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House amendment would require warrants for web history searches
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren announced an amendment that would prohibit the collection of Americans’ internet search history and web browsing data without a warrant.
DoJ pushes Google and Apple to ID 10,000 users of a gun scope app
The US government has reportedly ordered Apple and Google to hand over the names, phone numbers and IP addresses of at least 10,000 users of a gun scope app. The data request is part of an investigation into weapons export violations, but it has privacy experts understandably concerned. According to Forbes, this is the first known case of US investigators demanding personal data from users of a single app from Apple and Google.
Judge rules Facebook users can share friends' profiles with the feds
It's not the backdoor access that the FBI has been pushing for, but US District Judge William Pauley III has now ruled that it and other law enforcement agencies are entitled to view your Facebook profile if one of your "friends" gives them permission to do so. As GigaOm reports, that ruling comes as part of a New York City racketeering trial, in which one of the accused, Melvin Colon, had tried to suppress evidence turned up on Facebook that led to his indictment. That information was obtained through an informant who gave investigators access to the profile, something that Colon had argued violated his rights against unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment. In the ruling, Judge Pauley dismissed that claim, likening the Facebook access instead to a phone wiretap in which one person on the call allows the government to monitor it -- a practice that has been ruled constitutional. GigaOm also has the ruling in its entirety at the source link below for those interested.
Federal domain seizure raises new concerns over online censorship
It's been a little more than a year since the US government began seizing domains of music blogs, torrent meta-trackers and sports streaming sites. The copyright infringement investigation, led by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities, quickly raised eyebrows among many free speech and civil rights advocates, fueling a handful of legal challenges. Few are more compelling, or frightening than a case involving Dajaz1.com. As TechDirt reports, the popular hip-hop blog has been at the epicenter of a sinuous and seemingly dystopian dispute with the feds -- one that underscores the heightening controversy surrounding federal web regulation, and blurs the constitutional divide between free speech and intellectual property protection. Dajaz1 was initially seized under the 2008 Pro IP Act, on the strength of an affidavit that cited several published songs as evidence of copyright infringement. As it turns out, ,any of these songs were actually provided by their copyright holders themselves, but that didn't stop the government from seizing the URL anyway, and plastering a warning all over its homepage. Typically, this kind of action would be the first phase of a two-step process. Once a property is seized, US law dictates that the government has 60 days to notify its owner, who can then choose to file a request for its return. If the suspect chooses to file this request within a 35-day window, the feds must then undertake a so-called forfeiture process within 90 days. Failure to do so would require the government to return the property to its rightful owner. But that's not exactly how things played out in the case of Dajaz1. For more details on the saga, head past the break.
DARPA to develop biometric sensor capable of seeing through walls, pulling your heartstrings
The feds may soon know the way to your heart. Literally. Earlier this month, the forward-thinkers over at DARPA announced plans to develop new technologies capable of identifying human life through walls. The program, known as "Biometrics-at-a-distance," would essentially combine two pre-existing Pentagon projects: the Radar Scope, a device that can see through walls, and 2009's LifeReader, a system that uses Doppler radar to detect heartbeats. Though the military already employs a handful of devices to help soldiers see humans from behind walls, DARPA apparently thinks there's room for improvement. Most contemporary technologies, for example, only work from a maximum distance of eight meters, and aren't as accurate within more densely populated areas. DARPA wants its next project to extend this range beyond ten meters, while sharpening its ability to penetrate thicker obstructions. The agency also wants its sensor to identify individual humans using electrocardiography, which traces the heart's electrical activity. According to DARPA, this could allow users to pinpoint up to ten people at the same time, which could pay dividends during disaster rescue efforts, military operations, or your next Eyes Wide Shut party.
Courts approve sale of Nortel patents to Apple, others
Courts in both the US and Canada have approved the sales of Nortel patents to a consortium of companies led by Apple. On July 1st Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson, EMC, Sony and RIM beat out competing offers from Google and Intel to win a treasure chest of 6,000 Nortel patents. The total cost of the sale was US$4.5 billion. After the sale there was some concern that that patents would give the winning companies unfair advantages in the marketplace and over the weekend it was reported that the Feds were looking into how Google and its Android OS would be affected. Being the losing bidder, it's no doubt that Google held out hopes to have the sale blocked, but Reuters now reports that courts both in the US and Canada have approved the sale. This gives the winning bidders – mainly Apple – a significant advantage in the smartphone sector as many of the patents were related to the up-and-coming 4G LTE technologies.
Breakfast Topic: Knowing about the Wrath beta
Well, it's here -- we've been waiting for the Wrath beta and all the information that'll come with it for a long time, and soon we'll all be headed to a pre-release Northrend to see what there is to see. But how much is too much? Iris asks on WoW Ladies, and we're asking too, "How much do you want to know about the Wrath beta?"A few people have already asked us for a non-Wrath RSS feed, and we're working on asking our tech guys if that's possible (it's very possible to get RSS feeds of any of our categories by adding "rss.xml" to the end of any of our Category listings, but it's not so easy to get a feed if everything but a certain category), and we're doing as much as we can to keep major spoiler information behind the breaks and out of sight if possible. But the information's out there, and just like the Burning Crusade beta, odds are that you'll have heard a little bit about what's happening in Northrend if you read any WoW sites at all.The good news, of course, is that Blizzard always keeps a few aces up their sleeve -- even if you drowned yourself in the latest and greatest Wrath leaks and information, it's a guarantee that you'll find at least something in the live version of Northrend that you didn't hear about before. But until then, just how much do you want to know? Are you planning on playing the beta nonstop in the hopes that you do so much you don't have to buy the actual game, or are you keeping ears and eyes closed for the next few months in hopes that you'll enter a completely new and unfamiliar world whenever you install the next expansion?
Nokia N76, meet FCC. FCC, N76.
It appears that the FCC and Nokia have been quite the busy bunch with all the phones that are getting the go-ahead -- and we might as well add another to the list. The commission has decided to add Nokia's latest Nseries offspring to the list, the N76. The device is quadband GSM with some UMTS love mixed in for good measure, though it's only single band and we wouldn't hold our breath for North American compatibility. Roundin' out the feature set will be a music player with several formats supported, Bluetooth, and expandable memory via microSD. Nokia also makes mention for a 2 megapixel shooter with a flash under the hood as well. With Nokia's reputation for their attention to detail, we've come to expect a lot out of the Nseries, and it's lookin' like the N76 won't disappoint.
