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Australia

Submission + - Legislation for 18+ games hits Australian parliament (computerworld.com.au)

Submitted by
angry tapir
angry tapir writes: "Legislation to pave the way for an R18+ (adults only) classification of video games has just been introduced into the Australian parliament by the minister for home affairs. The state and territories will still have to pass complementary legislation, however. Currently the highest rating for a game in Australia is MA15+, with games that didn't meet the criteria being refused classification, leading to content being gutted prior to release or games just not being released. The legislation marks a victory for a long campaign by gamers (notably lobby group Grow Up Australia). The current legislation, which will take effect on January 1 next year providing it makes it through the lower and upper houses, merely introduces an R18+ classification, falling short of the complete classification overhaul proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission)."
Iphone

Submission + - Unauthorized iPhone Apps Leak Private Data Less Than Approved Ones (forbes.com)

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: In the wake of news that the iPhone app Path uploads users’ entire contact lists without permission, Forbes dug up a study from a group of researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara and the International Security Systems Lab that aimed to analyze how and where iPhone apps transmit users’ private data. Not only did the researchers find that one in five of the free apps in Apple’s app store upload private data back to the apps’ creators that could potentially identify users and allow profiles to be built of their activities. They also discovered that programs in Cydia, the most popular platform for unauthorized apps that run only on “jailbroken” iPhones, tend to leak private data far less frequently than Apple’s approved apps.

The researchers ran their analysis on 1,407 free apps in the App Store and in Cydia, the unofficial app market for jailbroken phones. Of those tested apps, 21 percent of official App Store apps uploaded the user’s Unique Device Identifier, for instance, compared with only four percent of unauthorized apps.

Comment Genuinely tragic! (Score 1) 3

by explorer457 (#38832029) Attached to: U.S. Plummets 135% on World Press Freedom Ranking
There are too many 'indices' that show the US is heading down the road of control, restrictions to freedom, censorship (Read: Defense Authorization Act? SOPA and its analogs? etc.) ... all the items which characterize totalitarian regimes. While I think we're still a far way from that yet, NOW is the time to move on it, rather than waiting until it's too late!

Comment They detained the NASDAQ chief rep in China? (Score 1) 269

by explorer457 (#38831919) Attached to: WikiLeaks Cable: NASDAQ Folded To Chinese Pressure
It really blows my mind that Chinese officials incarcerated the NASDAQ chief rep in China ... for effectively no legitimate reason ... with no political repercussions.

"Ogilvy-Stuart circled back with the American diplomats. He said that Pan, in order to secure his release, “may have pledged” to Chinese authorities that NASDAQ would revoke NTD’s access to its New York headquarters."
...
Ministry of Foreign officials "received no official response."
Censorship

Submission + - U.S. Plummets 135% on World Press Freedom Ranking 3

Submitted by Jeremiah Cornelius
Jeremiah Cornelius writes: Reporters Without Borders released its 2011 — 2012 global Press Freedom Index. The indicators for press freedom in the U.S. are dramatic, with a downward movement from 27th to 47th in the global ranking, from the previous year. Much of this is corellated directly to the arrest and incarceration of American journalists covering the "Occupy" protest movements in New York and across the country. "This is especially troubling as we head into an election year which is sure to spark new conflicts between police and press covering rallies, protests and political events." Only Chile, who dropped from 33 to 80, joined the U.S. in falling over 100% of their previous ranking. Similarly, Chile was downgraded for "freedom of information violations committed by the security forces during student protests."
Businesses

Submission + - Top Google Executives Approved Illegal Drug Ads

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "PC Magazine reports that the US government used convicted con artist David Whitaker, owner of an online business selling steroids and human growth hormone to US consumers, to help federal agents in a sting operation against Google when he began advertising with Google with advertisements that included the statement "no prescription needed" clearly violating US laws. Google's settlement with the US government for $500 million blamed AdWords sales by Canadian pharmacies, who allegedly were selling drugs to U.S. consumers. "We banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies some time ago," Google said then. "However, it's obvious with hindsight that we shouldn't have allowed these ads on Google in the first place." Peter Neronha, the US attorney for Rhode Island who led the multiagency federal task force that conducted the sting, claims that chief executive Larry Page had personal knowledge of the operation, as did Sheryl Sandberg, a Google executive who now is the chief operating officer for Facebook. In 2009 Google started requiring online pharmacy advertisers to be certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy's Verified Internet Pharmacy Practices Sites program and hired an outside company to detect pharmacy advertisers exploiting flaws in the Google's screening systems."

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