Recent developments could portend the demise of National Security Letters, which allow the FBI to get private customer information without a judge's approval.

Facebook users are constantly being told that their privacy is under siege. Here are seven apps that can help secure your personal data.

Neither federal and state law nor the courts have come close to catching up with the privacy implications of so much of our data existing in a realm beyond our complete control.

Do Not Track in Internet Explorer 10 won't kill online advertising. Microsoft, as much as anyone else, has its eye on that multibillion-dollar prize.

Security suites from McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro and Webroot offer protection for all your devices along with Web-based management.

Security suites from McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro and Webroot offer protection for all your devices along with Web-based management.

Before you ditch a device, you need to make sure none of your data is retrievable. Here's how to do it.

Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2012 adds new features to the suite's toolkit, including those to enhance PC performance and make some basic use of the cloud; it also adds some tweaks to the interface. This is not a major overhaul, but the addition of new tools makes a useful piece of protection software even more valuable.

Worried by the spate of news stories about malware targeting Android phones and tablets? There's a way to get some peace of mind: Symantec's just-released Norton Mobile Security, which promises the same type of security for Android devices that its big brother counterpart offers for PCs. (The app was previously available as a beta.)

KeePass solves an increasingly important dilemma: How to keep track of all of your passwords, whether they be for email services, Web sites, bank accounts, or what have you. Increasingly, we are inundated with passwords, with no easy way to keep track of them. The free KeePass does the job neatly.

The news that iPhones, iPads and Android devices secretly track the locations of their owners poses a potentially serious dilemma for IT staffs. If someone's manager asks IT to retrieve that data and hand it over, what should IT do? We certainly have to acknowledge that a device that's used for business purposes but automatically tracks personal information blurs the line between personal and corporate information.

If you have a small network at your business or at home, you need help -- and lots of it. For your home network, you are by default the network administrator. You may also be the de facto network administrator at work, in addition to the other job titles you could claim. And if you are the acknowledged network administrator, you probably have little or no backup staff.

The Norton Mobile Utilities beta for Android is a useful but somewhat buggy suite of free tools that any self-respecting Android geek will want to download and test. To a certain extent, it's a proof of concept, because Symantec has not yet decided whether the app will ever become a full-blown product and, if it does, whether it will be free or for pay. Still, it's well worth the download.

AVG Internet Security 2011, which shipped on Tuesday, offers the full complement of tools you'd expect in an all-in-one security suite, packaged in a simple-to-use interface and offering integration with popular browsers and Outlook. But the software is marred by annoying attempts to upsell you to other products, and a scanning engine that may slow down your system.

To use an Internet-connected computer is to be insecure and place your privacy in danger. Spyware, viruses, Trojans and assorted malware are everywhere on the Net, trying to hop onto your PC and cause damage. Snoopers want to get at your personal information for nefarious purposes, such as identity theft.