Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: privacy

  • A short history of “Breaking the Internet”

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    “I am the head of IT and I have it on good authority that if you type ‘Google’ into Google, you can break the Internet. So please, no one try it, even for a joke. It’s not a laughing matter. You can break the Internet”
    – Jen, The IT Crowd

    For 15 years internet companies have been waging a war against any kind of laws that establish properties and permissions for digital things. Every attempt to do so has been … Read More

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  • Google hands millions to ‘independent’ watchdogs

    Google hands millions to ‘independent’ watchdogs

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    What do you do when a global corporation pays out millions to the watchdogs that we expect to protect us against it? It’s a fair question to ask in light of the Chocolate Factory’s legal settlement this week, over Google Buzz. The privacy class action suit has landed a windfall of millions of dollars to “privacy” groups – but not a cent to ordinary citizens, users of Google Gmail’s service whose privacy was compromised.… Read More

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  • On Google and erasing your identity

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    I appeared on BBC World Service’s Newshour to discuss Eric Schmidt’s advice to erase your digital identity every few years. Click here to listen.

    Original story… Read More

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  • Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

    Google Street View logs WiFi networks, MAC addresses

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    streetview_pliers_sidey Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

    Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s "horrified" by the discovery.

    "I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for … Read More

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  • The Digital Economy Bill: the story so far

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Pelted from all sides by amendments, the Digital Economy Bill continues to plough its way through Parliament. This week, the Lords lined up to have their say, but since there are so many (300) Amendments, they’ll be at it again on Monday.

    Of course, out of the ten subject areas, the one labelled ‘online copyright infringement’ has attracted the most attention from their Lordships. Lord Mandelson made a number of modifications acknowledging these concerns this week – including some substantial … Read More

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  • Ancient satire foretold AOL’s privacy disaster

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    “The Internet is becoming more and more widespread and will increasingly represent a scientific random sample of the population”
    – Joi Ito

    “Igor, to the machines – we have a sample”

    One thing seems to have been forgotten following AOL’s careless, but quite magnificent data dump of the internet’s “hive mind” at play this week.

    AOL’s assiduous documentation of the private thoughts of over 600,000 web searchers has certainly added some much needed sparkle to a public internet that of … Read More

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