Media News - Friday, October 03, 2008

Skype admits to storing China text messages

Skype, eBay Inc's Web communications unit, admitted on Thursday that TOM-Skype, its China venture with TOM Online Inc, had been monitoring and storing some of its users' text messages without Skype's knowledge. Skype apologized after a report revealed that the Web service monitors text chats with politically sensitive keywords and stores them along with millions of personal user records on computers that could be easily accessed by anybody - including the Chinese government. Jennifer Caukin, a spokeswoman for Skype, minority owner of TOM-Skype, admitted to the privacy breach in the servers and said it had now been fixed. However, she said that Skype needed to have further discussions with TOM after it found out that the venture had changed privacy policies without Skype's consent or knowledge in order to store certain user messages. The comments follow a University of Toronto Citizen Lab report that said text messages sent between TOM-Skype users and between Skype users and T0M-Skype users, are scanned for phrases like 'Taiwan independence' or 'Falun Gong' or for opposition to the Communist Party of China. When these keywords are found, the messages and information, such as usernames of subscribers, are stored on publicly accessible Web servers along with an encryption key that could be used to unlock the data, according to the report. (Reuters)

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Google launches ‘Google News for blogs’

Six years after Google Inc. launched Google News by applying its search technology to breaking news stories, the company has moved to apply its technology to a similar service to track new blog posts. Google's updated Google Blog Search tool will use the technology that powers Google News to track and organize the 900,000 new blog posts added to the Web every 24 hours, Google said Monday. Previously, the tool only allowed users to simply type queries to search blogs. 'We're now showing categories on the left side of the website and organizing the blog posts within those categories into clusters, which are groupings of posts about the same story or event,' noted Michael Cohen, a Google product manager, in a blog post. 'Grouping them in clusters lets you see the best posts on a story or get a variety of perspectives. When you look within a cluster, you'll find a collection of the most interesting and recent posts on the topic, along with a timeline graph that shows you how the story is gaining momentum in the blogosphere.' Categories on Google Blog Search include politics, technology, business, science, entertainment, movies, television and sports. While the site is launching only in English, Google said it plans to eventually add support for more languages. (Computer World)

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Obama uses iPhone to win support

US Democratic candidate Barack Obama is set to turn the iPhone into a political recruiting tool with an application aimed at getting the vote out. The most notable feature is a 'Call Friends' option to help organise contacts in swing states. In its latest blog, the campaign has written that it hopes the 'Call Friends' feature will 'generate thousands of additional personal contacts' - the aim being that these can be turned into votes. Other features include making notes on which friends have been called, who they are supporting, and if they need a reminder call on election day. The website said the total amount of calls the application makes are tallied but no information leaves the phone, so the privacy of friends and that of the user are protected. Up-to-date news from the campaign will also be included, as will video, photos and talking points that can be used to convince friends to vote for the candidate. Raven Zachary, another leader on the project, told the BBC: 'The iPhone is one mobile platform and there are millions of voters who don't have the iPhone. 'But we are at the beginning of a new wave of mobile technology and we are seeing with the Obama campaign how he uses technology. This will become the norm moving forward.' That is a view backed by Declan McCullagh at CNET who told the BBC: 'It's a pretty slick iPhone application. Having your friends sorted by battleground states is something I haven't seen any other politician come up with before. This is a glimpse of the future of high-tech politicking.' (BBC News)

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German TV journalist jailed for corruption

A German court jailed a television journalist for 32 months Thursday on charges of corruption. Until the trial, Juergen Emig, 63, had hosted sports programs on Hessischer Rundfunk public television and headed its sports broadcasting team. Convicting him of misappropriation and taking bribes, the court in Frankfurt said he obtained more than EUR 300,000 from sponsors between 2001 and 2004 to highlight products or minor sports. In one case, he devised coverage of a bicycle road race so that the cameras showed placards of sponsors' brands and the images highlighted towns that had paid coverage fees to a firm working for Emig. Public TV in Germany carries commercials but does not usually allow product placement in television programs. Judge Christopher Erhard criticized the broadcasting company for not keeping a closer eye on Emig. (DPA via Expatica Germany)

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Train engineer was texting just before California crash

The train driver blamed for the worst U.S. train crash in 15 years was sending and receiving text messages seconds before his crowded commuter train skipped a red light and collided head-on with a freight train, federal investigators said on Wednesday. The Metrolink commuter train plowed into a Union Pacific freight locomotive on September 12 in Chatsworth, California, killing 25 people and injuring 135 in the worst train accident since 1993. A National Transportation Safety Board probe has focused on whether the engineer, identified as Robert Martin Sanchez, 46, failed to heed trackside signals. Sanchez was killed in the crash. Cell phone records show Sanchez was sent a text message at 4:22:01 p.m., and received one at 4:21:03 p.m. The accident occurred at 4:22:23 p.m., according to Union Pacific train's onboard recorders. He received seven and sent five text messages between 3:00 p.m. and the time of the accident. Sanchez also received 21 text messages and sent 24 while he ran a train from 6:44 a.m. to 8:53 a.m. Since the timings were not all recorded on a common platform, the precise correlation between the events is not clear, investigators at the NTSB said. Following the accident, California authorities temporarily banned railroad workers from using cellphones on duty. (Reuters)

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Right to Information law passed in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's government approved a Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance, which aims to ensure the free flow of information in the country. The law requires officials to provide information on a person's life and death, arrest and release from jail to an information-seeker within 24 hours. Anyone who fails to meet the law's provisions can be fined up to BDT 5,000 (EUR 53). A three-member Information Commission will be formed for effective enforcement of the law. New posts will be created in most of the government offices and non-government organizations (NGOs). The government said the new law will increase transparency and accountability, reduce corruption and establish good governance in government offices and NGOs, according to the Dhaka-based Daily Star. (International Journalists Network)

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