Top 5 stories: Facebook privacy, broadband speed, 4G and more

Five of the most-read stories from the Computeractive website this week.

UK broadband speeds under scrutiny

Ofcom is to publish a scorecard this autumn that will compare broadband speeds in the UK with other European countries.

The communications regulator is doing this to monitor the Government's ambition for the country to have the fastest broadband services in Europe by 2015.

Germany probing Facebook privacy

Germany's data-protection authority has re-opened its investigation into whether Facebook has breached privacy laws by automatically tagging photos of users.

The social media site uses facial-recognition technology to identify people and place a tag on photographs of them without gaining prior consent.

What to expect from IFA 2012

The annual IFA trade show in Berlin is the of the year's big electronics trade show, with many of the world's biggest technology manufacturers exhibiting their latest products.

Most of those will hit the shelves in time for Christmas, so IFA can be a good way of previewing potential present purchases.

Barnes and Noble's Nook coming to UK this October

Nook ebook readers are coming to the UK for mid-October, with the Nook Simple Touch and Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight both available at launch.

Barnes & Noble, the bookseller behind the Nook ereaders, said it would be selling the devices through a new website, Nook, and be partnering with ‘leading retailers' on the UK high street and online.

4G coming this year as Everything Everywhere gets head-start

Faster mobile broadband is coming to the UK this September after Ofcom approved an application by Everything Everywhere to use existing bandwidth for its 4G network.

The company, which owns Orange and T-Mobile, will be able to use its existing 1800MHz spectrum to start running a 4G mobile broadband service well ahead of schedule.

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