From spam to phishing, email scams to Trojan horses, New Zealanders are growing increasingly weary of the implications of the technologies we are so reliant upon – and in many ways rightly so. Particularly when our privacy – and our very identities – are potential at risk.

These concerns have been highlighted by a spike in the number of complaints made by techno-loving Kiwis to the Privacy Commission.

In her yearly report commissioner Marie Shroff has said the Privacy Commission received more than 6000 enquiries on personal information and privacy matters in the year leading up to June. This number was the highest number of enquiries since 2002, and up by more than 1200 between 2007 and 2008.

The subjects more queried included Google products and platforms such as Street View, the increase and sophistication of CCTV, social networking sites such as Facebook, and data security issues.

The widespread use of portable storage devices (PSDs) such as USB memory sticks, netbooks and iPhones has also raised issues about the security of our data.

Survey findings released by the commission earlier this year found that flagship government departments were among those most at risk of disclosing sensitive personal material, due to lax controls over PSDs.

Ms Shroff said the world was in the midst of an information revolution, where details about individuals could be collected, used and disclosed on an unprecedented scale.

She believed that personal information about New Zealanders was not being treated with the same care and respect as other sorts of ‘classified’ or ’sensitive’ information. She also urged middle and senior public sector managers to become more focused on data protection.

The Law Commission’s major review of privacy was continuing, with the spotlight moving on to the Privacy Act itself.

You can view the Privacy Commissioner Annual Report 2009 (PDF) in full here.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE8 is now the most used browser on NZS.com with a 3% margin to IE7
• Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% overall
• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all gaining in popularity

This month Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% with most of this drop related to IE6. Over the past few months Internet Explorer 6 has been decreasing rather slowly, but this month has seen it drop by over a percentage.

Is this due to the highly anticipated Windows 7 now being released? Could this be the IE6 killer that us web developers all long and hope for? We will have to wait and see, but next month’s stats could well tell us if there is any truth behind this theory.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of October 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

This policy was last reviewed five years ago when public consultation was sought for comment on a number of issues including introducing registrations in .nz at the second level and the process for creating a new second level domain.

The review resulted in changes to the process of creating a new second level domain but did not introduce .nz registrations at the second level.

Since that review, three new second level domain name extensions have been added to the .nz space, including .bank.nz, .parliament.nz and .health.nz. All three of these new second level domains are moderated ones.

The 2LD Policy sets out the general rules regarding the structure of the .nz domain name space. The policy currently includes the list of open and moderated second level domains, defining the communities of interest reflected in the .nz 2LD structure, and the criteria for new 2LDs and the process undertaken upon application for a new open or moderated second level domain. It also includes the procedure for closing an existing 2LD.

The Domain Name Commission welcomes comment on any aspect of the policy, and submissions will be published here on the DNC website.

The current policy can be viewed online.

The question (put a little simpler than the original one) was “How do I know the value of a domain?”

There were the standard responses to go and have a look at Sedo or Afternic but here’s the response from Charles Coxhead, VP of NetConcepts which I thought was some great (and honest) advice;

I’m not an expert by any stretch but I have sold some domains (as high as mid four figures) and have had lots of ‘offers’ for various domains over the years. In my experience…

Traditional domainers will value it based on the revenue potential as a parked domain, ie. based on the amount of type in traffic it sees. They’re probably only interested if it is a very high quality generic domain for which there is real search demand, which means there’s probably also some decent type in traffic.

Developers will value it based on their perceived value, ie. highly subjective. It all comes down to the negotiation and knowing what would you be prepared to part with it for. I’ve passed on some sales because I’ve felt the domain would be worth more to me in the longer term.

Keep in mind also that there are lots of scams around where people contact you pretending to be interested and then say that they want you to use a particular domain valuation company to assess the value…the rub being that they run the domain valuation business. Most domain valuation sites are a crock imho.

I’ve always started the discussion off by asking them to make any offer. They’ll typically come back and low ball it, to which you can reply saying it really needs to be in the XXXX range (the high end of what you want for it) before you’d be prepared to part with it, and see what happens then.

If you have a domain name and you’re trying to find out how to price your domain, following the advice above will get you a good step down the path.

In the end, the value of your domain will be quite subjective depending on the party that’s interested in buying it so keep that in mind…

Earlier this month, Orcon announced the launch of a cloud computing service for small to medium businesses, claiming it was the first locally developed service in the New Zealand.

Cloud computing or hosting refers to scalable and virtual web hosting options, where servers, including virtual servers, were created and used ‘on demand’. This allowed customers the freedom to pay only for what they used, with added data storage capable of being added without needing new computer infrastructure.

Iconz chief executive Sean McDonald disputed Orcon’s claims and said his company entered the market in October 2008. Iconz did not specifically offer ‘cloud’ computing, but Mr McDonald said the service it provided was essentially the same thing.

He said ‘cloud’ computing or hosting was one of the buzz phrases currently receiving industry hype, but could be misinterpreted. He believed that one of the problems was that anyone with a reasonable size server could state they were a cloud provider.

Xero founder Rod Drury said local cloud services had been available in New Zealand since around 2000 from companies including Datacom and Abacom. He believed the trend would become more mainstream as broadband continued to develop and improve, but conceded the use of the term was also “probably a bit of cheeky marketing”.

Orcon spokesman Duncan Blair said the company was standing by claims and the definition of cloud computing as ‘dynamically scalable and virtual servers’.

With Google Chrome themes from designers like Anna Sui, Donna Karen and Kate Spade (pictured), as well as a range of cool cartoon and pop culture inspired motifs to choose from, you can be sure your Chrome browser will never look less then geek-a-liciously gorgeous again.

Google Chrome is currently only for Windows Vista/XP SP3 users. A Mac-friendly version is said to be on the way.

Do you know your Firefox from your Safari? Your Chrome from your Opera? Do you know what web browser you use when you use the Internet?

A link was sent to me today to this cool little website, brought to us by ‘some folks at Google’. The back story is that when Google launched Chrome they did a survey in Times Square in New York, asking more than 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds one seemingly simple question:

As you’ll see if you check out the video footage the results are pretty embarrassing, and the What Browser? website offers a quick snapshot and overview of what exactly a browser is for anyone too embarrassed to ask…

I’m happy to admit I actually learned a thing or two myself!

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all making small but steady percentage gains.
• Internet Explorer on the whole has declined slightly
• IE8 is on the brink of taking over from IE7 as the top used browser on NZS.com

Internet Explorer 8 is again on the move and has taken its gains from IE7 and IE6, bringing it ever closer to being the most used browser on NZS.com. The slow demise of Internet Explorer 6 is arguably due to the “corporate” users whose companies systems rely on IE6, or only upgrade their browsers when they get a new OS such as Windows Vista or the newly awaited Windows 7.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of September 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE 8 has taken another 5% from IE7.
• Safari and Chrome have taken small percentages away from Firefox and IE

Again IE8 is making strides in its bid to be the top IE browser on NZS.com taking another 5% from IE7. Within the IE statistics the percentages are; IE7 44%, IE8 35% and IE6 at 20%.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of August 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

Google was forced to reveal the blogger’s name after former Vogue Australia covergirl Liskula Cohen claimed statements published on the Google-run blog about her were defamatory.

Cohen confronted and reportedly forgave the blogger, and has decided against going through with a defamation suit. Even though her right to sue the blogger was the whole reason Google was forced to reveal the blogger’s identity in the first place.

And in a new plot twist, the blogger – 29 year old New York fashion student Rosemary Port – is now going after Google.

Port’s lawyer Salvatore Strazzullo said he was prepared to take a case against Google all the way to the US Supreme Court because the company had “breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity”.

Port has argued Cohen had defamed herself by launching such public legal action, and claimed she had the right to an opinion. She said before the lawsuit and subsequent groundbreaking court order, there had been few hits on the website.

“That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated.”