Children are getting online at ever-younger ages these days, sometimes with sites like Facebook, and sometimes for school requirements. But did you know that many major online services, including those from Google, Apple, and Facebook, don’t allow children under 13 to join at all, thanks to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act? The end result is that parents are being forced to teach their children to lie online.

This research finding from Georgia Tech sounds like it comes from the plot of a high-tech thriller — a team has figured out how to listen in on what someone is typing on a nearby keyboard by using the accelerometer and gyroscope of an iPhone 4 to sense keyboard vibrations and decipher sentences with 80 percent accuracy. Although the actual risk of this happening is essentially non-existent, it’s yet another example of just how important it is that smartphone security be maintained by manufacturers and users alike.

Joe Kissell has completely rethought and redesigned his popular Mac backup book to cover backups in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and to help you reassess your current backup strategy (you do have one, don’t you?).

A spate of problems has cropped up with rogue SSL/TLS certificates that have the potential to subvert the integrity of encrypted Internet communications. Over at Macworld, Glenn Fleishman explains the situation, and offers advice to Mac OS X users on how to put up their guard for the system and browsers.

This new iOS app lets you access backups from any computer that you’ve stored on CrashPlan Central, using your favorite iOS device.

Lex Friedman at Macworld tries to figure out why some iTunes accountholders are seeing small charges made against gift-card and other credits in their accounts while their passwords remain secure. It’s a mystery, and Lex says there’s no answer to it yet.

Lion leverages lessons learned from iOS to be Apple’s most significant security update to Mac OS X ever. Here are four security key changes, why they matter, and what we can expect in the future.

Please welcome our latest TidBITS sponsor, the Apple-focused Internet security software maker Intego!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is seeking public comment on new proposed guidelines for mobile medical apps to ensure they don’t pose a risk to patients. But the proposal is quite narrow; it’s aimed only at apps that are used as an accessory to an FDA-approved medical device or turn the mobile device into something that would otherwise be regulated by the FDA. Still, if you’re interested in this field, now is your chance to register your comments.

iOS updates close an SSL-related security vulnerability that could enable protected communications to be captured or modified by someone on the same network.

iOS updates close a PDF-related security vulnerability used in a jailbreaking technique.

When discussing actions that could violate someone’s privacy, the “nothing to hide” argument is often raised as a reason not to worry. In this excerpt from his book “Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff Between Privacy and Security” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, author Daniel J. Solove points out that there are multiple types of privacy-related problems, and that the “nothing to hide” argument focuses largely on surveillance and disclosure of personal information while ignoring privacy issues related to aggregation, governmental powers, secondary use, and distortion, among others. It’s an essential read for anyone struggling with the tensions surrounding privacy, security, and commerce.

Code 42 Software has supplemented its backup offerings for individual users and enterprises with a new backup service tailored for the small and medium-sized business market.

Apple has released what is very likely its last pre-Lion Mac OS X update, bundling in bug fixes, security improvements, and enhancements that prepare the Mac App Store for the release of Lion.

At the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy 2011 conference, Jeff Porten describes and comments upon the keynote delivered by Senator Pat Leahy.