Google releases add-on to block its own analytics

Stung by a laundry list of privacy concerns, Google has released a new add-on designed to block the information captured for Web sites that use its own Analytics service.

The new Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on stops the flow of certain data from your PC whenever you visit a site that uses Google Analytics. Web sites insert Google Analytics' JavaScript code into their pages to capture the IP address, browser version, operating system, ISP, and similar items from visiting PCs. That data is sent to Google and then accessible through a Web site's free Google Analytics (GA) account.

The beta version of the new opt-out add-on works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.

To further address privacy issues, Google has released a new tweak to GA's JavaScript that lets Web site owners anonymize visiting IP addresses sent to Google. The new code sends only a portion of the IP address, removing the last octet. Since the general location of a site visitor can be identified by the IP address, this tweak prevents the full geographic information from being captured.

The company has been criticized over recent gaffes such as Google Buzz, which exposed data without users' permission, and Google Street View, which the company admitted inadvertently grabbed data from open Wi-Fi networks.

Google continually faces the challenge of capturing data for its own use but at the same time not ticking off people by violating their privacy. The new changes to Google Analytics may be good news to people who don't want their private data, even computer data, revealed. But it could leave Web sites in the lurch.

If people can turn off the Google Analytics tracking code, how do Web sites know they're getting reliable and accurate information in their Google Web stats? Google's blog even acknowledges that tweaking the JavaScript code to block out the last octet of the IP address would limit the accuracy of the geographic data captured.

Activists on Facebook need protection: senator

Facebook has become an important tool for democracy and human rights activists and it needs to do more to protect them, including allowing the use of pseudonyms, a US senator said Thursday.
"Recent events in Egypt and Tunisia have again highlighted the significant costs and benefits of social networking technology like Facebook to democracy and human rights activists," Senator Dick Durbin said in a letter to Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg.
"I commend you for providing an important tool to democracy and human-rights activists," the Democrat from Illinois said.
"However, as millions of people around the world use Facebook to exercise their freedom of expression, I am concerned that the company does not have adequate safeguards in place to protect human rights and avoid being exploited by repressive governments," Durbin said.
"Facebook has facilitated efforts by activists to organize demonstrations and publicize human-rights abuses," he said.
"At the same time, the Egyptian and Tunisian governments have reportedly used Facebook to monitor activists, which is surely aided by Facebook's refusal to allow activists to use pseudonyms," the senator said, citing Belarus, China, and Iran as other countries using social networking to track activists.
Durbin repeated a call for Facebook, which has nearly 600 million users, to join the Global Network Initiative (GNI), which has drafted a voluntary code of conduct to protect human rights and whose members include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!
Responding to the senator's letter, Andrew Noyes, a Facebook spokesman, said "the trust people place in us is the most important part of what makes Facebook work.
"As demonstrated by our response to threats in Tunisia, we take this trust seriously and work aggressively every single day to protect people," he said.
As for pseudonyms, Noyes said: "Facebook has always been based on a real name culture, and we fundamentally believe this leads to greater accountability and a safer and more trusted environment for people who use the service."
Referring to the appeal to join GNI, Noyes said, "as Facebook grows, we'll absolutely be considering which groups we can actively participate in but it's important to remember that our global operations are still small, with offices in only a handful of countries."Activists on Facebook need protection: senator

Cyber crooks targeting smartphones: McAfee

Smartphones have become prime targets for hackers and spammers, computer security firm McAfee said in a report released Tuesday. The number of pieces of malicious software, referred to as "malware," surged 46 percent last year as compared with 2009, according to a McAfee Threats Report for the final three months of 2010. "Cybercriminals are keeping tabs on what's popular, and what will have the biggest impact from the smallest effort," said McAfee Labs senior vice president Vincent Weafer. "We've seen a significant shift in various regions, showing that cybercriminals are tapped in to trends worldwide," he continued. "McAfee Labs also sees the direct correlation between device popularity and cybercriminal activity, a trend we expect to surge in 2011." McAfee has seen software threats to mobile devices steadily increase in recent years as the popularity of smartphones and tablet computers has climbed. "Threats to mobile platforms are not new," McAfee said in the report. "However, as more consumers use mobile devices and tablets in their daily lives and at work, cybercriminals have taken note." Geinimi malware slipped into legitimate games and other applications for Android-based mobile phones was listed by McAfee as "one of the most important threats of the quarter." As greater varieties of smartphones, tablets, televisions, and computers link to the Internet, hackers are likely to resort to "poisoning" Internet search results with links to websites booby-trapped with malware, according to McAfee. "Web-based threats will continue to grow in size and sophistication," McAfee said. Hacker tactics include luring people to bogus websites and then tricking them into downloading malware or revealing valuable information. Adobe software products such as Flash and Acrobat were the "clear choice of malware authors and cybercriminals" when it came to compromising computers or networks, according to McAfee, In good news, spam in the final quarter of 2010 hit is lowest level in three years, the report indicated.