10 posts and columns on Steve Stecklow

Voices

U.S. Restricts U.A.E. Firm for Web Filter Sale to Syria

in Voices on December 16, 2011 at 12:00 am PT

The Department of Commerce is placing restrictions on a person and a company in the United Arab Emirates for supplying Syria with Internet-filtering devices made by California-based Blue Coat Systems Inc.

Voices

Bill Aims to Curb Tech Firms’ Exports

in News on December 9, 2011 at 5:00 am PT

Pressure mounted Thursday on U.S. and Western companies that sell censorship and surveillance technology to repressive regimes, with a congressman introducing a bill that would restrict such exports.

Voices

Bill Would Curb Exports of Spyware

in News on December 1, 2011 at 12:00 am PT

A bill that would restrict U.S. exports of technology that can be used by repressive regimes to censor the Internet or conduct surveillance on users will be introduced in the House soon.

Voices

Chinese Tech Giant Aids Iran

in Mobile on October 27, 2011 at 5:30 am PT

When Western companies pulled back from Iran after the government’s bloody crackdown on its citizens two years ago, a Chinese telecom giant filled the vacuum. Huawei Technologies Co. now dominates Iran’s government-controlled mobile-phone industry. In doing so, it plays a role in enabling Iran’s state security network.

Voices

Web’s Openness Is Tested in Tunisia

in News on July 7, 2011 at 5:30 am PT

Slim Amamou’s struggle to end Internet censorship in Tunisia has come full circle. In January, the 33-year-old online activist and software developer was jailed after the government accused him, among other things, of attacking President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s website. Mr. Ben Ali soon fell from power.

Voices

U.S. Products Help Block Mideast Web

in News on March 27, 2011 at 8:32 pm PT

As Middle East regimes try to stifle dissent by censoring the Internet, the U.S. faces an uncomfortable reality: American companies provide much of the technology used to block websites.

Voices

Proposed Law Would Prohibit Web Collection of Data on Kids

in News on December 2, 2010 at 8:34 am PT

Legislation set to be introduced early next year would prohibit companies from tracking children on the Internet without parental consent. Massachusetts Rep. Edward Markey, a Democrat, plans to propose legislation that, if passed, would go well beyond current federal law that requires websites aimed at children under 13 to obtain parental permission before collecting personal information such as kids’ names or email addresses.

Voices

Shunned Profiling Technology on the Verge of Comeback

in News on November 24, 2010 at 12:00 am PT

One of the most potentially intrusive technologies for profiling and targeting Internet users with ads is on the verge of a comeback, two years after an outcry by privacy advocates in the U.S. and Britain appeared to kill it.

Voices

"Scrapers" Dig Deep for Data on Web

in News on October 12, 2010 at 5:00 am PT

At 1 a.m. on May 7, the website PatientsLikeMe.com noticed suspicious activity on its “Mood” discussion board. There, people exchange highly personal stories about their emotional disorders, ranging from bipolar disease to a desire to cut themselves.

The $100 Laptop–Still Not a Bargain?

in News on November 26, 2007 at 12:02 am PT

With all the holiday hubbub, don’t miss this great piece in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend by Steve Stecklow and James Bandler, which chronicles the bumpy road of the much-hyped $100 laptop project, spearheaded by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte. Walt Mossberg and I have had Negroponte at two of our D conferences to talk [...]