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Submission + - Many More Android Apps Leaking User Data (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: After developing and using TaintDroid, several universities found that of 30 popular free Android apps, half were sharing GPS data and phone numbers with advertisers and remote servers. A few months ago, one app was sending phone numbers to a remote server in China but today the situation looks a lot more prevasive. In their paper (PDF), the researchers blasted Google saying 'Android's coarse grained access control provides insufficient protection against third-party applications seeking to collect sensitive data.' Google's response: 'Android has taken steps to inform users of this trust relationship and to limit the amount of trust a user must grant to any given application developer. We also provide developers with best practices about how to handle user data. We consistently advise users to only install apps they trust.'
Google

Submission + - Google to leave China on April 10 (cnet.com)

Submitted by tsj5j
tsj5j writes: Google is expected to announce on Monday that it will withdraw from China on April 10, according to a report in a Beijing-based newspaper that cited an unidentified sales associate who works with the company.
"I have received information saying that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google," the China Business News quoted the agent as saying. The report also said Google would reveal its plans for its China-based staff that day.

Comment Parkinson's laws (Score 5, Insightful) 398

by vurtigalka (#30280644) Attached to: Harvard Says Computers Don't Save Hospitals Money
Results like these shouldn't surprise anyone aware of Parkinson's laws. From Why it is Important that Software Projects Fail:

The boundless creativity of politicians and bureaucrats to develop new and more complex regulation is bounded only by the bureaucracy's inability to implement them. The absolute size of the bureaucracy is constrained by external factors, so the only effect of automation can be to increase bureaucratic complexity.

Parkinson's laws are as valid and insightful as always. If someone by chance have missed them, here they are:

Parkinson's First Law:
Work expands or contracts in order to fill the time available.

Parkinson's Second Law:
Expenditures rise to meet income.

Parkinson's Third Law:
Expansion means complexity; and complexity decay.

Parkinson's Fourth Law:
The number of people in any working group tends to increase regardless of the amount of work to be done.

Parkinson's Fifth Law:
If there is a way to delay an important decision the good bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.

Parkinson's Law of Delay:
Delay is the deadliest form of denial.

Parkinson's Law of Triviality:
The time spent in a meeting on an item is inversely proportional to its value (up to a limit).

Parkinson's Law of 1,000:
An enterprise employing more than 1,000 people becomes a self-perpetuating empire, creating so much internal work that it no longer needs any contact with the outside world.

Parkinson's Coefficient of Inefficiency:
The size of a committee or other decision-making body grows at which it becomes completely inefficient.

Comment Re:ok (Score 1) 203

by vurtigalka (#30244028) Attached to: Apple Newton vs. Apple iPhone

You do realise that the marketshare you linked to is for the US only? The situation looks different when considering the world smartphone market. Just sayin...

Worldwide it got 31%, about the same as Symbian. GP's point still valid.

Comment Translation (Score 1) 1

by vurtigalka (#27684151) Attached to: Judge biased in The Pirate Bay case ?
Loosely translated from the article:

Svenska fÃreningen fÃr upphovsrÃtt (SFU) (Swedish association for intellectual property)
Here the judge is a member on his spare time. Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted are also members. The association is "a meeting place for qualified intellectual property discussions"

Svenska fÃreningen fÃr industriellt rÃttsskydd (SFIR) (Swedish association for industrial legal protection)
The association deals with issues on patents and copyright but has also pushed for stronger intellectual property rights. The judge is member of the board of directors.

Stiftelsen .SE (The foundation .SE)
A work the judge has on the side. One of his colleagues is Monique Wadsted, representing the American movie industry.

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