Focus On: Privacy

The fallout from an intentional dump of search data by AOL researchers is rapidly spreading. So far, those poisoned by the spill include porn-seekers, suicidals, murderers, other AOL users, the spillers, MySpace and Google. Beneficiaries include blog spammers, pay-per-click crooks, trial lawyers and competitors of every stripe.

When eBay's CEO Meg Whitman sends you a personal letter, it's only polite to respond... especially when it's about one of her pet crusades: Net Neutrality. Unfortunately, I discovered that her mail server could send mail, but appeared to be incapable of accepting replies. "Must be a DNS goof-up," thought I. So I posted my personal reply right here. Please don't read it if you are not Meg Whitman. It's personal.

Millions of vets' necks were laid on the chopping block on the third of May, when a hard disk containing their Social Security numbers was stolen from a VA employee's home. Over the next two weeks, a dozen officials of Veterans Affairs found out, yet nobody got around to telling the vets so they could start protecting their bank accounts and credit records. The reasons why are revealing.

After a blogger recently exposed daily communications between Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and Microsoft servers, Redmond's response was somewhat unsettling. Officials admitted that the validation checker tasked with protecting Microsoft's digital rights has potential uses beyond those previously disclosed.

Yahoo chief Terry Semel told a room jammed with witnesses at the Wall Street Journal's D: conference that he doesn't know if he would collaborate with the Nazis, in the same way Yahoo's partner in China collaborates with its Chinese masters. (The method used by Yahoo's partner has resulted in non-violent political dissidents serving long jail sentences.) At least now all the cards are on the table where we can see them.