Articles by date
08 February 2012
Growing alarm over child porn epidemic (The Age)
Child pornography use has reached epidemic proportions in Australia, as paedophiles increasingly record themselves molesting children before swapping the images with other abusers, federal police have warned.
Accessing the Internet by mobile device doubled in 2011, data shows (Network World)
Over the past 12 months, mobile access to the Internet nearly doubled to 8.5%, not counting tablets, according to data released this week by StatCounter, a Web analytics company.
Canada's anti-spam law goes too far (Globe and Mail)
The magnificent convenience of electronic communication should not be ruined by the nuisance known as "spam": the indiscriminate bombardment of people's e-mail inboxes. But the well-intentioned act of Parliament commonly known as Canada's anti-spam law overreaches in more than one way, unduly weighing down electronic commerce, and potentially affecting many Canadian companies - including The Globe and Mail, in its interactions with readers.
Law Enforcement Ups Its Game In Cybercrime (Dark Reading)
It may still be a frantic game of catch-up for law enforcement, but new data quantifies anecdotal evidence that law enforcement has scored some big cybercrime busts and made inroads in detecting and investigating data breaches.
Internet Freedom Could Turn on 'Middle Countries' (Network World)
With so much attention focused on online censorship in highly restrictive countries such as China, Iran and Syria, the discussion of global Internet freedom often has tended to exclude the large class of more moderate nations with rapidly growing online populations with only a rudimentary set of laws and policies for the Web.
Net freedom experts disagree on Twitter censorship (NextGov)
Experts were split Tuesday on whether Twitter's new policy to allow country-specific censorship represents a fundamental failure to protect free speech, or is simply the price of doing business globally.
Researcher: 'Truly Heinous' Copyright Laws Undermine Internet Freedom (Tech Daily Dose)
Supporters of increased anti-piracy efforts, including the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, are the "greatest threat" to Internet freedom in the United States, a former Federal Trade Commission official said on Tuesday.
Opposition to ACTA swells in Europe (Network World)
A British member of the European Parliament has been given the job of evaluating the controversial ACTA agreement as more European countries shy away from the intellectual-property treaty.
New UK code of conduct should require ISPs to take down radical extremist content, MPs say (OUT-LAW News)
The Government should help UK internet service providers draw up new rules requiring them to proactively remove radical extremist content posted online, a committee of MPs has said.
ICANN Wants Your Help Evaluating gTLD Applications
Feeling left out of the new generic Top Level Domain application process? Well then ICANN wants your help in evaluating gTLD applications from developing countries. Well, providing you meet their criteria that is.
ICANN Seeks Comment On Perceptions Of Need For Defensive gTLD Applications
ICANN is becoming concerned that companies may feel they have to submit an application for a generic Top Level Domain for defensive reasons when, in reality, the organisation sees little benefit for it.
Why Is Facebook So Successful? Psychophysiological Measures Describe a Core Flow State While Using Facebook by Maurizio Mauri, Pietro Cipresso, Anna Balgera, Marco Villamira, and Giuseppe Riva (Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking)
Abstract: People are more and more using social networking sites (SNSs) like Facebook and MySpace to engage with others. The use of SNSs can have both positive and negative effect on the individual; however, the increasing use of SNSs might reveal that people look for SNSs because they have a positive experience when they use them. Few studies have tried to identify which particular aspects of the social networking experience make SNSs so successful. In this study we focus on the affective experience evoked by SNSs.
07 February 2012
China's rate of rise in Web use falls to decade low (Xinhua)
The Chinese mainland still lags behind Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and some other economies in Web use despite recent official statistics showing it already has more than 500 million netizens.
Online Dating Study Suggests It's No Better Than Meeting At A Bar (Reuters)
Combing dating websites for that perfect love match can be very frustrating, and a group of U.S. psychology professors released a report on Monday explaining why there is no substitute for meeting face-to-face.
Deleted Facebook photos still lurking on internet (Mashable)
Pictures users have deleted from Facebook months or even years ago may still exist, it has been revealed.
More Australians switch on IPTV: Study (Computerworld)
More than 300,000 Australian households have changed channels to subscription IPTV which could pose challenges for operators such as Foxtel, according to a new study by analyst firm, Telsyte.
US copyright lawsuit targets owners of non-secure wireless networks (Computerworld)
A federal lawsuit filed in Massachusetts could test the question of whether individuals who leave their wireless networks unsecured can be held liable if someone uses the network to illegally download copyrighted content.
Australia's Reserve Bank toughens protection against DDoS (The Australian)
Australia's central bank has moved to bolster its resistance to a form of cyber attack that has become an increasing menace to financial institutions in recent months.
Google, Facebook remove content as India threatens lawsuits for offending religious sentiments (Washington Post)
Google India has removed web pages deemed offensive to Indian political and religious leaders to comply with a court case that has raised censorship fears in the world's largest democracy, media reported Monday.
Privacy concerns grow in India (Washington Post)
The Indian government's recent announcement that it taps nearly 300 new phones every day has sparked a debate about privacy in a country that traditionally views such concerns as an ugly offshoot of Western individualism.
Facebook's Mobility Challenge (New York Times)
Lots of people love their cellphones. Facebook, so far, is not a big fan.
Facebook Users Ask, 'Where's Our Cut?' (New York Times)
By my calculation, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and chief executive, owes me about $50.
06 February 2012
Internet biggest breeding ground for violent extremism, UK ministers warn (The Guardian)
The internet now plays a part in most, if not all, cases of violent radicalisation and is a more significant recruiting ground than prisons, universities or places of worship, according to report by a cross-party group of MPs published today.
Race to win cyber world (The Australian)
Until recently, life in cyberspace was neat and simple. Each of the "fab four" US tech firms played a distinct role.
Austrian Law Student Faces Down Facebook (New York Times)
As Wall Street prepares for a record, multibillion-dollar initial stock sale from Facebook, the social networking site, a meeting with the potential to shape the economics of the deal was set to take place Monday in Vienna.
