Neowin News Feed for: Politics

German Federal Court decides Google auto-complete can violate privacy

Paul Ferson — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:26:43 +0100

Germany's federal court has decided the Google auto-complete function can violate user privacy and former President Christian Wulff's wife is being used as the key example of this problem. Read more...

Bill Gates will not run for president, or office. Ever.

Andrew Stevenson — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:37:24 +0000

While Bill Gates has said before that politics is a path he isn't looking to become active in, he has once again been quizzed on whether the Oval Office would be one he would like to work from. Read more...

Microsoft donates to Obama's second inauguration

Anthony Tosie — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:16:22 +0000

Microsoft is one of several companies that have donated money for U.S. President Barack Obama's second inauguration, which will take place later this month. Read more...

FTC could be knocking at Google's door over antitrust allegations

Paul Ferson — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:10:58 +0100

After more than a year of investigation, it seems that the FTC feels Google has been exploiting its position at the top of the market to ensure that rival services do not get a chance to oppose. Read more...

Japan begins to crack down on piracy with two million yen fines

Paul Ferson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 15:34:05 +0100

Japan's government has agreed to new legislation against criminals caught downloading illegally, bringing in a maximum fine of two million yen or a potential two year stay in a prison cell. Read more...

Iran removes block on Gmail again after a week

Paul Ferson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:04:05 +0100

The Iranian government has removed the block on Gmail again after only a week, with ministers in parliament showing their dissent against the sudden loss of one of the most popular email services. Read more...

Twitter surrenders Occupy protester's details to government

Paul Ferson — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:25:06 +0100

Twitter, who has been fighting to protect an Occupy Wall Street protester's details from the government has surrendered the details after being forced into a metaphorical corner. Read more...

Trailer for anti-Islamic film pulled from YouTube in Egypt and Libya

Paul Ferson — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 02:08:59 +0100

A trailer for a film entitled 'Innocence of Muslims', previously known as 'Innocence of Bin Laden', has been hidden by Google in Egypt and Libya due to outrage it sparked after airing on national TV. Read more...

Google takes action against SEO spamming politician

Paul Ferson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 13:47:35 +0100

Grant Shapps, a Conservative housing minister in the UK, was found to have abused Google's Adsense. Now, the search engine has responded in turn, blacklisting 19 sites operated by the family. Read more...

Russia's SVR reportedly investing in spam-bots

Paul Ferson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 01:31:47 +0100

Information from Russian newspaper Kommersant indicates that Russia's foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, has invested considerable sums of money into developing propaganda spambots for the state. Read more...

UK politician responsible for SEO spamming Google

Paul Ferson — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 22:18:01 +0100

Conservative UK politician Grant Shapps, or Michael Green as he identifies himself online, has been found to have been exploiting Google's AdSense system through selling SEO spamming software online. Read more...

The other star of the Republican National Convention? Google

Tyler Holman — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 19:51:08 +0100

Google invaded this week's Republican National Convention with an awesome coffee bar, featuring complimentary a 60MB/s internet connection. The only catch? Lots of advertising and political pandering. Read more...

Kim Dotcom to receives up to $6 million from government for legal battle

Paul Ferson — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:20:43 +0100

Kim Dotcom is to receive up to $6,000,000 from the New Zealand government to aid his legal battle for the future. This money will be secured from $10,000,000 in bonds that were frozen back in April. Read more...

Anonymous attacks websites in a bid to help Assange

Paul Ferson — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:07:44 +0100

Anonymous have led their latest attack on government websites in an attempt to 'help' Julian Assange, with a particular focus upon ensuring specific targets are disrupted and stay down for some time. Read more...

Executive order could be used to issue Cybersecurity Bill

Paul Ferson — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:38:31 +0100

After the Republican party managed to reject the Cybersecurity Bill in Congress, indications have suggested Obama could issue an executive order for the bill, completely cutting Congress out. Read more...

Obama app shows you age, sex, and names of nearby Democrats

Christopher White — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 16:05:25 +0100

A new app released by the Democratic National Committee brings up a map listing the names, ages, and sex of all registered Democrats. Is this a privacy concern or no big deal? Read more...

Apple spent $500K on lobbying in Q1 2012; Google spent $5M

Nathan Tsui — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:31:19 +0100

While rivals like Google and Microsoft spent millions on lobbying in the first quarter of this year, Apple has spent a comparatively paltry $500,000, even as legal pressure against the company builds. Read more...

American video game designer sentenced to death in Iran for spying

Nathan Tsui — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:36:19 +0000

An American-born video game designer and former U.S. military serviceman has been sentenced to death in Iran's Revolutionary Court on charges of allegedly spying for the Central Intelligence Agency. Read more...

BT: Content Connect "will not create a two-tier internet"

Mike Brown — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:01:13 +0000

In a statement released earlier today, BT denied claims that its upcoming Content Connect service contradicts its position of supporting net neutrality. Envisioned as an opportunity for content providers to strike up deals with ISPs... Read more...

US publishes piracy watch list

Brandon Boyce — Tue, 04 May 2010 14:06:01 +0100

Each year the US publishes a report called Special 301. The report is an annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement. "This Report reflects the Administration’s resolve to encourage... Read more...