privacy
Google Street View Now Covers Whole Of UK (Almost)
March 10, 2010
Initially, Google Street View was fairly controversial with many people complaining about invasion of privacy and such issues. However, those concerns have not stopped Google from expanding the service, because as of tomorrow (11th March 2010), you lucky (or unlucky depending on which side of the fence you’re sat) people in the UK will have access to a total 96% of all roads, streets and avenues across the isles.
The infamous camera cars have been out and about over the last year busily snapping up everything from busy city streets to little lanes in the middle of God knows where, there’s even been some Google Path View images captured using specially equipped trikes.
In some parts, such as the village of Broughton, the journey of the car has been somewhat treacherous with outraged protesters lining the streets creating human blockades preventing the car from snapping their streets. None the less, Google got their way in the end and we’ll all be able to go spotting more strange Street View sights in the UK with all these new images.
Continue reading »Google Buzz – Do We Need Another Social Network?
February 21, 2010
Well Google recently released Buzz (didn’t Yahoo do that a few years back?) upon GMail users and anyone else who wants to sign up for a Google account, but the question is will it be the thing to beat Facebook and Twitter? I’m sure Google now hopes so, but I’m yet to be convinced.
Besides, I already use Twitter and Facebook, do I really need another social network? Don’t know what I’m talking about? You can read all about it in this Google Buzz features review.
I’m really not sure about Google Buzz, it seems strange for a company who keeps services in beta for years upon end (like they did with having Google Mail in beta for around 5 years), to release a previously unheard of product onto the world…and one that seemed to care little about your privacy of the contacts that you email regularly, but that perhaps just says more about a bunch of engineers creating and testing Google Buzz and their naivety over how it could be used for more malicious activities, take a look at our most recent technology roundup for more information on that.
Continue reading »Is Society’s Internet Addiction Affecting The Children?
February 3, 2010
This generation of kids (and in fact even the ones before them) have often been portrayed as fat couch potatoes by the media at large, children who are slowly loosing the ability to use language and their legs correctly and who are developing a distorted view of the world based on bad communication skills, the Internet being for porn and mass killings with terrorists in Russian airports.
There will always be people to defend them – mostly a mix of gaming enthusiasts, the occasional scientist and games manufacturers PR departments – but the results of a recent survey are fairly condemning where they show that kids are spending nearly eight hours online every day!
Continue reading »‘We Live In Public’ Review
January 29, 2010
We Live in Public (15)
Cast: Josh Harris, Tom Harris (and many others)
Director: Ondi Timoner
Running time: 90 minutes
This documentary will make you think. A lot. About how far we’ve come in the last decade and about where we’re headed. You’ll start to wonder what you did before the Internet took over our lives and you’ll pontificate about life before ‘reality shows’. Even sitting on the toilet requires the presence of your precious iPhone. We’re now so consumed by social media that it’s actually quite difficult to spend your waking day alone and connected to nothing.
Or is it?
Continue reading »Mobile Phone Directory Service Temporarily Suspended (118 800)
July 11, 2009
We recently covered the news of privacy concerns over a mobile phone number directory that was being launched by that the directory service 118 800 – there are certainly good and bad points about such a service.
Although, ultimately if you weren’t happy with your mobile phone number being listed, perhaps due to the idea of privacy issues, maybe you have a rather persistent ex-partner you’d rather not hear from or the potential of marketing companies using the information leaves you a little uneasy.
Continue reading »Mobile Phone Number Directory Raises Privacy Issues
June 10, 2009
You know those little tick boxes that you get on everything nowadays that ask you to check (or uncheck) you are happy to have you details sold across the world? Well have you ever wondered what happens if you don’t (or do) select that option? Well here’s an answer, you get included in a mobile phone number directory.
Since 2007 Connectivity (the company behind the directory enquiries service 118 800) have been through a load of these lists and managed to compile a list of around 15million mobile phone numbers which will now be accessible through the website and via the landline number.
Continue reading »Google Street View (UK) Cleared Of Privacy Concerns
April 30, 2009
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has finally given a verdict on the legality of Google Street View going live in the UK, and fortunately for Google (and the millions of people that find the novelty useful and entertaining) it is one that says the online service including the continuing expansion should not be stopped.
This follows claims by many people that it should not be allowed for many different reasons – the most common two being that it infringes people’s privacy, and that it facilitates crime by allowing potential burglars to map out their route and identify weak spots without leaving their home.
However the ICO ruled that although it carries a small risk of privacy invasion removing Google Street View would be “disproportionate to the relatively small risk of privacy detriment”. It is definitely encouraging to see a watchdog use some common sense – listening to the quiet majority rather than the very vocal minority.
Continue reading »How To Be Safe Online – Internet Security/Safety For Students
April 28, 2009
Yesterday I brought up the issue of technology giving us more than we can handle with the case of highlighting Swine Flu, but it can also have worrying implications with our safety and how susceptible we are to giving out our personal emails.
In a recent survey commissioned by ‘Get Safe Online’ it was found that internet users in full time education were far more vulnerable to online crime and security threats than any other demographic, which may be surprising as both the people in question and the general population see them as being ‘very computer literate’.
We have all got the spam emails from our friend who is stuck in Nigeria and needs £3000 to get back, and apart from the first time where we went through our phone book to find out if any of our friends were on holiday in Africa we delete them instantly. But although this may seem like the most prominent threat, and although it is so widely publicised, young people are still falling foul to the internet.
Continue reading »Google Street View ‘Privacy Blockade’ in Broughton (UK) Backfires?
April 3, 2009
Google Street View in the UK is nothing if not controversial: while most see it as a wonderful harmless novelty that allows them to have a better idea of where they are going on trips others see it as an infringement of their privacy (despite the fact that faces and number plates are blurred) and feel that it encourages crime.
But a village called Broughton in Cambridgeshire have decided to take it into their own hands, literally. Evidently agreeing with the second of the two main views they decided to make a human blockade around the Google Street View car when it was spotted cruising around meaning that it could not drive in and take photos of Broughton forcing it to drive away.
Continue reading »
