Private Emails, DNA Tracking & Changing of the Guard

I don't think there's any industry as fast paced as the PC industry. It's my job to keep up on its news, and I can barely manage. Plus, so much of high tech news has implications way beyond the news item itself, affecting our lives today and tomorrow.

Take the last 48 hours as an example.

No Warrant, No Email

The courts made an important ruling that government had no right to read stored emails housed on an ISP's web site without a search warrant. The appeals court ruling said that email should enjoy privacy protections similar to those of our phone conversations. In the past, the government could ask for stored email from the ISP and not require any type of search warrant. Anyone who uses a remote location to store their email (Hotmail, Yahoo!, or any other web based mail) should take note of this important decision that strengthens the right to email privacy.

A Dating Service for DNA

In the potentially scary news column, Ancestry.com, the genealogical web site, is partnering with Sorenson Genomics, a DNA testing company, to add DNA testing to its offerings. Swab your cheek and send the sample in to Ancestry. It'll run it through its database of other DNA samples to find matches, AKA your relations. And if you thought you hated parting with your email address, just wait until your DNA falls into the wrong hands!

End of the World as We Know It

Two of the big guys, Sony and Microsoft, each closed down a major initiative. Sony, as disclosed by PaidContent, will close Sony CONNECT—its iTunes-like service that launched two years ago. I used the service once, briefly, and found it competent, but not a compelling reason to leave iTunes. Sony was late to the party when it launched Sony CONNECT in 2004, and originally it did not support enough file formats to satisfy most users. When Sony can't make a music destination work, it's got trouble.

Microsoft, another weakened behemoth, is closing down its Digital Image Suite product development. The announcement came in the form of a terse message on the company's web site, saying that Digital Image Suite was being discontinued. Though the company claims that many of the photo features are now in Vista, I believe that they've ceded the consumer digital imaging software space to Adobe PhotoShop Elements. Despite an occasionally counterintuitive set of menus, I liked using Digital Image Suite and I'll miss it. In many ways, the closing of Digital Image Suite really means the beginning of the end of shrink wrapped software. Hint: If you're looking for a steal, you should see some bargain remnants in the stores soon.

And then there's Terry Semel's departure from Yahoo! after a six year stint. My take? For better or worse, Semel's reign was all about nurturing content and community, while Google kept its focus on technology and the real machinations of a Web 2.0 world. The next chapter should be very interesting.

Got a news story that you think is changing the tech landscape?  Go on, try it out on us.  

Disclosure: I write this column for Yahoo! Tech, which is owned by Yahoo!, but the opinions are my own.