocols. Not anymore. Immediately after trying out Lantern, I enabled the iPhone’s passcode and set it to erase all data on the phone after 10 failed attempts. This thing remembers more about where I’ve been and what I’ve said than I do, and I’m damn sure I don’t want it falling into anyone’s hands.

via What Does Your Phone Know About You? More Than You Think – Alexis Madrigal – Technology – The Atlantic.

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Lateral Data Viewpoint 5 Speed Tests Offer Potential for Cloud-Based e-Discovery

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Lateral Data (news, site) has recently accomplished internal testing of its latest Viewpoint 5.0 e-Discovery platform and results indicate improved performance suitable enough for cloud-based data processing. With Viewpoint 5.0, users can scale up their processing power through distributed computing, which should lead to flexibility and cost savings.

Distributed Architecture Ensures Scalability

Matt Berry, Lateral Data founder and president, says Viewpoint 5.0′s distributed architecture enables cloud-based processing of data, which should help service providers, law firms and corporate legal departments reduce infrastructure costs for their data collection, preservation, pre-processing, processing, analysis, review and production.

Cloud-based processing can be a major cost-saver for users who don’t want to make huge and unnecessary IT investments. We’ve seen companies scale up their infrastructure costs for one large project and then when the project ends, they’re faced with a higher overhead than they can support. Using Viewpoint in a cloud-based scenario, users can start small and instantly scale as their e-Discovery requirements grow.”

via Lateral Data Viewpoint 5 Speed Tests Offer Potential for Cloud-Based e-Discovery.

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Zylab’s E-Discovery Software Identifies Information Stored in Audio Files

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A quick look back at our coverage of e-Discovery in recent times will show one glaring hole. That hole is audio e-Discovery, which hasn’t been covered because a solution has not been available. Until now, that is, with the release of Zylab’s Audio Search Bundle.

Zylab (news, site) doesn’t need any introduction, but for the record, it is one of the bigger players in the e-Discovery and information management markets, and, unlike some, has stuck firmly within this space.

Audio Search Use

The result is a number of established products, as well as some lesser-known ones. The Zylab Audio Search Bundle, if it works as Zylab says it does, should take off for two reasons.

The first and most obvious one is that, according to the release notes, the software will cut the time it takes to go through audio files for information relevant to e-Discovery requests.

The second thing is — and putting it in a wider enterprise context — it can help identify and recognize unstructured audio content that is coming into enterprises through a variety of sources

 

In this respect, think of all the audio tools even a small business uses, and then think of all the untapped information that is coming through those tools . Even at the very lowest level, those tools come from fixed-line telephone, VOIP, mobile and specialized platforms such as Skype or MSN Live.

via Zylab’s E-Discovery Software Identifies Information Stored in Audio Files.

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Sony Launching Stylish Android 3.0 Tablets to Battle iPad, RIM’s PlayBook

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sony (news, site) is throwing its weight into the tablet war, all set to battle Apple and others this fall with a distinguished pair of sleek home tablet devices.

Sony Turns on the Style

At a launch event in Tokyo earlier today, Sony unveiled its forthcoming Android 3.0-powered tablet devices that it hopes will divert some of the piles of cash currently going to Apple in its direction. The Sony S1 is a 9.4-inch standard tablet with a sleek, tapered, design, while the S2 offers something a little different in a clamshell design with two 5.5-inch screens.

On the S2, the lower screen can be a virtual keyboard, gaming controls or app functions. While the specs (and pricing) haven’t been unveiled at this point, it will need to match or beat whatever the likes of Apple, as well as the other Android device makers, are offering at the time to stand any chance in a cutthroat market.

via Sony Launching Stylish Android 3.0 Tablets to Battle iPad, RIM’s PlayBook.

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Microsoft Explains Its Location Data Collection Practices – PCWorld Business Center

April 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In the midst of an uproar over ways that Apple and Google collect and store location information from mobile phones, Microsoft has laid out details about its Windows Phone 7 data collection policies.

Microsoft says that it collects location information only if users allow an application to access location data and when that particular application requests location information. It also said that it keeps that data in a Microsoft database.

Apple has come under fire in recent weeks after researchers showed that the iPhone and iPad store location data about users on the devices. Additional research found that both Apple and Google collect location information about users even when applications that require location information aren’t running.

Google has defended itself by saying that location sharing by users of Android-based mobile phones is opt-in and that all location data the company stores is anonymized. Apple has not commented on the situation.

Microsoft said that it assembles and maintains a database of the locations of cell towers and Wi-Fi access points in order to provide its location services. When a user accesses an application that requires location information, Microsoft compares the Wi-Fi access points and cell towers in range of the device with the location database, which contains details of the locations of the access points and cell towers.

via Microsoft Explains Its Location Data Collection Practices – PCWorld Business Center.

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Red Hat to Launch Cloud Service

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Red Hat (news, site) has been focusing its efforts on supporting enterprises and service providers that use Red Hat software for building and managing cloud networks. With Red Hat’s recent acquisition of Makara, the company now has the capability to act as a cloud service provider, and is set to make an announcement at the upcoming Red Hat Summit.

While Red Hat is among the more popular server operating system and middleware vendors, it doesn’t have its own PaaS offering. With the Makara acquisition in November 2010, Red Hat now has technology that enables developers to deploy cloud applications that can scale up or down as necessary. According to former Makara CEO Isaac Roth — now Red Hat’s “PaaS Master” — the Makara team is currently working on integrating Red Hat’s technology into the existing Makara service. “Makara enables applications to automatically scale down and up, so the consumption of resources happens in an on-demand fashion.”

 

Makara is currently integrating parts of JBoss, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Deltacloud project, in which developers can use the same code to launch instances regardless of whether these are on private clouds, Amazon EC, Rackspace or other services, making sure applications are protected from API incompatibilities.

via Red Hat to Launch Cloud Service.

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Google Docs Gets Easier with Full Folder Upload

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you thought Google’s addition of the drag and drop upload feature to Docs was convenient, you’ll love the additional perks that were announced today, including the ability to upload entire folders.

The existing folder structure is preserved on upload which means that folders within folders will also upload and become collections within collections. The option can be found, if you’re a Chrome user, in the drop down menu within Docs. If you use Firefox or Safari,  you’ll need to install an applet.

via Google Docs Gets Easier with Full Folder Upload.

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Sony to launch two Android tablets later this year – Computerworld

April 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Sony will make its long-awaited entry into the tablet PC market later this year with two models based on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system.

The tablets, which carry the development names S1 and S2, will be launched worldwide from the fall, Sony said on Tuesday.

The company didn’t announce pricing details or specific launch dates, but it did offer some basic specifications and demonstrate prototypes of the two machines at a Tokyo news conference. (Video of the new tablets is available on YouTube.)

The S1 is a slate design and has a 9.4-inch screen with 1,280 by 800 pixels resolution. At first glance it looks similar to most competing tablets, but look more closely at its profile and you’ll see it’s shaped like a wedge. The upper portion of the tablet is thicker than the lower portion and that makes it easier to hold, said Sony.

The S2 is a folding device equipped with dual 5.5-inch screens, each with 1,024 by 480 pixels resolution. It has a rounded design and is small enough to fit in the inside pocket of a jacket. Unveiling the tablet at the Tokyo news conference, Kunimasa Suzuki, deputy president of Sony’s consumer products group, reached inside his jacket and pulled it out.

Both tablets will run Android 3.0, the so-called “Honeycomb” version of the operating system, and can connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular networks. Sony is building support for its Qriocity online audio and video services into both tablets, and users will also be able to browse and buy electronic books.

They are both based on NVidia’s Tegra 2 processor and each has front and rear cameras.

via Sony to launch two Android tablets later this year – Computerworld.

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NY Case Underscores Wi-Fi Privacy Dangers : NPR

April 25, 2011 By 1 Comment

Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of “pedophile!” and “pornographer!” stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn’t need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He’d gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

“We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night,” the man’s lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, “Doldrum.”

“No, I didn’t,” he insisted. “Somebody else could have but I didn’t do anything like that.”

“You’re a creep … just admit it,” they said.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

Plenty of others would agree. The Sarasota, Fla. man, for example, who got a similar visit from the FBI last year after someone on a boat docked in a marina outside his building used a potato chip can as an antenna to boost his wireless signal and download an astounding 10 million images of child porn, or the North Syracuse, N.Y., man who in December 2009 opened his door to police who’d been following an electronic trail of illegal videos and images. The man’s neighbor pleaded guilty April 12.

via NY Case Underscores Wi-Fi Privacy Dangers : NPR.

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