Facebook faces suit for allegedly intercepting private messages  —  Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating its members' right to privacy.  The social network is being sued by members who claim that the company intercepts private messages, without consent, to mine the data for its own profit.

Wearable tech at CES 2014: Prepare your body parts for an onslaught of options  —  Wearable technology.  It's an exploding product category in desperate need of a category-defining product.  And now, with the Consumer Electronics Show upon us, we get to see whether some company, any company …

How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos  —  How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood  —  If you use Netflix, you've probably wondered about the specific genres that it suggests to you.  Some of them just seem so specific that it's absurd.  Emotional Fight-the-System Documentaries?

Mandiant, which rooted out Chinese hackers for the NYT, acquired by FireEye for nearly $1 billion  —  Mandiant, which rooted out Chinese hackers for the NYT, is being snapped up for nearly $1 billion  —  The past year saw the dramatic rise of information security firms in the face …

PopCap CEO to retire, cofounder will take over the Plants vs. Zombies studio (exclusive)  —  John Vechey, cofounder of PopCap, is its new chief.  —  Dave Roberts, chief executive of Electronic Arts' PopCap Games division, is retiring from the game studio that he joined almost nine years ago.

Moto G coming to Verizon Wireless on January 9th for $99.99 off-contract  —  Verizon Wireless prepaid customers will be able to order the Moto G starting January 9th for $99.99.  Motorola's budget handset will be available first online and will appear at the carrier's retail stores “in the coming weeks.”

YouTube goes 4K, Google signs up long list of hardware partners for VP9 support  —  YouTube will be demonstrating 4K video at CES in Las Vegas next week, with a twist: The Google-owned video service will be showing off ultra high-definition streaming based on VP9, a new royalty-free codec …

AT&T to offer $200 credit to T-Mobile switchers, in preemptive jab at rival  —  T-Mobile CEO John Legere.  (T-Mobile Photo)  —  AT&T plans to offer a credit to T-Mobile customers who switch to AT&T — jabbing at its smaller rival and attempting to get out ahead of T-Mobile's rumored plans …

With $130M of bitcoin wealth and plans to sell, the FBI could rattle the virtual currency cage  —  Like any marketplace, the value of bitcoin is driven in large part by supply and demand.  New bitcoin is added to the system at a mathematically controlled rate, but buying and selling activity varies wildly …

Snapchat Says It's Improving Its App, Service To Prevent Future User Data Leaks  —  Snapchat has released an official post about the recent leak of 4.6M usernames and phone numbers from its servers.  The post blames what it says was ‘abuse’ of its API on the leak, but acknowledges …

Archos debuting two 4G smartphones at CES, priced at $200 and $250  —  It's not all smartwatches and weather stations for Archos this year at CES.  The company may be diversifying its portfolio a bit at the show, but it's still got its hands in some tried and true categories.

NSA seeks to build quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption  —  In room-size metal boxes, secure against electromagnetic leaks, the National Security Agency is racing to build a computer that could break nearly every kind of encryption used to protect banking, medical, business and government records around the world.

Replacement and new Surface Pro 2 devices being sent out with upgraded specs, includes newer CPU  —  Microsoft's Surface Pro 2 has been the center of attention since the December 2013 firmware update release.  Numerous Surface Pro 2 owners were facing issues installing the update, poor battery life, and various other issues.

It's Not a Church, It's Just an Apple Store  —  Attention fanboys and fangirls: Your favorite tech hardware, software and services are not religious objects.  And the companies that make them aren't cults or faiths.  They are capitalist enterprises, out to make a profit, grab market share, and, if they can, make products you will buy.