Block Annoying Messages Easily on Gmail

Gmail is launching a new, useful little feature today, making it easier to block a specific email address with only two clicks. So, if you are receiving a lot of emails from someone you don't want to hear from, now it will be even easier to ban that address from getting to your inbox. And, you can always unblock them later, if you want to.

Gmail has always allowed you to filter incoming messages, but it wasn't very straightforward. The new Gmail feature makes it even easier to block unwanted messages with just two clicks.

Users of the website Ashley Madison had their account information released to the public today and might be scrambling to save their marriages. The site which promised total privacy in addition to some other things, was hacked recently and now the data from that hack is being made public. The dumped data included government officials and executives from large corporations. The hackers threatened to release all the information they had on 37 million users, and now have released some of the most damaging. The issue raising real concerns about Internet security.

Search the Ashley Madison Hacked Data here or here.

Edward Snowdon is often referred to as a fugitive. This came about because he leaked information from top secret National Security Agency documents. However, he recently spoke at the annual music, film and interactive conference (SXSW) which took place in Austin. Edward Snowden called for an overhaul of the spy programs in the United States.

Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and this is where he spoke from. This is the first time that the former NSA officer has spoken to American citizens since he fled with many secret papers. This man is facing numerous charges including felony and espionage, and he has always said that he would never return to the USA until current "whistle-blower" laws were changed.

Edward Snowden's revelations about the extent of NSA snooping activities led to a strong clamor for greater transparency. The giants of Silicon Valley have had to cooperate with the government whenever there was a request for data but now they are emboldened to push back. They demand clearer guidelines on what can constitutes a legal request. They also want to be able to reveal the exact number of US surveillance requests, their nature, and the scope of their effects on users.

In a landmark deal, the companies and the government agreed on a compromise solution in which the public may be informed of information requests but only under layers of obstruction.
The figures cannot be given in exact form but rather in a range that is narrowed down to the nearest thousands. The kinds of data being asked cannot be revealed. There will also have to be a significant delay between the sending of the requests and the publishing of these quantities. Right now, this stands at six months.

Hacking Government Systems goes Undetected for Over One year

According to a recent ABC News report, the hacking of the U.S Office of Personnel Management, which was discovered in April went undetected for over 12 months and the hackers could have accessed more information than previously thought.

The hack, which may have originated from China, is believed to have accessed more data, including forms used for background investigations, known as SF-86's. These forms may contain names of college roommates, so it's not just the personnel data that was accessed.

Twitter has been active trying to get rid of trolls or limiting their reach so when they attack, their tweets are not read. The company just updated its abuse policy to target those that attack others through the platform. The company also has a new tool to find abuse automatically by comparing patterns to previous patterns that were found to be abusive. The company also plans to be more responsive to reports of abuse.

This is a change from prior activity by the company which favored growth over limiting the actions of certain members. Investors are looking for growth in subscribers and the company has seen a decline in engagement recently. They now feel that by limiting the abusive accounts, they can increase engagement and hopefully membership.

Owners of the Dallas Buyers Club movie rights are going after file sharing users who illegally shared the movie over the Internet. In Australia, courts have ruled that the Dallas Buyers Club LLC group can invoice users of peer-to-peer software that seeded the Dallas Buyers Club movie since it was released in movie theaters in 2013. The company pursued internet providers iiNet, Internode, Adam Internet, Amnet Broadband, Wideband, and Dodo in court to get the names of those that shared the movie for free.

Uber, founded in 2010, was sued by 19 Taxi companies in California this week over false advertisement claims. Uber has been advertising as the safest ride on the road and the taxi companies feel this claim has given them an unfair advantage. The plaintiffs state that taxi drives must go through background checks making their rides safer on the surface. Uber, in a response, states that their drivers go through three local checks and their system of driver ratings makes them even safer.

A lawsuit filed in Maryland wants the NSA to end a program that it uses to tap into Internet streams and grab sensitive data on those connections. The suit, led by Wikimedia Foundation, filed on Tuesday is the latest against the agency and their unconstitutional spying programs involving US citizens discovered in the leaked documents stolen by government contractor Edward Snowden.

Cheating on your taxes isn’t something that most American’s do but according to a new report by the IRS, your chances of getting audited are at a 11 year low. Less than 1% of individuals that file their 2014 taxes will be audited. For wealthy individuals,the chance of getting audited is now down to 7.5%. And for large companies, they now have a 12.2% chance of getting audited. This is a drop from 16.7% four years ago.