Microsoft Admits Reading Emails

BBC News - Microsoft admits reading Hotmail inbox of blogger: "Microsoft is caught up in a privacy storm after it admitted it read the Hotmail inbox of a blogger while pursuing a software leak investigation."

Microsoft Software Leak Inquiry Raises Privacy Issues
New York Times
SEATTLE — Technology companies have spent months denying they know anything about broad government spying on people who use their Internet ...

Microsoft Hotmail and Outlook privacy detailed following leak scandal | BGR: "Microsoft actually looked through the Hotmail email of a French blogger who was in contact with the leaker, and make available online early copies of Windows 7 and Windows 8, as well as means that allowed users to circumvent activations protection for Microsoft and Windows."

Court docs: Microsoft searched through blogger’s e-mail to track down alleged leaker: "In the course of tracking down the alleged leaker, Microsoft searched through the blogger's e-mail account -- before involving law enforcement -- according to court documents."

Microsoft explains --
Strengthening our policies for investigations - Microsoft on the Issues - Site Home - TechNet Blogs: "...As part of the investigation, we undertook a limited review of this third party’s Microsoft operated accounts. While Microsoft’s terms of service make clear our permission for this type of review, this happens only in the most exceptional circumstances...."

Google tries to NSA-proof Gmail
CNNMoney
Gmail now encrypts all data moving between you, Google's servers and the person ...Google is trying to limit the abilities of the U.S. government's secretive ... The fix won't work if a Gmail user emails someone with a Microsoft (MSFT, ... Chitika: Apple still growing in North America, Samsung less so.

BlackBerry Suffers Blow as White House Tests Samsung, LG Phones - WSJ.com: ""We can confirm that the White House Communications Agency, consistent with the rest of the Department of Defense, is piloting and using a variety of mobile devices," a Defense Department spokesman said. He declined to comment on the devices in the pilot test or in use at the White House."

Twitter Blocked in Turkey as Prime Minister Pledges to 'Eradicate' It: "Erdoğan appears to have made use of a recent and highly controversial law, passed by the Turkish Parliament, that allows the government's Telecommunications Board to "shut down" websites based on anything it judges to be "privacy violations." Two weeks ago, he also threatened to shut down Facebook and YouTube."

Pay TV subscriber losses totaled 104,000 in 2013 | BGR: "According to new data from Leichtman Research Group, pay TV providers posted a net loss of 104,000 subscribers in 2013, the first time the pay TV industry has ever lost subscribers year-over-year. The biggest losers were Time Warner Cable and Comcast, which respectively lost 825,00 and 305,000 pay TV subscribers each." 

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Will "Significantly" Restrict Online Freedoms | Motherboard: "Today, 25 tech companies, including Reddit, Automattic (WordPress.com), Imgur, and Boing Boing, sent an open letter to Sen. Ron Wyden urging him to oppose any form of a TPP fast track. After thanking Sen. Wyden for his staunch defense of "users and online rights," and congratulating him on his appointment as Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the coalition wrote, "These highly secretive, supranational agreements are reported to include provisions that vastly expand on any reasonable definition of 'trade,' including provisions that impact patents, copyright, and privacy in ways that constrain legitimate online activity and innovation.""

This drone can steal what's on your phone - Mar. 20, 2014: ".... the drone can send back a signal pretending to be networks you've connected to in the past. Devices two feet apart could both make connections with the quadcopter, each thinking it is a different, trusted Wi-Fi network. When the phones connect to the drone, Snoopy will intercept everything they send and receive. "Your phone connects to me and then I can see all of your traffic," Wilkinson said...."

Amazon Prime price shock? Try these cheaper rivals - Business - The Boston Globe: "...if you’re annoyed and looking for alternatives, there are cheaper versions you can try. Rivals including ShopRunner, Overstock.com, and Newegg offer online shoppers free shipping on a wide range of products. Their annual fees are all less than the $99 annual price tag for Amazon Prime...."

Apple, Samsung Square Off Over Smartphones: "According to Asymco, Apple’s iPhone represents an impressive 15% of all mobile units shipped around the world. But the iPhone enjoys nearly 40% of the revenue and an astounding 60% of industry profits. Samsung, meanwhile, accounts for around 50% of units shipped, 50% of revenue, and 40% of profits. Apple and Samsung, between them, take home 100% of the mobile handset industry profits."

Netflix CEO hates paying off Comcast, Verizon due to 'weak' net neutrality
TechRadar UK
Netflix is paying the fiber optic piper, but doesn't much like it according to the first comments from its CEO since the US Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules were declared unenforceable. "Some big ISPs are extracting a toll because they ...

Netflix US & Canada Blog: Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality: "Once Netflix agrees to pay the ISP interconnection fees, however, sufficient capacity is made available and high quality service for consumers is restored. If this kind of leverage is effective against Netflix, which is pretty large, imagine the plight of smaller services today and in the future. Roughly the same arbitrary tax is demanded from the intermediaries such as Cogent and Level 3, who supply millions of websites with connectivity, leading to a poor consumer experience."

Netflix & Level 3 Only Telling Half The Story, Won't Detail What Changes They Want To Net Neutrality - Dan Rayburn - StreamingMediaBlog.com: "....What also makes this complicated is that Netflix is only highlighting the things that benefit their argument and isn’t telling the whole story. In some cases, they are also making statements that aren’t accurate. Netflix likes to make it sound like they have no choice when it comes to sending their traffic into the ISPs networks, when in fact, they have many choices. The transit market is extremely competitive, with at least a dozen major providers who offer transit services at different price points and with different SLAs. Netflix could use multiple providers to connect to ISPs and could also use third party CDNs like Akamai, EdgeCast and Limelight, who are already connected to ISPs, to deliver their traffic. In fact, this is how Netflix delivered 100% of their traffic for many, many years, using third-party CDNs. Netflix likes to make it sound like there is only one way to deliver videos on the Internet when in fact, there are multiple ways. No one who understands how the Internet works would debate this...."

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