Perhaps to protect future protégés from sexxxy scorn, Senator Chuck Schumer is asking the Justice Department to investigate the legality of the recent practice of employers obtaining employees' Facebook passwords. The AP reports that Schumer, along with Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, specifically want to know if it violates the Stored Communications Act or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Sadly, expressions like SMH, ROTFL, and "Amazeballs" remain legal. more ›

As the Times reports today, drones aren't just for indiscriminately killing foreign enemies and civilians anymore: real estate agents, feral hog-killers and Hollywood directors are all realizing the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles. Camera-equipped UAVs can cost as little as $300 and be controlled from an iPhone, and we're about to see a lot more of them. On Tuesday President Obama signed a law that forces the FAA to "allow police and first responders to fly drones under 4.4 pounds" at an altitude of under 400 feet. This is "good" news for the NYPD, which first asked the FAA about acquiring their own drones in December of 2010. more ›

Our 4 a.m. stiletto spree was rudely interrupted last night by a startling message in our inbox: "We are writing to let you know that there may have been illegal and unauthorized access to some of your customer account information on Zappos.com." We knew all this affable zaniness would get you in trouble someday, Zappos! more ›

Have you heard of this thing called "Twitter?" You type something, and then everyone in the world can read it! We should probably mention that it doesn't censor anything, so it's best not to—sigh. An eight-year veteran of the Orange, New Jersey Police Department was fired by the mayor of the city after posting variations of the "n-word" and criticizing the city itself on his Twitter account. more ›

Out of Facebook's 1 billion daily logins, 600,000 are hacked and compromised. Facebook used the British security firm Sophos for an analysis of their security breaches. Naturally, Facebook released a statement telling everyone how much they care about other people not finding out how much we love Nickelback, or that video of the guy doing the Dougie getting hit with an ice cream truck: "At Facebook, we take the privacy and safety of the people who use our site very seriously." They're also working 24/7 to ensure everyone’s information is safe and secure.” more ›

Remember how some people are really convinced that kids are watching tons of porn at the library? And how that's not actually the case, like, at all? Well, turns out a few Councilmen didn't get the message, and they're introducing a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to watch porn within 100 feet of a child in a public library. more ›

It looks like the specialty shopping website Etsy really stepped in the hand-crafted, organically-sourced dog doo. The popular site recently changed its privacy settings without adequately informing users they could opt out, and now their real names, reviews, favorites, and shopping histories are available to their Facebook friends. What this means is that if you're shopping for a gift for your Aunt Sylvia, and you use Etsy's new Facebook-linked "personalized suggestion" feature, you may find out a little too much information about Sylvia's kinky purchases. And some people are finding that if you search a name on Google, that person's Etsy profile comes right up! more ›

Facebook isn't just for ordering pizza, picking up hookers, and exchanging messages with underage kids—it's also a great place for teachers to make incredibly tasteless comments and bitch about their students! more ›

The Post, which just a few days ago featured a photograph of a dog leash and the headline "End Of His Rope" to describe the suicide of Mark Madoff, is now on his side, outraged that he was cremated without a memorial. However, his wife Stephanie explained in a statement that there would be a private event later this week, adding, "My husband Mark took his own life and regardless of what you feel about my father-in-law and his monstrous crimes, Mark's children are innocent victims and this is tragic for them. I am devastated and now raising two small children alone. I ask that you please show decency and understanding toward all of Mark's children and allow us to mourn in private." more ›

A Manhattan mother is suing the city and the Department of Education after discovering that her daughter's high school threw out hundreds of confidential student records into a street dumpster. Connie Click was anonymously tipped off that the School for the Physical City filled a dumpster on E. 25th street with 15 cardboard boxes full of private records last September, as it got ready to move to a new space on W. 14th Street. Those private records included the Social Security numbers, grades, signatures and even psychological reports of former students, including her daughter Skylar, who described herself as "disgusted" at the breach of privacy at the time. But it does leave us wondering: who ratted out the school? more ›

Anyone who believed the Census was just a way for the government to ferret out illegal immigrants may add some fuel to their fire after this story from the Times. In January, New Yorker Caroline Jamieson wrote to President Obama for help with her husband's immigration issues. A citizen of Cameroon, Hervé Fonkou Takoulo has an outstanding deportation order, but no criminal record, and she wanted help to keep him in the country. Six months later, immigration agents showed up at their door, arrested Takoulo and sent him to New Jersey to await deportation. Immigration officials apparently told him, "We’re ICE and we’re here to arrest you because President Obama sent the letter for a review, and we reviewed it and we denied it." more ›

Creating a social networking site isn't easy. It apparently took Mark Zuckerberg months of code writing and hacking to get the original thefacebook.com up and running, from which the mighty privacy killer we all know and love need once sprung. But four NYU students managed to raise the money for Diaspora*, what they're calling a "privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network" in just 12 days, thanks to people who are ready for their internet lives to be private again. more ›

Everyone's #1 addiction social networking site, Facebook, has been getting some bad press thanks to its new privacy settings. The site recently rolled out "social plug-ins" and "instant personalization," which enable users to share information like which websites they've visited or articles they've commented on—even if they don't want to. Everyone's profile would be automatically set to share this information, and users would need to opt-out through their privacy settings. Sen. Charles Schumer and three other senators are now calling for Facebook to make it easier for users to protect their privacy, saying, "They have sort of assumed all their users want their information to be given far and wide, which is a false assumption." more ›

High-rise residents might want to watch out for the threatened doorman strike, or maybe just be a little nicer to the guys carrying their groceries, because doormen are on the Internet! New York Magazine has a whole feature today on building workers who decide not to keep their resident's indiscretions a secret. more ›

On Tuesday Google launched this new social interaction feature called Buzz. No one fully understands it yet, but basically it lets Gmail users create sort of a one-stop Twitter/Facebook/Misc. interface (and bypass your employer's social media blocks). Or something. Some say it's the DEATH of Facebook, while others are vowing to "buzz your Gmail inboxes so hard they're going to explode!" But the exciting new what-have-you has also spread fear, because when you activate it, the default setting automatically lets all your Gmail contacts (like your wife) see the people you IM and e-mail most (your ex-wife!). Take it away, irate Buzz user: more ›

Surprisingly none of the views from your windows had people in them, but photographer Yasmine Chatila's new exhibit is all about voyeuristic views. The NY Post's Justin Rocket Silverman reports on her saucy Stolen Moments series, now on sale at the Upper East Side's Edelman Arts gallery. more ›

A source at the real estate agency that leased Jude Law an apartment in the heart of NYU's campus has no sympathy for the "Hamlet "star. The actor — who has been so terrorized by his collegiate fans that he was forced to throw oranges at them — was aware that he would be moving next to an NYU dormitory, an insider at Brown Harris Stevens told the Post. "Obviously, Jude rented this apartment knowing where it was," the source said. That makes some sense, considering that the Hayden Hall dorm, like almost every building near Washington Square Park, is decked out with large purple and white flags.
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It's hard to feel bad for Jude Law when we all lack privacy in the city — in much less swank digs. Turns out the actor moved in right next to the NYU freshman dorm Hayden Hall, and the student body is enjoying their new view. The dubious dorm dwellers have now leaked their secret to the NY Post (with paparazzi style photos), saying whenever they spot Law on his Washington Square balcony (sometimes with his son), there's complete chaos. more ›

Last month a judge ordered Google to reveal the e-mail and IP address of the person behind the Skanks in NYC blog, a Blogger site (owned by Google) dedicated to trashing former model Liskula Cohen. Now, besides the blogger's lawsuit against Google for unmasking her, the company has to defend itself against yet another skank-inspired court filing. Holiday Image, a Queens company that creates Christmas displays, is suing Google to identify an impostor who sent a defamatory e-mail to its biggest client, the Gap. The lawsuit says someone opened a Gmail account under the name of Holiday Image's CEO, Matthew Schwam, and e-mailed Gap, badmouthing the retailer's employees as "airhead California people" who are "in they're [sic] own little world." The e-mail also said Holiday Image cheated Gap out of $100,000, and was being investigated by the IRS. It's unclear why an individual pretending to be Schwam would conclude the e-mail by writing, "There are other moral and un-criminal vendors out there. Explore your options!" But Holiday Image wants a preliminary injunction preventing Google from deleting any records related to the Gmail account, so that it can sue the e-mailer for defamation. more ›

The NYCLU has filed a new lawsuit against the NYPD. This time around, the NYCLU wants information about the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, which involves hundreds (up to thousands) of cameras filming activity downtown. more ›