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I hear wailing.

I think it's coming from all those who believed, in some sweet corner of their minds, that they were changing the world. You know, for the better.

The generation that believed technology was heralding a new togetherness, a new openness, a new freedom, a new transparency is suddenly confronted by the idea that its idols might be something terrible -- yes, pragmatic.

Suddenly, they hear that Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and all the other immature brand names might have been offering information to the government when the government asked nicely -- which hardly seems something new, given … Read more

After months of speculation on who would snap up Waze, Google is reportedly close to acquiring the mobile mapping and navigation company.

The search giant will soon close a $1.3 billion deal for the Israeli startup, according to a report Sunday by the Globes business newspaper in Waze's home country. The acquisition could help the Web giant improve its own mapping services, as well as help prevent encroachment by Facebook, which was reportedly courting Waze last month.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the report. CNET has also contacted Waze for comment and will update this report … Read more

In order to get a conviction, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Except if what you gotta do is something that your boss in the County Prosecutor's Office thinks you don't gotta do at all.

This seems to be the lesson in the case of the Ohio County Prosecutor who felt that Facebook was the perfect place to get alibi witnesses in a murder trial to admit that, perhaps, their recollections might have been hazy.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, County Prosecutor Aaron Brockler plainly thought he was doing the right thing by posing as an … Read more

Update, June 8 at 2:45 p.m. PT: In response to outcry over PRISM, the U.S. director of national intelligence has released some details. Among other things, he says the government "does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers" and that PRISM-related activities are conducted "under court supervision." More here.

The National Security Agency has not obtained direct access to the systems of Apple, Google, Facebook, and other major Internet companies, CNET has learned.

Recent reports in The Washington Post and The Guardian claimed a classified program … Read more

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Friday that his company has never participated in a program to give any government direct access to its servers.

The categorical denial, posted to Facebook, comes a day after The Guardian and The Washington Post reported that the National Security Agency has backdoor access, through a secret program called PRISM, to nine major Internet companies including the social network.

"I want to respond personally to the outrageous press reports about PRISM," Zuckerberg wrote in a post published to his Facebook profile. "Facebook is not and has never been part of any … Read more

The young people these days are really into the Google, even more than the Apple or the Facebook.

That's the finding of a poll conducted for The Washington Post in which 94 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 reported having a favorable opinion of the Mountain View, Calif., behemoth, with 72 percent saying they have a "strongly favorable" view of Google.

That officially makes Google more popular with twenty-somethings than chocolate, which 90 percent of people say they "love."… Read more

Think of how you share files with friends and family. Do you send it to them in an e-mail, through a Skype conversation, or upload it to Dropbox and share a link? Now you can use Pipe on Facebook to send files up to 1GB.

Pipe, a newly launched app for Facebook lets you send files to friends and family, even if they aren't online at that moment. The great thing about using an app that integrates with Facebook over another service is that both parties are probably using Facebook already. You won't have to instruct a friend … Read more

When sharing a post from the previous version of Facebook for Android, you may have forgotten to tap the itsy-bitsy people-sharing icon before you sent it off to the Interwebs. This icon controls the settings for who can see your post, be it Public, Friends, or other groups you're part of on Facebook. Fortunately, this icon hasn't gone anywhere, but in case you forget to use it, there's a fix -- and it doesn't involve logging in on the desktop Web site.

First, make sure you have the most recent version of Facebook for Android. Just … Read more

You may not have slept lately for worrying what Sean Parker has done for our environment.

Yes, in being one of the originals at Facebook, he helped create a world in which our noses permanently point downward, our friends are permanently virtual and our eyes must watch carefully over every word written by the company in small letters.

But I wasn't thinking about that.

I was thinking about the mounds of kerfuffle created after details were revealed about his wedding.

It was bad enough that he was said to be spending vast numbers on his nuptials. But then the Atlantic suggested … Read more