citizens
This popular website helps Icelandic couples avoid incest
thenextweb.com
When your country has a population of just 300,000 people and it’s not a question of whether you are related to someone, just how far back, an Icelandic genealogy website is successfully identifying connections between couples, helping them avoid incest. The website is called Íslendingabók (the Book of Icelanders) and it lists information...
UK parliament to provide 650 iPads to MPs, costing $420,000
thenextweb.com
As Britain’s economy enters a ‘double-dip’ recession (much to the dismay of its citizens), the Palace of Westminster has agreed to provide 650 members of parliament with iPads, replacing their old laptops at a cost of at least £260,000 (around $420,000) to the taxpayer. iPads will only be provided to...
Iran swapping internet for intranet in August, this post to vanish there soon after
www.engadget.com
There's dealing with internet comments, and then there's this. According to a statement from Reza Taghipour, the Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology, Iran will be shutting off access to the world wide in around five months, as it flips the switch on a nationwide "intranet" that'll act...
Twitter Is In Trouble In Brazil Because Drivers Are Tweeting To Avoid The Cops
www.businessinsider.com
Twitter has a problem in Brazil — the government is suing the company for nearly $300,000 because citizens have been using it to avoid traffic controls, The Next Web reports. This also means that, yes, Brazilians have successfully been using Twitter to get around police presence on roads, like...
New regulations will forbid Korean websites from collecting IDs to verify users
thenextweb.com
Websites in South Korea will soon need to find new systems to authenticate users once new laws come into place in the country later this year. According to the Yonhap News Agency, the country’s regulator — the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) — announced that website owners will no longer be...
Want Facebook Shares? HK’s 8 Securities Offers $200 Of Them If You Join Its Trading Platform
techcrunch.com
With Facebook announcing its ballsy stock price of $38 yesterday and all eyes now on what will happen with the social network when it finally goes public today, a new trading platform in Hong Kong, 8 Securities, is seizing the moment to boost its own profile by offering customers US$200...
Hail A Fellow Human, Not A Taxi With “SideCar” – The New P2P Uber
techcrunch.com
You need a ride, someone else has a car and could use the cash, SideCar is the app that will bring you together. New instant peer-to-peer rideshare-finding app SideCar turns anyone into an Uber driver, and it’s supposedly legal because you technically volunteer to pay at the end. Just punch...
CableWiFi: Five major ISPs team up for massive Wi-Fi sharing effort across the US
thenextweb.com
In what will be a massive win for US cable company subscribers, five of the countries largest cable providers have announced that they will combine to offer each other’s customers access to their own metropolitan Wi-Fi networks — the largest such project in the US to date. The partnership will...
Netflix brought into the Sony Entertainment Network fold for British Bravia buffs
www.engadget.com
Britons and citizens of the ROI! Sony's bringing Netflix to all Sony Entertainment Network-connected devices. It looks like Kaz Hirai's plan to "unify" the company and its media offerings is beginning to gain a little momentum. If you have a SEN-connected 2012 Bravia TV or Blu-ray player, then the...
Mobile data roaming is set to become a lot cheaper in Europe as new EU price caps roll out
thenextweb.com
Staying connected as you travel around Europe is about to get a lot cheaper for millions of EU citizens as new European Union price caps on mobile data roaming come into force. From 1 July 2012, EU mobile operators will be able to charge no more than 70 euro cents plus...
San Francisco Launches The 2012 Innovation Portfolio, From Open Taxi Data To Beta Tests In City Hall
techcrunch.com
San Francisco may not have intended to be become the startup mecca that it is today, but now the city government is working hard to make itself as friendly as possible to tech entrepreneurs. Makes sense, considering that there are 1,539 tech companies and 30,000 tech jobs in the city...
San Francisco Launches The 2012 Innovation Portfolio, From Open Taxi Data To Beta Tests In City Hall
Why Do People Hate Jews?
www.businessinsider.com
Citizens in Britain were appalled recently when a religious-studies exam featured the question, "why do people hate Jews?" The question was immediately blasted as inappropriate and quickly withdrawn. But it's an interesting and important question. Along with many other sites, this site is occasionally visited by people whose mission...
‘Big brother’ black boxes to soon be mandatory in all new cars
www.bgr.com
Beginning in 2015, all new cars in the United States will likely need to be fitted with data-recording “black boxes” very similar to the devices currently used in aircraft. The U.S. Senate has already passed a bill that will make the devices a requirement, and the House is expected...
Pioneer's laser-projected car HUD lets you drive like RoboCop
www.theverge.com
Google's augmented reality glasses might be a long time coming, and there's no telling if we'll ever see Half-Life creator Valve release a heads-up display, but citizens of Japan with cars and lots of disposable income can buy a taste of the future this July with Pioneer's latest head...
Analysis: "Cybersecurity" bill endangers privacy rights
arstechnica.com
The controversy over the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act intensified on Tuesday when a White House spokeswoman warned Congress not to pass "cybersecurity" legislation without "robust safeguards to preserve the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens." While the statement by National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden did...
Microsoft takes Bing Streetside offline in Germany, privacy complaints to blame
www.engadget.com
Germany is notoriously privacy-minded, and services like Facebook's Friend Finder and Google's Street View have come under scrutiny in the country's courts. The latest offender to raise Germany's ire is Bing Streetside, a Street View-style photo service. Microsoft took the feature offline in the country following complaints about how...
NYC's Made in New York Digital Map lets you see who's hiring in the tech field
www.engadget.com
You can't deny Mike Bloomberg's often coming up with different ways to involve New Yorkers in tech-related bits. On this occasion, Mayor Bloomberg & Co. have introduced a novel way for citizens of The Big Apple -- and others who plan on making the move -- to find jobs...
US Department of Justice says citizens have a broad right to record police officers on duty
www.theverge.com
The US Department of Justice sent a strongly worded letter to the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) on Monday, reprimanding it for insufficiently supporting the right of citizens to record video of officers on duty — a move that suggests the federal government is becoming increasingly concerned over related civil...
San Jose planning free downtown Wi-Fi network, set for debut later this year
www.theverge.com
Despite having an earlier effort collapse in 2008, the city of San Jose, California is planning to purchase and deploy a new 802.11n Wi-Fi network in its downtown area. Coming in at a set-up cost of approximately $94,000, the network will depart from the city's prior ad-supported attempt, and...
Voddler's Lumia-exclusive video streaming app debuts for European Windows Phone users
www.engadget.com
Need an extra reason to give a Nokia Lumia some serious consideration? Today, Voddler has announced the official debut of its Windows Phone app for citizens of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Spain. Designed in conjunction with Nokia, the app is exclusive to Lumia owners and provides access to...
US senators concerned with surveillance bill 'loophole' that could lead to warrantless email and phone tracking
www.theverge.com
Last month, a panel of US Senators voted to extend a controversial law that allows the government to monitor US-bound emails or phone calls of foreign citizens as a terrorism prevention tactic. The bill, which was enacted in 2008 and set to expire at the end of this year,...
US senators concerned with surveillance bill 'loophole' that could lead to warrantless email and phone tracking
Watching How China Censors
allthingsd.com
China’s government isn’t the only one paying close attention to what the country’s citizens are saying on social media sites. As China’s 500 million Internet users rapidly adopt social media, academics and entrepreneurs are figuring out ways to track online messages and blog posts to better understand what the government...
US 'Blackmails' EU Into Agreeing To Hand Over Passenger Data
www.techdirt.com
A couple months ago, we wrote about a debate in the EU Parliament, concerning an agreement over how much data should be shared with the US on passengers flying from the EU into the US. The person in charge of analyzing the agreement, Sophie in't Veld, urged the Parliament to...
US-citizenship renouncing Facebook cofounder Saverin may be effectively banned from the country
thenextweb.com
Oh dear, I don’t think that too many people saw this coming. I do hope that Eduardo Saverin did, however, as his move to renounce his US citizenship may carry a penalty – the knowledge of which is currently coming to the fore: once you tell the United States that you...
BANNED FROM THE USA: Billionaire Facebook Cofounder Could Be Barred From America After Renouncing Citizenship
www.businessinsider.com
Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin has renounced his US citizenship. Doing so, he will probably save at least $67 million in taxes. …but he's also liable to be "excluded" from physically re-entering the United States. So reports Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall: US immigration law does not look kindly on former...
BANNED FROM THE USA: Billionaire Facebook Cofounder Could Be Barred From America After Renouncing Citizenship
Chinese get past censors and onto Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
news.cnet.com
The Far East government is known for strict censorship when it comes to social networking, but this week its citizens caught onto a glitch in the system and glimpsed an uncensored world. [Read more]...
German Gov't Uses Anger Over Lack Of ACTA Transparency To Justify Further Lack Of Transparency
www.techdirt.com
Even though the ACTA text is now finalized, getting details from national governments about what exactly happened during the negotiations is proving extremely difficult, with information still trickling out slowly. For example, as the Netzpolitik blog explains (German original), the European Commission tried to counter accusations that the negotiations were...
ZTE announces 2011 financials: turnover up, profits down, political scandals tricky
www.engadget.com
ZTE's annual earnings report is out and it's a mixed bag for the Chinese company with aspirations to go west. Turnover grew to 86.25 billion RMB ($13.7 billion) but net profit fell a hefty 36.6 percent to 2.06 billion RMB ($327 million). More than half of that revenue came...
Iran blocking access to Google's encrypted search, YouTube, and webmail
www.engadget.com
Iran has restricted access to the internet for years now, but it seems the land of Persia is clamping down even further on its citizens' ability to surf the web as they wish. Bloomberg has confirmed with Google that Iranians haven't had access to Google's encrypted search, YouTube and...
Ricken Patel on the freedom of the web: 'We need to move from the defensive to the offensive'
www.guardian.co.uk
Co-founder of Avaaz Ricken Patel talks to Ian Katz about the rise of attacks on the freedom of the internet from governments and corporations, and about the campaign to defend it. He says that citizens need to come together to create a charter or global treaty to secure the future...
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