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"Schoolchildren are at risk of having their online activity tracked and monitored for targeted advertising by internet firms through free cloud based education services. A survey has found that many parents do not know about data mining - the process of tracking email and web browsing habits in order to target advertising - but once they do they have grave concerns for their kids' online privacy, and believe schools need to do more to protect it. The survey commissioned by American IT industry group SafeGov asked 1000 Australian parents about their knowledge of data mining."

There's another mining boom you may have missed. It too involves paying young people six-figure salaries in their first jobs, and exploring deeper for resources that may have been previously overlooked. But it's not about driving trucks or digging holes. It's about building algorithms and crunching facts and numbers. It's mining for data.

"It sounds like the stuff of sci-fi nightmares - a stranger hacking your baby cam and shouting abuse at your toddler. Someone controlling your home's lights and power points via a system that should only respond to your smartphone. Criminals watching you and your family from your smart TV without your knowledge. But each of these has already happened, and mark the beginning of a cyber crime wave threatening business, governments and individuals around the world. The number of smart devices being connected online in what's called the "Internet of Things" will rocket from 13 billion to an estimated 50 billion by 2020. The problem, says LA security consultant Marc Goodman, is that they're all hackable."