Stories by Grant Gross

Man indicted for massive credit hack

A 28-year-old Miami man was indicted Monday for the largest credit and debit card theft ever prosecuted in the U.S., with data from more than 130 million credit and debit cards stolen, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Bored bureaucrat pleads guilty to passport snooping

A fifth person who has worked for the U.S. Department of State has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing passport application files stored in a computer database, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Large broadband providers pass up stimulus funding

Three of the four largest broadband providers in the U.S. say they will not apply for broadband deployment stimulus funding from the U.S. government, and a fourth said it is unlikely to apply as the deadline for the first round of funding nears.

Concerns raised over US government cookie policy change

A potential change in the US government's policy that would permit the broad use of web cookies on government sites could "allow the mass collection of personal information," according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Google to buy On2 Technologies

Google has reached an agreement to buy video compression technology vendor On2 Technologies in a stock deal worth about US$106.5 million, the companies announced.

Google's Schmidt resigns from Apple's board

Google CEO Eric Schmidt will resign from Apple's board of directors, three months after new reports that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was checking whether the companies violated antitrust laws by having two directors in common: Schmidt and former Genetech CEO Arthur Levinson.

US lawmakers introduce net neutrality bill

Two US lawmakers have introduced a net neutrality bill that would prohibit broadband providers from blocking or impairing web content, but providers have largely refrained from commenting on the legislation.

Civil rights activists champion Google book deal

A proposed settlement allowing Google to digitize millions of books will have huge benefits for minority populations and their access to valuable information, a group of civil rights leaders and educators said Wednesday.

Group will push open source in US government

Open-source software needs a higher profile in Washington, DC, according to a group of about 70 organisations and companies that launched a new campaign to educate US government agencies about the benefits of open source.

Politicians warned not to tinker with internet privacy

The internet contributes about US$300 billion a year to the US economy, and US lawmakers should be careful about tinkering with the advertising-supported internet content model in the name of privacy, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) says.

Lawmakers push to maintain US oversight of ICANN

Several US lawmakers and an executive with the world's largest domain-name registrar called on the US government to maintain oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) after a major agreement between two expires in September.

Opting out of targeted ads too hard, privacy advocates say

The online advertising industry and U.S. policy makers need to give online users more control over the collection of personal data and surfing habits beyond the traditional opt-out approach, some privacy advocates said Wednesday.

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