A round-up of other technology news in brief
Facebook puts down a marker on privacy
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said privacy is “a really important issue” for his company amid criticism that the social networking site does not do enough to protect users.
Last month, 15 consumer groups filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission and officials from 30 European countries wrote a letter to Facebook complaining about its privacy settings. In response, Facebook last week announced settings designed to make it easier for users to determine what happens to their information. Earlier controls had become too “complex”, Mr Zuckerberg said.
Facebook had more than 500 million users in April, with over 1 million in Ireland. – (Bloomberg)
Managers still keen on outsourcing, survey finds
Almost one-third of Irish chief information officers (CIOs) intend to increase their spending on outsourcing over the next 12 months, a survey of 180 CIOs has revealed.
The Harvey Nash study said 27 per cent of CIOs were planning the additional investment despite 76 per cent reporting reduced or frozen budgets for 2009. Only 13 per cent said they would cut back on spending.
Almost 40 per cent said they were concentrating on controlling costs.
Iona founder to speak in TCD
Iona Technologies co-founder Chris Horn has been confirmed as the keynote speaker for the Epicenter software conference which takes place in Trinity College Dublin next week. A range of Irish and international speakers will take part in 74 sessions over four days.
The show covers a range of technologies including Java, open source, Microsoft and the web, and this year has added informal evangelist nights for networking opportunities.
Explorer 6 usage dips below 5%
Internet users in the US and Europe have continued to abandon Internet Explorer 6, with usage of the web browser falling below 5 per cent in May for the first time, web analysis company StatCounter said.
In the US, Explorer 8 has increased its share of the web browser market to 30.5 per cent in May. StatCounter said web developers may stop designing sites compatible with Explorer 6.
Internet traffic to increase fourfold
Global internet traffic is set to increase fourfold by 2014, while video will take over from peer-to-peer as the top contributor to traffic by the end of this year, a survey predicted.
Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Forecast says video, including TV and video on demand, will have more than one billion users by the end of 2010 and 91 per cent of global traffic by 2014.
