Privacy Violation, Personal Data | featured news

Google has been fined by German data regulators after it admitted illegally recording information from unsecured wi-fi networks.

The operator of Web sites for Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and others agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty to settle federal charges that it had illegally collected information about thousands of young children.

A coalition of nearly 20 children’s advocacy, health and public interest groups plans to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, asserting that some online marketing to children by McDonald’s and four other well-known companies violates a federal law protecting children’s privacy.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement requested about 1.3 million cell phone records from wireless carriers in 2011. It's the first time cell phone carriers have reported on the staggering surveillance numbers. Millions of innocent Americans are having their privacy invaded via the dragnet requests.

Hours after it was highlighted by a security firm, Russian-language malware on the iOS App Store was removed by Apple and is no longer available for download. Apple confirmed on Thursday to Jim Dalrymple of The Loop that it removed the malware, an application named "Find and Call," once it was alerted to its presence on the App Store. The company said the software was pulled for violating App Store guidelines by accessing a user's Address Book data without authorization.

A Google engineer knowingly created software that would collect sensitive personal information about people without their knowledge, according to an un-redacted version of a federal investigative report.

On Thursday, Google's much-discussed new privacy policy goes into effect.

Waiters allegedly skimmed customer data and passed it to associates who made counterfeit cards to buy luxury merchandise and sell it.

U.S. investigators plan to announce criminal charges concerning the alleged theft of email addresses and other personal information belonging to about 120,000 users of Apple Inc's iPad tablet computer.

MySpace and some popular applications have been transmitting information to outside advertising companies that could be used to identify users, a Journal investigation found.