U.S., Google Set to Face Off in Court
The Bush administration will renew its effort to find out what people
have been looking for on Google Inc.’s Internet-leading search engine,
continuing a legal showdown over how much of the Web’s vast databases
should be shared with the government.
Source: BretBart, March 13, 2006
Sharks are Pentagon’s latest spy recruits
The research builds on developments in brain implant
technology which have already seen scientists controlling the movements
of fish, rats and monkeys.
Walter Gomes, of the Naval Undersea Warfare Centre in
Newport, Rhode Island, said the team’s next step would be to implant the
device into blue sharks and release them into the ocean off the coast
of Florida.
Source: uk.telegraph, March 2, 2006
Data mining tells government and business a lot about you
You may never have heard the term "data mining," but it’s at the core
of the argument that’s raging over government eavesdropping on
Americans. It’s also how commercial companies learn about who you are,
where you go, what you eat, what you like, what you buy.
Data mining is the process of using computer technology to extract
the knowledge that’s buried in enormous volumes of undigested
information. Trillions of bits of raw data are culled from telephone
calls, e-mails, the Internet, airlines, car rentals, stores, credit card
records and a myriad of other sources spawned by the information age.
Source: Sun Herald (Mississippi, online), February 1, 2006
Web sites selling your cell phone records for just $100
Anyone — a stalker, a jealous lover, a curious employer — with merely
your cell-phone number can visit one of several Web sites, pay around
$100, and in a few hours find out whom you’ve been calling and who’s
been calling you.
Source: Sun Sentinel (Florida, online), January 16, 2006
Search engines going far beyond maps
The images are so detailed you can tell whether a neighbor’s hedge
was recently trimmed or whether the car parked in front of a favorite
local eatery might belong to a friend.
Such views are available online for anyone to see from some of the
biggest names on the Internet, including Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft
Corp. and Google Inc.
Source: Seattle Pi, January 15, 2006
USDA Using Satellites to Monitor Farmers
But those satellite images are now increasingly turning up in
courtrooms across the nation as the Agriculture Department’s Risk
Management Agency cracks down on farmers involved in crop insurance
fraud.
Source: MyWay, January 13, 2006
Create an e-annoyance, go to jail
It’s no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed
into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending
annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.
In other words, it’s OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a
blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small
favors, I guess.
c/Net News, January 9, 2006
NYCLU sues city over right to shoot video, pictures in public
He [an award-winning filmmaker from India] was told he needed a
permit to film on city streets and then was denied one without
explanation when he applied to the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and
Broadcasting, the lawsuit said. It alleged his constitutional rights
were violated.
Source: Newsday (online), January 10, 2006
Homeland Security opening private mail
Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas
history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines
that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape
bearing the words “by Border Protection” and carrying the official
Homeland Security seal.
Source: MSNBC, January 6, 2006
Your phone records are for sale
The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone
records are available to anyone — for a price. Dozens of online services
are selling lists of cell phone calls, raising security concerns among
law enforcement and privacy experts.
Source: The Chicago Sun-Times (online), January 5, 2006
The lie detector you’ll never know is there
The US Department of Defense has revealed plans to develop a lie
detector that can be used without the subject knowing they are being
assessed. The Remote Personnel Assessment (RPA) device will also be used
to pinpoint fighters hiding in a combat zone, or even to spot signs of
stress that might mark someone out as a terrorist or suicide bomber.
Source: New Scientist, January 5, 2006
Privacy slip on official US sites
The White House and National Security Agency have been caught
tracking visitors to their websites in ways that may violate official US
guidelines.
Source: BBC (online), December 30, 2005
Big Brother is watching
It
took 21 years longer than expected, but the future has finally arrived.
And we don’t like it. Not one bit. We are fighting a war with no end to
create a peace with no defined victory. We occupy a foreign land that
doesn’t want us, while at home our civil liberties are discounted. We
are told that it’s better not to know what our government is doing in
our name, for security purposes. Meanwhile, our government is becoming
omnipresent, spying on us whenever it deems it
necessary. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. George Orwell was right after all.
Source: Oakland Tribune (online), December 23, 2005
Housing officials OK with Christmas decorations
While a religious-liberty law firm is claiming victory in two cases
of government-subsidized housing facilities that it says had restricted
Christmas festivities, officials from one complex are denying attorneys’
assertions and say their policy has always been the same – residents
are permitted to decorate with religious symbols for the holiday.
Source: WorldNetDaily, December 17, 2005
Spanish at school translates to suspension
Most of the time, 16-year-old Zach Rubio converses in clear,
unaccented American teen-speak, a form of English in which the three
most common words are "like," "whatever" and "totally." But Zach is also
fluent in his dad’s native language, Spanish — and that’s what got him
suspended from school.
Source: MSNBC, December 9, 2005
Bill would control CEO pay
In response to public revulsion over the astronomical pay packages
awarded to some chief executive officers, a House Democrat introduced
legislation last week that would force companies to let their
shareholders vote on executive compensation.
Source: Honolulu Advertiser, November 14, 2005
Study: Preschool harms children’s development
The study, conducted at UC Berkeley and sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Education, found that while youngsters gained cognitive
abilities via the preschool experience, behavioral problems also
increased – especially among kids from wealthy families.
Source: World Net Daily, November 10, 2005
Court: It does take a village when it comes to sexuality
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday against parents who
sued their local school district after their elementary-age children
were given a sexually charged survey, saying there is "no fundamental
right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding
sexual matters to their children."
Source: WorldNetDaily, November 3, 2005
Furor Grows Over Internet Bugging
A recent government order mandating that voice over internet protocol
services must include the same government-approved wiretapping
capabilities as traditional phone companies threatens to cripple
peer-to-peer telephone innovation, according to new warnings from civil
liberties groups and an internet telephony pioneer.
Source: Wired News, October 20, 2005
Could 2009 be the year your old TV won’t work?
Congress is zeroing in on early
2009 as the time for the country to make the switch to digital
television broadcasts, a move that will give viewers sharper pictures
and better sound.
A Senate bill would set a firm deadline of April 2009, according to a
draft proposal obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The draft of a
House bill would end analog transmissions on Dec. 31, 2008.
Source: ABC13 KTRK TV Houston (online), October 17, 2005
EFF Reveals Codes in Xerox Printers
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has cracked the tracking
codes embedded in Xerox Corp.’s DocuColor color laser printers. Such
codes are just one way that manufacturers employ technology to help
governments fight currency counterfeiting.
"Underground democracy movements … will always need the anonymity of
simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for
governments to find dissenters," said Lee Tien, EFF senior staff
attorney. "Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry
make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday
equipment like
printers."
Source: Breitbart (online), October 17, 2005
Trigger-lock measure assailed as ‘gun tax’
Second-Amendment defenders are urging Congress to defeat an amendment
slipped into an otherwise favorable bill that would require licensed
gun dealers to supply a trigger-lock device with every handgun sold,
calling it an effective "gun tax" on every weapon sold.
Source: WorldNetDaily, October 18, 2005
Police say teens burned Bloomington rainbow flag
Two teenagers stole and burned a rainbow-colored American flag
representing gays and lesbians that was displayed outside a store,
police said….
Bloomington’s Safe and Civil City Director Beverly Calender-Anderson
said if there is a suspicion that the flag burning was a hate crime, the
incident would get reported to the Human Rights Commission.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times, October 14, 2005
U.S. hate-crimes bill ‘threatens free speech’
A bill that would add "sexual orientation" to federal hate-crimes law
will make homosexuals a protected class for civil rights purposes and
threaten free speech, charges the leader of a global movement supporting
traditional families.
WorldNetDaily, October 14, 2005
Feds want cellphone ban for teen drivers
he National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday voted to add to
its annual list of "Most Wanted Safety Recommendations to States" a ban
on novice drivers using any wireless communication devices.
Source: USA Today (online), September 30, 2005
Sticking point of voting-reform bid: photo IDs
Now, a bipartisan commission headed by former
President Carter, a Democrat, and former Secretary of State James Baker,
a Republican, has recommended additional changes – including a call for
all voters to show photo IDs, paper trails for electronic voting
machines, and a shift toward nonpartisan administration of elections.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor (online), September 21, 2005
Electronic medical-records plan raises fears
A federal panel selected to make recommendations to the government
about how best to convert paper medical records to electronic format is
being criticized for having no privacy advocates as commissioners.
Instead, the critics say, the 16-member panel is comprised strictly
of industry representatives and government officials – a sign, they
believe indicates a potentially harmful inattention to patient privacy.
Source: WorldNetDaily, September 17, 2005
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