Gaping hole in Google service exposes thousands to ID theft
Exclusive Vast number of car insurance hunters at risk by flaw
A security flaw accessible via Google's UK motor insurance aggregator Google Compare has potentially exposed vast numbers of drivers to identity theft.
The vulnerability, the existence of which has been verified by The Register, made it possible for comprehensive personal details - including names, addresses, phone numbers and …
Tru unveils iPad local rate data-pricing for UK, US and Oz
'Local anywhere' outfit does fondleslabs
Multi-country "local anywhere" mobile operator Tru is launching a £20-a-month iPad bundle that currently provides local rate broadband in the UK, US and Australia. A similar package will be available in the US "shortly", according to the company, which also intends to add Spain, Hong Kong and the Netherlands to its roster of …
The Register and Australia-New Zealand
A brief word about what we're up to
As some of you have already noticed, in the last few weeks The Reg has been running more locally-sourced stories in Australia-New Zealand. Our plans here are still in soft launch mode, but we think it's appropriate (possibly even overdue) that we give local readers a head up about them now.
For quite a few years now The Register …
MS tacks Mozilla 'Do Not Track' header onto W3C submission
Before you can say 'embrace and extend' ...
In a move that melds sneaky with shrewd, Microsoft has added Mozilla's Do Not Track browser header to the submission of its Tracking Protection proposal to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This potentially leaves Google – the third of the three contenders for privacy-enhanced browsing – isolated in a self-regulatory alliance …
Murdoch, The Daily, and life without the web
News Corp boss trumpets big, beefy brands
News Corp doesn't get a whole lot of love on the web, nor does it seek it. Just over a year ago company chairman Rupert Murdoch described news aggregation as "almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories… it's theft", and shortly afterwards the paywalls went up at the Times and Sunday Times. Web readership plummeted, …
ID card astroturf - No2ID beats the truth out of IPS
Er yes, nearly all the happy campers did work for us
A cackling Phil Booth, No2ID National Coordinator, writes to tell us that six months after he first pestered the Identity & Passport Service about its quotes from ID card-toting happy campers in its publicity material, it has confessed - um yes, all but one of those quoted worked for the government.
"We can confirm that eight of …
French regulator orders Google to reinstate Gatso-buster's account
AdWords terms discriminatory, not transparent, lack objectivity...
Google has "a dominant position in search advertising", said France's antitrust authority today as it gave the company four months to open up about its cancellation of the AdWords account of Navx, a vendor of speed camera warning devices.
Ominously for Google, the regulator also noted the company's 90 per cent share of the …
Did the iPad just save Wired, and Conde-Nast?
High price, high sales, glossy ads, trebles all round
Saving the whole of the newspaper industry is a big ask, even for a "magical and revolutionary" device, but there might just be hope for the magazine business. The rapaciously-priced ($4.99 for this month's issue) iPad edition of Wired has comfortably outsold the somewhat cheaper print edition, and it's not even ad-free. On the …
Apple adds 'make the web go away' button to Safari 5
Ads, branding, icky typefaces disappeared by Reader
Steve Jobs didn't get around to mentioning Safari 5 in his WWDC keynote last night, but it rolled out anyway shortly after he finished up, and today publishers throughout the world are surely beginning to wonder, 'hang on, what's this Reader thing?'
Safari 5 has a nice little button next to the URL that effectively kills the …
Prisoner of iTunes - the iPad file transfer horror
The conflict between consumption and productivity
First the good news - it's light, compact, reasonably capable for typing, and it has enough battery life for you not to be forever worrying about where your next power socket's coming from. These advantages alone are sufficient for me to take the iPad seriously for note-taking and for document viewing and manipulation, and to …
Apple opens international iPad store ahead of rollout
Still keeping apps to itself, though
Apple has opened the iPad section of the iTunes app store for business outside the United States - kinda, sorta. Previously, iPads not being on sale yet anywhere other than the US, the iPad just wouldn't let you log into the app store directly unless you had a US iTunes account. Now it will, although in various respects the non- …
The commercial cuckoo hiding in the BBC's global mission
Nation shall speak Top Gear and Doctor Who unto nation
Check the calendar dates and a possible cunning plan emerges. On Thursday 6th May, there was a strong possibility that the UK would elect a Tory government, one that would be eyeing BBC funding suspiciously. On Tuesday 11th of May, BBC director general Mark Thompson gave a speech at Chatham House on "Nation Speaking Peace unto …
The iPad, news saviour? Murdoch may have something here
iPad diaries If you buy newspapers, why wouldn't you buy this?
Rupert Murdoch, in the face of widespread scepticism, thinks he can charge for news on the internet - but what if he's right? And the dead tree publishers, the derided MSM who initially welcomed the iPad as a potential saviour - what if they were right, too? Even if only a little bit?
After time spent playing with the iPad I …
Identity & Passport Service in suicide bid?
And the Border Agency doesn't look well...
All is not well - as we suggested might be the case this morning - at the Identity and Passport Service. Matter of fact, it may have just killed itself.
A sad little note posted today by IPS reads: "Both Parties that now form the new Government stated in their manifestos that they will cancel Identity Cards and the National …
Biometric passport 2.0 scrapped alongside ID cards, NIR
But will they take Identity out of IPS, or just change the name?
Second-generation biometric passports will be scrapped alongside ID cards and the National Identity Register by the new Tory-LibDem government, probably as part of a merger between the LibDem Freedom Bill, and the Great Repeal Bill advocated by some sections of the Tory party. It isn't as yet entirely clear what will be in this …
Lost iPhone 4G vendor loaner outed
A month later, Wired gets back to him...
The man who found Apple's lost iPhone 4G and gave it to Gizmodo for $5,000 has been outed by Wired, the Dick Rowe of hot hardware. Wired identified Brian J Hogan of Redwood City, California via clues on social networking sites, having apparently failed to respond when they were emailed about the phone at the end of March. …
Apple, the iPhone 4G, the cops and the click-tart
Is going to jail part of the Gawker media plan?
Impressive. A not insignificant section of the intertubes is holding Apple entirely responsible for a brutal, paramilitary-style dawn raid by heavily-armed cops (we exaggerate, before they do) on the lovely home of peaceful citizen and Gizmodo editor Jason Chen. And all we actually know that Apple has done is first, ask Gizmodo …
Cops raid Gizmodo editor in pursuit of iPhone 4G 'felony'
Search warrant invalid, counters Gawker
Gizmodo editor Jason Chen has been raided by Silicon Valley's computer crime force in hot pursuit of the case of the missing iPhone prototype. According to a bulletin published by Gizmodo today, they broke down the front door to gain entry, and departed some hours later with a truck containing Chen's computer equipment.
The …
UK Gov, and privacy invasion without a safety net
Comment Your data, their hands, that button
It’s scarcely unusual. You’re preparing an email, you start typing an email address, autocomplete fills one in from you, and then you may or may not notice as the email speeds off that it’s going to someone entirely different from the intended recipient. If the email includes personal details of 10,000 people and the person you’ …
Guy Kewney, pioneer, guru, friend - RIP
RIP We'll all miss you
When I first met Guy Kewney, who died early this morning after a long struggle with cancer, he was already firmly established as star columnist at Personal Computer World - then, and for years to come, the UK's flagship IT publication. Until he started working for The Register a couple of years back, that was one of the few …
IPS turns to asylum for help with ID scheme database
Coming over here, stealing our Big Brother databases...
Plans to use the Department of Work & Pensions' giant Customer Information Systems database for the UK's identity scheme have been officially abandoned, in favour of an enhancement of the UK Border Agency's biometric database for asylum seekers. First they came for the foreigners, as they say...
According to the Identity & …
Blunkett: 'The dog howls when I whip out my ID card!'
Lifetime Privacy Menace in shock barking claim
"Even the dog howls when I bring it home," claimed former Home Secretary and Big Brother Awards Lifetime Menace as he waved his ID card at Privacy International's 20th birthday party last night.
Speaking to a not wholly sympathetic crowd, the Menace himself claimed to have been "at least partially converted" to the cause of …
Home Office planning to brick version 1 ID cards in 2012?
Yes, they really could get more useless
The current generation of UK ID card is, apparently, the wrong kind of ID card, and is likely to be upgraded to incorporate new features by 2012.
These are likely to include chip and pin for online transactions and ID verification, both of which have been spoken of in the past by ID minister Meg Hillier. The upgrade, however, …
Minister: Banks should give ID cards to people with no money
Can't prove who you are? Here's £30 quid then...
Home Office Identical Minister Meg Hillier has hit on a brilliant wheeze that could solve all her social exclusion problems. Banks need proof of ID when you open an account, right? Banks give people free stuff when they open an account, right? Sooooo... banks could give people free ID cards when they open accounts!
This cunning …
Manchester's on fire for ID cards, claims ID minister
Support doubles to hit magic 10k mark... allegedly
Home Office Identity Minister Meg Hillier is now pitching ID cards as a weapon against social exclusion, and has mysteriously truffled-up nearly 6,000 extra ID card enthusiasts, meaning enrolments will hit 10,000 next week. Was it not just last week she said they'd only had 4,307 applications? Yes it was.
Furthermore, says …
Android - the winning formula for tablets and netbooks?
It's the only game in town, says the maker of the other iPad
What might the iPad have been? Apple announced it as a Magical and Revolutionary Device, defining "an entirely new category". But it actually only addresses a small part of the yawning gap between mobile handsets and notebook computers, where there's still a lot of defining to be done. There's space there for dramatically …
FT shock discovery: EU Google probe has MS link
Google 'Borg persecuting us' campaign gathers pace
Top sleuths from the Financial Times have uncovered the shock information that Foundem, the minnow that filed a complaint against Google with the European Commission two weeks ago, is in league with Microsoft-funded Brussels lobbying outfit ICOMP, and known Microsoft lobbyist Burson-Marsteller. Heavens! They must have had to …
Antitrust incoming? Google hit by EU complaint, FCC filing
Turning search into powerful marketing channel for own services, claims Foundem
Shopping comparison site Foundem this week fired the opening shots in the coming Google antitrust battle, with a complaint to the European Commission and a filing with the US Federal Communications Commission accusing Google of posing "an immediate threat to competition and innovation." The US filing is in response to the FCC's …
Where does Mozilla go when the monopoly witch is dead?
After MS, after browsers - we talk to Mozilla head Mitchell Baker
So what would Mozilla do if it ever won? The question, which The Register asked of Mozilla Foundation head Mitchell Baker a couple of weeks ago, may be slightly premature, but Mozilla most certainly isn't losing, and The Beast, while still gripping hold of a goodly chunk of the browser market, is bloodied and reeling.
Scarcely a …
With MS funding, No2ID gains entry to EU eID group
Project STORK and IPS now duly surveilled
ID card campaign group No2ID has - with a little financial backing from Microsoft - won admission to the industry working group of Project STORK, the EU programme for devising interoperability standards for electronic ID systems across Europe.
Representing "civil society interests", No2ID will be able to attend and report on …
Navigon adds Twitter, Facebook to satnav iPhone app
'I'm being arrested - running late'
A Twittering satnav - what could possibly go wrong? The next version of Navigon's MobileNavigator iPhone app, 1.5.0, will feature both Twitter and Facebook integration, allowing you to alert you friends, family and millions of fans with your whereabouts, destination and estimated time of arrival.
This might be helpful for the …
'You own the road!': Google gets spanking from media giant
'Go buy another car', responds Mountain View
Google chief legal officer David Drummond was on the receiving end of an unexpected mugging yesterday, as the CEO of Burda Media - one of Germany's largest and most successful publishing companies - tore into the Jolly G Giant, accusing it of controlling the market, lack of transparency and, effectively, running off with the …
Orange chief engulfed by Apple Tablet feeding frenzy
Actually just said he'd read a magazine about it...
Is this a record? With just four innocuous words at the tail end of a French TV interview yesterday morning, France Telecom number two Stephane Richard triggered a blogosphere-fanboi Apple Tablet feeding frenzy. He had said the launch of the beast was imminent, claimed an excitable French source, while Techcrunch, confirming the …
IPS in cunning 'get an ID card, get crucified' scheme
Nail down your identity for keeps...
The Identity and Passport Service's hilariously triste efforts to make ID cards cuddly has passed another millstone (shurely 'milestone?' - Ed). As a follow-up to plastering its propaganda with happy fingerprints, IPS now has a flash animation of them as well - derived, weirdly, from a movie you might be familiar with.
With a …
You and what Android? The Google iPhone killer that isn't
Comment The Mountain View hippies just ain't hard enough
So is it the Google phone or not? In the Nexus One, Google has produced something rather like an iPhone, something that in some senses may seem better than an iPhone, but something that in hardware terms is an iteration rather than a game-changer. But does Google, the company that wasn't going to do hardware, now do hardware? …
My hospital HAL - Google man moots syringe that says no
Late bid for crazed Google exec of the year award
Google VP Jonathan Rosenberg's windy sermon on 'Open' has been widely panned, but his interesting intervention on identity, health records and medical procedures has been little remarked, so far. Which is a pity, considering how close Google's High Command is to the High Command of the party likely to win next year's election, …
Traffic reports for the wrong country? There's an iPhone app for that
Reg uncovers weird Navigon 'feature', doesn't get money back
It's central London and it's time to go home. So you just fire up Navigon MobileNavigator before you go, to check Traffic Live for potential bottlenecks. Hmm, looks like there's congestion around the port of Dunkerque, so we'd best rule out that short cut to Hackney via Dover and Lille.
But on the other hand, there are no …
MS kills 'Bing buys the news' furore, but Google could still lose it
Imaginary story confirmed imaginary shock
Microsoft has firmly ruled out the notion of paying news publishers to de-index their content from Google. But you knew that already. Speaking at the unveiling of new Bing features in San Francisco yesterday, senior online services VP Satya Nadella said that Microsoft was not focused on getting exclusive content, and that "there …
Google moves tanks onto property market's lawns
Making stuff cheaper for estate agents? This might not be popular...
Google's latest target for freeing to death is, says the Financial Times, the UK property market. According to the paper, the company intends to launch a service offering estate agents free property listings early next year, and to bankroll it through advertising.
Currently UK online property listings are conducted via portals …
Google shrinks its door to free WSJ stories, slightly
Small, possibly meaningless concession to Murdoch?
In a possibly meaningless response to Rupert Murdoch's War on Free, Google is to allow publishers to limit the number of free pages users of Google News can read on their sites.
Up to now Google News has provided a mechanism for users to get access to content that is otherwise subscription-only (in, say, the Wall Street Journal …
Google and Murdoch - a divorce made in heaven?
Analysis It's about money, but not bribes from Bing
Microsoft is known for its robust methods, but the widespread belief that it is attempting to 'buy' the news, offering to pay Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to de-index its news sites from Google speaks of extreme brutality, even by the Borg's standards. And think, people - if Microsoft really is offering to bribe major publishers …
When algorithms attack, does Google hear you scream?
Analysis Inside Google's search penalties gulag
One day in June 2006, search startup Foundem vanished from Google. Foundem is the developer of a "universal vertical search" technology, and currently offers comparison shopping across a range of consumer and travel categories by drilling down into vendor sites and returning details of actual flights and products. But on 26 June …
Comparison shopping sites not wicked after all, says Google
As it intros comparison shopping services
Google is adding "AdWords Comparison Ads" to its armoury of weapons designed to squeeze even more money out of advertisers "make ads more relevant and useful".
The ads will list prices and features for multiple products from paying advertisers on a single page, thus making it easier for shoppers to find the best deal without …
The Twitter storm that saved freedom of speech
Comment But not exactly, not really...
So was it Twitter what won it? Yesterday, in the wake of a flurry of Twitter and blogosphere outrage, the 'super-injunction' banning the Guardian (and, we should note, everybody else) from reporting details of a parliamentary question effectively collapsed. "A few tweets and freedom of speech is restored," the Graun itself said …
Phorm takes a bullet for the advertising industry
Lightning conductor or plague carrier? You decide...
The unlikely image of Phorm boss Kent Ertugrul as some kind of John the Baptist of behavioural targeting was conjured yesterday as advertising industry leaders pondered the future of online advertising.
"I think from a media owner perspective it was good that Phorm drew the sting for everybody else," Microsoft Advertising sales …
Apple and Snow Leopard take-downs - just say no
It's fun to throw out those D-M-C-A-s...
On Tuesday evening UK time The Register received a take-down notice from San Francisco lawyers acting on behalf of Apple. Our hosting company, Rackspace, received a similar notice, Apple's beef being that The Register had posted "confidential trade secrets" in our First Look at Snow Leopard.
You will notice that we have not …
The Internet's most evil company?
The Great Satan of the Blogosphere examined
Information wants to be free? Au contraire, information wants to tell you all about itself, where, how and if you can use it, and it reserves the right to sue the crap out of you if you don't pay attention. Or at least, that seems to be the way a growing number of traditional publishing organisations view it - the internet has …
KIlling ID cards and the NIR - the Tory and LibDem plans
Analysis This week the parties opened up on how they'll go about it
A future Tory government will cancel the ID Card Scheme - but, as The Register has asked several times, what does that mean? A broad commitment to abandon ID cards, even to cancel the National Identity Register database, leaves a certain amount of wiggle-room, particularly if - as is Tory policy - you're likely to be keeping …
Tory plan for MS, Google, others to hold NHS records floated
Cameroon Google-love suddenly becomes a disadvantage?
The Conservative Party has declined to comment on claims by the Times that under a future Tory government, UK health records "could be transferred to Google or Microsoft." This is described by the paper as "the first concrete proposal to emerge from the Tories' 'post-bureaucratic age' agenda."
The proposal, however, is less …
'Non-compulsory' ID cards poised for a makeover?
Analysis Kinder, gentler, don't mention the database
It's straight out of the New Labour Labs spin book. The Home Office executes a U-turn on compulsory ID cards, while the Home Secretary does the rounds of the media insisting that they were never compulsory in the first place, and that he is affirming his commitment to them by accelerating their rollout.
But there's a surprising …
