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| EBay founder rejects Icahn's call for PayPal spinoff Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 06:19 PM PST  (Reuters) - EBay Inc founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar rejected investor Carl Icahn's call to separate the company's fast-growing PayPal payments unit, saying the businesses were better off together. Omidyar, who is the largest shareholder in eBay with a stake of 8.37 percent, said separating PayPal from eBay was not a new idea and the board had evaluated the option but decided to keep the businesses together. Icahn, who disclosed a 2.15 percent stake in the e-commerce company last week, had also accused two long-time eBay board members, Marc Andreessen and Scott Cook, of having business interests that directly competed with eBay. Full Story | Top |
| Lawsuit against Google over Gmail faces hurdle, U.S. judge says Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 05:03 PM PST  By Dan Levine SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday said some plaintiffs accusing Google of improperly scanning their email faced a significant hurdle in their attempt to move forward with the lawsuit as a class action. Litigation brought by nine plaintiffs, some Gmail users, some not, was consolidated before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California, last year. The plaintiffs maintain Google violated several laws, including federal anti-wiretapping statutes by systematically crossing the "creepy line" to read private email messages in order to profit, according to court documents. Koh must decide whether the lawsuit can proceed as a class action, which would allow the plaintiffs to sue as a group and give them more leverage to extract a larger settlement. Full Story | Top |
| Bitcoin owners find safe place for digital currency: on paper Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 04:19 PM PST By Noel Randewich and Julie Gordon SAN FRANCISCO/VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Some savvy bitcoin investors have a solution to cyber-thieves and instability shaking online exchanges: they print out their virtual savings and hide them in the real world. The shuttering this week of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox and fears that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency have been lost or stolen are pushing investors to tighten their security. Enthusiasts around the world use online exchanges to conveniently buy and sell bitcoins but bitcoin savings can also be kept closer to home. Canadian mortgage broker and bitcoin enthusiast Chung Cheong writes out his secret number by hand and puts it in a safety deposit box. Full Story | Top |
| Mexico telecom regulator can police dominant firms: draft Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 03:03 PM PST By Simon Gardner and Dave Graham MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will give its new telecommunications regulator sweeping powers to police dominant telecommunications companies and TV broadcasters, right down to their prices and discounts, a draft bill that fleshes out a landmark reform passed last year shows. The Federal Institute for Telecommunications (IFT) will have far-reaching powers to order companies to sell assets, revoke concessions and share networks and infrastructure. Major market players like billionaire Carlos Slim's phone and Internet company America Movil, his fixed-line operator Telmex and TV broadcaster Televisa are widely expected to be declared dominant by the regulator. Full Story | Top |
| Canada blocks Rogers/Bell JV from grabbing more airwaves Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 02:58 PM PST  By Euan Rocha and Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada blocked a joint venture of two of the country's biggest wireless telephone carriers from acquiring more airwaves on Thursday, sending the latest pointed message that their dominant positions would be challenged in the fight to win over consumers. The government said it had declined a request to transfer 83 wireless spectrum licenses from NextWave to Inukshuk, which is owned by Rogers Communications and BCE Inc's Bell Canada unit. The decision may set an important precedent for a string of other spectrum deals being plotted as telecom companies rush to buy up as many prized airwaves as possible. Canada's Industry Minister James Moore said in a brief statement the sale of the 2.3 GHz airwave licenses would have created unacceptable levels of concentration of spectrum in the hands of incumbent carriers, hurting competition in regions including Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton and many mid-sized cities. Full Story | Top |
| Japan says any bitcoin regulation should be international Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 02:14 PM PST  By Sophie Knight and Takaya Yamaguchi TOKYO (Reuters) - Any regulation of the bitcoin crypto-currency should involve international cooperation to avoid loopholes, Japanese vice finance minister Jiro Aichi said on Thursday. Commenting on the closure this week of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest exchange for the bitcoin virtual currency, Aichi said the ministry would respond to the problems "if necessary", after finding out exactly what happened. "As for its legal position, a currency (under Japan's jurisdiction) would be coins or notes issued by the Bank of Japan. A document circulating on the internet saying that more than 744,000 bitcoins - worth around $423 million at current rates - were missing from Mt. Gox was created by a Tokyo-based consulting firm, said Ryan Selkis, a blogger who initially leaked scans of the document. Full Story | Top |
| Cyprus parliament rejects state sell-offs required for aid Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 12:32 PM PST  By Michele Kambas NICOSIA (Reuters) - International aid to cash-starved Cyprus was thrown into turmoil on Thursday after its parliament rejected a privatization plan, throwing into disarray the disbursement of a new tranche of financial assistance next month. The rejection dealt an unexpected setback to an administration that has gained plaudits in three reviews from its borrowers, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union, for meeting bailout commitments. Earlier, hundreds of workers at corporations facing privatization staged an angry protest outside parliament. Thursday's vote carried overtones of a chaotic bailout almost a year ago, when the parliament rejected terms for international aid, rendering the loan conditions significantly worse days later. Full Story | Top |
| British spy agency collected images of Yahoo webcam chats: Guardian Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:59 AM PST  By Julia Fioretti LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's spy agency GCHQ intercepted millions of people's webcam chats and stored still images of them, including sexually explicit ones, the Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 provided to the newspaper by the former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, revealed that the surveillance program, codenamed Optic Nerve, saved one image every five minutes from randomly selected Yahoo Inc webcam chats and stored them on agency databases. Optic Nerve, which began as a prototype in 2008 and was still active in 2012, was intended to test automated facial recognition, monitor GCHQ's targets and uncover new ones, the Guardian said. It said that under British law, there are no restrictions preventing images of U.S. citizens being accessed by British intelligence. Full Story | Top |
| Honey, can you pick up a tablet at the grocery store? Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:41 AM PST  By Leila Abboud and Paul Sandle BARCELONA (Reuters) - Originally derided as a pricey niche product for geeks, tablet computers have become so common that supermarkets are now selling their own brands, pushing out low-cost rivals. And since Apple pioneered the tablet in early 2010, the gadgets now available at the lower end of the market are becoming commodity items that non-technology companies can order from Asian contractors using common components. "This opens the door for not only players that can survive on low margins, but also for companies that use hardware as a channel for something else." Tesco in Britain and Walmart in the United States, are selling their own branded tablets pitched at customers unwilling to pay $400 or more for an Apple or Samsung product. Grocers like Tesco and France's Carrefour are not only trying to cash in on booming tablet sales, but also to nudge people to buy everything from films to groceries from their online stores, pushed through their devices, a lesson learned from Amazon and Google. Full Story | Top |
| Identity theft again leads U.S. top fraud complaints: FTC Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 11:22 AM PST The seemingly intractable problem of identity theft led the list of top consumer complaints once again in 2013, with U.S. consumers reporting that they lost over $1.6 billion to various types of fraud, the Federal Trade Commission said in a report released on Thursday. Of the 2 million consumer complaints that the commission received last year, 290,056, or about 14 percent, were related to identity theft, the FTC said. "This (identify theft) has topped the list since at least 2006," said David Torok, director of the FTC's Division of Planning and Information. A total of 43 percent of fraud victims were reached through email, while 21 percent were telephoned and another 20 percent were defrauded through a website, the FTC said. Full Story | Top |
| British man charged with hacking Federal Reserve computers Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 10:26 AM PST By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - A British man has been charged with hacking into computer servers belonging to the U.S. Federal Reserve, and then widely disclosing personal information of people who use them. Thursday's charges against Lauri Love were announced four months after he was arrested in England, and accused by U.S. and British authorities of hacking into various U.S. government computer systems, including those run by the military. According to the latest indictment, Love, who is in his late-20s, worked with other hackers from October 2012 to February 2013 to infiltrate the Federal Reserve's system. Prosecutors said Love boasted about his activity in a chatroom under names such as "peace" and "Smedley Butler," once saying he planned to "drop another little federal reserve bomb," meaning he would disclose confidential information. Full Story | Top |
| China's Xi to run Internet security body: state media Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 07:09 AM PST  BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping is to take the reins of a government body for Internet security and aims to turn China into a "cyber power", official state media reported on Thursday, as the country steadily tightens its grip online. Since coming to power, Xi has presided over an intensifying online crackdown that has drawn criticism from rights groups and dissidents at home and abroad. China has also faced growing accusations of carrying out state-sponsored hacking attacks around the world, charges the government strongly denies. ... Full Story | Top |
| Europe invites Apple, Google to discuss 'in-app' purchases Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 03:57 AM PST  By Luke Baker BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission announced plans on Thursday to tackle one of the scourges of the modern age - games on tablets and mobile phones that allow adults and children to rack up vast credit card bills by making "in-app" purchases. After concerns were raised by consumer groups in Denmark, Britain, Italy and Belgium, the Commission will hold talks with the industry, policymakers and consumer protection authorities on Thursday and Friday to consider clearer guidelines. More than half of online games in the EU are advertised as "free", the Commission says, despite many carrying hidden costs. "Misleading consumers is clearly the wrong business model and also goes against the spirit of EU rules on consumer protection," said the EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. attorney subpoenaed Mt Gox, other bitcoin businesses: source Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 03:25 AM PST  By Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara has sent subpoenas to Mt. Gox, other bitcoin exchanges, and businesses that deal in bitcoin to seek information on how they handled recent cyber attacks, a source familiar with the probe said on Wednesday. At least three exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals of bitcoins on February 7, including Mt. Gox, which was the largest at the time. Mt. Gox never resumed service before going dormant on Tuesday, leaving customers unable to recover their funds. "As there is a lot of speculation regarding Mt Gox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues," Karpeles said in a statement posted on the Mt. Gox website. Full Story | Top |
| Mt. Gox bitcoin customers could be out of luck, experts warn Thursday, Feb 27, 2014 02:46 AM PST By Joseph Ax and Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) - What can you do if you deposited bitcoins at Mt. Gox, which shuttered on Tuesday with little explanation? Customers of the bitcoin exchange may have little chance of recovering their funds if they prove to be missing, legal and regulatory experts said. Japan-based Mt. Gox went dark on Tuesday, weeks after a spate of cyber attacks, leaving customers unable to access their accounts and underscoring the risks associated with bitcoins. Mt. Gox had been the largest as recently as February 7, when it and other exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals following several cyber attacks. Full Story | Top |
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