Third-party data collection across many leading websites continues at significant levels while data collection via social media/sharing widgets is growing rapidly according to the third-annual Cross Industry Study (CIS) of web data collection activity from Krux.

EMC Corporation announced beta availability of EMC's Syncplicity cloud-based online file sharing service with the option for customers to use either EMC Isilon scale-out NAS or EMC Atmos object-based storage. Now customers can store files on-premise in addition to the cloud. Unlike competitive approaches that cobble together point-products from multiple vendors, this approach gives IT choice and control over where managed files reside, while users get a secure, easy-to-use solution for file sync and sharing across all of their computers and devices.

If Instagram has you feeling like a professional photographer the news tweaks to its terms of service may have you concerned about your intellectual property. Starting January 16, 2013, the photosharing app will share data with Facebook. How will your data - and your photos - be used?

The State of California is once again taking up privacy issue on consumers' behalf, this time with mobile app developers. According to Information Week, app developers that fail to post easy-to-find privacy policies can be fined $2,500 per download.

Google claims that Microsoft's privacy protection feature in Internet Explorer (IE) is impractical to comply with while still providing modern web functionality. Microsoft had accused Google of circumventing privacy protections in Internet Explorer.

Some say men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but when it comes to social media sites, both genders share an array of personal information, including relationship status, brand preferences, and political/religious affiliation. However, when it comes to divulging more sensitive details such as phone numbers, location, and email/physical addresses -- which could put their personal security at risk -- women are significantly more wary than men, according to the findings of the recently released "Social Media Habits and Privacy Concerns Survey."

The average American may not spend much time thinking about individual bills working their way through government machines. But popular websites are making sure the average web user knows exactly what SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (the Protect IP Act) are by hitting them where it hurts: in the Wikipedia.

Lately, it seems like nobody's information is safe on the web. From CitiGroup, Inc., to Google's Gmail, to Sony's Playstation Network, hackers have been running amuck on the web. Dastardly hackers aren't the only ones getting access to your information, however. Rarely discussed is the information that's being doled out by websites to third parties, on purpose. A recent study titled "Privacy Leakage vs. Protection measures: the growing disconnect," released from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, co-authored by Professor Craig Wills, shows that of 100 popular websites studied, nearly 75% are leaking personal and sometimes sensitive data about users.

Sharing your thoughts and activities on Facebook in and of of itself is not necessarily a problem. The problem comes when users forget that everyone in their social network is reading their posts. When you post something in frustration over your boss, co-worker, spouse, or friend, remember that the boss, co-worker, spouse, or friend-and all their networked friends (and all of their networked friends)-may also be reading your posts. It is possible to take part in Facebook and still maintain a modicum of privacy. To accomplish this, keep these 10 lessons in mind.

In October, The Wall Street Journal reported that several popular Facebook applications had been transmitting users' personal identifying information to literally dozens of advertising and internet tracking companies. While Facebook maintains that there is "no evidence that any personal information was misused or even collected as a result of this issue," not all observers have been appeased.

You say you don't have any personal Big Data? Not worried about cloud storage? Think again. Private data, including passwords, are breached almost every month. WikiLeaks is the poster child for loss of massive amounts of classified information, all due to poor oversight of personal external drives. Most recently the case of Mat Honan, a Wired magazine journalist, comes to mind. Privacy breaches and lost data aren't always due to personal carelessness, although that is often a contributing factor.

I started making a lot of hiking plans earlier this spring. I'd adopted a dog in January and had been wandering in the woods almost every weekend since. Then a friend of mine emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in section-hiking parts of the Appalachian Trail-specifically the parts that run through Connecticut and Massachusetts. I'd visited a couple of the Connecticut sections last summer, so I was excited to hit some new spots, this time with the dog in tow.