Christmas is fast approaching, and this year is set to be the biggest ever for online shopping. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent by Australians alone. And every year, the flurry of online…
Data protection may soon come at a price.
Randomskk
Data privacy is on our minds like never before. In a relatively small amount of time many of us have gone from carrying out our daily transactions in person to conducting them digitally. We pay energy…
You have nothing to hide – but does that mean you have nothing to worry about?
JasonDGreat
In the wake of former CIA employee Edward Snowden’s revelations of the PRISM NSA mass surveillance, people are once again asking why the general public should care if they’ve got nothing to hide. “Nothing…
The ongoing copyright arms race between content owners and internet users has taken a new turn. Israeli firm Hola! has recently launched a suite of products that are variously designed to bypass geoblocking…
Online stalking gets far too much attention, but it’s worth making some changes to prevent it happening to you.
Flickr/Ed Yourdon
Recent cases of online abuse against Charlotte Dawson and NRL player Robbie Farah have attracted considerable media attention and triggered public debate about how to respond to this issue. But how big…
Websites and social networking sites must be designed to be defensible.
Z33 art centre, Hasselt
Is it possible to “design out” online crime? It’s definitely worth a try. Back in 1989, the Australian Institute of Criminology released a report containing advice for home-owners and builders to manipulate…
Are online dating sites preying on the vulnerable or do they foster love and relationships?
flickr/ZakVTA
Regulation of our intimate lives has always been a thorny issue. The anti-sodomy laws of the past and the same-sex marriage issue today illustrate times when policymakers can get it very, very wrong. Legislation…
Because many people use the same password on multiple sites, hacks that expose login details can create new risks.
Flickr/Davide Restivo
Hackers have infiltrated popular job-search website unijobs.com.au and posted the login details and passwords of over 600 users onto the public website Pastebin. Exposing login details is dangerous because…
Creators of a new “red light” suffix hope to put porn in its proper place.
Julian Smith/AAP
This month’s launch of the .xxx internet domain, a new section of the internet dedicated to pornography and erotica, is getting people hot and bothered. The global body coordinating internet addresses…
Apple might not use location information for its own benefit, so why collect it?
AAP
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, hit back at reports yesterday that the company’s iPhones track the movements of its 100 million users. The charge was that Apple was storing a database of this information, to which…
Is it time to get tougher on hackers, whatever their motivations?
Philippe Huguen/AFP
PRIVACY – Who are hackers and what do they want from you? Pop culture would have us believe they live in dank basements, wear black leather from head to toe and have pseudonyms such as Warlock or Neo…