epic

FTC questions cloud-computing security

WASHINGTON--Federal regulators on Tuesday met to hear about whether the benefits of cloud computing justify increased regulation, as privacy activists claim, or whether such an approach would do more harm than good.

"We need to be smarter about dealing with technology, and cloud computing is posing (a) risk for us," said Hugh Stephenson, deputy director for international consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission's Office of International Affairs.

The FTC convened the two-day meeting in its offices here, which follows a series of similar workshops held in previous years on topics like spam, privacy, and behavioral advertising. … Read more

Play Unreal Tournament III Black for free this weekend

Have any plans for the weekend? Yeah, I'm talking to you. If not, here's a suggestion: how's about some online Capture-the-Flag action (or Deathmatch action, whatever floats your boat) on Unreal Tournament III Black. Oh, and it's free. OK, so it's for the PC only and doesn't apply to the PlayStation 3, but it's still a pretty cool deal and it's something to do.

Whether or not you have the game, it's all good. The free weekend includes the game, the Titan Pack expansion, and the 2.0 patch. Now, all … Read more

Live blog: Facebook press conference on privacy

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hosted a press conference that started at 11 a.m. PST Thursday to discuss "the new steps Facebook is taking to improve user understanding and ownership of the Facebook terms of service and, more generally, the policies of the Facebook service." The play-by-play is here. Facebook's full announcement is posted below as well.

… Read more

Podcast: Privacy advocate, Facebook official speak out

As is now well known, Facebook angered some of its users and some privacy advocates when it recently changed its terms of service to give itself the right to permanently retain user information even if a user deletes an account.

That policy was rescinded after an uproar and a likely federal complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a Washington-based privacy watchdog group.

To try to better understand the issue, I spoke with EPIC's executive director, Marc Rotenberg, as well as Facebook's chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly.

Facebook backs down on privacy terms

Facing a federal complaint from a leading privacy advocacy organization and a revolt of tens of thousands of its users, Facebook on Tuesday night backed down from what many have seen as an onerous privacy policy.

The policy had seemed to grant Facebook perpetual rights to users' uploaded content, and the threatened complaint from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) had demanded, essentially, that the social-networking service return to its previous terms.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a blog post late Tuesday that the company had decided to do just that:

Many of us at Facebook spent most of … Read more

EPIC readying federal complaint over Facebook privacy policy

A leading privacy advocacy group is preparing to file a federal complaint against Facebook's new privacy policies, a published report said Tuesday.

According to PC World, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is getting ready to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, demanding that the massively popular social networking service return to its previous policies.

It appears that the major thrust of EPIC's--and many others' anger--at Facebook stems from new language in the privacy policy that grants the company seemingly perpetual control over content users post there:

"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, … Read more

EA inks two partnership deals, including Epic Games

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--Electronic Arts announced partnership deals with two independent games companies Thursday, including Gears of War publisher Epic Games.

The news of the two new members of the EA Partners program, which also revolved around Japan's Grasshopper Manufacture, publisher of games like No More Heroes, was part of EA's annual Studio Showcase event here.

During just over an hour of announcements and presentations, EA showed off 17 games it didn't show at E3 last month, as well as unveiled the partnerships.

Grasshopper Manufacture will create an all-new action horror game for EA. It will be … Read more

Like it or not, we're getting a 'Gears of War' movie

While the adaptation of BioShock into a movie seemed like a no-brainer, the announcement of a Gears of War film doesn't exactly carry with it the same weight.

There's no doubt that this title was a huge success, let alone an absolute blast to play, but there's something to be said about the story and whether or not it can carry an entire feature-length film. How many times can you tell the tale of "aliens invade Earth, big tough dudes stop them?"

Stepping up to the task of directing the Gears of War movie is … Read more

Microsoft shows off the 2008 Xbox games lineup

SAN FRANCISCO--If ever there was pressure, it falls on the shoulders of development teams trying to follow up a smash hit with a sequel.

That's the position that the folks at Epic Games find themselves in right now as they put the finishing touches on their forthcoming video game, Gears of War 2. And that's because the original Gears of War sold more than 5 million copies, becoming one of the most successful titles for Microsoft's next-generation video game console.

On Tuesday, Gears of War 2 was one of the featured games at the Microsoft Games Studio Spring Showcase … Read more