Germany has approved BlackBerry's purchase of encryption firm Secusmart after signing a "no-spy" agreement with the Canadian smartphone maker.

Duesseldorf-based Secusmart provides special smartphones to German government officials that are meant to be safe from eavesdropping.

The European Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the break-up of Google Thursday in a largely symbolic vote that nevertheless cast another blow in the four-year standoff between Brussels and the U.S. Internet giant.

In a direct challenge to Google (Xetra: A0B7FY - news) , MEPs assembled in Strasbourg approved a resolution calling on the EU to consider ordering search engines to separate their commercial services from their businesses.

China's version of Twitter, Weibo, has effectively banned users from promoting the country's most popular messaging app WeChat on its platform as the two Internet giants battle for users.

Nasdaq-listed Weibo said in a statement it would crack down on users disseminating QR (quick response) codes -- a type of barcode -- and other marketing information.

Twitter on Wednesday said it would begin tracking which other applications people have installed on their mobile devices in a bid to better target ads and content.

"We are collecting and occasionally updating the list of apps installed on your mobile device so we can deliver tailored content that you might be interested in," Twitter said in a blog post.

That selfie stick in your hand. A harmless memory-maker? Or a potentially chaos-inducing electromagnetic radiation emitter?

In South Korea, it seems, it could be both and anyone selling an unregistered version could face a $27,000 fine or up to three years in prison, the Science Ministry announced last week.

Most people can recognize Microsoft founder Bill Gates and know that hashtags belong in tweets, but are confused about whether having a privacy policy means that a company actually keeps consumer information confidential, according to a new Pew Research study released Tuesday.

The results underscore what many techies say is a growing problem for the U.S.: a generation reliant on the convenience that technology brings, but with little understanding of the risks of conducting nearly every transaction using zeroes and ones.

Twitter is expanding its reach into commerce with a new tool called "Offers."

Advertisers can post promotions and discounts in users' Twitter feeds, whether or not the users follow those merchants on the short-messaging service.

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom, accused of pocketing more than U.S.$175 million from pirated copies of movies and other material, claimed Wednesday he was broke and facing jail in New Zealand.

In a live video link from his New Zealand mansion to the UnBound Digital conference in England, the German-born entrepreneur said he had no money left to defend himself at a bail hearing in Auckland on Thursday.

Affordable access to the Internet should be a human right, as it represents hope for political freedom and economic prosperity to many around the world, according to a survey Monday.

Most people also do not want any one nation or organization to manage this global network of computers, in order to prevent crackdowns on free speech and political expression.

Struggling Sony warned Thursday it needs to carry out years of root and branch reform before it can turn around its battered smartphone arm.

The Japanese consumer giant, fresh from revealing a 172 billion yen ($1.5 billion) operating loss in the mobile communication segment for the latest quarter, said painful changes lay ahead.