When Google announced in August 2014 that it is now favouring sites that are entirely encrypted in search results, websites started switching, using the secure HTTPS protocol as default. Many sites already use encryption for key pages such as login or online purchases, but the new trend is to encrypt everything. Is this something your

You may have noticed over the past few months that some websites you’ve visited have asked for your permission to use ‘cookies’. Not to be confused with the American biscuit, a cookie is a small text file that websites use to store data on your computer. The reason behind these messages is a controversial European

The recent furore over the ‘Girls Around Me’ smartphone app illustrates the increasing  ease with which our movements can be tracked. The app was developed by Russian  developer i-free and enabled people who had downloaded the app to view a map of  women in the local area, along with names and even background information like

There has been a lot of coverage recently regarding Google’s new privacy policy. The company will now have access to more data regarding the searches individuals make; information they will use to target adverts aimed at each user. However, campaigners and governments alike have raised concerns about the implications for privacy and the legality of

One website that has been getting quite a bit of press coverage recently is Klout. This is a new service that attempts to measure online influence by monitoring social networking traffic.  It allocates a score of between 1 and 100 to individuals and organisations, with the higher the score, the greater the influence. The founder,

The recent News of the World phone hacking scandal illustrated how easy it can be to access poorly protected information. The investigators who hacked into the phones were not IT geniuses; they just exploited basic flaws in the caller ID and PIN systems. A few years back, a default PIN was provided for access to mobile messages

The internet has led to an increasing clash between personal and professional lives. Once upon a time it was only your CV or application that counted when trying to win a job interview, but one new trend is to vet perspective employees using their online presence.   It’s well publicised that many employees have got

Advances in technology have made it easier to collect and organise information than ever before. Companies like Google and Facebook store billions of details from websites and online accounts, and make good money from the services they provide to people. Governments have also been developing information-centric systems, from the laudable data.gov initiatives both in the

Social networking has been a major part of the rise of ‘Web 2.0’, a phrase coined to represent the move towards greater information sharing and collaboration on the internet. While MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin and others have played their part, Facebook dominates social networking. As of July, 500 million people around the world use Facebook actively.As