Consumer efforts to protect personal data and remain "invisible" online is leading to a "data blackhole" that could adversely impact digital advertisers, technology research firm Ovum said Wednesday.

The move to seek "new tools that allow them to remain 'invisible' -- untraceable and impossible to target by data means" will impact advertisers who rely on that information to target their audiences, Ovum said.

Internet titan Google was cleared Wednesday of allegations it hosted deceptive advertisements, with Australia's highest court saying it was not responsible for companies who diverted users from their competitors' sites.

Australia's competition regulator had taken Google to court, alleging that adverts using keywords for Honda, Harvey World Travel, Alpha Dog Training and Just 4X4 Magazine published by Google had led consumers to rival firms.

Facebook-owned Instagram on Tuesday began letting a freshly launched website serve as a gallery for images taken by users of the smartphone photo-sharing service.

"Instagram, at its core, is about seeing and taking photos on-the-go," company co-founder Kevin Systrom said in a blog post.

Atari, the pioneering video game company mired in bankruptcy proceedings in both France and the U.S., said on Tuesday it had found a last minute buyer after the latest leading shareholder gave up on turning the company around.

Atari SA "supports the proposed acquisition of the BlueBay Funds' interests in the Atari group by a longtime videogame professional and a fund advised by Alden Global Capital," the videogamer said in a statement.

North Korea, poised to conduct a nuclear test any day now, has posted a video on YouTube depicting a U.S. city resembling New York engulfed in flames after an apparent missile attack.

The footage was uploaded Saturday by the North's official website, Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from the state media.

The Philippine Supreme Court has again stopped the government from enforcing a controversial cybercrime law, officials said Tuesday, amid concern it would severely curb Internet freedoms.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said a fresh "temporary restraining order" (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court meant the law passed last year could not take effect.

The chief executive of Research In Motion said he's disappointed the new BlackBerry won't be released in the United States until mid-March, but he said early data suggests sales in the U.K. are above expectations.

Thorsten Heins said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press that he was disappointed in the mid-March U.S. release date. But he said the U.S. and its phone carriers have a rigid testing system.

Ads pegged to Google search results can be racially biased because of how certain names are associated with blacks or whites, according to a new study.

Harvard University professor Latanya Sweeney found "statistically significant discrimination" when comparing ads served with results from online searches made using names associated with blacks and those with whites.

Somalia's al-Qaida linked Shebab insurgents have returned to Twitter with a new account, less than two weeks since they were suspended after posting photographs of a French commando they had killed.

"For what it’s worth, shooting the messenger and suppressing the truth by silencing your opponents isn’t quite the way to win the war of ideas," read one of the messages on the new account, which opened late Sunday.

A secret legal review has concluded that the U.S. president has the power to order preemptive cyber strikes if the United States discovers credible evidence of a major digital attack against it is in the offing, The New York Times reported Monday.

Citing unnamed officials involved in the review, the newspaper said the new policy will also govern how the intelligence agencies can carry out searches of overseas computer networks for signs of potential attacks on the United States and, if the president approves, attack adversaries with a destructive code -- even if there is no declared war.