Yahoo reveals U.S. government requests for user data

Web pioneer says it received more than 12,000 requests in the past six months for user information, most of which were related to criminal investigations such as fraud and homicide.

Joining Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook, Yahoo has revealed that it received more than 12,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for user information and affected accounts in the past six months.

The Web pioneer said Monday evening that between December 1, 2012, and May 31, 2013, it received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests for user information, most of which were related to criminal investigations involving fraud, homicide, and kidnapping.

The revelation comes amid a furor that erupted earlier this month over allegations that the NSA has engaged in a sweeping effort to surreptitiously acquire information connected to phone calls and Web usage.

Apple said late Sunday that it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement agencies for customer data from December 1, 2012, to May 31, 2013, and that 9,000 to 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in the requests. Before Apple's disclosure, Facebook stated that it received 9,000 to 10,000 U.S. government requests for customer data during the six-month period ending December 31, 2012.

Meanwhile, Microsoft disclosed that it received 6,000 to 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas, and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts from U.S. governmental entities over the same six-month period.

Initial reports earlier this month in the U.K.-based Guardian and in the Washington Post said U.S. Internet companies allegedly cooperated with an NSA's program called PRISM. Yahoo denied the allegations regarding its participation in the program, calling them "categorically false."

While noting that it was prohibited by law from detailing the number of requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Yahoo said it urged the federal government to reconsider declassifying the data.

"Democracy demands accountability," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and general counsel Ron Bell wrote in a Tumblr post published this evening. "Recognizing the important role that Yahoo! can play in ensuring accountability, we will issue later this summer our first global law enforcement transparency report, which will cover the first half of the year. We will refresh this report with current statistics twice a year."

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Google plans to wipe child porn from the Web

The search giant is creating a database of images depicting child exploitation -- to be shared with tech companies, law enforcement, and charities -- in order to scrub the images from the Internet.

Photos and videos of child pornography on the Web have multiplied at an alarming rate over the past few years. In 2011, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it received 17.3 million images and videos of suspected child abuse, which is four times more than 2007.

Google has announced that it wants to help curb this proliferation of child pornography. In fact, the Web giant plans to take it even a step further -- it wants to completely eradicate child porn from the Internet.

"Behind these images are real, vulnerable kids who are sexually victimized and victimized further through the distribution of their images," Google Giving director Jacquelline Fuller wrote in a blog post on Saturday. "It is critical that we take action as a community -- as concerned parents, guardians, teachers and companies -- to help combat this problem."

Google's plan is to build a database of child porn images that can be shared with other tech companies, law enforcement, and charities around the world. The database will let these groups swap information, collaborate, and remove the images from the Web.

Part of the technology behind this database comes from a technique Google already uses called "hashing," which tags images showing sexual abuse of children with a unique identification code. Computers can recognize the code and then locate, block, and report all duplicate images on the Web. Google plans to have the database up and running within a year.

Google has been working against child pornography since 2006 when it teamed up with other tech companies and joined the Technology Coalition, which looks at how technology can be used to end child exploitation. It has also donated millions to nonprofit organizations that work for the cause.

Other tech companies have also been active in battling child pornography on the Web. Microsoft helped develop the hashing technology for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's PhotoDNA program and Facebook uses the technology across its network to ensure child pornography is not circulating through the site.

In addition to the upcoming database, Google also announced Saturday that it is donating $5 million to fight child pornography. The money will be split up between global child protection organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Internet Watch Foundation, and Google's own Child Protection Technology Fund.

"We're in the business of making information widely available, but there's certain 'information' that should never be created or found," Fuller wrote. "We can do a lot to ensure it's not available online -- and that when people try to share this disgusting content they are caught and prosecuted."

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Facebook, Microsoft release NSA stats to reassure users

In an effort to reassure users, Facebook discloses it has received legal orders to turn over details on about one-thousandth of one percent of user accounts. So does Microsoft, and Google plans to do the same.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna and Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot, in this file photo.

(Credit: Jay Greene/CNET)

Facebook and Microsoft today became the first Internet companies to disclose the total number of legal orders they receive for user data, including ones from the National Security Agency and from state, local, and federal police performing criminal investigations.

The total for Facebook: About 18,000 accounts over a six month period, or one-thousandth of one percent of user accounts.

Microsoft's total was about 31,000 accounts over the same six month period ending December 31, 2012. A Google spokesman told CNET this evening that the search company is working on disclosing the same type of statistics, and plans to be more detailed than Microsoft and Facebook.

Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, disclosed the figures today in an effort to lay to rest privacy concerns after a pair of articles last week incorrectly reported that a program called "PRISM" provided the NSA with "direct access" to Internet companies' servers.

That caused near-panic among the more privacy sensitive users of Web-based e-mail and social networks, and led to speculation about whether the NSA was secretly vacuuming billions of user profiles. Even after the two newspapers, the Washington Post and the Guardian backed away from their incendiary initial claims, and even after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Larry Page offered blanket denials, the companies asked the government if they could clear their name about the number of requests they receive under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA.

This evening's disclosures from Facebook and Microsoft are the result. Ullyot wrote in a blog post that:

We're pleased that as a result of our discussions, we can now include in a transparency report all U.S. national security-related requests (including FISA as well as National Security Letters) - which until now no company has been permitted to do. As of today, the government will only authorize us to communicate about these numbers in aggregate, and as a range. This is progress, but we're continuing to push for even more transparency, so that our users around the world can understand how infrequently we are asked to provide user data on national security grounds.

For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) - was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut - from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

With more than 1.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, this means that a tiny fraction of one percent of our user accounts were the subject of any kind of U.S. state, local, or federal U.S. government request (including criminal and national security-related requests) in the past six months. We hope this helps put into perspective the numbers involved, and lays to rest some of the hyperbolic and false assertions in some recent press accounts about the frequency and scope of the data requests that we receive.

Microsoft's blog post from John Frank, vice president and deputy general counsel, says:

For the six months ended December 31, 2012, Microsoft received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 consumer accounts from U.S. governmental entities (including local, state and federal). This only impacts a tiny fraction of Microsoft's global customer base.

We are permitted to publish data on national security orders received (including, if any, FISA Orders and FISA Directives), but only if aggregated with law enforcement requests from all other U.S. local, state and federal law enforcement agencies; only for the six-month period of July 1, 2012 thru December 31, 2012; only if the totals are presented in bands of 1,000; and all Microsoft consumer services had to be reported together.

A Google spokesman provided CNET with a statement this evening saying it wants to be even more transparent: "We have always believed that it's important to differentiate between different types of government requests. We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately."

During a congressional hearing yesterday, FBI director Robert Mueller declined to respond to questions about lifting the gag order applying to tech companies. "I think that's being looked at by Justice at this point," he said.

Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and other Internet companies were left reeling after a pair of articles on Thursday alleged that they provided the National Security Agency with "direct access" to their servers. By late Friday, however, CNET reported that was not true, and the Washington Post backtracked from its original story on PRISM. So did the Guardian. In an editorial Tuesday, the paper said the process met legal "standards" and was subject to "judicial review."

Google already releases many statistics about government surveillance as part of its transparency report, including, as of March, information on secret National Security Letters sent by the FBI. But a source familiar with the situation told CNET earlier this week the company had not secured permission to disclose summary statistics about secret FISA orders.

James Clapper, the head of national intelligence, confirmed last week that the Internet companies were receiving legal orders sent to them "pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act." The law is better known as FISA.

After the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court limited a Bush-era warrantless surveillance program's scope, Congress enacted the FISA Amendments Act, which established a new procedure for foreign surveillance.

Section 702 requires that the government obtain the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's approval of "targeting" and "minimization" procedures, and that the court review the agencies' certification describing how proposed surveillance techniques will comply with the law. Judges must consider whether the targeting procedures are "reasonably designed" to exclude Americans and purely domestic surveillance.

Amnesty International and journalists launched a legal challenge to Section 702 (which is sometimes called 1881a, for its location in the law books). They argued their confidential communications with foreign correspondents would be intercepted under Section 702 in violation of the Fourth Amendment. But in February 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected their challenge by a 5-4 vote, with Justice Samuel Alito writing that their allegations were too "speculative" and the Section 702 process is subject to ongoing "oversight" and "review."

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Facebook struggles with monetizing search, kills sponsored results

Though search remains a top priority for Facebook, the company hasn't mastered how to make money from queries.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Facebook is removing sponsored results from search less than a year after the ad unit's introduction.

"In keeping with the goal of streamlining our ad products, starting in July advertisers will no longer be able to buy sponsored results," a Facebook spokesperson told CNET.

The failed unit, which let marketers target users during the search process, suggests that the company is still struggling to understand how best to monetize search attention, something that competitor Google mastered long ago. Sponsored results seemed to be modeled after Google's sponsored search ads. As a user typed in a query for an app or Page using the Facebook search bar, results could include sponsored ads from companies, as pictured, though the ads linked back to company Facebook pages.

Facebook will stop selling sponsored search results, like the one seen here, in July.

(Credit: Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET)

The unit probably doesn't jibe well with Graph Search, the social network's early stage search engine for sophisticated people, place, interest, and photo queries. In April, Facebook started testing ads on Graph Search results pages, though the units are not targeted to a person's queries.

If you believe Facebook, its decision to eliminate sponsored search results is less a failure than it is a realization that advertisers are reaching new audiences through other ad products.

"We've seen that most marketers were buying sponsored results to advertise their apps and games, and we already offer mobile app install ads and Page post link ads on desktop to achieve these same goals," the spokesperson said.

Still, that's a rosy eulogy for an offering that some thought would help usher in an era where Facebook could go head-to-head with Google for search ad dollars. A year later, Facebook is still very much in a try-it-and-see-if-it-sticks stage when it comes to monetizing search. Sponsored results didn't stick. Graph Search presents a new test zone, but it remains a product only available to a small percentage of members, which means search won't be bringing home the bacon for Facebook anytime soon.

As noted above, Facebook's decision to kill off sponsored results is also a part of a broader scheme of simplifying the suite of advertising products. Last week, Facebook gathered members of the media to explain its ad consolidation strategy. At the time, the company said it was killing off Facebook questions, online local offers, and individual Page post ads.

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Malware masquerading as Bad Piggies found on Google Play

Security researchers discover an Android app called "Bad Pigs" that is nearly identical to Bad Piggies that asked users for permission to change settings and access personal information.

In this AppBrain screenshot taken by F-Secure, Bad Piggies and Bad Pigs are nearly identical.

(Credit: F-Secure)

Heard of the game Bad Pigs? Or is it Bad Piggies?

Some clever hacker decided to create a malicious app deceivingly similar to one of the top games in the Google Play store. And, it was downloaded more than 10,000 times before people took notice.

Security company F-Secure wrote on Wednesday that it had located Bad Pigs -- which had the same artwork and app description as Bad Piggies -- and let Google know. The only apparent differences between the two apps were the names of the app and the developer -- who was "Dan Stokes" rather than Rovio. Google has pulled Bad Pigs from Google Play, according to F-Secure.

Bad Piggies is one of the trendiest game apps on Google Play. Made by Rovio, the same developers as Angry Birds, the app has done exceedingly well on both Android and iOS platforms. The game's popularity makes it all the better for hackers to create copycat malware for unsuspecting consumers.

According to F-Secure, when people downloaded Bad Pigs to their mobile devices, they may have also inadvertently downloaded malware. The game reportedly asked users for a huge amount of permissions, including the ability to change settings, access to personal information, and more.

Google Play has filters that work to detect and block against apps with malware, spyware, and Trojans, but some of these ne'er-do-wells apparently slip through the cracks. Several malicious apps have bypassed Google's security system over the past couple of years. Bad Pigs apparently debuted on Google Play on May 25, 2013.

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Taiwan: Come for the tourism, stay for the free Wi-Fi

Taiwan uses free widespread Wi-Fi at 4,400 hot spots to lure tourists. Visitors just need to open an account on the iTaiwan Wi-Fi network.

(Credit: Flickr user toyoh_q)

Taiwan is making it easy for foreign tourists to stay connected.

The government recently announced that international travelers to the country will be able to access free Wi-Fi at 4,400 hot spots at indoor public spaces throughout the country. By showing a passport, tourists can open an account on the 1Mbps iTaiwan Wi-Fi network that's found at major tourist spots, transportation hubs, cultural establishments, and government offices, covering much of the island nation.

"The Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the Research, Development, and Evaluation Commission are working to provide the utmost convenience for foreign visitors and eliminate any communications problems they may encounter," the Taiwan Tourism Bureau said in a statement. "This new service will considerably brighten Taiwan's already shining image for quality travel services."

The iTaiwan program isn't new. The government started it in 2011, with free Wi-Fi in 3,000 indoor public areas throughout the country. But until now it was only available for citizens.

Last year, the number of foreign tourists visiting Taiwan grew by 20 percent, with a record 7.3 million who helped the tourism industry generate $11 billion.

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Yahoo buys iOS photography shop to improve Flickr

GhostBird Software's camera apps will live on in spirit as Yahoo plans to incorporate mobile photo features from KitCam and PhotoForge2.

Yahoo buys iOS photography shop to improve Flickr

GhostBird Software's camera apps will live on in spirit as Yahoo plans to incorporate mobile photo features from KitCam and PhotoForge2.

Yahoo unveiled a dramatic makeover for Flickr at a New York press event in late May.

In a maneuver to improve Flickr, Yahoo has purchased GhostBird Software, makers of iOS camera apps, for an undisclosed sum. The buy comes less than a month after the media titan released an overhauled version of its photo service that wasn't greeted with the warmest of welcomes.

Yahoo announced the acquisition with a tweet Wednesday and told Flickr users to expect to see their mobile photos in "a whole new light." App creators Travis Houlette and Ye Lu are joining the Flickr team in San Francisco, a Yahoo spokesperson told.

GhostBird Software is the 4-year-old development shop behind KitCam and PhotoForge2, two iOS camera applications for adding effects and editing photos. With the sell-off, the applications have been removed from the App Store, though people can continue to use the apps if they've already downloaded them.

The photo and video-editing apps will also continue to live on in spirit. Flickr plans to integrate many of the mobile photography experiences into its apps, the spokesperson said.

Yahoo's buy, though small compared with its $1.1 billion takeover of Tumblr, reflects the media company's desire to return Flickr to its glory days as the Internet's most-beloved photo-sharing service. After a panned relaunch last month, Yahoo still has plenty of work to do.

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Twitter officially axes TweetDeck with transition to new API

Announced a few months ago, the new app programming interface cuts off support for TweetDeck, as well as a handful of third-party Twitter clients.

Twitter has officially pulled the plug on TweetDeck for Android and iPhone, as well as the Adobe AIR desktop version, with the retirement of its API v1.

The microblogging site, which announced API v1's fate this spring but delayed the move by a month, confirmed the disconnect Tuesday in a company blog post.

"Today, we are retiring API v1 and fully transitioning to API v1.1. Given the array of blackout tests, blog posts, Tweets and other updates, this should (hopefully) not be a surprise," Twitter's Taylor Singletary wrote in the post.

The transition means that users of third-party Twitter clients such as TweetDeck, SilverBird, and DestroyTwitter will have to find an alternative app for viewing multiple social networking accounts simultaneously.

While noting that the majority of third-party apps have already transitioned to API v1.1, Singletary wrote that it isn't too late for developers to update their apps and offered a collection of resources he said would smooth the transition.

The updated API also includes restrictions on how often third-party apps can access information on Twitter, as well as limiting the number of users for developers of third-party apps to 100,000 users unless it has permission from Twitter for more.

The transition means that users of third-party Twitter clients such as TweetDeck, SilverBird, and DestroyTwitter will have to an alternate app for viewing multiple accounts simultaneously. However, PC and Mac users of TweetDeck will still be able to use the app through its Web and Chrome versions.

Twitter acquired TweetDeck in 2011, but instead of improving on the TweetDeck apps in the past two years, TweetDeck said it has been focused on building applications for Web browsers and a Chrome app.

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Ask.fm, the troubling secret playground of tweens and teens

Insanely popular with kids, the question-and-answer service thrives on anonymity, making it fun and dangerous.

Ask.fm, the troubling secret playground of tweens and teens

Insanely popular with kids, the question-and-answer service thrives on anonymity, making it fun and dangerous.

(Credit: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)

Spy on Ask.fm's public stream and you'll feel like you've been transported back to middle school, dumped in the center of he-said, she-said dramas -- sometimes innocuous, sometimes not. Here, hormone-crazed young boys and girls banter about their after-school plans, tease their peers, boast about their most recent hookups, and try to appear cool with expletives and graphic language.

Ask.fm is a 3-year-old question-and-answer app that's wracked up 57 million users and is adding members at a rate of 200,000 a day. It's spreading from kid to kid, infiltrating middle schools and high schools the same way that mobile sensations Instagram and Snapchat have.

The Latvian-run platform, launched in June 2010, resembles predecessor Formspring and offers a Web and mobile space where people create profiles so that anyone, not just other members, can ask them questions. The service was essentially a European clone of Formspring until the latter shifted focus in July of last year. Since then, Ask.fm has added about 50 million users.

Today, Ask.fm has ballooned into a parent-free digital space where kids go to goof off and escape the built-in accountability of Facebook. According to brother co-founders Mark and Ilja Terebin, Ask.fm is big in Brazil, the U.S., Italy, Russia, the U.K., Germany, Turkey, Argentina, Poland, and France, though it has a presence in 150 additional countries.

A quick glimpse at the Ask.fm stream shows young kids engaging in lighthearted banter and sexual conversations.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jennifer Van Grove/CNET)

As a back-channel for after-school chitchat that can stay anonymous, the app often exacerbates offline dramas and has even been linked to a handful of teen suicides. The Terebins will tell you the tool simply promotes honest communication and that negativity on the service reflects society's growing lack of moral values.

Because of its adolescent audience, common questions on Ask.fm can be harmless and adorable in what they reveal or keep secret. Do you like me? Are you going out with Alex? Why is Sarah mad at Holly?

Yet, intermixed with these ordinary tween concerns are troubling inquiries. An anonymous user asked a female teenager, "Have you struggled with an eating disorder/ depression/ self harm/ suicidal thoughts before? It's okay if you don't wanna answer, I just need some advice:)." The young girl's response: "all of them... "

On Ask.fm, questions range from the innocent to the obscene.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jennifer Van Grove/CNET)

In the obscene spectrum, statements such as "Tits or ass," or "you're such a slut," are also prevalent. There's worse. Much worse. All there for your viewing pleasure -- for anyone else's viewing pleasure.

On Ask.fm, members pick which questions, often just statements, they want to respond to. Their answers, which can include photos and video, are posted to their profiles, as well as to a real-time feed of responses. Though hidden from public sight, this stream makes it easy for any lurker with an account to glimpse inside this secret, profanity-laden world where crushes are exposed, Snapchats and Kiks are exchanged, insecurities are latched on to, and bullies go unchecked.

The popularity of the Formspring replica may come as a shock. In April, Ask.fm racked up 13 billion page views from 180 million unique visitors, Ilja Terebin told CNET. Each visitor spends, on average, 100 minutes per month on Ask.fm.

Tween girl uses Instagram account to promote Ask.fm profile.

(Credit: Screenshot by Michelle Meyers/CNET)

There is no question that Ask.fm, an ad-based service that's backed by RubyLight Fund, is predominantly a playground for youngsters. The service's primary audience is between the ages of 13 and 25, and 50 percent of registered users are under 18, Terebin said. The numbers don't reflect Ask.fm's popularity with the under 13 crowd, a group that frequently fudges birth dates to gain access to apps. Still, the data confirms the obvious. Just observe the stream for a few minutes and you'll see the youthful faces of boys and girls alongside the SMS-style vernacular -- unmistakable and unpunctuated -- of the Millennial generation.

These kids, it would seem from observing their behaviors, are posting their Ask.fm profile URLs to their Instagram accounts as a way to solicit questions from friends and strangers. Schools and classmates are often mentioned by name in posted questions, which suggests the platform acts as an uncensored gossip zone where anonymity masks the identity of people encountered on a daily basis.

Such an environment is ripe for digital sport that can devolve into quarrels that trickle back to school grounds. The 13-year-old daughter of a CNET colleague said that Ask.fm was the cause of frequent conflicts at her school. The service became popular with her friends, mostly kids between the ages of 12 and 14, in March. Now everyone at her school has "an Ask.fm," she said.

"At first, I really liked it ... It was interesting ... friends would say inside jokes and I would try to figure out who it was ," she said. "You could talk to your friends and they wouldn't know ... You could mess around."

The fun stopped when inappropriate questions trickled in from people she didn't know, a side effect of promoting her account on Instagram. Her father discovered one such comment and forced her to close the account. But the bigger drama, in the teen's view, was when her friends started sharing their passwords with each other. Someone was blamed for something someone else wrote, things escalated, and problems arose.

So now she is back using the services she loved before: Instagram, Kik, and Snapchat. Though she sometimes misses the questions, she appreciates being distanced from Ask.fm-related drama at school.

A young girl stealthily responds to a question with a video post while her mother, in the background, remains unaware.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jennifer Van Grove/CNET)

For most adolescents, anonymous services such as Ask.fm protect them, to a degree. They're not out to say or do extreme things, said Danah Boyd, a senior researcher for Microsoft who studies how young people use social media. They just want to hang out and goof around with their peers, without always being accountable to ever-peering adults. Yet left unsupervised, kids often find their way to trouble, intentionally or otherwise.

With privacy options like the ability to turn off anonymous questions or block users, Ask.fm should be an above-board, safe zone where members can enjoy their digital freedoms.

The site's terms of service restricts membership to those who are at least 13 years of age, claims to require a valid name and e-mail address during the registration process, and bans obscene, vulgar, and abusive chatter. Ilja Terebin insists that Ask.fm performs automatic and manual content moderation around the clock to keep out sexually explicit posts and derogaotry language. The screenshots above suggest otherwise.

But Terebin stands by the use of anonymity, which he said allows for "true content."

Ask.fm co-founder Mark Terebin responds to a question about his company's role in the suicides of two young Irish girls. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: Mark Terebin/Ask.fm)

Parents in the know would probably disagree.

Ask.fm has been linked in the media to a handful of suicides. Irish teen Ciara Pugsley, 15, committed suicide in September of last year following months of online bullying, her parents said. Her Ask.fm account remains online, providing a twisted glimpse at the perverse questions she fielded before her death. Joshua Unsworth, also 15, allegedly ended his own life after being bullied on Ask.fm. The family of Anthony Stubbs, a 16-year-old suicide victim, believes Ask.fm is partially to blame and wants the site to be shut down.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler has urged advertisers to spend their money elsewhere. Ask.fm runs banner ads and sells sponsored questions. "This Web site is putting children at risk," he wrote in a letter to advertisers. "A growing number of children under 13 use Ask.fm because it makes no meaningful effort to limit underage access, and these kids are being exposed to malicious anonymous postings, including racial slurs, sexual references, drug use and personal assaults."

The Terebin brothers won't admit to any wrongdoing, of course. Nor do they seem motivated to make changes. Negativity on Ask.fm is just a reflection of society's shortcomings and a lack of proper education, they argue. Maybe so, but it's an unavoidable element of the anonymized zone. For now, a parent's best hope is that kids tire of Ask.fm and move on to the next app.

(source: cnet)

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Google more popular than chocolate with young adults, poll reveals

A survey finds 94 percent of people aged 18 to 29 look favorably upon the tech giant, making it more popular than, well, just about anything.

The young people these days are really into the Google, even more than the Apple or the Facebook.

It's hot with the kids these days.

(Credit: Screenshot by Eric MackCNET)

That's the finding of a poll conducted for The Washington Post in which 94 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 reported having a favorable opinion of the Mountain View, Calif., behemoth, with 72 percent saying they have a "strongly favorable" view of Google.

That officially makes Google more popular with twenty-somethings than chocolate, which 90 percent of people say they "love."

By comparison, 75 percent of young adults in the same age group had favorable views of Facebook, and 71 percent looked kindly on Apple.

Google also had higher favorable ratings than Apple and Facebook for older age groups, but by slimmer margins. When all ages were taken into account, 82 percent of the 1,007 people contacted via cell phone and landlines for the survey between May 29 and June 2 looked favorably upon Google, compared with 72 percent for Apple and 60 percent for Facebook.

The timing of the survey seems to favor Google, which has been riding a wave of press attention powered by Google Glass and its recent Google I/O developer conference, where a number of product improvements were announced. Apple, on the other hand, has seen its favorability rating drop by 10 percentage points since last year, following troubling times for its shareholders and questions about the company's tax practices that led to CEO Tim Cook testifying before Congress.

If Google's Larry Page or Sergey Brin have any designs on a political career, it seems now would be the time to throw their hat in the ring.

Meanwhile, would somebody please hand Microsoft a tissue? I imagine the company is a little upset about not being included in the poll. But if Windows 8 adoption numbers are any indication, maybe it's better this way.

(source: cnet)

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Facebook CEO denies knowledge of NSA's PRISM program

Mark Zuckerberg says press reports alleging that the social network gave the government access to its servers are "outrageous."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Friday that his company has never participated in a program to give any government direct access to its servers.

The categorical denial, posted to Facebook, comes a day after The Guardian and The Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency has backdoor access, through a secret program called PRISM, to nine major Internet companies including the social network.

"I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM," Zuckerberg wrote in a post published to his Facebook profile. "Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively."

The remarks echo those of Google CEO Larry Page who also Friday denied any involvement with the NSA's PRISM program.

PRISM allegedly gives NSA analysts access to confidential user data hosted by Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple, Google, Facebook, and others. A majority of the Internet companies named in the NSA presentation obtained by the papers have denied any knowledge of the program's existence.

Commenters on Zuckerberg's posts are split in whether they believe the CEO to be telling the whole truth and nothing but or merely choosing his words wisely. Susan Beebe, a social media manager at Tyson Foods, repeated a sentiment shared by others blindly supporting Facebook's chief. "Awesome - rock on Zuck!!," she wrote.

But Mark Atwood, a director of open-source evangelism at Hewlett-Packard, and others are far less trusting. Atwood wrote, "I don't trust that answer, as all such FISA orders and NSLs and other such government demands have an attached gag order, e.g. it would be *illegal* for Zuck to admit that Facebook is complying with a data collection demand. He is required, by law, to *lie* about it. Thus, this claim cannot be trusted." At the time of publication, the comment has been liked nearly 500 times by other Facebook users.

Zuckerberg's full response is included below.

 

I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM:

Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the U.S. or any other government direct access to our servers. We have never received a blanket request or court order from any government agency asking for information or metadata in bulk, like the one Verizon reportedly received. And if we did, we would fight it aggressively. We hadn't even heard of PRISM before yesterday.

When governments ask Facebook for data, we review each request carefully to make sure they always follow the correct processes and all applicable laws, and then only provide the information if is required by law. We will continue fighting aggressively to keep your information safe and secure.

We strongly encourage all governments to be much more transparent about all programs aimed at keeping the public safe. It's the only way to protect everyone's civil liberties and create the safe and free society we all want over the long term.

(source: cnet)

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Google Now notifications (almost) ready for Mac

Google Now notifications for Chrome on OS X arrive, but so far they're only for the most adventurous testers.

Chrome's Google Now notifications must be enabled manually, for the time being.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

Google continues to slowly build Google Now into its services. It made the data-rich Now-styled notifications available through an advanced option setting in Chrome for Mac on Thursday, following basic implementation in Chrome for Windows and Chrome OS earlier this year.

You can activate Google Now notifications in Chrome for Mac by typing chrome://flags into your address bar, scrolling down to the Enable Rich Notifications, and changing the setting to Enable. The setting is limited to the most unstable of the browser's builds, Chrome Canary. Canary will only work on OS X 10.6 and newer.

Google Now has proven to be a big success for the company, influencing product and feature design across services like Gmail, Google+, and Google Search since Now debuted Google I/O 2012.

(source: cnet)

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Obama launches high-speed Internet program for all schools

More than 80 percent of educators say the Internet connection at their schools is too slow to meet their needs -- that's why the president plans to bring broadband to 99 percent of all students.

The White House plans to bring high-speed Internet to 99 percent of all U.S. students.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

In 2011, Loris Elementary School in Loris, S.C., was ranked 41st in the state among grammar schools with similar demographics. By 2012, it had risen to 19th.

What happened? According to the White House: technology.

Many of the students at Loris Elementary School are from low-income families that don't have the means to give their children all of today's high-tech devices, according to the Obama administration. That's why in 2012 the school decided to introduce a technology blended learning program complete with laptops, software, and Internet access. It's apparently made a difference.

President Barack Obama is convinced that if all schools worked more technology into their curriculum, they would also excel. That's why he announced on Thursday a new initiative (PDF) to bring high-speed Internet access to 99 percent of all of the country's K-12 students within the next five years.

"We are living in a digital age, and to help our students get ahead, we must make sure they have access to cutting-edge technology," Obama said in a statement. "So today, I'm issuing a new challenge for America -- one that families, businesses, school districts, and the federal government can rally around together -- to connect virtually every student in America's classrooms to high-speed broadband Internet within five years, and equip them with the tools to make the most of it."

Dubbed ConnectED, the program aims to get all classrooms equipped with Internet access that has speeds of at least 100Mbps, with a target goal of 1Gbps. The initiative will also provide teachers with training on how to use more technology in their curriculum. ConnectED plans to especially focus on rural schools where Internet access can be sparse.

The majority of schools in the U.S. already have Internet access, but it can be extremely slow. According to the White House, fewer than 20 percent of teachers say their school's Internet connections are fast enough to be used sufficiently.

No Congressional action is required for ConnectED to go into effect, but the Federal Communications Commission will have to cooperate by leveraging its E-Rate program and provide more discounts to schools on Internet costs. (source: cnet)

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Google debuts Maps Engine API for customized, cloud-based maps

Google touts that its new Maps Engine API can be used for virtually any kind of application, with business use cases ranging from health care to retail.

(Credit: The Google Enterprise Blog)

Google has introduced a new API for its Maps Engine, touted as a way to let developers build "endless kinds of applications" hosted in the Internet giant's cloud.

To recall, the Maps Engine is essentially the reincarnation of Google Earth Builder, which lets developers use Google's cloud infrastructure for storing and managing their own geospatial data and maps.

Users can also use the service to share their custom Google Maps with other employees, clients, and the public at large.

Touted to be supported by "any platform" (Web, Android, iOS, and so on), the new API will provide a link between developers' apps and the Maps Engine for editing geospatial data.

The Maps Engine API is a RESTful API, meaning that all requests to the API are HTTP requests. Thus, any programming language with an HTTP library can be used to query or modify data in this API.

However, developers should know that Google's API client libraries currently don't support the JavaScript Object Notation standard format returned by the Google Maps Engine API.

Google product manager Jen Kovnats pointed toward some particular business use cases in a blog post on Wednesday.

"For example, FedEx.com uses the API to query its more than 50,000 retail locations and IRIS creates applications for utilities to track underground pipelines," he wrote.

FedEx IT manager Pat Doyle explained further in a separate blog post how the API ties in with other Google services, such as Google Street View and driving directions:

By hosting attributes, such as street addresses, opening hours, holiday schedules and local pick-up times on Maps Engine, we can update details for nearly 50,000 retail touchpoints in real-time and share this information to FedEx.com visitors within minutes. This helped us replace a patchwork of region-bound store locators with a single, global site.

Interested developers and existing Google Maps Engine customers can contact the Google sales team now about signing up for access to the API.

This story originally appeared as "Google intros Maps Engine API for custom-made, cloud-based maps" on ZDNet.(source: cnet)

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Israeli military to restrict soldiers' Facebook accounts

Concerned with enemies infiltrating soldier's social media accounts, the Israel Defense Forces puts the kibosh on social networking for classified and sensitive units.

Official IDF Twitter account

(Credit: IDF)

Fearing that enemy forces are gathering information on Israeli soldiers from social media, the Israel Defense Forces has decided to ban social network from some high-ranking soldiers and severely limit it for others.

The IDF is in the middle of drafting a "social networking code of ethics" that will ban the use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media for all highly classified units, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Other sensitive units, like pilots and intelligence officers, will be allowed to have social media accounts but won't be able to say they're soldiers or upload any photos showing themselves in uniform.

"Social networks are a means of communication and a means of creating experiences today," a senior officer in the Operations Directorate told Haaretz. "We don't intend on making the army impenetrable or shady, but we know there is potential for harm."

The officer said that much of the intelligence information collected on the IDF is nabbed from social networking sites. The military has also said that it discovered phony Facebook profiles made in the names of certain high-ranking commanders.

Israel is not the first country to be concerned with enemies infiltrating soldier's Facebook accounts. The Canadian military has warned soldiers about the dangers of posting personal photos and information on social-networking sites because Al Qaeda operatives could be watching. Australia has also cautioned its military about possible Taliban fighters spying on soldiers via Facebook.

Paradoxically, as an organization, the IDF is quite active on social media. Besides a big presence on Facebook, the military has also used Twitter to live-tweet skirmishes and battles against Palestinian Hamas fighters. In November, the IDF Twitter stream included the video recording of a missile attack that killed Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari.

Social media has also caused quite a bit of embarrassment for the IDF. There have been several scandals of soldiers posting videos to YouTube and photos to Facebook showing abuse toward Palestinians. In 2010, a female soldier named Eden Abergil uploaded a photo to Facebook showing her smiling face in front of a group of blindfolded and bound Palestinian prisoners, according to Haaretz. And, in February, another soldier put a photo on Instagram showing a Palestinian boy in his sniper rifle's crosshairs.

The IDF's "social networking code of ethics" is scheduled to be released by the end of June. (source: cnet)

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Cuba debuts Internet centers, but can people afford them?

The island nation opens more than 100 public Internet centers across the country, but the cost for one hour online is equal to 25 percent of the average worker's monthly salary.

One of the most closed-off countries in the world has finally started to roll out Internet for its citizens. The Cuban government has officially opened 118 public Internet centers across the country, according to the Associated Press.

Up until now, computers with Internet access were sparse on the island. Besides a few universities and employers offering access, some of the only places to get online were tourist hotels that charged up to $8 an hour for erratic Wi-Fi, according to the Associated Press.

The Cuban government estimates that only 2.9 percent of the country's citizens get online, according to the Associated Press. Some analysts put the number closer to 5 percent to 10 percent. This is still low, however -- in the U.S., nearly 80 percent of people have Internet access, according to Internet World Stats.

While public Internet centers are a major step forward for a nation that has been accused of online censorship and strict communication restrictions, the cost of Internet use is so high that it will most likely remain out of reach for many Cubans.

The service costs $4.50 per hour, according to the Associated Press, but the average wage for the majority of Cubans is $20 per month (food, education, healthcare, and other costs are subsidized by the government).

It's possible, however, that Internet prices could drop. Cuba began permitting the use of cell phones in 2008, and at the time it cost $100 to open an account. According to the Associated Press, opening a mobile account now only costs $15.

The government has said that the Internet centers are possible because of the fiber-optic undersea cable connection that Cuba has been working on installing with Venezuela over the past few years, according to the Associated Press. And, the government says that Internet access is expected to become even more readily available.

Cuba's vice minister of communications Wilfredo Gonzalez told the Associated Press that the country is now looking to make wireless Internet available on mobile devices in the "relatively near future."(source: cnet)

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Foxconn taking Firefox OS to tablets, not just phones

The Chinese electronics manufacturer plans multiple devices, including tablets and phones, as part of a strategy to supply software and services along with hardware.

Foxconn showed off this Firefox OS tablet at Computex 2013 in Taiwan.

(Credit: Mozilla)

Foxconn and Mozilla announced a partnership Monday under which the Chinese electronics manufacturer will build not just Firefox phones, as others have announced, but tablets, too.

The rumored partnership was confirmed as Mozilla and Foxconn announced their tie-up at the Computex show in Taiwan. By including software in its devices, Foxconn gets to sell a more complete and therefore potentially valuable product to those companies that actually will attach their brands to the hardware.

"We believe that the integration of software and hardware development will offer greater benefits to our customers and consumers," said Young Liu, the general manager of Foxconn's Innovation Digital System Business Group, in a statement. "Firefox OS from Mozilla is based on HTML5 and open web technologies. The whole idea perfectly matches to the strategies promoted by Foxconn."

At a press conference, Foxconn showed off a Firefox tablet, a departure from other manufacturers who've just announced Firefox OS smartphones. The company plans to build at least five Firefox OS devices and will make more than just phones and tablets, according to The Next Web. It doesn't plan to build its own branded products, though, the company said at the conference.

Li Gong, senior vice president of Mozilla's mobile devices effort and president of its Asian operations, shows a variety of Firefox OS devices at Computex 2013.

(Credit: Mozilla)

Mozilla stands to benefit, too, by getting a major ally in its effort to spread Firefox OS and thereby to advance its work to bring open-Web values to the mobile market.

The browser-based operating system isn't yet properly on the market, though a small Spanish company called Geeksphone is selling Firefox OS phones for developers and Firefox OS phones should reach cost-conscious consumers in Brazil and other developing markets soon.

Mozilla announced a notable list of carriers interested in Firefox OS. The hardware partner list is gradually expanding, too: previously announced partners include ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel, LG Electronics, and Sony Mobile.

Firefox OS runs Web apps on a browser foundation, meaning that Mozilla isn't starting from scratch when it comes to building an app ecosystem. It's not clear, though, how well Firefox OS will compete with well established operating systems, particularly Android, which is spreading into lower-cost smartphones.

A range of Firefox OS phones is now joined by a tablet at the Computex 2013 show. Foxconn said it plans to build Firefox OS tablets as well as other devices. (Credit: Mozilla)

(source: cnet)

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Gmail's new killer feature: Spam blocking 2.0

Google's new Gmail has tabs that make it easier to organize (and ignore) email.

Over the next week, millions of Gmail users will notice that something's changed. Just like the web browser containing it, Gmail will have tabs.

But it won't be tabs for handling different accounts. Instead, the tabs will represent the new auto-sorting powers Google's Gmail has been granted in an attempt to make your email more useful. You might say it's an evolution of the spam blocker

Leveraging years of data collection from Gmail accounts, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) will be able to take notifications from services like Facebook (FB) and Twitter and file them away in a folder titled Social. Groupon (GRPN) deals and the never-ending onslaught of email from Fab will be tucked away in the Promotions folders

All those bills, receipts, and nagging reminders you don't really want to deal with? Updates folder. And for those who still use message boards and mailing lists, there's a folder for any emails from that corner of the internet. 

The amount of email we all get has gone way up. But as our methods of communicating electronically have become more varied, we receive far fewer emails we actually care about -- emails that can get lost in the flood of knockoff Cialis offers.

With the updated Gmail, which Google unveiled earlier this week, what should theoretically remain is an inbox of email you actually want to look at.

Google has tried for years to supply tools to make email less painful. It introduced the aforementioned spam filters, a Starred email folder, and an auto-populating Priority Inbox, all in an attempt to reduce the noise. But aside from the spam filter, people haven't really latched on to any of the other solutions. And even with the spam filter, most people still have way too many emails.

When Mailbox, an app built on top of Gmail, was released for Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iOS earlier this year, it stood out for its simplistic approach and painless way for filing non-urgent mail.

Google is wise to build some of that sorting into the core experience of Gmail, but it's even smarter to move a step ahead and automate the process. Few companies arguably have more data and insights on the type of mail people really want to engage with, and if anyone is audaciously qualified to attempt such a feat, it's Google.

(Source: CNN)

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