Are your Web site's terms of service illusory?
You may have noticed that the terms of service agreements for many Web sites are a bit one-sided. The user gets to use the service but only at the deference of the Web site operator. In addition,...
View ArticleSony: wishing to be in a different world?
Clearly there are many places that are essentially Internet-free, but the Internet is a major factor in most of the developed world. Not everyone is all that happy with the impact. Dictators are...
View ArticleACTA: No longer secret but still plenty to worry about
It has been public knowledge for quite a while that many of the world's governments have been working on an "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, but none of the details of what they were thinking was...
View ArticleCan Facebook privacy be simple?
Facebook, according to its CEO, is built around the simple idea that people want to share things with "their friends and the people around them."
View ArticleGoogle/Verizon: Will a parallel non-Internet help?
In spite of the fact that the net neutrality proposal that Google and Verizon published on Aug. 9 was not much like what the rumor mill predicted as late as the day before, the proposal sure has kicked...
View ArticleInternet privacy conflicts
The Wall Street Journal just published the sixth article in its excellent series about Internet privacy, or the lack of it.
View ArticleApple: Still pushing industry forward
Apple, actually Steve Jobs, put on another big show this week. The well attended and very well covered show was vintage Apple. Remarkable showmanship with a reasonable amount of actual content.
View ArticleThe Beatles on iTunes: I want to hold your bits
It is amazing what will catch the fancy of the news media. For example, Nov. 16 was “British day” in U.S. publications. The day started out with just about every newspaper and TV station covering an...
View ArticleGoodbye Internet, we hardly knew ye?
This end-of-year article is a looking forward one -- looking forward to a year in which the Internet will be under a multi-pronged attack that threatens to change it irrevocably in ways that may...
View ArticleThe IETF at 25: Unfinished business
As I write this, the IETF has been around for 25 years and a few hours. The first meeting started at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 16, 1986, in San Diego with 21 people in attendance -- a far cry from the...
View ArticleEpsilon breach: When should almost public info be private?
A press feeding frenzy followed the somewhat vague April Fools Day announcement by Epsilon Data Management that someone had hacked into its systems and stolen a bunch of email addresses. The addresses...
View Article25 years of communications: From anything-but-IP to all-IP
Twenty-five years ago -- when Network World was born -- the Internet was only 3 years old itself. At that time, less than 2,500 hosts were connected to the Internet and maybe 10,000 people used it...
View ArticleOPINION: HP (again) shows us how not to do it
HP management has not been good to the company over the last few years. One would have to do a lot of searching to find a management team that has so thoroughly messed up in the court of public opinion.
View ArticleInternet privacy: Cookies as a weapon
In November 2009 the European Parliament approved a directive on Internet privacy that, among other things, required user opt-in before websites could install cookies on the user's computer.
View ArticleApple: Great new products, but secrecy as a religion
Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with a few friends, Monday performed the annual Apple Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. The show must go on, even without Steve Jobs, and it sure did go on -- two...
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