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Updates postponed - Definitions file (0100.0000) release will not be available for Ad-Aware 2007

Definitions File updates 0100.0000 on Tuesday July 8 will not be available for Ad-Aware 2007. Normal definition file updates will continue with 0101.0000 Definitions file release on Thursday July 10. Lavasoft has made this decision due to the increased download traffic created by the latest software release of Ad-Aware 2007. It is a major update including the entire Ad-Aware 2008 installation package.

Note: This does not relate to Ad-Aware 2008 users. Ad-Aware 2008 will update normally.

Note: All Ad-Aware versions may experience slow Definitions file and software updates during the upcoming week for the reasons above. We ask you to please be patient.

A U.S. district judge has ordered Google, the Search Engine, to release information about users that use their YouTube service. The major entertainment corporation Viacom won the legal battle against Google, resulting in access for Viacom to information about YouTube users and their “tubing” behavior, i.e. which videos they watch on the YouTube site. The verdict will also give Viacom access to the login-names and IP-addresses of the YouTube users, even though Viacom says that they will not use the information to frame individuals. Viacom may instead use the information in a potential billion dollar copyright lawsuit against Google. Google, the owners of YouTube, defend themselves by stating that they are not liable for the video snippets uploaded by their users, and that there is a U.S. law from 1998 backing them up on that fact. Google does not, however, see the verdict as a total defeat, as Viacom had also demanded access to their YouTube search source code. As if this was not enough, Viacom also requested total access to all YouTube video snippets that are stored by the users in their private locations at YouTube. This request was denied by the judge. According to the judge, it will still be relatively “difficult” for Viacom to identify individuals using only their login names and IP addresses. The Verdict could be regarded as a severe setback when it comes to user privacy, but sadly it’s becoming reality, sprung from the Land Of The Free. Happy Independence Day!

The FRA, Swedish National Defense Radio Establishment, that recently was approved to start their extended surveillance activity targeting wire-based Internet traffic and traffic in the mobile networks, may intercept personal e-mails between local Danish vicars and Danish people in their search for a cure of the souls. How is this possible, you ask? The e-mail of the Danish church is handled via servers placed in Sweden, and FRA is allowed to intercept communications as they pass the Swedish border, according to the newly adopted FRA law. FRA may automatically search for certain “keywords” and there is the risk that individual’s “confessions” to their local vicar may contain words that FRA scans for. It would not be the first time in history that law authorities have shown interest in accessing information of that nature, and the new situation may compromise the confidentiality expected from the clergy and their communication with individuals. This is only one example of how the newly adopted FRA law and other types of web-based surveillance can affect both individuals and professionals that in some manner work and/or live their lives in the global networks. This new situation also poses a challenge to the Nordic Internet Service Providers that must consider how to protect individual’s privacy when the services they provide take routes that exceed national borders in the “borderless” global information society, leading to a situation where the traffic may be intercepted by FRA. Who would like to have their most personal thoughts archived by the Swedish Defense Intelligence?