IT Executive news

• Edward Snowden: Privacy can't depend on corporations standing up to the government

  19-03-2016 22:07
  
  NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden opened the Free Software Foundation's LibrePlanet 2016 conference on Saturday with a discussion of free software, privacy and security, speaking via video conference from Russia.
  Snowden credited free software for his ability to help disclose the U.S. government's far-reaching surveillance projects – drawing one of several enthusiastic rounds of applause from the crowd in an MIT lecture hall.
  + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Pwn2Own contest highlights renewed hack
  
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• Microsoft backtracks on Windows 7 support deadline

  19-03-2016 21:21
  
  Microsoft today retreated from an earlier retirement date for Windows 7 and 8.1 support on newer hardware, saying that it would now support those OSes on PCs running Intel's Skylake silicon until July 2018.
  The decision is a partial rollback of a January announcement that Microsoft called a "clarification" of its support policy. Under the January plan, Microsoft would have ended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 on July 17, 2017, if the operating systems were powering machines equipped with
  
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• MIT, Harvard researchers push new way for users to control access to personal data

  19-03-2016 20:16
  
  Cryptography researchers at MIT and Harvard have developed software called Sieve that is designed to help users keep track of encrypted personal data and better manage it in the cloud.
  The Web infrastructure concepts behind Sieve could have significant implications for government searches of data, such as in the Apple-FBI case, or for companies using personal data from fitness bands and other devices for marketing and other purposes.
  With Sieve,a Web user on a smartphone, smartwatch or other de
  
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• Facebook celebrates March Madness with a basketball game in its Messenger app

  19-03-2016 19:29
  March Madness is here, and while you may not be able to directly participate in the drama and buzzer-beating excitement of the NCAA’s annual basketball tournament, you can always shoot some hoops...from within Facebook’s Messenger app?
  As noted by Phone Arena, the latest version of Facebook Messenger for iOS and Android includes a simple, hidden basketball game that lets you shoot baskets from the comfort of your own smartphone. It’ll count how many shots you make in a row, an
  
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• Waze now tells you when to leave for appointments and maps your routes

  19-03-2016 13:00
  
  Waze, a social GPS navigation app with a cult-like following, just got a lot more useful.
  A new "Planned drives" feature in Waze for iOS lets you add destinations of future appointments and the times when you need to be there. Based on current traffic conditions and previous traffic patterns, the app lets you know when you need to leave to make your appointment on time. And it works well. (The company plans to add the feature to its Android app in the near future.)To read this article in full o
  
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