Estonia goes to the polls, online

About one in 30 Estonian voters cast ballots over the Internet this week when the country became the first in the world to allow online voting for national parliamentary elections. Voters in the Baltic country were given the chance to vote via the Internet from February 26-28 before the actual polling day on March 4. A total of 30,275 out of 940,000 registered voters cast their ballots via the Web, said the officials. ...more

Anti Spyware Coalition defines what it is spyware

A new industry grouping calling itself the Anti Spyware Coalition (ASC) has begun its life with an existential question: What exactly is the spyware that it is anti? The group has come up with a set of definitions that will form the basis of its activities. In its draft guidelines it has defined spyware as technologies that 'impair users' control over material changes that affect their user experience, privacy, or system security; use of their system resources, including what programs are installed on their computers; or collection, use, and distribution of their personal or otherwise sensitive information'. It has also come up with definitions for such nasties as 'adware,' 'port scanner,' and 'screen scraper'. ...more

Councils bar camera phones

Two councils in Ireland, one north and one south of the border, have banned camera phones from local authority-owned facilities as fears grow that they could be used by paedophiles to take pictures of children. Coleraine Borough Council in the north banned the phones earlier this week, while Dublin City Council revealed yesterday that it had taken the decision to ban the phones after a number of its leisure centres had unilaterally acted to protect users' privacy. The UK's Institute of Sport and Recreation Management has published detailed guidelines on the 'Photographing of children in sports centres/swimming pools' (available in PDF). ...more

Microsoft makes scanners available for detecting IE flaws

Microsoft has said it has made scanners available over the weekend so that worried Windows users can check they haven't been affected by attacks stemming from the latest bug in IE made public last week. Stephen Toulouse, who leads the Microsoft Security Response Center, wrote in the team blog that they had been working round the clock since the flaws were publicised and that while levels of attacks were thought to be low, scanning and removal tools are available at the Windows Live Safety Center. Toulouse says a patch for the flaw should be ready in time for the April security bulletin in a couple of week's time. ...more

Murdoch makes his presence felt on the Web

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is in an expansive mood when it comes to his Internet properties. Speaking to an audience in New York, Murdoch predicted that MySpace Video will overtake the market leader YouTube in 60 to 70 days. This is a big claim given that only two months ago YouTube said it was serving 100 million clips a day and claimed to account for 60 per cent of all videos watched on the Web. ...more