With stories abounding of identity theft aided by information lifted from discarded storage devices, you want devices you no longer plan to use to have no usable information when they head out the door. Here’s how to wipe them clean. More

Social media researcher and general internet guru Danah Boyd gave the keynote address at SXSWi earlier today, focusing on matters of privacy. On paper, Google Buzz was a perfect social network. So why did it freak everyone out so much? More

Social media researcher and general internet guru Danah Boyd gave the keynote address at SXSWi earlier today, focusing on matters of privacy. On paper, Google Buzz was a perfect social network. So why did it freak everyone out so much? More

Yesterday, Netflix announced that they’re pulling the plug on the sequel to their supercool Netflix Prize in which teams competed to improve the company’s recommendation algorithm for a million dollar reward. Privacy: can’t live with it, can’t live without it. More

With stories abounding of identity theft aided by information lifted from discarded storage devices, you want devices you no longer plan to use to have no usable information when they head out the door. Here’s how to wipe them clean. More

You’ve probably heard about the school district that installed spy software on laptops issued to its students so they could spy on them without their knowledge . Creepy! Well, here’s a peek at the principal who came up with the idea. The other fellow in the video is DC Pierson , of Derrick Comedy fame. He has a new book out called The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To .

You’ve probably heard about the school district that installed spy software on laptops issued to its students so they could spy on them without their knowledge . Creepy! Well, here’s a peek at the principal who came up with the idea. The other fellow in the video is DC Pierson , of Derrick Comedy fame. He has a new book out called The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To . It’s awesome and you should check it out. He also co-wrote and co-stars in the new movie Mystery Team , which he made with the Derrick Comedy folks.

Apparently using laptop webcams to spy on students isn’t an isolated problem . An assistant principal in the Bronx recently not only bragged about doing just that to PBS—he demonstrated it live. Head’s up: this gets real creepy. Dan Ackerman is an administrator at Intermediate School 339, in the Bronx, and he appeared in a Frontline segment two weeks ago to demonstrate how they monitor their students’ computer usage. The uncomfortable part of the segment, in which he accesses the webcams of various unknowing middle schoolers, starts at 4:36. Not only is this clearly a privacy violation on the face of it, Ackerman’s attitude gives me the willies: “A lot of kids are just on it to check their hair, check their make-up: the girls..

Microsoft is going to withdraw their complain against Cryptome, after shutting them down yesterday. Cryptome published Microsoft’s no-longer-secret guide to help governments to uncover your online secrets. Host Network Solutions says the site will be back online later today. [ ReadWriteWeb ]

Microsoft has a 22-page document which outlines how they store all your private data in their online servers. The document also tells government agencies how they can get it. But, oh surprise, they don’t want you to see it: Microsoft Spy The document was unearthed by Cryptome, the site who previously unveiled similar papers by Facebook, Skype, and other online giants. When Microsoft learned about it, they sent their rabid law dogs to tear Cryptome apart, Digital Millennium Copyright Act in one hand, iron bar in the other. So far they have managed to coerce Cryptome’s host company to take down the site the pages aren’t taken down.