Phone users in Singapore can finally say no to annoying spam SMSes or phone calls by adding their phone numbers to a much-awaited do-not-call registry from January 2, 2014.

When it swings into action, telemarketing companies will have to check against the registry to ensure that they do not call, SMS or fax people who have opted out of marketing messages.
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On Monday, the world marked Data Privacy Day, an international day that aims to raise awareness and educate people about data protection and privacy.

As more users put up information about themselves online and personal devices like smartphones store more data about their users, it pays to take a step back to consider the importance of privacy for a moment.

Here are five everyday tips which may be useful.  …

Watching the Instagram story unfold this week, you’d be hard-pressed to find what’s funnier – outraged users threatening to delete their accounts or company executives squirming at the unexpected backlash and back-tracking on their original terms.

National Geographic threatened to close its account. Kim Kardashian said she was reviewing the terms, reported the BBC. Many others are not applying the image filters anymore.

In truth, both users and the company are denying reality when they set on this collision course. And if you’ve seen how the Internet works, things will be back to normal in time.

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After years of being spammed by irritating SMSes to buy a house or insurance policy, Singapore consumers will finally be able to say no to these messages with a data protection law passed for the first time yesterday.

They can add their names to a national Do-No-Call list, up by early 2014, which will tell telemarketers not to send marketing SMSes or call them to peddle bank loans and the like.  …

Stand aside, browser wars; a new battle is heating up between Microsoft and Google and this time, the battlefield is email.

Google fired the first shot by launching a new website called Email Intervention, designed to help you stage an intervention among your friends who still use that outdated email address from the 1990s. The accompanying video featuring an “intervention specialist” is cute, funny and completely in Google’s cheeky style.

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