Als het aan SP-leider Emile Roemer ligt komt er een ethische commissie die de regering adviseert over de macht van internetbedrijven zoals Facebook en Google, aangezien deze bedrijven steeds meer invloed krijgen, wat gevolgen voor de privacy heeft. Roemer deed zijn uitspraken tegenover Nieuwsuur.

Het televisieprogramma liet aan Roemer, CDA-leider Sybrand Buma en D66-leider Alexander Pechtold een oproep van wetenschapper Andrew Keen zien, die wil dat de macht van internetbedrijven aan banden wordt gelegd.

Dit zou namelijk een bedreiging voor de privacy van mensen zijn. Volgens Keen, tevens oprichter van audiocafe.com en tegenwoordig actief als ondernemer en schrijver, weten Facebook en Google veel meer over ons dan de Nederlandse overheid.

Time Warner Cable Inc said on Wednesday up to 320,000 customers may have had their email passwords stolen.

The company said email and password details were likely gathered either through malware downloaded during phishing attacks or indirectly through data breaches of other companies that stored Time Warner Cable's customer information, including email addresses.

The company said it has not yet determined how the information was obtained, but there were no indications that Time Warner Cable's systems were breached.

A group consisting of several leading shipping organizations and companies has published a set of guidelines to help the global shipping industry develop good solutions for preventing cyber incidents onboard their ships.

"As technology continues to develop, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) onboard ships are increasingly being networked together – and more frequently connected to the worldwide web," the document says.

"This brings the greater risk of unauthorised access or malicious attacks to ships’ systems and networks. Risks may also occur from personnel having access to the systems onboard, for example by introducing malware via removable media."

As ten million people prepare to complete their tax returns online in January, British citizens are being bombarded with scams. Forty per cent have received phishing emails which appeared to be from HMRC, and identity fraud is rife – with many people still unaware of the potential risks involved, according to Miracl.

The research, which surveyed the attitudes of 1,000 UK consumers about their personal security online, revealed that a fifth of UK consumers, or their close friends or family, have been the victim of data theft or identity fraud.

But despite these clear risks, there is still a lack of awareness among many in the UK who seem to have no idea how dangerous this kind of data theft can be. Of those who have filled in a tax return online, almost half (48%) are not at all worried about the potential risks of losing their personal and financial information.

The Internet Services Providers' Association (ISPA) today told a Parliamentary committee that the government should bear the full cost of extra infrastructure needed to support the snooping databases authorised by the Investigatory Powers Bill.

The lobby group's 12-page response (PDF) to the joint committee's call for evidence also claimed that the Home Secretary had mischaracterised communications data when she claimed it was "simply the modern equivalent of an itemised phone bill".

Such criticisms echo those of IT lawyer Graham Smith, who previously criticised this description of communications data to The Register by saying: "We didn't read books over the telephone, but as an entirely accidental by-product of communications technology, our reading habits are now trackable."