Recent controversy sparked by the installation of monitoring software on millions of smartphones has led US Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) to propose a requirement that carriers and phone makers inform consumers about the presence of monitoring software and gain their "express consent" before collecting and transmitting information from phones. The controversy started a couple months back when a developer publicized the widespread use of Carrier IQ software, which phone manufacturers and carriers use to monitor what happens on a smartphone[......]
Archive for the ‘Policy & Law’ Category
Megaupload's US servers won't be wiped for at least two more weeks. Read More: CNet , Ars Technica Read the comments on this post [......]
In the latest twist on website exploits for profit, Web hackers have begun to turn sites they've exploited into sources of fraudulent Web traffic for anyone willing to pay. [......]
After the Internet's decisive victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this month, online activists have been looking for their next target, and a growing number of them have chosen the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was signed by the EU last week. [......]
The US Attorney's Office leading the prosecution of Megaupload founder Kim Dotocm and his associates has told the court that the companies hosting Megaupload data might begin deleting data on February 2, according to an AP report . "The execution of those search warrants [on the servers] has now been completed," said the government letter. "The United States copied selected Mega Servers and copied selected data from some of the other Mega Servers, but did not remove any of the Mega Servers from the premises[......]
An image posted to the Al Jazeera Syria Live Blog by hackers supporting President Assad. The Al Jazeera English website was attacked and defaced on January 29 by hackers supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Targeting the news organization's " Syria Live Blog ," which has been providing ongoing coverage of the Arab League's observer mission to Syria and developments in the ongoing unrest in the country, the hacker group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army posted pro-Assad and pro-Syrian government images to the site[......]
Big Content strikes back after a week of anti-SOPA protests, getting the US government to take down Megaupload and its bizarre founder, Kim Dotcom. Megaupload dominated the news in the week after the takedown, but our top stories in tech also include in depths look at how Amazon and Google handle "big data" and $25 Linux box that "outperforms the iPhone 4S GPU." As an eleventh story bonus, we feature the word "wombat" in a headline[......]
Fernando Corbató at MIT in the 1960s. Was MIT's CTSS computer the first one to use passwords? If you’re like most people, you’re annoyed by passwords. [......]
The man Microsoft accuses of creating the Kelihos botnet has contacted the BBC to say he is "shocked and surprised" by the accusation and will prove his innocence. Read More: BBC , Ars Technica Read the comments on this post [......]
On almost any given day, Twitter receives a handful of requests to delete tweets that link to pirated versions of copyrighted content—and quickly complies by erasing the offending tweets from its site. That fact itself is probably unsurprising to people familiar with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown process, which gives sites like Twitter a "safe harbor" against lawsuits related to user behavior and uploads—so long as the sites don't knowingly tolerate pirated material or links to such material. [......]
The Pirate Party of Catalonia is organizing the equivalent of a class-action lawsuit against the FBI in a Spanish court, claiming damages to legitimate users of the file-sharing site Megaupload. [......]
Over the vocal protests of opponents, 22 European nations signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on Thursday. A statement by the Japanese foreign ministry, which hosted the signing ceremony, indicated that the remaining EU member states were expected to sign the agreement "on the completion of respective domestic procedures." The United States, Canada, Japan, and several other nations signed the agreement in October[......]
A tank like this one from Rusbal's Rusdecoy line sat on the front lawn of Dotcom Mansion Flight risks, firearms charges and an inflatable tank are just some of the latest wrinkles in the bizzare case of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom . After his arrest, Dotcom's mansion received delivery of a full-size inflatable replica of a Russian T-72 tank , which is now parked in front of the "Dotcom Mansion" and is busy infuriating the upscale neighbors. The T-72 "Threat Decoy" is similar to those used by the military for field training and intelligence deception, manufactured by companies such as Inflatable Images in the US and Russia's Rusbal ; each sells for thousands of dollars[......]
European Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has proposed a sweeping reform of the EU's data protection rules, claiming that the proposed rules will both cost less for governments and corporations to administer and simultaneously strengthen online privacy rights. The 1995 Data Protection Directive already gives EU citizens certain rights over their data. Organizations can process data only with consent, and only to the extent that they need to fulfil some legitimate purpose. [......]
Last September, a federal judge in Texas blasted the “staggering chutzpah” of P2P attorney Evan Stone (seen above in better times), who had issued subpoenas to Internet services providers in a porn film case without the court's permission. Stone was hit with $10,000 in sanctions after lawyers from Public Citizen and the EFF brought the matter to the judge's attention[......]
