John Lister

A series of security breaches has exposed the credit card details of Wyndham hotel customers. As a result, the company must face the ire of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Hackers apparently breached the hotel chain's secured data networks on ... three separate occasions, starting in April 2008. The first attack was the largest and gave the hackers access to hotel guest data stored on the system. Because the data wasn't encrypted, the attackers were able to utilize information associated with an estimated 500,000 credit cards, which they relayed to a Russian-based site. Wyndam came under ... (view more)

A European court has upheld a $1 billion fine on Microsoft, originally imposed four years ago. The penalty was punishment for Microsoft refusing to share vital information with rival software developers. Microsoft's financial problems with the ... European Union date back to 2004, when it was fined 497 million euros for abusing its market position. That case was based on the conflict of interests arising from Microsoft producing both an operating system (Windows) and individual applications (such as Word and other Office products). Microsoft Accused of Hiding Information At the time, officials ... (view more)

Online travel agency Orbitz is reportedly offering more expensive hotels to Mac users than to people using a PC. The agency has made this adjustment intentionally, based on research showing that Mac users regularly pay more for Internet hotels ... bookings. According to reports, Orbitz examined data from past bookings and found that the average price PC users pay through the site for a night in a hotel is about $100. However, Mac users pay an average of $20 to $30 extra for the same bookings. Mac Users More Likely to Spend Big The data showed a consistent pattern: Mac users are 40 per cent more ... (view more)

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has joined a campaign to fight the extradition of a British man facing trial in the United States for online piracy offenses. Richard O'Dwyer, accused of criminal behavior related to a site that linked to pirated TV ... shows, says he did not breach the law. US officials want to formally charge O'Dwyer with copyright infringement and other charges. If convicted in the US, he would face a maximum term of five years. In his own country, however, the equivalent crimes can be punished by a sentence of no more than six months. The charges stem from a website named TVShack ... (view more)

Google is funding a project designed to promote languages in danger of falling into disuse. The search giant is producing a series of tools, including specialist social network tools, designed to revive interest in the languages. The Endangered ... Language Project springs from the fact that about half of the 6,000 human languages spoken today are "on the verge of extinction," with few native speakers left alive. Researchers predict there will be no one able to speak these languages by the year 2100, unless special efforts are made to preserve them. (Source: endangeredlanguages.com ) Expansion of ... (view more)

Microsoft's much-hyped rival to the iPad, the Surface, may not be as attractive to consumers as it once appeared. Reports from reputable sources indicate the new device may have only WiFi capabilities, and not the ability to use cellphone networks ... to access the Internet. The Surface, officially unveiled last week , is similar in size and shape to the iPad. However, rather than forcing users to rely on a touchscreen, its case houses a built-in physical keyboard. Microsoft's new tablet computer also runs Windows 8, the company's newest operating system (set to launch this fall). Microsoft's ... (view more)

Facebook plans to allow companies to charge monthly fees for the use of applications on the popular social media website. This new policy could create a lucrative market for Facebook versions of newspapers, magazines, and more. At the moment, it's ... not possible for software developers to charge people who like and use their applications on Facebook. Instead, they can charge only for one-off purchases that people make within the application itself. The best known example of this is Zynga's Farmville. Currently, users can play the app free-of-charge. But if they want to get an extra advantage ... (view more)

A new report from Google indicates the US government is currently requesting more information about the online activity of its citizens than ever before. In the second half of 2011, it received 6,321 requests for Internet user data, compared with ... 4,601 in the same period in 2010. That's a 37 per cent increase. The figures were revealed in Google's latest Transparency Report. The US requests cover a total of 12,243 Internet users. (Source: google.com) However, the increase in demands for user data isn't necessarily a sign that the US government is snooping more. Google said the increase could ... (view more)

An Australian retailer claims it will charge Internet visitors an extra 6.8 per cent tax if they buy from the vendor while browsing its site with Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). Not surprisingly, it appears users may not actually have to pay this fee. ... Visitors to Kogan.com who are using Internet Explorer 7 will see a special pop-up screen reading: "It appears you or your system administrator has been in a coma for over 5 years and you are still using IE7. To help make the Internet a better place, you will be charged a 6.8 percent tax on your purchase from Kogan.com. This is necessary due to ... (view more)

Google has revealed that last year it refused to comply with most US government requests to remove controversial content from its websites. The company also discussed its behavior in removing terrorism videos and its response to a particularly ... unusual request from the Canadian government. Google explored these issues in its latest Transparency Report, which provides information about private and public requests that Google receives to censor specific Internet content. According to the report, between July and December 2011 Google received US court orders to take down a total of 3,851 items. ... (view more)