Spotify, About.me, and over two dozen other websites got caught with their hands in KISSmetric’s cookie jar and will have to defend themselves against a class action lawsuit filed by parties in Northern California. The class action suit accuses KISSmetric of mischievous monkey business in the way it continues to track Internet users even after they’ve deleted cookies and cleared their browser’s cache, which you can read more about here . Wired.com first reported on KISSmetric’s shenanigans and followed it up by bringing attention to this current lawsuit. According to Wired’s investigation, KISSmetric relies on Flash, HTML5, and other technologies to trail Internet users, making it possible to recreate deleted cookies. Hulu and Spotify were two of the bigger names among KISSmetric’s clients, both of with cut ties with the service when news of KISSmetric’s operations hit the Web. The class action suit accuses KISSmetrics and its clients of using “rogue tracking exploits,” stating that “while it is generally reasonable to expect a website to use cookies for tracking, the Website Defendants and KISSmetrics created numerous, alternative, ‘shadow’ mechanisms for tracking; Defendants engaged in tracking to exploiting Plaintiff and Class Members’ browsers and other software in ways that consumers did not reasonably expect.” According to Wired, similar suits filed two years ago against Quantcast and Clearspring for so-called “zombie cookies” resulted in a $2.4 million settlement.
Archive for August, 2011
Spotify and Other High Profile Sites Face Class Action Lawsuit for "Rogue Tracking Exploits"
August 5th, 2011 
admin 
Posted in Tech News 
Tags: aol, browser, class-members, cookies, court, deleted-cookies, internet, kissmetric, legal, other-websites, rogue-tracking, spotify, zombie-cookies 
Comments OffIntel Throws $30 Million into Cloud and Embedded Computing
August 5th, 2011 admin Back in early 2009, we ran a piece in the QuickStart section of Maximum PC magazine on what effect the recession was having on the tech sector and what it might mean for company roadmaps. For that piece, an Intel spokesperson told us during a phone interview the chip giant has been through tough economic times before and the company understands “you can’t save your way out of a recession; you spend your way out.” It’s over two years later now, times are still tough, and Intel is still spending money. Announced on Wednesday , Intel Labs said it’s investing $30 million on two new Intel Science and Technology Centers (ISTC) located at Carnegie Mellon University. These new centers will focus on cloud and embedded computing research, and are part of a five-year plan to spend $100 million on university research and accelerating innovation. “These new ISTCs are expected to open amazing possibilities,” said Justin Rattner, Intel Chief Technology Officer. “Imagine, for example, future cars equipped with embedded sensors and microprocessors to constantly collect and analyze traffic and weather data. That information could be shared and analyzed in the cloud so that drivers could be provided with suggestions for quicker and safer routes.” Intel also said it’s expanding its ISTC program and is openly inviting researchers living in the U.S. to submit proposals (in the form of two-page abstracts outlining a research topic and scope) for new centers. Based on the proposals it receives, Intel will award at least one additional center in 2011 and launch it in 2012. Image Credit: cloudtechsite.com
Posted in Tech News Tags: award-at-least, data, Embedded, intel, intel-chief, intel-labs, intel-science, openly-inviting, proposals, quickstart, tech Comments OffMore Evidence Points to Bulldozer Launching in September (in Limited Supply)
August 5th, 2011 admin AMD still hasn’t said when exactly it plans to launch its highly anticipated FX-series Bulldozer processors, though a promotional cartoon advertising the company’s Scorpius platform and FX chips suggests it could happen on September 19th. That seems as likely as any other day in September, given what motherboard makers have to say on the matter. News and rumor site DigiTimes has been talking to its sources behind the scenes in the motherboard industry, and according to those sources, AMD is busy mass producing Bulldozer parts for a launch next month at the earliest, meaning it’s not set in stone. Either way, mass shipments are scheduled for October, the sources say, so whether or not Bulldozer does end up launching in September, it might be another month before there’s sufficient stock. Those same sources also claim to have the inside scoop on AMD’s staggered release schedule, which includes an initial launch of the chip maker’s upcoming FX-4100 (quad-core, 95W), FX 6100 (six-core, 95W), FX-8100 (eight-core, 95W), and FX-8150 (eight-core, 125W).
Posted in Tech News Tags: another-month, build a pc, bulldozer, cpu, including-two, initial-launch, motherboard, news, processor, scoop-on-amd, Sources Comments OffBarracuda Doubles Cloud Storage Space without Jacking Up the Price
August 5th, 2011 admin Barracuda Networks obviously wasn’t paying attention to the mobile phone industry when it announced the doubling of cloud storage space to its customers. You see, the wireless industry has trained us to expect when changes are made to service plans, it’s often because they’re taking something away, like unlimited data. Barracuda, however, just doubled up the amount of storage space its cloud customers have access to, and did so without raising prices. “Data usage is increasing quickly while IT budgets are falling under considerable pressure,” said Guy Suter , general manager of the Barracuda Backup Service. “Barracuda Networks is once again raising the bar on storage requirements and deliverables. We make the choice simple for customers transitioning from old tapes to modern backup technology by doubling the cloud storage available for the same low cost.” Barracuda’s $50/month plan now includes 200GB of online storage, up from 100GB. That breaks down to $0.25/GB per month, plus unlimited backup and restore bandwidth. The new price applies to both new and existing service customers, so there’s no need for businesses to wait for a contract renewal. We say “businesses” because Barracuda’s service isn’t really targeted at home consumers. There’s a one-time hardware purchase that will set customers back at least $1,000 — ooph! Image Credit: Barracuda Networks
Posted in Tech News Tags: back-at-least, barracuda, doubling, general-manager, internet, networks, Online, online-storage, raising-the-bar, really-targeted, wireless Comments OffWikipedia’s Contributors Diminishing in Number
August 5th, 2011 admin Here’s a challenge if you’re looking to kill some time. Look up a topic on Google — any topic — and see if Wikipedia doesn’t make the front page. This isn’t exactly an impossible mission, but by and large, Wikipedia makes its presence known nearly every time we search for something, which is partially the result of an army of volunteers adding and editing content on everything under the sun. But what would happen to Wikipedia if it was suddenly starved for writers? The open online encyclopedia hopes to never find out, however Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recently lamented to The Associated Press his site is losing contributors. “We are not replenishing our ranks. It is not a crisis, but I consider it to be important,” Wales told AP. In an effort to retain members, Wales said he hopes to make the process of submitting and maintaining content easier than it is, which he admits is “convoluted” in its current state. The other problem, as Wales sees it, is that there are simply less new topics to write about than there were 10 years ago when the site went live. Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, says there’s an effort to get universities more involved through a program that would have professors hand out Wikipedia writing assignments to students. Image Credit: Wikipedia
Posted in Tech News Tags: jimmy-wales, make-the-front, more-involved, Online, online encyclopedia, other-problem, process, retain-members, topic-on-google, under-the-sun, wikipedia Comments OffFancy Flash Drive Looks Like A Mini TR-808 Synthesizer
August 5th, 2011 admin You’re a Maximum PC reader: there’s a decent chance that you have the biggest, most badass custom build in town, full of water-filled tubes and blazing-fast GPUs and spiffy low-profile RAM kits. After dropping all that dough and spending all that time on your PC, plugging a standard flash drive into its USB 3.0 port just won’t cut it. If our DJ-tech feature got you in a musical mude, maybe Alkotabeats’ flashy TR-808 flash drive will tweak your tune. It’s modeled after the paradigm-breaking drum machine that’s so awesome, Kanye named an album after it. “Hip Hop heads, Electro Heads, Synth Freaks, and more will all appreciate the detail put into this novelty 8GB USB Flash Drive,” Alkotabeats’ website boasts, and that’s a good thing, because you’ll need a baller-sized wallet in order to afford this thing – buying the 8GB drive will set you back $40. All right, maybe that’s not so bad, but since you can pick up a basic 8GB drive for under $10 online, we’d kind of expect the ability to play some tunes on this thing for $40. And you can’t – the TR-808 is just a dumb, albeit flashy, flash drive. It does support USB 3.0, though. That being said, it’s still cool. If it’s your type of cool, you can preorder it now on the Alkotabeats website and expect it in your mailbox sometime near the beginning of October. They’ve also got a few other soundboard-inspired USB drives on their site for similar prices. Thanks to Engadget for pointing this out!
Posted in Tech News Tags: buying-the-8gb, Cool, electro-heads, flash, flash drive, news, paradigm, standard-flash, synth-freaks, Thing, usb, usb flash drive Comments OffResearcher Unveils N00ter, A Program That Detects ISP Traffic Shaping
August 5th, 2011 admin Sorry, optimists. If the net neutrality law working its way through Washington ends up getting approved, that doesn’t necessarily mean that ISPs will stop traffic-shaping on their networks. Even the government realizes that; the FCC chairman created the “Open Internet Challenge” earlier this year with the sole purpose of creating apps that detect naughty neutrality-hating ISPs red-handed. That competition’s been a bust, but researcher Dan Kaminsky’s announced a free new app at the Black Hat conference in Vegas that promises to dothe same thing. He calls it N00ter, and that makes us smile. The software can determine when an ISP artificially alters traffic speed to a website, Forbes reports . How’s it work? We’re glad you asked. Nooter acts like a proxy VPN. When you connect to a website, N00ter can spoof the incoming data to look like it’s coming from another website entirely. You can then turn off N00ter, then connect to the same site and measure its download time. If there’s a mismatch, the ISP is shaping traffic to one of the websites. In other words, you connect to Google, but N00ter tells the ISP you’re getting data from Bing, instead. The Google data that the ISP thinks is Bing data is downloaded and timed. You then connect to Google normally, with N00ter turned off, and time how long it takes to download the page. The exact same data is downloaded from the exact same server both times – only the first time around, your ISP thinks you’re connecting to Bing. That’s the key to N00ter, and to detecting traffic shaping. “All the other sources of change disappear and we’re left with the one cause, the ISP,” Kaminsky said. And in case nefarious ISPs try to get tricky and work around Nooter by filtering upstream traffic only, Kaminsky’s throwing together a N00ter companion program – the awesomely named Roto-N00ter – which spoofs traffic headed upstream to websites, rather than the data coming in from them. Kaminsky plans on releasing N00ter for free within a couple of weeks.
Posted in Tech News Tags: another-website, calls-it-n00ter, internet, internet filtering, long-it-takes, n00ter, news, only-the-first, traffic filtering Comments Off
