Smart TVs raise privacy concerns
Reports that new Samsung TVs can capture personal information with their voice recognition feature has sparked concern about what critics perceive as digital spying by so-called smart devices. Nor is Samsung the only smart TV manufacturer collecting this type of data. In Samsung’s case, at least, users have the option to disable the collection. […]
Tribunal says UK spies’ Internet surveillance was unlawful
U.K. spies acted illegally when they scooped up data about Britons’ electronic communications gathered by the U.S. National Security Agency, a court ruled Friday in a landmark judgment against Britain’s security services. But the judges said now that details of the practices are known, they are within the law. Britain’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which deals […]
Biggest test in U.S.-Cuba talks: the Internet
Contrary to what the headlines suggest, the biggest test of President Obama’s move to normalize relations with Cuba will not be whether the two countries agree to set up embassies in their respective capitals, nor whether there is an avalanche of U.S. tourists to Cuba, but whether Cuba will accept U.S. help to expand Internet […]
Congress should let cities provide their own Internet
PRESIDENT OBAMA made it a point to highlight the importance of providing high-speed Internet access to all Americans in his State of the Union address last week. No one disagrees with the sentiment. The method he proposed, however — removing legislative barriers that prevent some cities and towns from creating their own Internet networks — […]
Cuban youth build secret computer network despite Wi-Fi ban
Cut off from the Internet, young Cubans have quietly linked thousands of computers into a hidden network that stretches miles across Havana, letting them chat with friends, play games and download hit movies in a mini-replica of the online world that most can’t access. HAVANA — Home Internet connections are banned for all but a handful […]
Pay-per-use bandwidth? Not without some ground rules
Molly Wood faces the hard reality that the days of unlimited bandwidth are over, but she’s not going to get taken to the cleaners by greedy providers. Here’s how to make pay-per-use a fair deal for everyone. Do I get results, or what? Less than a day after this column posted, Comcast announced it would […]
Verizon fixes latest network outage
Verizon has had a busy month repairing network glitches. The carrier confirmed early this morning via Twitter that it has resolved the latest outage, which hit many of its cellular data customers yesterday. In tweeting the news, Verizon Wireless said that the 4G LTE issue was resolved overnight. 3G connectivity, as well as calling and […]