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NSA will stop illegally collecting American emails
The National Security Agency has enjoyed relatively broad authority to monitor communications among suspected terrorists and their associates, even when those people happen to be American citizens and even without a warrant. However, The New York Times reports the NSA is stopping one of its most controversial practices: the collection of Americans' international emails and text messages that mention a foreigner under surveillance.
Bipartisan bill will stop NSA's bulk phone call data collection, but it might not go far enough
Following Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA collecting massive amounts of data about phone calls flowing through several companies, President Obama announced limitations on the use of that data in January and said more reforms would follow. Now, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post report a bipartisan bill is about to be unveiled that makes several large changes to the NSA's controversial bulk collection of phone call metadata. A bill that will be unveiled tomorrow in the House of Representatives by Mike Rogers (R-MI) and "Dutch" Ruppersberger (D-MD) will instead see phone companies store the data only as long as they normally would (18 months or so, under other federal regulations). If the NSA suspects a terrorism link, it can make requests for information from specific phone numbers, and related records up to two hops away. What's likely to disappoint privacy advocates however, is that the NSA is only required to send a copy of the directive to a court for review after record collection has already started. On the other hand, according to the Post, it would have the make a determination if a number is linked to terrorism "promptly" and if it does not decide that it's linked "agent of a foreign power," it will be expunged. We should find out exactly what's in the bill when it's introduced tomorrow but there's one other note to remember -- 90-day approval for the NSA's current bulk collection program ends Friday, and is likely to be renewed at least one more time while this and other bills are sorted out.
Independent federal review board calls for NSA to end 'illegal' phone call data collection
Following up on what we've learned about the NSA's various spying activities over the last year, the aptly-named Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is apparently ready to issue a report on the mess. Established in 2004 (but only fully operational since November) within the executive branch to serve as an independent source of advice to the president on... privacy and civil liberties, it has arrived somewhat late to the party (President Obama announced reform plans last week, but has said its recommendations will be considered going forward), and delivering a split opinion which leans in favor of ending the NSA's bulk collection of information about phone calls (phone numbers, call times and duration). The 238-page report will be released later today but reporters for the New York Times and Washington Post got an early peek and have highlighted the key points.The board has concluded that the NSA's phone metadata program does not meet the legal standard of the Patriot Act, raises serious privacy threats and is only of limited value at best. It's also opposed to a tweak proposed by the president's appointed panel that would see data held by a third party instead. Pointing out specific cases where other methods could have been used, it's recommending ending the program and making sure any government requests for data are tied to specific investigations. So far the program has continued on even after its existence was revealed and declassified, we'll see if these and other opinions have any affect the next time it's up for consideration.
AMD launches 12-core Opteron server chips, Intel counters with the 8-core Xeon 7500
You thought six cores were nifty? This week, AMD and Intel have begun the multithreaded battle in earnest -- if only on the IT front -- with chips that have up to double that core density. First up, AMD has officially brought us that Opteron 6000 series leaked last week, a set of 8- and 12-core processors aimed at dual- and quad-CPU servers that it claims have both higher performance and lower cost than Intel's recent hex-core offerings. Not to be outdone, Intel has just introduced a 8-core processor series of its own, the Xeon 7500, that it envisions deployed in mammoth 256-processor configurations. In bulk orders of 1,000, a single 12-core Opteron costs nearly $1,200, while the cheapest single 8-core Xeon will set you back a cool $2,461 in the same quantity. We don't doubt they're powerful, and we'd kill for a pair of either in our gaming rig. At those prices though, we'll stick to building our supercomputer out of PS3s -- oh, wait.
iPods spotted at Sam's Club
I don't know how long this has been going on, but Sam's Club apparently carries the iPod. I spotted it at my neighborhood Club this weekend at the lowest price I've seen so far: $289.98 for a 5G 30 GB black model. Maybe they didn't want to let Cosco have all the fun in selling iMacs?No word on whether Apple Stores will match this price, nor when the 24 iPod bulk pack will be available.
