Stories by Evan Schuman

The ability to access and use mobile data is a new area of law that continues to be shaped and reshaped.

Google last week did something that is really hard to find objectionable: It said it deleted quite a few ("tens of thousands") nude pictures stolen from celebrities. But as with anything that involves such an influential company as Google, this move creates a precedent, and it's a dangerous one.

Security is not always about creating a stronger deadbolt or a more protective firewall. Sometimes it's about understanding what motivates potential attackers and using that knowledge to make your valuables look less attractive, either directly or by comparison. It's this more sophisticated approach that Apple is using with its newest devices and software.

Kids say the darndest things -- and Google wants to know about and memorize each and every one of them. And not just what they say, but the sites they visit, the things they buy, the things they don't buy, the browsers they use and anything else it can suck up relating to the kids' computers, phones, networks and geolocation. Google just loves kids -- especially the part about how much retailers will pay for all of that information.

Same-day delivery is a boon for the online leader, but it will only help doom B&N.

New York's plan to turn pay phones into free Wi-Fi stations could be a template for other cities, and bad news for IT departments trying to protect corporate data and intellectual property.

Goldman Sachs is taking Google to court to force the cloud vendor to delete an email accidentally sent to a Gmail user. The consequences of a ruling for Goldman would be devastating.

Unanimous decision won't shut down patent trolls, but it will curb worst abuses.

Fake accounts that troll for followers' contact info just might be a problem. Meet 'Alex Van Pelter.' Oh, and LinkedIn is great, except when it's annoying.

As Google gears up for the Internet of Things, its vision seems a bit off. Thermostats as billboards?

The UN wants to talk about killer robots as 'conventional weapons.' Someone needs to learn the IT facts of life: If something can go wrong, it will.

The White House's big report on big-data privacy has several shortcomings.

FTC takes it to task for misleading privacy policy, other transgressions. You should take another look at your company's privacy policy.

Marketers will want to use tools like Snapchat's Here feature to bend consumers to their will. IT has to inject rationality into the resulting discussions.

If our checks and balances are so fragile that a typo can obliterate all meaningful security, we have some fundamental things to fix.