Facebook Developers Sold User IDs to Data Brokers - PC Magazine

In the wake of a controversy surrounding the security of Facebook user IDs, the social-networking site on Friday admitted that several of its developers sold UIDs to data brokers.

"As we examined the circumstances of inadvertent UID transfers, we discovered some instances where a data broker was paying developers for UIDs," Facebook engineer Mike Vernal wrote in a blog post.

Private user data was not sold, Vernal said. Facebook has since suspended the developers for six months. If they wish to return to the Facebook developer community, they will have "to submit their data practices to an audit in the future to confirm that they are in compliance with our policies," he wrote.

Facebook did not reveal the names of the developers in question except to say that they are about a "dozen, mostly smaller" developers that are not among the top 10 applications on the site. Facebook also reached a deal with data broker Rapleaf whereby the company will delete all Facebook UIDs and stop conducting any activities on Facebook Platform going forward.

"In taking these steps, we believe we are taking the appropriate measures to ensure people stay in control of their information, while providing developers the tools they need to create engaging social experiences," Vernal wrote.

The issue over Facebook UIDs made headlines several weeks ago when the Wall Street Journal published a story that said Facebook apps share users' personal information with advertising networks and other Internet-tracking companies. That, apparently, did include the top 10 apps on Facebook, as well as Rapleaf. Facebook later said it would encrypt UIDs going forward.

On Friday, Facebook further clarified its app privacy policy to "state that UIDs cannot leave your application or any of the infrastructure, code, and services you need to build and run your application," Vernal wrote.

Services like Akamai, Amazon Web Services, and other analytics options are allowed "as long as those services keep UIDs confidential to your application." This week, Facebook will also release a way to share identifiers anonymously with third parties like content partners, advertisers, or other service providers. Developers will be required to use this mechanism by January 1.

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High court rejects campaign finance appeal - Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court is passing up an election eve chance to weigh in on campaign finance disclosure rules for groups that raise and spend money independently of candidates.

The justices on Monday rejected an appeal from the conservative group SpeechNow.org, which want wants to limit what it has to tell the Federal Election Commission about its activities.

The court's action a day before the 2010 midterm elections leaves in place a federal appeals court decision that struck down limits on contributions to SpeechNow and similar independent groups, but upheld disclosure requirements.

Outside groups have so far spent more than $264 million, more than four times as much as they did four years ago.

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Sarkozy, embassies in far-left letter bomb plot - ABC Online

Posted November 2, 2010 01:27:00

Police in Athens said they had arrested four people on Monday after uncovering a plot to send parcel bombs to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and three foreign embassies in the Greek capital.

Police said one of the four people arrested was a suspected member of an obscure group that specialises in arson attacks on offices and homes of politicians, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.

One of the packages, addressed to Mexico's embassy in Athens, ignited as it was being sorted in the headquarters of the courier company, slightly injuring a female employee.

"There was no explosion but we saw smoke coming out and heard a woman shouting," a neighbour told state television NET.

"I took a fire extinguisher into the room. It was full of smoke and smelled of gunpowder, you needed a mask to go in there."

The two men, aged 22 and 24, were arrested in the central district of Pangrati.

Police said in a statement that they were intending to mail a total of four parcel bombs, adding that they were both armed with Glock handguns. One of the men wore a bullet-proof vest and a wig.

From a postal slip found on the suspects, the police tracked down and exploded a second parcel at a neighbouring courier company, addressed to the Dutch embassy.

Two more devices found on the detainees were intended for French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the Belgian embassy, the police said.

The Dutch foreign ministry said it had been informed by the Greek authorities "and remain in close contact with them."

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei had also planted a small explosive device in a garbage bin outside the Greek parliament in January, after police claimed to have arrested several of the group's members in raids around the capital.

Attacks on government and police targets are relatively frequent in Greece and are commonly attributed to left-wing extremists, though they are usually designed to avoid causing injury.

Parcel bombs are rare, but a similar device fatally injured the then police minister's security chief in June after being smuggled into the heavily-guarded ministry building.

Police have not linked any known group to that attack.

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei appeared in early 2008, and has continued operating despite the arrest of nine of its purported members last year.

- AFP

Tags: world-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, france, greece

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Republicans, Democrats Make Final Push For Votes - Voice of America

  01 November 2010

Former President Bill Clinton holds up four-month old Natalie Fontana of Washingtonville, N.Y. while making a campaign stop for Rep. John Hall in Harriman, N.Y. (far left) 30 Oct 2010

Republicans and Democrats are making a final push for votes, on the eve of U.S. elections that experts say could give the minority Republicans control of at least one chamber of Congress.   

A new poll indicates that Republicans have a more commanding lead than either party has had in decades before a midterm vote.  The USA Today/Gallup survey says 55 percent of the 1,500 people asked say they plan to support Republicans in the elections, the widest margin since 1974.

Analysts are expecting Republicans to make enough gains to take control of the House of Representatives, but to fall short of winning a majority in the Senate.  Democrats currently control both houses of Congress.

The economy remains the main source of trouble for Democrats this year.  Republican leaders say the political energy and momentum is on their side this year, just as it was with the Democrats in 2006 and 2008.

At stake Tuesday are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate.  A number of states also are holding votes for governorships, local officials and ballot measures.

President Barack Obama recently wound up a four-state campaign tour in which he sought to rally fellow Democrats, to limit the expected opposition gains.

During an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio Sunday, Mr. Obama blamed the current economic sluggishness and high unemployment rate on mistakes made by the previous Republican administration.  But Republicans have been blaming Mr. Obama.

Republican gains likely would make it more difficult for the president to win approval for his legislative initiatives.

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Japan summons Russian ambassador over Kuril islands visit - Telegraph.co.uk

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits a young family during his visit to Kunashir one of the Kuril islands Photo: EPA

Mr Medvedev ignored Japanese pleas to stay away and became the first Russian leader since the fall of the Soviet Union to visit the disputed territory that the Russians call the Kuril Islands and the Japanese the Northern Territories.

The question of who owns the islands, which were seized by Soviet troops at the end of the Second World War, is so bitter that Russia and Japan have yet to formally sign a post-war peace treaty sixty five years after hostilities ended.

Japan reacted with fury and said it still wanted the islands back. Naoto Kan, the Japanese prime minister, said the visit was "very regrettable".

In a measure of how seriously Tokyo was taking the matter, it summoned Russia's ambassador to Japan for an explanation.

The Kremlin in response summoned Japan's ambassador to Moscow in retaliation, professing itself baffled by such a strong Japanese reaction.

"The reaction of the Japanese side to President Medvedev's visit to the Kurils is unacceptable," said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. "This is our land, and the Russian President is visiting Russian land," he added, signalling there was no room for compromise.

Mr Medvedev spent four hours on one of the four islands that Tokyo wants back visiting a power plant, a kindergarten and a fish processing plant. But the diplomatic fallout from his visit is likely to reverberate for much longer.

The row comes as Mr Medvedev prepares to attend a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organisation in Japan later this month.

The timing of his historic visit to the contested islands was particularly sensitive for Japan. Tokyo is only just recovering from a diplomatic spat with China over a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea that saw Japan detain and then release the captain of a Chinese fishing boat under massive pressure from Beijing.

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