Software : IBM announces social network-style email service for businesses |
| IBM announces social network-style email service for businesses Posted:  IBM has used its Connect 2014 conference in California to unveil an enterprise-focused email service, called Mail Next. Part of IBM's software-as-a-service (SaaS) social business collection, it's available both on-premise and via the cloud, reports ITWorldCanada. The service combines IBM's mail, meetings, chat and content management systems and creates single hubs for businesses where members can interact. In these hubs, employees can send and receive email and create groups based on shared interests or projects in something akin to Google Plus' "circles" feature. Mail Next helps employees navigate and manage inbox overload through task-focused analytics, according to the company. Employees can use abilities, for example, that can mute mail that doesn't need their attention straight away, setting it aside for later viewing. Collaboration is the keyHowever, IBM is not taking a step into the consumer email market, as Google or Yahoo did. According to Scott Hebner, IBM vice-president of social business, Mail Next will be available only to small and medium businesses and large enterprises. The ability to control the accounts in your businesses own way is what makes it different to consumer mail products, he added. The New York-based firm may not be a dominant force in email but it is trying to promote the creation of social businesses that make use of collaboration tools. A beta of Mail Next is tipped to be available in the first half of this year. |
| Updated: Not even Google Maps, Angry Birds are safe from NSA and GCHQ spying Posted:  The documents leaked by Edward Snowden continue to rain revelations, the latest being that government intelligence agencies use Angry Birds, other popular apps and Google Maps in their spying and data collection efforts. The popular birdbrain smartphone game is apparently "leaky" in that it inadvertently broadcasts users' data. The NSA and its UK counterpart the GCHQ are apparently all too keen to take advantage of that. The data can include anything from phone specs to sensitive information like a user's age, sexual orientation, gender, political leanings and more, according to reports from The Guardian, The New York Times and ProPublica. The data is collected and transmitted for "commercial" purposes, presumably related to ads, but the NSA and GCHQ "piggyback" on these apps to collect the info as part of their widespread global data collection efforts, the reports said. No wonder they're angryAngry Birds is not alone in this, either; Facebook and Twitter were also named in these reports, as well as Millenial Media, an ad platform that has partnered with big game companies like Angry Birds developer Rovio, Call of Duty maker Activision, and FarmVille developer Zynga. And although apps like Twitter and Facebook may delete location data and other metadata from photos and posts before they're published on the social networks, that information may briefly be available during the uploading process. So depending on when in this process the metadata is discarded and when the government agencies intercept the item being uploaded, that information may still be available. Google Maps is apparently a major source of information for these agencies as well, as they can piece together large swathes of location data from users' search and directions queries. Sworn to protectThis just-revealed data collection differs from the spying we knew about previously in that these reports claim the NSA and GCHQ are collecting data from smartphone apps in addition to calls and texts, data sources that were previously revealed. The NSA said in a statement that it doesn't target individual US citizens with its phone data collection practices, and that protections exist for citizens who are incidentally targeted as well as for foreigners who are not suspected of any wrongdoing. For its part, Rovio said it has no knowledge of data collection or spying activities on the part of the NSA or GCHQ, no idea whether ad networks like Millenial Media are complicit in these activities and no involvement whatsoever with these agencies or their surveillance programs. Update: Rovio's CEO Mikael Hed said in no uncertain terms: "We do not collaborate, collude or share data with spy angencies anywhere in the world. "As the alleged surveillance might be happening through third party advertising networks, the most important conversation to be had is how to ensure user privacy is protected while preventing the negative impact on the whole advertising industry and the countless mobile apps that rely on ad networks. "In order to protect our end users, we will, like all other companies using third party advertising networks, have to re-evaluate working with these networks if they are being used for spying purposes." Both the NSA and the GCHQ stressed that all programs operate within the letter of the law, and the NSA further claimed that revealing them to the public in this manner "is detrimental to the security of the United States and our allies - and places at risk those we are sworn to protect." |
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