Google faces class action suit

Lawyers acting for a 24-year-old Harvard Law School student have filed a class action suit against Google, alleging invasion of privacy after the recent unveiling of Buzz, reports Computing.co.uk.

Eva Hibnick took the step after finding herself automatically opted in to the Buzz social networking service. She consulted one of her professors who put her in contact with a legal team. "I feel really deeply about this issue and that's why I decided to step forward," Hibnick told ABC News.

The class action suit claims to represent all 31 million Gmail users, and demands that Google stop such practices. The action also claims financial damages.

Millions of European Internet Explorer (IE) users will have the option to choose an alternative browser from 1 March, states Microsoft, the BBC writes.

It follows a legal agreement between Microsoft and Europe's Competition Commission in December 2009. Microsoft committed to letting Windows PC users across Europe install the Web browser of their choice, rather than having Microsoft IE as a default.

Figures suggest that over half the world's Internet users have IE. Testing for the update is already under way in the UK, Belgium and France.

A suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly switching on laptop computer Web cams inside students' homes says it never used Web cam images to monitor or discipline students, and believes one of its administrators has been ''unfairly portrayed and unjustly attacked,” writes MCall.

The Lower Merion School District, in response to a suit filed by a student, has acknowledged that Web cams were remotely activated 42 times in the past 14 months, but only to find missing, lost or stolen laptops, which the district noted would include ''a loaner computer that, against regulations, might be taken off campus”.'

''Despite some reports to the contrary, be assured that the security-tracking software has been completely disabled,'' superintendent Christopher W McGinley said in a statement on the district's Web site.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison became one of the richest and most influential software executives in the world by building his database software company he founded into a global multibillion-dollar powerhouse, says eWeek.

But he acknowledged that helping to bring the storied America's Cup sailing trophy back to the US and his home base in the San Francisco Bay area ranked as one of the greatest achievements and experiences of his life.

Ellison, normally noted for being publicity shy, positively beamed as he took a bow at City Hall with the rest of BMW Oracle Racing team, which won the America's Cup regatta by defeating the defending Alinghi team of Switzerland in a two-race sweep.