An online marketplace where companies or individuals with common interests connect to buy and sell local services such as babysitting, cleaning and classes. Opened in April 2008; functions in French and English.
Researchers at the University of Toronto have uncovered a security leak in Tom-Skype in China that allowed them to download thousands of instant messages identifying users. The messages appear to have been on eight computers that are part of a Chinese government surveillance system; their existance was discovered because the servers were improperly configured, making them accessible to the outside world. The researchers are part of a group that monitors politics and Internet security issues, Citizen Lab. The article notes that this is not the first time a government has been accused of using Skye to eavesdrop on its citizens: the US was reportedly doing so in 2005 as part of its anti-terrorism programme. International Herald Tribune
Bern and Lausanne, Switzerland (Tribune de Geneve, Fre) – Swisscom’s monopoly on telephone and Internet access should have ended in April when the "last kilometre" arrangement, which has kept ownership of the lines in Swisscom’s hands, was scheduled to end. Legal wrangles and administrative hassles have in fact kept the change from occurring, and Swisscom continues to charge its own clients SFr25.25 a month for Internet access while other companies, which must rent the lines, are charged SFr33 a month, a cost passed on to their customers.
