PRIVACY

Facebook admitted on Thursday it had hired a public relations firm to highlight supposed flaws in Google Inc's privacy practices but denied it had intended a smear campaign against the search giant.

Sony Japan told customers today that it is moving closer to restoring services to its beleaguered Playstation Network which has been suffering from an outage for nearly a month.

The White House issued a proposal on Thursday to secure critical U.S. infrastructure and federal computer networks that aims to fend off attackers while assuring the privacy of Internet users.

A spokesperson from PR firm Burson-Marsteller admitted to working for Facebook in a PR campaign against Google, questioning their tactics in privacy.

Facebook on Wednesday trashed a stunning revelation made by security software firm a Symantec that third parties like advertisers had access to sensitive data of millions of Facebook users for years.

Facebook users' personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, according to one security firm, marking the latest in a growing trend of compromised personal data.

Lawmakers considering new privacy laws scolded Google and Apple on Tuesday for not doing enough to guard mobile device users' location data, despite executives' assertions that they do not abuse the information.

Led by Senator Al Franken, the Privacy and Technology Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary grilled Google and Apple on privacy.

Legislation that would allow Internet users to opt out of having personal data collected has again been introduced on Capitol Hill, becoming at least the fourth bill to focus on consumers' online privacy.

Tech companies such as Apple and Google are hoping the tracks of millions of mobile device users will lead to billions of dollars in revenue.

The State of California is looking to implement a Do Not Track law, which could influence the national legislation.

The Byrds from Casper, Wyo. is suing Aaron's, a national rental chain, for spying on them using a webcam from a software installed on the computer they rented.

The Swiss government has imposed a three-year freeze on bank assets valued at 830-million Swiss Francs (almost $1-billion) which are linked to Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak, the former leader of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the deposed ruler of Tunisia.

South Korean police raided Google's offices in Seoul as they investigate whether the company illegally gathered private data.

Mobile privacy safeguards should also extend to third-party application developers, two lawmakers said after reviewing the practices of four major U.S. wireless carriers.

The delay in responding to privacy breaches is only making the situation worse for Apple, experts contend, with the handling of it more akin to a toy-factory rather than a business.

Lawmakers extended their probe into location tracking on mobile devices this week, asking Apple Inc and other developers to divulge how they use location data and scheduling a separate hearing on mobile privacy.

In the wake of Apple's iPhone tracking scandal, some government organizations have begun investigating allegations that Apple has intentionally tracked its customers.

Researchers at a technology conference in San Francisco on Wednesday have accused Apple of breaching the privacy line of consumers by storing user's location and other details in a secret file.

iPhone owners are being tracked by their smartphones, two researchers have discovered.

Safari is the latest browser to adopt Do Not Track according to a report.