Help! Someone has stolen the internet

Lots of nasty things happen on the internet. So the US National Security Agency (NSA), charged with stopping people doing nasty things, has decided it would be best to have a copy of it. The entire web, that is. According to a former worker at AT&T, telecommunications companies are feeding the internet records of their customers – e-mail, search and other information – into a giant NSA “sink” for further analysis. And, much in the fashion of a Robert Ludlum thriller, this all takes place in a room on the sixth floor of an AT&T office block in San Francisco, it is claimed. “That was my ‘Aha!’ moment,” said Mark Klein, a former technician at AT&T, who saw details of the building’s elaborate wiring. “They’re sending the entire internet to the secret room.”
washingtonpost.com
nsa.gov

Yahoo! gets tough

Yahoo! and Hotmail both said this week that they will refuse to accept any more registrations from users based in Iran. Technology bloggers, however – typically not too concerned about geopolitics – saw this as a blessing, because Iran’s web users would no longer be exposed to what were regarded as lesser mail services. “Oh no! They can’t create accounts through Yahoo! and Microsoft now! Whatever shall they do?” wrote one. “I think they’re doing Iran a favour,” said another.
theregister.co.uk
yahoo.com

Credit where it’s due

Victims of identity theft in the US will be able to claim money for time spent getting their lives back together. Under the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act, millions of people would be able to seek “restitution” – presumably measured in loss of earnings – for time “reasonably” spent correcting the harm. Criminals should be minded not to clone the credit card of anyone like Bill Gates.
news.com
govtrack.us

All roads lead to Google

Google, running out of places to colonise, is being rolled out in service stations. From next month, petrol pumps will allow drivers to use Google’s maps service. Initially, though, they will have to choose from a list of predetermined places, most of them community services.
ap.org
gilbarco.com

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Source: Times Online Nov 2-Nov 8, worldwide users of site