Kundra takes leave, Google raises privacy flags

IDG News Service - Well, at least the issue is not unpaid taxes this time -- but Vivek Kundra, the brand-new, first-ever federal CIO after just a few days on the job is already on a leave of absence after the office of the Washington, D.C., CTO was raided by federal agents. Kundra had been the District's CTO before President Barack Obama appointed him the nation's CIO. In other news, Google peeved privacy advocates by announcing a behavioral advertising program and separately saying it is testing a new service that will transcribe voice-mail messages and make them searchable.

1. Kundra takes leave of absence from federal CIO post: The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the offices of the Washington, D.C., CTO and arrested its acting security director and a contractor on bribery charges. While that would have been enough of a headline, the real news of the story is that President Barack Obama's newly appointed federal CIO -- the nation's first ever -- had until last week been the CTO of Washington, D.C. Vivek Kundra has not been implicated in the ongoing FBI investigation, but he quickly announced he will take a leave of absence as the nation's CIO.

2. Privacy groups rip Google's targeted advertising plan: Google raised the hackles of privacy advocates first this week when it launched a behavioral advertising program, although it had said it would not get into that type of advertising despite buying DoubleClick. "It's a disaster," Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said of Google's news. "It's about whether the most dominant Internet media firm should be able to exploit its access to Internet user data for advertising purposes. Google long maintained it would not do this type of advertising. Indeed, they claimed they didn't need to and they went after others who did." That was not all the vexing news that could affect Internet users' privacy that was related to Google this week -- read on.

3. After Gmail, Google wants to search your voice mail too and Google Voice: Press "1" to invade your privacy: Google is testing a service that transcribes voice-mail messages that can then be searched. It will offer its transcription services to customers of GrandCentral Communications, a telecommunications provider it bought in July 2007. While the company did not say if that service will be expanded and it seems benign enough on its surface, Preston Gralla at Computerworld raised some points and questions at least worth pondering, even if you do not tend to be paranoid.

4. Conficker.C variant set for April 1 surprise, CA says: So, while you may not be paranoid about privacy issues, it may be a good idea to be paranoid about whether your computer harbors malware (more on this in following entries as well). CA says that the third variant of the dreaded Conficker worm will activate on April 1. If that does not concern you, keep going ...