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Working Together to Fight Fraud Online
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Posted by Tim Cranton
Associate General Counsel
Earlier today the Federal Trade Commission kicked off a two-day “Fraud Forum” in Washington, D.C., that is bringing together regulators, law enforcement officers, consumer advocates, academics and business leaders to swap ideas and advance cooperation to combat illegal online activities that cost citizens and businesses millions of dollars each year.
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New Microsoft Initiative Will Provide Skills Training to American Workers
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs
With unemployment at 7.6% in January and thousands of additional layoffs since then, the economy and jobs are the key issues here at the National Governors Association meetings in DC this weekend.
During a panel discussion about transforming America’s workforce, I announced a new Microsoft initiative called Elevate America that is designed to give state and local governments the tools and resources they need to provide no-cost or low-cost technology skills training to help get people back to work. Several states, including Florida, New York and Washington have already partnered with us to make Elevate America available to their citizens.
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Microsoft Encourages Parents to “Get Game Smart”
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Posted by Robbie Bach
President, Entertainment and Devices Division Today’s digital world is an exciting place for kids, offering a mind-boggling array of high-tech diversions. Recent statistics speak volumes. According to recent PEW studies, 97 percent of teens play video games and 65 percent of online teens use social networking technologies. Xbox 360 hosts one of the largest social network on the planet with over 17 million members on our Xbox LIVE service, up 70 percent in 2008.
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The Role of IT in Economic Recovery: Competition and Collaboration
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Posted by Horacio Gutierrez
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Intellectual Property and Licensing
As the purveyor of hardware, software and services designed to help us all work more efficiently, the IT industry has a responsibility – now more than ever before – to help people and organizations get maximum value from their shrinking resources.
One way to do this is for IT companies to collaboratively develop computing solutions that enable different kinds of software and hardware to work together. Customers tell us this is one of the most important things we can do to help them manage their IT costs and prioritize their investments. This is particularly important for customers running “mixed source” IT operations that rely on both open source and proprietary software.
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Seeing the Internet as an Ecosystem
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Posted by Pamela Passman
Corporate Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs
Earlier this week I participated on a panel about the future of Internet content and services at the Silicon Flatirons annual conference at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Rocky Radar did a good job of reporting on the conference. Stacey Dogan, Eric Goldman, and Pamela Samuelson presented papers covering on-line trademark issues that may arise as a result of searches, the future of Wikipedia and the challenges of open and editable sites, and emerging on-line copyright issues respectively.
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Microsoft Collaborates With Industry to Disrupt Conficker Worm
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Posted by George Stathakopoulos
General Manager, Trustworthy Computing
Readers who’ve been following cybersecurity issues know that Internet-based threats have rapidly evolved to complex, stealthy attacks. The Conficker worm which has been making news lately is a classic example.
We’re announcing a partnership today with technology industry leaders and academia to implement a coordinated, global response to the Conficker worm. Together with security researchers, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and operators within the domain name system, Microsoft unified broad support designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker. In addition to the disruption effort, we also announced a $250,000 reward for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker malicious code on the Internet.
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Ballmer to Congress: Act Now on Stimulus Agreement
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues House and Senate lawmakers moved with impressive speed today to forge a final agreement on a $789 billion stimulus package designed to help revive the struggling U.S. economy. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who has been a vocal proponent of the legislation, has sent a letter to all members of Congress urging them to quickly pass the bill so President Obama can sign it into law. Click Read More to see the text of Mr. Ballmer’s letter:
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Microsoft, Girl Scouts Join Forces to Improve Online Safety
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
This morning we announced a new collaboration with the Girl Scouts of the USA aimed at improving online safety. As families search for the best ways to protect their kids online, a big challenge is finding resources tailored to people in different phases of their lives.
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Microsoft Hails Senate Passage of Stimulus Package
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Posted by David Bowermaster
Administrator, Microsoft on the Issues
If you’ve been reading this blog since we launched it last month, you’ve probably figured out that Microsoft is a big proponent of the stimulus package working its way through Capitol Hill.
We have had one post highlighting the workforce development components of the proposal, and another examining the important science and technology provisions. Friday, we shared with you Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s remarks urging Congress to pass the legislation and to preserve its strategic investments in technology and innovation.
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Comparing Search Data Retention Policies of Major Search Engines Before the EU
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Posted By Brendon Lynch
Director of Privacy Strategy
(Re-posted from The Data Privacy Imperative blog)
Today, I testified before the Article 29 Working Party, the Europe Commission group charged with providing advice to the EU and member states on the protection of personal data. The Article 29 Working Party hearing examined the data anonymization practices of major search companies.
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