Online monitoring

China is not best known for being a proponent of internet freedom. The country has long censored the web and carefully controlled its citizens' activities online. And now, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has come up with a new set of draconian policies meant to censor and monitor internet more closely.

With the explosive growth and popularity of the social media, virtually everyone is hooked up to Facebook, Twitter or a whole host of other social networks. These networks afford a direct glimpse into the personal life of a person and that is precisely why, appropriate privacy settings on these networks are such a big deal. Now, it has been…

Imagine you are using your PC and while you are doing so, you are in a particularly jovial mood. Your PC is able to 'decipher' this state of mind and this information then goes to online advertisers who then dish out happy-mood advertisement to you, thus mastering the art of effective marketing. Sound futuristic? A Microsoft patent application…