Facebook agrees.
Google has fired back at Microsoft’s claim it bypassed Internet Explorer browser privacy settings, claiming the browser’s requirements are impractical, outdated and also unsupported by Facebook.

Yesterday Microsoft accused Google of violating a W3C-recommended protocol for browser privacy, Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), which requires websites to declare cookies and privacy policies in machine-readable form...

Government agencies face more litigation.
Software developer Micro Focus has added the NSW Department of the Attorney-General and Justice to a growing list of state government agencies it is accusing of copyright infringement.

The department and its subsidiary Corrective Services NSW are set to appear in the Federal Court later this month over allegations they used "at least" 60 copies of Micro Focus' ViewNow software without the proper licenses between 1995 and 2010...

Browser privacy war heats up.
Microsoft has accused Google of abusing privacy preference settings in its Internet Explorer (IE) browser. 

The accusation follows the controversial discovery last week that Google was bypassing privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser, affecting OS X desktops and iOS mobile devices...

Encourages online orders.
Optus has started taking consumer and small business orders for the Lumia 800 smartphone, Nokia's first to run the Windows Phone 7 operating system.

The phone, which will ship on March 1, is available to order for $0 on $49 consumer cap and business plans from this week, and a $59 plan with two months access free...

Covers part of Pilbara rail network.
Rio Tinto has revealed it will invest $442 million to remove drivers from some trains operating in the Pilbara region of Western Australia within three years.

The mining giant said today that the AutoHaul automated train program would see the first driverless train operating in 2014 with completion of the program "a year later"...

Airline to deploy new reservation system by March 2013.
Virgin Australia’s in-house technology team is set to grow from 200 to 350 in the coming months as it implements a single ticketing and reservation system for the newly merged airline...

Advertising cookies added to Safari browsers.
Google is again facing criticism for ignoring privacy, this time over allegations it "intentionally" circumvented the default privacy settings for Apple's Safari browser in Mac OS X and iOS. 

Jonathon Mayer, the Stanford University graduate student who discovered Google's special approach to Safari, alleged that the search giant wrote code specifically to bypass the browser's default privacy settings in a way that supported its advertising business, Doubleclick...

Reveals new features, culls iChat, in OSX Mountain Lion developer preview.
Apple has revealed it will introduce a security feature in its forthcoming 'Mountain Lion' operating system that is designed to protect users from malicious downloads...

Reallocates staff, inks outsourcing deal.
Retail giant David Jones has pulled together a team of 100 technologists in a bid to modernise after years of under-investment in IT.

About half the team was “reallocated” from existing staff, according to David Jones’ group executive of retail services, Tony Karp...

Brands are finding controlling their message on Twitter is not easy.
For major brands, the road to social media infamy is paved with what seemed like good ideas at the time. 

Just this week, Qantas succeeded in having Twitter suspend the well-known spoof account, @QantasPR, claiming users would mistake it for the real thing (Shane Warne did, but that’s not exactly saying much...

Former US CIO suggests hardline approach to IT staffing.
The United States' first whole-of-government CIO has suggested his Australian counterparts fire staff that do not help to push innovation in government services.

Vivek Kundra, who left the CIO role last year, told a gathering of government IT brass in Canberra this week that those in management would have to "let go people who are not innovative"...

Two days set down in March.
The Federal Court has set down two days in March to hear an appeal against the court's controversial finding that Optus' TV Now service did not infringe the copyright of the AFL and NRL sporting codes.

Separate notices of appeal lodged last week by the AFL (supported by Telstra) and NRL codes claimed the primary judge Justice Steven Rares had erred in his judgment that the free-to-air TV recording service was not illegal...

Reselling integrated bundles with VMware, Citrix software.
Cisco Systems will resell the virtual desktop software of both VMware and Citrix, the company announced today.

The networking vendor, built on a legacy of switches and routers, has attempted to diversify into the wider technology market in recent years, releasing a line of servers and video conferencing equipment...

The value of 'free' labour.
A Perth-based Debian developer has estimated the commercial cost of labour required to build the forthcoming release of the operating system, codenamed Wheezy, would be $17.7 billion. 

Linux developer James Bromberger valued Wheezy using a tool (sloccount) that counts source lines of code and calculates the system's value based on a developer's average wage, which Bromberger put at $67,395...

The price of power savings.
Microsoft's Windows boss Steve Sinofsky has laid out what to expect in the company's first foray into a more integrated and controlled world of ARM processors.

Microsoft has been working with three primary ARM licensees for its Windows on ARM (WOA) devices, including NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, to deliver a more battery-friendly device...

All data to be migrated to Microsoft cloud.
Telstra has revealed it will transfer all 4.2 million BigPond mailboxes to a new service underpinned by Microsoft's cloud email platform, Windows Live.

The telco published an update on its website today stating it will phase out the existing BigPond Webmail and Myinbox services...

Takes cloud war to SAP.
Oracle has agreed to buy Taleo, a maker of Web-based software for recruiting employees, for about $US1.9 billion ($1.76 billion), a quick response to rival SAP's pending plan to buy SuccessFactors for $US3.4 billion ($3...

Australian users to benefit from global rollout.
Train builder Alstom Transport has revealed plans to consolidate on a single project lifecycle management (PLM) system for 3500 users worldwide.

The company, which holds rolling stock contracts including for Melbourne's X'Strapolis suburban trains and Adelaide's Citadis trams, is standardising on version six of Dassault Systиmes' Enovia software...

PST Capture tool aimed at Office365 and Exchange 2010.
Microsoft has unveiled a free personal storage (.pst) file capture tool that could break down key roadblocks for enterprises attempting to migrate on-premise Exchange servers into the cloud...

Pens letter to regulators.
Google will pledge to license on fair and reasonable terms the patents it acquires through buying Motorola Mobility, said a person familiar with the matter, in a bid to allay regulatory and users' concerns.

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