Parents can hire a "hall monitor" for the web - be the China of their own home

"Fear can be good for business", reports the New York Times this morning in a story on how some parents are employing the use of subscription-based services that monitor their child's activity online.

In the dangerous wild west of the internet, there are a number of parents that are worried about the effect that some of its content may have on its children.

The article also details how the content filtering system of the service blocks out content based on certain keywords that are included in it - for example 'kill' or 'suicide'.

Of course, this can - and no doubt will - stop people from accessing perfectly innocent content. For example, when somebody doesn't see a post like 'the band killed last night'.

Imagine a day when children cannot lookup "To Kill a Mockingbird" without being red flagged by the China of their own homes. [Some content via NYT] 

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Australian MP talks of 'creepy' Google

In addition to saying that Google had committed the "single greatest breach in the history of privacy", the Australian communications minister went further, saying that the search giant was 'creepy'.

The MP says that he wants to have an internet filter put in place, which some may say is even creepier.

Google has been under fire as of late with regard to its streetview feature, which, it was revealed, accidentally collected data about private WiFi networks during development.

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Facebook to introduce 'simpler' privacy features shortly

In reaction to the latest privacy dilemma faced by the social networking giant, Facebook has decided to simplify its privacy settings options.

In the wake of a huge public backlash, talks of mass Facebook exodus leavings, and a leaked transcript of founder Mark Zuckerberg calling initial users "dumb f***s" in an IM exchange with a friend," Facebook has called a crisis meeting and decided on a few resolutions to the new problems.

While it has not been announced how simplistic these new options will be, or if there will be any change to the privacy policy (which was recently found to be longer than the U.S. Constitution), the company is certainly making up for much lost time and public affection that has been lost in the debacle.

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Is Google snooping on your WiFi?

Google, the internet search and cloud computing company, has today announced that it will no longer collect information on personal and commercial wireless internet networks after it 'mistakenly' gathered such information as part of its StreetView service.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald:

"Maintaining people's trust is crucial to everything we do, and in this case we fell short," Alan Eustace, a Google senior vice president for engineering and research, said in a blog post.

Concerns over the data collection were highlighted in the media last week, with reporting over the growing concerns expressed by two Australian privacy groups, the Electronic Frontiers Australia and the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Google has stated numerous times that it holds the privacy of its users as a concern of paramount importance, and that it takes all measures to ensure that people's private information is kept from prying or unwanted eyes.

"We want to delete this data as soon as possible, and are currently reaching out to regulators in the relevant countries about how to quickly dispose of it," he said.

"Given the concerns raised, we have decided that it's best to stop our Street View cars collecting WiFi network data entirely," he added. Eustace said personal wireless data was mistakenly collected only from unsecured, or non-password-protected WiFi networks, and "we never used that data in any Google products."  

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Facebook founder comes under fire over conversation transcript

A leaked instant messenger transcript obtained from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of social networking site Facebook, has been causing a stir among the 400 million users who actively use the site. In the transcript, Zuckerberg mocks users who joined his growing website community.

The leak comes after the user community and social media analysts have questioned the company's stance on privacy, which is becoming an increasingly frustrating issue as they try to gain more users.



Business Insider broke the story, publishing the transcript of the conversation causing the controversy. Here is a snipped of the transcript that Murray Report has obtained.

Zuck: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuck: Just ask.

Zuck: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuck: People just submitted it.

Zuck: I don't know why.

Zuck: They "trust me"

Zuck: Dumb f***s.

Facebook has not denied the transcript's authenticity, and replied by saying that "the privacy and security of our users' information is paramount to us here at Facebook".

The Sydney Morning Herald's Stephen Hucheon commented that the leak underscores Mr Zuckerberg's position as the internet's 'favorite whipping boy', and that in January, Zuckerberg had told an audience that privacy was 'no longer a social norm'.

At the heart of complaints, Hucheon claims, is that the default setting for privacy on Facebook has changed, and that users are mostly unaware of how to change them. At present, all profiles are immediately set to a fairly public setting by default.

The New York Times calculated that Facebook's privacy policy is now longer than the constitution, and the company has reportedly called a privacy 'overview meeting' on Friday to discuss these matters.

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