Twitter has blocked Politwoops from using its API, effectively killing the service that archived and published tweets deleted by politicians. Politwoops has a number of international sites, each concerned with the politicians of different countries and it monitored the account of prominent politicians for deleted tweets before publishing them for all to see.

The US version of the service was denied API access earlier in the year, but over the weekend Twitter extended the ban to a further 30 Politwoops accounts. The tweets deleted by those in politics are often far more telling and revealing than those that remain in place, and this was the reason for Politwoops existence. Not for the first time, Twitter has entered the political arena, indicating that it views the deletion decisions of elected politicians as more important than the right of the electorate to see tweets that have been self-censored.

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Since the launch of Windows 10, there have been all manner of privacy concerns -- some grounded in fact, others less so. Whatever your view of the latest version of Windows, it's impossible to deny that this has proved one of the more controversial releases to come from the Microsoft stable.

Getting in on the paranoia now are torrent sites, with some coming out and saying they have implemented a ban on the use of Windows 10 to connect to their trackers. Seemingly in response to the news that Windows 10 could disable counterfeit games, torrent sites including iTS have already put measures in place to block Windows 10 users from accessing them, while the likes of FSC and BB are considering taking similar action. Over-reaction?

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We reported earlier today that streaming music service Spotify had upset a lot of users with changes to its privacy policy. In particular sections concerning what information the company is allowed to collect have sent some users into a spin.

Evidently stung by the reaction, Spotify has been quick to respond. In a blog post by CEO Daniel Ek it says sorry and explains more about what the changes actually mean.

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Spotify has updated its privacy policy, and a lot of users are now very unhappy. The change was prefaced a few days ago on the Spotify blog and the new policy started to roll out on 19 August. As it starts to hit accounts around the world, users are sitting up and paying attention; many are not happy with what they see.

What are people so upset about? Spotify might now access your Facebook likes and posts, photos and contacts you have stored on your phone, and even the speed at which you are traveling. The company says that the changes have been made as part of a move to "be as open and transparent as possible", but it has left large number of users questioning motives, and many have been pushed to quitting the music service completely.

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The Right to Be Forgotten has proved somewhat controversial. While some see the requirement for Google to remove search results that link to pages that contain information about people that is "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant" as a win for privacy, other see it as a form of censorship.

To fight back, there have been a number of sites that have started to list the stories Google is forced to stop linking to. In the latest twist, Google has now been ordered to remove links to contemporary news reports about the stories that were previously removed from search results. All clear? Thought not...

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The NSA has been helped by AT&T for decades in spying on huge quantities of internet traffic new-disclosed documents reveal. The astonishing relationship between the National Security Agency and the telecoms company goes far beyond any sort of arrangement or co-operation that came from other firms.

Evidence published by the New York Times shows that the NSA had arrangements in place with AT&T and Verizon, but the partnership with AT&T proved particularly lucrative. The communications giant added surveillance equipment to at least 17 of its web centers and was used as a testing ground for new spying technologies and techniques. All this is revealed in a new batch of documents provided by Edward Snowden.

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Pre-fetching or caching of web pages is a technique used by many web browsers to improve perceived performance -- it's nothing new. But Firefox takes a slightly sinister and stealthy approach. Simply hover your mouse over a link and the browser fires off requests to the associated website in the background.

While this sounds potentially helpful, it is also something of a privacy and security concern -- not to mention a waste of bandwidth. You might hover over a link simply to check out the destination in the status bar; if there is a link to a malicious or unsavory website, you probably don’t want these stealthy connections being made in the background. If you're worried about your security or privacy, or just want to be back in control of your web connection, there are steps you can take.

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Cries of "FUD!" ring out whenever potential issues and concerns with Windows 10 are pointed out, but there's no denying that the launch of this version of Windows has been more blighted than any other. The latest controversy finds Microsoft updating its EULA so that it is able to block pirated games and unauthorized peripherals.

While on one hand this seems entirely reasonable -- few people would argue too strongly that they should be permitted to play pirated games -- on the other it is confusing and worrisome. It is yet another example of Microsoft causing trouble for itself by failing to properly communicate with its customers, being insufficiently transparent and clear in meaning. Just what is an 'unauthorized peripheral'?

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There’s a new type of mobile phone crime happening in London, according to the BBC, and it’s been dubbed "cyber-flashing". This, in a nutshell, is when the victim -- a woman in the first reported case of its kind -- receives pictures of a stranger’s genitals on their phone.

The offending photos are received via Apple’s Airdrop feature, and so it only affects iPhone owners.

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Many people regret upgrading to Windows 10, and many are put off from making the move to the latest version of Microsoft's operating system, because of concerns about privacy. The answer to privacy worries about Windows 10 features such as Cortana has been 'just don't use them', but it seems that this might not be enough.

Research carried out by Ars Technica shows that even with features disabled and privacy settings activated, Windows 10 continues to send information back to Microsoft. The data is sent by a series of tools including OneDrive, Cortana, and Bing -- even when a local account is used.

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Windows 10, just like its predecessor Windows 8.1, allows for the creation of child accounts that can have limitations imposed upon them. It's a feature that many parents take advantage of, but as more and more people start to upgrade to Windows 10, increasing numbers are complaining about the way in which Microsoft monitors account activity and sends out regular emails about that activity.

The account activity email is optional in Windows 10 -- just as it was in Windows 8.1 -- but it is switched on by default. While many parents like the idea of being able to place restrictions and limitation on a child's Windows account, the "creepy" email that many are seeing for the first time is viewed as a step too far.

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If you've added your mobile number to your Facebook account, you might want to reconsider in light of a new security exploit. A software engineer was able to access user data just by entering their mobile number. Profile pictures, names and locations were all accessible even for users who had not made their number public.

There is potential for such harvested data to be misused by malicious parties, as it provides an easy way to link a mobile number to an individual. Reza Moaiandin was able to use a special tool to quickly generate tens of thousands of numbers which, when passed through a Facebook API, fed back the associated user profiles.

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Over the past week and a half many thousands of people worldwide will have taken the plunge into Windows 10. But, as we've previously pointed out the free upgrade comes at a price in terms of privacy.

So what can you do to enjoy the advantages of Windows 10 without giving away too much of your information? Here are some tips to help you protect your details.

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It’s been a week since Windows 10 was released, and the biggest issue about Microsoft’s latest OS seems to be in the nature and the amount of private data it collects.

We recently wrote about Cortana, the digital assistant, and how much it collects, and now Microsoft has updated its terms of service agreement to better clarify what it collects and how it uses such data.

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Windows 10 is now with us, and, whether you've made the move from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, there is a lot to love, but also a lot to hate. With this latest release, there is also one very big difference from previous versions of Windows: it is free of charge.

This is not only likely to encourage more people into making the move to Windows 10, but it also opens up a possibility that many people would simply not have considered before. If you decide that you don’t like Windows 10 (the OS is not without its fair share of problems, after all), you can downgrade to your previous version without ending up out of pocket. The question is, how many people will go -- or have gone -- down this route?

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