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Neither Apple nor Google are doing enough when it comes to addressing how iPhone and Android applications can access users' private information, according to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. On Monday Schumer called for the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into reports that iPhone and Android applications can essentially steal data like private photos and address books...

The FCC is seeking public comment on the subject of when or if government entities -- such as the police or transit authorities -- can intentionally jam cellphone signals and Internet service for the sake of public safety The comments will help inform FCC deliberations regarding what, if any, rules or policy guidance may be appropriate regarding wi...

Before your company finds itself embroiled in a lawsuit over a data breach that spills personal information about your customers all over the Internet, you might want to take a look at some recent research by Carnegie Mellon and Temple Universities Data breach victims are six times less likely to file litigation against a company if they receive fr...

Yelp had an excellent first day as a publicly traded company. It opened on the New York Stock Exchange Friday at US$22.01 per unit -- up 47 percent from its IPO price of $15. By the end of the day, shares were trading at $24.58.

FirstRain, an analytics software company that provides personalized, real-time customer intelligence to sales and marketing professionals, has announced the launch of the first Enterprise Customer Intelligence System. ...

If you think about it, Apple and Microsoft have kind of switched places with their recent operating system refreshes. Microsoft, which is dominant with PCs but anything but on tablets and smartphones, is leveraging its smartphone platform heavily to create a new PC product. Apple, which is a small player with PCs but massively dominant with smartphones and tablets, is keeping the two technologies at arm's length. Microsoft's latest OS is a smartphone-like product, although it is weakest with smartphones. Apple's is a PC-like product, although it is weakest in that space. ...

Similar to Apple's iOS, Android is vulnerable to apps secretly copying photos, The New York Times has reported The publication commissioned Android developer Ralph Gootee to create a test app that masquerades as a simple timer but steals the most recent image on the user's smartphone and posts it on a public photo-sharing site....

The First Amendment is meant to protect freedom of speech, but a new device could thwart it -- not through censorship but by affecting the brain's cognitive processes. The SpeechJammer gun could thus prevent a shot from being heard round the world In George Orwell's seminal novel 1984, the Ministry of Truth controls news, entertainment and inform...

Zynga is launching its own platform this month as a beta, with a number of features designed to lure players away from their comfort zone on Facebook. There is, for example, a way for players to meet and connect with other players -- in other words, you don't need a set of already-connected friends to play the games. The launch is part of Zynga's ...

In the near future, cyberthreats will be the leading threat to the United States, FBI Director Robert Mueller warned in a speech on Thursday at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Traditional crime, from mortgage and healthcare fraud to child exploitation, have moved online, while terrorists have become increasingly cyber-savvy, Mueller said....

AT&T on Thursday changed the way it handles the cellular data use of its unlimited wireless data users Customers with unlimited data plans for 3G and non-LTE 4G smartphones will see their wireless speeds slow once they user more than 3GB of data per month. Those using an unlimited plan on a 4G LTE smartphone have a 5GB threshold before they see the...

AT&T on Thursday changed the way it handles the cellular data use of its unlimited wireless data users Customers with unlimited data plans for 3G and non-LTE 4G smartphones will see their wireless speeds slow once they user more than 3GB of data per month. Those using an unlimited plan on a 4G LTE smartphone have a 5GB threshold before they see the...

The Internet has become the world's largest shopping mall, and the market is continuing to grow. Q4 2011 U.S. retail ecommerce sales were up 14 percent compared with 2010, reaching nearly US$50 billion for the quarter, ComScore recently reported. Total U.S. e-commerce sales are projected to reach $279 billion by 2014, according to a Forrester for...

Bank of America appears poised to ignite the wrath of its customer base once again by introducing a new fee structure for basic checking accounts. The company is readying changes that will require users of basic checking accounts to pay a monthly fee, The Wall Street Journal has reported. If the customers agreed to bank online or, buy more products, or maintain a certain balance, the fee may be waived.

A camera that allows photographers to control the focus in a picture after it's shot is set to start shipping on Friday ...

Facebook introduced a slew of new ad initiatives at its marketing conference, fMC, held in New York on Wednesday. Most had been leaked to industry publications prior to this first-ever event. Timeline for Pages, for example, was expected. Also expected was a mobile ad play -- Facebook had admitted in its S-1 filing that it was lacking in this area...

Google's new privacy policy, which took effect Thursday, violates EU law, European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said on the BBC's Radio Four Thursday morning Google has rebuffed requests by the European Union privacy body to delay the implementation of changes to the policy due to its concerns....

I am writing a book that I may call "CEOs on the Future of Communications." The reason I'm telling this to you now is to invite you to participate in the process of writing it. The idea is simple: to provide a taste of what different tech leaders see as the future of the industry -- changes that will affect customers, investors, workers, partners ...

Facebook introduced a long-expected development on Wednesday: Timeline for Pages -- that is, Timeline for brands. It is similar in look and feel and function to the feature that was pushed out to user profiles last fall. However, the implications of Timeline for Pages are much greater for brands, both in outreach to customers and in terms of the ...

In this era of social media, the Dunbar Number has been the subject of considerable debate. For those of you who don't run in evolutionary anthropology circles, the Dunbar Number is a concept created by Robin Dunbar, the director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford University. Dunbar's theory is that there are only so many meaningful relationships we can manage -- the approximate number is 150.