NEW YORK | Tue May 22, 2012 2:03pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's chairman said on Tuesday that regulators plan to review allegations that Morgan Stanley shared negative news before Facebook's initial public offering with institutional investors. "The allegations, if true, are a matter of regulatory concern" to FINRA and SEC, Ketchum told Reuters.(Edited by Walden Siew) Continue reading →

By Julia AngwinPaul Ohm, a law professor and privacy expert at the University of Colorado, is expected to join the Federal Trade Commission in August as a senior policy adviser focusing on Internet and mobile markets, according to people familiar with the situation. The appointment signals the agency’s continued commitment to bringing privacy and technology related cases. In the past year, the FTC has forged 20-year privacy agreements with Internet giants Google, Facebook and MySpace. Ohm is a former federal computer crimes prosecutor and an expert in information privacy. His 2010 paper, “Broken Promises: Responding to the Surprising Failure of Anonymization” sparked a global reassessment of privacy standards. Ohm is also a computer programmer and works to bridge connections between the law and computer science. ... Continue reading →

The discovery of that and other wiretapping led to an official investigation that helped topple Chongqing’s charismatic leader, Bo Xilai, in a political cataclysm that has yet to reach a conclusion. Until now, the downfall of Mr. Bo has been cast largely as a tale of a populist who pursued his own agenda too aggressively for some top leaders in Beijing and was brought down by accusations that his wife had arranged the murder of Neil Heywood, a British consultant, after a business dispute. But the hidden wiretapping, previously alluded to only in internal Communist Party accounts of the scandal, appears to have provided another compelling reason for party leaders to turn on Mr. Bo. The story of how China’s president was monitored also shows ... Continue reading →

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul claims Cispa 'encourages internet companies to act as government spies'. Photograph: Mark Makela/Reuters A senior Obama administration official has stressed the White House's opposition to a controversial cybersecurity bill ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives later this week.The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (Cispa) is intended to facilitate sharing of information on online threats across different federal agencies and private companies. It has been criticised by both activists and politicians of both Democrats and Republicans for vague wording and insufficient safeguards.Ahead of the bill coming in front of the House of Representatives alongside three other cybersecurity bills, Alec Ross, a senior adviser for innovation to Hillary Clinton, reiterated the administration's opposition to the proposals in more ... Continue reading →