As the NSA phone records scandal recedes in the public consciousness, private marketers are quietly invading our computer systems in their own intrusive ways, enabled by a sea of floating data around social networks and related sites. Taken together, privacy…

Vladimir Putin’s first foray into the American op-ed world has produced far more heat than light since its publication Sept. 12. The 1100-word screed under Putin’s byline was a masterpiece of chutzpah, portraying the Russia president as a God-fearing protector…

The first edition of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since the founder’s recent death is well under way as 30 preselected young pianists prepare for two weeks of playoffs beginning May 24 in Fort Worth, Texas. Piano and music…

Distant Intimacy: A Friendship in the Age of the Internet,Frederic Raphael, Joseph Epstein (Yale University Press, 335 pages, $30) Eavesdropping on other people’s e-mails — if truth be told — can be one of life’s guilty pleasures, so it was with…