A European court ruling against Google means search engines may have to respect “the right to be forgotten.” But exactly how the judgment will work in practice is unclear. In principle, the ruling means people have the right to demand that search results pointing to information about them be removed from indexes. It appears to […]
Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler has hinted at further revisions to the way the FCC approaches net neutrality. But he’s still stopping short of a “pure” implementation of the principles. Wheeler sparked criticism back in April when the FCC suggested new rules to deal with the problem that, as things stand, it doesn’t have […]
If you’re starting as an undergraduate at MIT this year, there’s $100 coming your way. The catch — if you consider it one — is that it will be paid in Bitcoins. It’s part of an experiment by two existing students, sophomore Jeremy Rubin and MBA candidate Dan Elitzer. They want to discover whether having […]
The chairman of the FCC has denied that proposed rule changes will spell the death of the net neutrality principle. Tom Wheeler says the changes will instead maintain net neutrality but in a way compatible with court rulings. A federal appeals court recently ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to make rules […]
The man behind filesharing site Megaupload is to get back cash and property seized when his house was raided in 2012. But while Kim Dotcom seems to be having a great time right now, he still faces the threat of extradition. US officials want Dotcom to stand trial for criminal copyright infringement in a case […]
The cellphone industry has agreed to add a “killswitch” so users can remotely disable a lost or stolen phone. But it’ll be opt-in, something that’s left lawmakers unsatisfied. Politicians in several areas have pushed for state or local laws that would force phone manufacturers to include a killswitch in all new phones, with network carriers […]
Critics of the proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable argue it will hurt competition in the TV industry. But Comcast says the deal will be good for consumers when you look at the wider communications market. The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing the merger because it would give the firms a combined share […]
Darth Vader has been barred from running for President of Ukraine. Officials appear to have concluded he was using a false name. Vader had been nominated for the post by the Internet Party of Ukraine. However, the country’s electoral commission voted by 14-1 to reject his nomination, citing fraudulent behavior in contravention of election rules. […]
The CEO of Mozilla Corporation has resigned after criticism of his opposition to gay marriage. It follows protests on Twitter and by dating site OK Cupid, but has prompted debate about the limits of tolerance. Brendan Eich, who created Javascript, was the co-founder of Mozilla and had been the chief technical officer of the Mozilla […]
Captain Raymond “Jerry” Roberts, the last survivor of the team that cracked a German encryption during the second world war, has died aged 93. Roberts didn’t work on cracking Enigma, arguably the better-known of the German encryptions. Instead his work at the top secret Bletchley Park center in England was based around cracking the Lorenz […]