Google has worked hard to lock down the personal data it collects since revelations in the last year and a half about mass surveillance programs at the U.S. National Security Agency, company Chairman Eric Schmidt said.
After a spate of news stories about alleged "astroturf" advocacy in a contentious U.S. net neutrality debate, the IDG News Service looked into the funding transparency of several think tanks and advocacy groups involved in the issue. Several disclose limited or no information about their funding, we found.
Overly broad U.S. government surveillance is breaking down trust on the Internet in ways that could hurt users everywhere and make it harder to launch new kinds of services, tech executives told a U.S. senator pushing for reforms.
Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt defended his company's payment of a mere £6.09 million (A$9.06m) in UK corporation tax for 2011 on a turnover of £395 million and said his firm's management of its tax bill was not very different from British firms in the US market.
Wikileaks' latest release is billed as a transcript of a "secret meeting," but it may more accurately be termed a promotion.
Some of the most memorable IT-related quotes were uttered in courtrooms this year, which involved a steady stream of legal challenges about intellectual property. In no particular order, these are some of the comments that stuck with us as 2012 winds to a close.