"The fact that people were walking through Square Mile, a really historic part of London in the heart of the Financial District, and people didn't know it was happening; you couldn't tell it was happening when you walked past," noted London reporter Siraj Datoo. "If you walked along the street, you really had no idea that your phone was essentially giving this recycling bin your information, and I think that's really what was the craziest part about it."

"There have been other companies that have been licensed to take these photos in Oslo, but they are Norwegian companies and they follow Norwegian regulations, so the national security authorities are able to, for instance, have control over photos," explained Aftenposten security reporter Henning Carr Ekroll. "And if they want to blacken out areas that are sensitive, they can do so."

About six years ago, the World Trade Organization sided with the itty-bitty Caribbean island of Antigua on its claim that the United States' ban on overseas remote gaming violated international trade agreements. Following years of failed negotiations between the U.S. and Antigua, the WTO upheld its ruling last winter, confirming once and for all that -- as compensation for the erosion of Antigua's online gambling sector -- the island could suspend its obligations to certain U.S. intellectual property rights. The U.S. has stood pat on its ban, so Antigua announced this summer that it is forming a committee to implement the country's suspension of U.S. copyrights.

"Big Data -- it's really a trend that has happened as a result of digitizing so much more of the information that we all have already and that we all produce. Machine data, sensor data, all the social media activities and mobile devices are all contributing to the proliferation of data. It's added a lot more data to our universe, but the real opportunity is to look for small elements of small datasets and look for combinations and patterns within the data."

Britain's crusade against online pornography has ramped up. Prime minister David Cameron recently gave a speech saying the pornography was "corroding childhood," and declared that every household in the UK should have pornography blocked by Internet service providers -- unless, that is, the homeowners specifically opt in to pornographic content, which seems like it could make for some awkward dinnertime discussions. In this TechNewsWorld podcast, we talk with Internet law expert Abhilash Nair, who joined us from the UK to break down the situation.