Technology & Telecommunications
Two U.S. companies - Linode of New Jersey and Rackspace of Texas - have been hosting surveillance software designed by Hacking Team of Italy, according to a new report. The software was allegedly been used by governments in Ethiopia, Morocco, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to track dissidents.
In a trail-blazing 27-page order, Alameda Superior Court Judge James A. Richman dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed against a breast implant awareness activist, finding that it was a meritless SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation).
Raytheon, a U.S. military manufacturer, is selling a new software surveillance package named "Riot" that claims to predict where individuals are expected to go next using technology that mines data from social networks like Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter.
Roberto Verzola discusses the emergence of the global information economy as the third wave of globalization, a process that started with colonialism. This in depth analysis looks at how information monopolies are being used to artificially create information scarcity (and high profits) for corporate owners, such as Microsoft.
High-tech electronics industry representatives in the Silicon Valley are finally admitting that their facilities pose significant risks to surrounding communities (of course, they admitted this for liability and permit renewal purposes). A recent article in the San Jose Mercury News (6/18/96) described the struggle between LSI Logic and a neighboring Muslim school.
Microsoft's budget for political lobbying exceeded that of Enron, the judge residing over the antitrust case has heard. The software giant's budget for its Political Action Committee (PAC) increased from about $16,000 in 1995 to $1.6 million in 2000, according to Edward Roeder, a self-styled expert on efforts to influence the U.S. government, and founder of Sunshine Press Services, a news agency devoted to investigating money in politics.
Five years after setting off a precedent-setting legal feud with an avalanche of nasty e-mail, a disgruntled former Intel employee's crusade against the Santa Clara chip giant lands this week in the California Supreme Court.
The Obama administration's push into cyberwarfare has set off a rush among the biggest military companies for billions of dollars in new defense contracts. Nearly all of the largest military companies - including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon - have major cyber contracts with the military and intelligence agencies.
High levels of toxic lead turning up in cheap jewelry from China are prompting recalls in the U.S. But some of the lead used by these Chinese manufacturers comes from an unconventional source: computers and other electronic goods discarded in Western countries and dumped in China.
Nearly 40% of start-ups in a new USA TODAY study employ engineers, marketers, analysts and others in jobs created in India and other nations. The study found that many U.S. start-ups, speeding the pace of globalization, now bypass the USA for nations where customers and cheap labor are plentiful.