Somebody thinks they’re downloading a piece of software off the Internet but instead they’re downloading this piece of spyware and now the government has full access to everything they type [and] everything they say. [And] not only is this piece of code on a computer logging every keystroke and everything being said, but they also boast about their ability to activate the webcam or activate the computer’s microphone without the target knowing about it.

— Authorities from around the globe are experimenting with software that can track the online movements of dissidents. 

For-profit colleges have a lot of allies in Congress. It’s another parallel in a way to the subprime [mortgage crisis] in a sense that they’re a little bit like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where the for-profit colleges, because they’re Wall Street companies, … have a lot of sympathizers among Republican supporters of free enterprise and big business and because they serve low-income families, they have quite a few allies among Democrats who know that a lot of their constituents go there.

— On regulation and the for-profit college industry.

The evidence seems to suggest that recruiters who were paid on the basis of how many students they would sign up did not necessarily provide a balanced picture of the pluses and minuses and didn’t also necessarily give people enough time to make a thorough assessment for themselves. Often you’re dealing with people whose families do not include college graduates and do not have a lot of sophistication about the system and may just have seen an ad on a website or a late-night television program, called up on a whim and got themselves signed up for federal student loans almost before they knew what happened. That doesn’t absolve them totally of responsibility but it suggests that the colleges have a responsibility, too.

— On today’s Fresh Air, inside the world of for-profit colleges.

A series of Bloomberg News articles revealed that for-profit colleges have mushroomed into a $30-billion-a-year industry at taxpayer expense by targeting vulnerable populations — disabled military and veterans, the homeless, immigrants and minorities — with misleading promises of low costs, online academic help, and lucrative jobs after graduation

— Today, the author of that series, Daniel Golden — and a conversation about for-profit colleges. Golden won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2003 series on college admissions and preferential treatment for The Wall Street Journal.

A graphic from Bloomberg News shows how Google shaves billions off its income taxes each year. The report’s author, Jesse Drucker, appears on Fresh Air today to talk about how offshore tax havens have saved companies billions of dollars in the past few years.