Twitter, Wikileaks Data named in U. S. Court Orders

Talk about the cat that ate the canary. Remember when Twitter  was just a funny sound birds made? Wikileaks, the Australian website now synonymous with expose information on the scale of the infamous Pentagon papers, is in the news again. Wikileaks, Wix, for short, is surely the domain hybrid of the decade, marrying the Wikipedia lexicon of data integrity to a brand of Internet age journalism. Wikileaks is now the target of a privacy demolishing attempt by the United States Government to acquire Twitter data in the form of messages form and to its principal news sources.

But if Wikileaks is Australian and America is another nation, how can Uncle Sam breach privacy with such a long sword? The Wix (Wikileaks) site now says the U.S. wants private messages, contact information and personal details of founder Julian Assange, Pfc. Bradley Manning and others. Wix also claims that Uncle Sam ordered Twitter not to disclose its court order action to Assange or any of the others under investigation. Remember when Twitter was just a funny sound birds made? Now it’s the faith and hope of new media freedom, like Iceland.

Twitter, one of many social network and media messaging sites that utilize wireless high speed technology for communications between individuals with private accounts, affirmed its practice of disclosing investigation and interest of government into their account . Webmasters and domainers everywhere are watching the Internet privacy of history sniffing, data trading, and marketing programming for abuses against individuals without their knowledge.  While such actions are draped in the mantle of august justice, they actually wear the mantle of an embarrassed administration as well.

The Twix scandal (Twitter plus Wikileaks) and legal machinations trying to oust Wikileaks sources will be closely watched by all citizens interested in preserving and protecting their rights to privacy. Birjitta Jonsdottir, an Icelandic citizen, got news of her subpoena Friday. The Virginia court that landed its order in San Francisco based Twitter has no known link to the newly dead Pentagon official John Wheeler, killed by a homicide this week. Found in a Delaware landfill, the former Pentagon official (and West Point alumni) is still a mystery.

Wheeler, 66, had been working on promoting discussions about cyber-defense among governments, industry and academia, according to a company statement. A veteran of the Reagan, Bush and Dubya administrations. Wheeler is characterized by media statements as outspoken and a true patriot”.He even started a discussion forum online which had a host of curiously posthumous entries, as late as December 28th (2010).  Wheeler’s 225 pound body was found December 21st, 2010. Wheeler’s phone, which he was known to post on his site from, has been found. (Authorities may want to check his Twitter account).

Texas AG Probes Google

According to the WSJ, the Attorney General for Texas is probing Google inc. for antitrust laws business practice violations. Complaints concerning rankings violations by some small firms have led to this action. Google has responded by alleging that the complaints stem from Microsoft Corporation-based companies and their offshoots.

These smaller companies (and what companies are not smaller than Google.com), are price comparison sites whose visitation and success would be in part decided by the mysterious formulas of the Google organization. The companies, Foundem.co.uk, Tradecomet.com LLC, and myTriggers.com are evidently at the root of the matter. legal action has been ongoing. British authorities are also looking into the matter.

But can any company today get a fair judicial hearing against a company with the resources and business powers that Google now commands? Google.com is a worldwide monolith whose corporate reach and operating budget may outdistance that of many governments. Are the antitrust allegations part of the monster that Google has become, or are these shadowy business practices that helped Google get where they are today?

Google is not without its own flaws. The WSJ announced today that the search engine monolith paid a $8.5 million judgement in a privacy matter where the Buzz social network violated user privacy. In related recent online policing activities FaceBook was also involved in marketing user details in an unethical manner.  Privacy violations have become somewhat of  a marketing gray area in recent business cycles where marketing targets are big money.

Is this a sign that Google intends a no-holds-barred spear into Microsoft business-practice monopoly waters, or that Microsoft feels threatened enough to risk its offshoot ventures to bring charges against them?

Stay tuned.

Privacy Domains

One of the biggest markets for search and discover destinations at the end user level is the privacy or security domain. Security names for online Web activities and personal device integrity can explain or promote software products and elaborate on the concepts for laymen. Privacy for anonymous surfing and resistance to clickjacking and scripts is something everyone with a keyboard wants to know more about.

Privacy is a big money industry today, with several tiers of software companies competing for the big corporate and end user level dollars. The keywords are hacking terms like phish, bit, virus, macro, rootkit, and other words that signify the online threat of malware and file piracy. Affiliates for  revenue domains in the security or privacy niche can make domainers big money with upcoming new releases.

FaceBook Makes the Cover of Time

When is a website a socially defining cultural phenomenon? When it begins to define the way we live. The cover of Time magazine and the interior article by Dan Fletcher explores not only the popularity of this website that started as a domain name, and encompasses the vast scope of social interaction as the Internet has changed it forever.

FaceBook has 500 million users. There are entire countries whose hosting capability doesn’t have the capacity to host that kind of traffic. On page 37 of the current edition of TIME there is a global penetration diagram showing how Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Facebook share world domination. But the real news is how the evolving practices of online sharing and information architecture delimit security and privacy in an increasingly transparent internet social living space.