Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

Dec 10, 1:11 PM EST GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATING MAKERS OF CELLPHONE APPS BY RICHARD LARDNER ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is investigating whether software companies that make cellphone apps have violated the privacy rights of children by quietly collecting personal information from phones and sharing it with advertisers and data brokers, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday. Such apps can capture a child's physical location, phone numbers of their friends and more. The FTC described the marketplace for mobile applications - dominated by online stores operated by Apple and Google - as a digital danger zone with inadequate oversight. In a report by the FTC's own experts, it said the industry has grown rapidly but failed to ensure the privacy of young consumers is adequately protected. The FTC did not say which or how many companies it was investigating. Among 400 apps designed for kids examined by the FTC, most failed to inform parents a...

Text messages direct to your contact lens New technology that will allow information, such as text messages from a mobile phone, to be projected onto a contact lens worn in the human eye has been developed by Belgian researchers. By Bruno Waterfield, Brussels12:52PM GMT 07 Dec 2012 Ghent University's centre of microsystems technology has developed a spherical curved LCD display which can be embedded in contact lenses and handle projected images using wireless technology. "Now that we have established the basic technology, we can start working towards real applications, possibly available in only a few years," said Professor Herbert De Smet. Unlike previous contact lens displays, which are limited to a few small pixels to make up an image, the new technology allows the whole curved surface of the lens to be used. One application suggested by the researchers is a "one pixel, fully covered contact lens acting as adaptable sunglasses". ...

Online sales tax to be added to defense authorization bill 10:34 AM 12/04/2012 This may be the last Christmas of online shopping without paying sales tax. A proposed online sales tax has been offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, much to the ire of opponents. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a group that opposes this move, says that an online sales tax will burden small businesses, “some of the most promising candidates for future economic growth.” “This proposal, and other online sales tax collection proposals like it, would allow states to penalize the innovative e-commerce business model by targeting small online businesses as convenient sources (and collectors) of revenue,” said CCIA President and CEO Ed Black. The Marketplace Fairness Act, and its House counterpart the Marketplace Equity Act, seek to clarify, and arguably overturn, a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that requires retailers to have a physical presen...

They Can Hear You Now: Verizon Patent Could Listen In On Customers December 4, 2012 11:43 AM Verizon Communications filed a patent for technology that could listen in on conversations and detect the amount of people in customers’ living rooms. WASHINGTON (CBS DC) – Verizon has filed a patent for targeting ads that collect information from infrared cameras and microphones that can detect the amount of people and types of conversations happening in customers’ living rooms. The set-top box technology is not the first of its kind – Comcast patented similar monitoring technology in 2008 that recommended content to users based on people it recognized in the room. Google TV also proposed a patent that would use video and audio recorders to figure out exactly how many people in a room were watching its broadcast. Verizon filed for the application in May 2011, but the report was published last week due to laws stating that all patent applications be published after 18 months...

Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages State and local law enforcement groups want wireless providers to store detailed information about your SMS messages for at least two years -- in case they're needed for future criminal investigations. by Declan McCullagh  December 3, 2012 9:00 AM PST AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and other wireless providers would be required to record and store information about Americans' private text messages for at least two years, according to a proposal that police have submitted to the U.S. Congress. CNET has learned a constellation of law enforcement groups has asked the U.S. Senate to require that wireless companies retain that information, warning that the lack of a current federal requirement "can hinder law enforcement investigations." They want an SMS retention requirement to be "considered" during congressional discussions over updating a 1986 privacy law for the cloud c...

Clashes over Internet rules to mark Dubai meeting Posted: Dec 02, 2012 11:01 PM PST Updated: Dec 03, 2012 6:02 AM PST By By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.N.'s top telecommunications overseer sought Monday to quell worries about greater Internet controls emerging from global talks in Dubai, but any attempts for major Web regulations will likely face stiff opposition from groups led by a high-powered U.S. delegation. The 11-day conference, seeking to update codes last reviewed when the Web was virtually unknown, highlights the fundamental shift from tightly managed telecommunications networks to the borderless sweep of the Internet. Some at the Dubai conference, including a 123-member U.S. delegation with envoys from tech giants such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., worry that any new U.N. oversight could be used by nations such as China and Russia to justify further tightening of Web blocks and monitoring. ...

German lawmakers condemn Google campaign against copyright law By Madeline Chambers BERLIN | Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:22am EST (Reuters) - Senior German politicians have denounced as propaganda a campaign by Google to mobilize public opinion against proposed legislation to let publishers charge search engines for displaying newspaper articles. Internet lobbyists say they are worried the German law will set a precedent for other countries such as France and Italy that have shown an interest in having Google pay publishers for the right to show their news snippets in its search results. Lawmakers in Berlin will debate the bill in the Bundestag (lower house) on Thursday. Google says the law would make it harder for users to retrieve information via the Internet. Google launched its campaign against the bill on Tuesday with advertisements in German newspapers and a web information site called "Defend your web". "Such a law would hit every Internet us...