Plan to monitor all Internet use

Communications firms are being asked to record all Internet contacts between people as part of a modernisation in UK police surveillance tactics, reports BBC News.

The home secretary scrapped plans for a database but wants details to be held and organised for security services.

The new system would track all e-mails, phone calls and Internet use, including visits to social network sites.

There are only a few PR predicaments worse than having a sensationalised killing named after your business. Yet, despite intense coverage of the "Craigslist murder", Craig Newmark - founder of the popular online classified service - says there are no plans to shut the site's "erotic services" section, reports The Register.

Newman told ABC News on Friday evening he disagrees with claims that the site facilitates prostitution.

Responding to recent criticism from Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, he said the site already has measures to let users flag "inappropriate" material for removal.

Kindle e-book retailer Amazon.com has purchased Lexcycle, a year-old company that makes the iPhone e-book application Stanza, in a move that ratchets up Amazon's presence in the electronic book market, according to AP.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Stanza allows users to read e-books in the "epub" format, which is an open standard supported by the International Digital Publishing Forum that many publishers use to create e-book files.

A man convicted of swindling more than $259 000 using fraudulent eBay listings and other venues was ordered to serve 52 months in federal prison and pay $252 000 in restitution, says The Register.

Derrick Lee Swantz, 57, of Lakewood, Colorado, was convicted in January of implementing two separate fraud schemes.

In one, he offered luxury automobiles for sale on eBay and Autotrader.com. He used the phone and e-mail to communicate with would-be buyers and directed them to make payments by making wire transfers or sending cashier's cheques. Once the payments were made, Swantz did not deliver the vehicles.

Apple investors will get an advisory vote on executive compensation, the company said yesterday, reversing an earlier announcement in which Apple said the "say on pay" proposal failed to get enough support at the most recent shareholder meeting, notes AP.

The company said yesterday that in its quarterly report filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it incorrectly reported voting percentages for several shareholder proposals - including say on pay - because it counted abstentions as "no" votes.

Only a handful of companies have adopted these types of shareholder advisory votes on compensation, but proposals seeking them are on the table at many shareholder meetings this year amid increased scrutiny of pay practices.