United States officials claim the White House only discovered the National Security Agency was spying on world leaders in the middle of the year.

New claims have emerged over the extent of United States intelligence agencies' monitoring of the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Europe's leaders have turned their wrath on the United States, condemning as unacceptable the alleged "out of control" spying on citizens and governments.

Barack Obama has spoken to France's President Francois Hollande as a row rages over claims that a US spy agency eavesdropped on millions of phone calls of French citizens.

Vodafone has sent some of its staff a warning about delving into records after the Herald's hunt for the sender of a threatening text to Bevan Chuang.

Internet giants' plea for exemption fails to convince Communications Minister.

The Government has backed down over a clause in a controversial spying bill which could have seen companies like Microsoft banned from offering services in NZ.

Facebook is getting rid of a privacy feature that lets users limit who can find them on the social network.

Almost 100,000 Kiwis have had personal details accidentally released under National, says Labour leader.

Technology such as smart phones has led to spending more time working and increasingly taking work home, a survey has shown.

Smartphones have become the number one target for hackers trying to cheat New Zealanders, says a Kiwi academic who has been studying global trends.

The Privacy Commissioner has been consulted on the possibility of using identification numbers attached to preschoolers as a way to track and punish parents.

For almost three years the National Security Agency has been tapping the data it collects to map out some Americans' social connections.

The Government has acknowledged international criticism of its new law around online state surveillance but Google says it has failed to address those concerns.

Kiwi Bank was today red-faced after discovering that highly confidential documents had been handed across the counter to a member of the public at the Greymouth branch.

Former SAS commando Barrie Rice has been a bodyguard for the Sultan of Brunei's family, a security contractor for Blackwater in Iraq and now teaches gun skills to Hollywood actors.

United Future leader Peter Dunne hopes a new investigation will reveal exactly who accessed his email records during the GCSB leak inquiry.

Peter Dunne says the breach of his privacy by the Henry inquiry probing the leak of a report into the GCSB was down to its "shoddy" approach.

Officers in an elite unit set up to target the biggest criminal threats to NZ fear internal reprisals if they tell police bosses of "inappropriate conduct".

Every step onward increases the scale and complexity of the computer systems, until they are too big and complex for any one person to understand, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Facebook is being closely watched after the social network said it was considering running users' profile photos through its controversial facial recognition technology.

The Government's spy agency got away with breaking the law, after the decision not to prosecute over illegally spying, Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says.

Gerry Brownlee has questioned why political reporters' phone, email and swipe card records should be protected when they publish the private records of others.

A privacy lawyer says putting CCTV photos of two alleged toilet vandals on Facebook is problematic, but a bar says the cameras that snapped them will stay.

Politicians who were instrumental in the passing of the controversial GCSB law are being targeted by the international hacker group Anonymous.

The detention and subsequent criminal investigation into the partner of a Guardian journalist threatens to undermine the position of the free press.