There would be a bunch of popular instant-messengers out there which we can name without taking a breath, however majority of them can be and are getting snooped into by governmental agencies and hackers. Free, Multi-platform and open-sourced Tox instant-messenger aims to solve this by providing an easy to use method to connect with friends and family without anyone else listening-in. Users can not only enjoy secure and encrypted instant-chats but also voice and video calls without the fear of anybody listening into it, also unlike other big-name services which require you to pay for additional features, Tox is totally free, and comes without advertising.

Google Android 4.4 KitKat brings some changes which will definitely raise some eyebrows, specially with users who are touchy about their privacy. After amending their TOS which enables Google to use your photos in advertisements all across the web via Google Shared Endorsement, the company is now making your Google+ photo connected to your phone number which will be shown to any user on their Android mobile phone as Caller ID when they dial your phone number. Currently this "Smart Caller ID" feature which is now live on Android 4.4 shows caller ID photos pulled automatically from verified Google Places and Google Apps customer accounts. This feature will however get expended to include personal Google+ accounts in early 2014, after this expansion anyone with an verified phone number and discovery turned on in G+ profile will have their names and profile photos display on each others screen even if they have not exchanged/saved contact information. Thankfully, users can easily opt-out and disable this feature as shown below.

After sending ads directly into user's inbox, Google has rolled out a new "Terms of Service" update on how they utilize user's information and photo in content and advertisement. Dubbed "Shared Endorsements", the new policy allows Google to use your face, name and reviews for advertisements as shown below. Starting November 11th, your name, photo and endorsements (reviews and facts like you follow a brand on Google+) will get displayed in ads on web which reaches around a billion users globally. Thankfully, Google allows us to Opt-out/disable this completely as demonstrated next.

Julian Assange the famous face behind WikiLeaks has made another startling revelation by labeling Facebook as an “appalling spying machine”, in an interview given to Russia Today he revealed that US intelligence services have direct access to records of Facebook users. In his words :

“Facebook is the most appalling spying machine that's ever been invented,"

“Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their addresses and locations, their communications with each other - all sitting within the United States and all accessible to US intelligence.”

“Facebook, Google, Yahoo – all these major US organisations - have developed an interface for US intelligence teams,” ... “It's not a matter or serving a subpoena – they have developed an interface for them to use.

“US intelligence can bring pressure to bear and it's costly for them to hand out records one by one, so they have automated the process – everyone should understand that.”

Online whistleblowing site Cryptome leaked an internal Microsoft document "Microsoft® Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook" having information regarding what user-activity records Microsoft keeps for their online services and for how long in compliance with legal authorities, the site labeled the document microsoft-spy.zip but was soon taken down by their hosting provider after receiving an DMCA copyright infringement take-down notice from Microsoft.

However, the site is now back online and still hosts the microsoft-spy.zip along with various other "spying guides" like yahoo, Paypal, MySpace and Facebook to name a few.