Privacy and Security - Articles Archive
from May 18, 2006 to December 18, 2005

I was working on version 2 of RSS DreamFeeder, when I got an email from an old customer. She was asking if there was an update to an old product I had made several years ago called IEWebFix. I had to tell her no, but that ... read more

This paper considers information safety and accuracy in the digital age using Google as an entry point. In doing so, it explores the role media play in shaping the relationship of information, privacy, and trust between Google and the public. This inquiry is undertaken using framing ... read more

If you think that slick and professionally-looking sites, sporting national advertisers and promotions are safe destinations, void of malware or spyware risks for your computer, think again. Apparently, it's not easy to judge a site's safety just by looking at it, and in fact, good-looking sites are ... read more

Broadcast your personal video and audio clips on your website Browser-based image editor enables users to edit images online with no need for plugin Advertising system allows you to choose which ads you want to put onto your website Conferencing software enables you to share voice, video ... read more

Syncura is a peer-to-peer file sharing application that enables groups of people to keep their files in synch by connecting their computers through a secure, invitation-only software. Through Syncura you are enabled to easily collaborate on documents with clients from other organizations or with colleagues on different ... read more

Could instant messaging become a strong contender to traditional email for text-based communications in the near future? Inside any instant messenger, just like inside my favorite e-mail application, I have a list of contacts to which I can send messages to, so why can't IM seriously consider ... read more

Mac security? DRM protection and trusted computing enabling chip is found to be wired inside the new Intel-based Macs while no official statement, documentation or press release tells consumers about its existence. Paolo Attivissimo reports: I have been silent, up to now, on the new Macs with Intel ... read more

A faulty update of the popular McAfee antivirus definition file, distributed last week, cancelled numerous Microsoft Office files and also other applications on computers utilizing McAfee's own antivirus solution. The error was due to the McAfee antivirus erroneously identifying standard files and programs as infected by ... read more

Mass media are inherently corrupting. A small number of owners and editors exercise great power over what is communicated to large numbers of people. Mass media should be replaced by participatory media organised as networks, such as telephone and computer networks. Strategies to supersede mass media ... read more

My brother Giovanni always reminds me that I should not let my office Wi-Fi hot spot unsecured as I am placing myself at the mercy of any unscrupulous hacker who may want to break havoc on my computer network at will. Being the Robin Good I am, ... read more

Well here's something I never thought I would see: Yahoo and AOL are going to try to implement a program to charge companies for assured delivery of email to their base of email users. How dumb is this? Let us count the ways. First, it's intrusive. Yahoo ... read more

Will internet access be controlled and monopolized by a handful of global internet access providers? Can governments prevent access to certain sites? Perhaps there is an alternative in the making. Hundreds of municipalities are recognizing that facilitating internet access is part of their responsibility towards citizens, and ... read more

Sharewood Picnic is my weekly collection of new media resources and tools. In it you find the best new media tools and picks I run into every week during my daily research and explorations into the future of independent media publishing. This week as before I ... read more

UFOs (ubiquitous-findable-objects) are coming. The term 'ambient findability' describes a world at the crossroads of ubiquitous computing and the internet, in which we can find anyone or anything from anywhere at any time. It's not necessarily a goal, and we'll never achieve perfect findability, but we're surely ... read more

There is news you can hardly find in your daily paper or even on the Internet: a discussion of exactly why viruses and worms can infect your computer, how much this is hurting business and personal productivity, and what should be done differently so that we ... read more

Today, anti-virus software solutions are based on methods and approaches which hackers are trying to bypass altogether. Virus writers are constantly re-inventing new ways and methods to infect and spread their malicious code, and as a research study funded by HP showed two years ago, "... ... read more

Until yesterday, when you were researching a competing company you would go search for its marketing materials, you might go look at the ads they have in magazines and check out business information accessible through public databases. If that company was making competing products you would go ... read more

Sharewood Picnic is my weekly selection of new media gems found along my explorations during the past seven days. Many are new tools that have just been launched and are ready for you to take for a test drive. My goal remains to provide you with constant ... read more