Facebook offers more privacy options

In today's podcast: Facebook offers more privacy options; French lawmakers approve bill to filter Net content; and Salesforce.com offer private beta for Chatter.

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Facebook has made it possible for its members to assign, on the fly, a wider variety of access levels to content they post using third-party applications and Web sites, the company said Wednesday. Previously, members chose a default privacy setting for content shared via applications, and that setting was then applied across the board to this type of post going forward. While this default setting remains, members now have the option to apply a different access setting to each thing they post through an application or Web site, on a case-by-case basis.

French lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve a draft law to filter Internet traffic, a measure the government says is intended to catch child pornographers. The bill will now go on for a second and final reading. Critics of the catch-all "Bill on direction and planning for the performance of domestic security" say that filtering won't stop the spread of child pornography -- but could allow the government to censor other materials.

Salesforce.com on Wednesday announced a private beta program for Chatter, the enterprise collaboration platform first announced last year, positioning it as an alternative to Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Lotus Notes. Chatter incorporates a range of familiar features, such as profiles, status updates from people or applications, document sharing and integrations with third-party sources such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz. Some 100 companies will participate in the beta. Applications sold on Salesforce.com's AppExchange can be tied into Chatter, which also includes support for mobile devices.

The latest version of OpenOffice fixes several vulnerabilities that could cause a computer to become compromised by a remote attacker. OpenOffice.org has issued version 3.2, which adds a lengthy list of new features and improves the suite's overall performance while also fixing six vulnerabilities. Three of those problems could allow a remote attacker to execute code. In one of those cases, a malicious XPM file -- a type of image format supported by ODF (OpenDocument Format) -- could be maliciously crafted and allow remote user to execute other code on the computer with the same privileges as the local user.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.