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Senators propose legislation to protect your phone at the border
For years, US border agents have been demanding access to digital devices as people pass into and out of the country. The practice has raised red flags and lawsuits, and the number of searches has spiked under the Trump Administration. Last month, the ACLU charged federal agents with wielding "near-unfettered authority" to search phones, PCs and other devices. Yesterday, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced a bill that would require agents to obtain a warrant or written consent before they crack open digital devices and snag users' data.
ACLU: border agents regularly perform 'warrantless' device searches
Privacy advocates have long been concerned that US border agents may be overstepping their boundaries when searching devices, and the ACLU just obtained evidence appearing to support that theory. The civil rights group has motioned for summary judgment in its lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security after its discovery process revealed far-reaching policies for "warrantless and suspicionless" searches. Reportedly, both Customs and Border Protection as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement have claimed "near-unfettered authority" to search phones, PCs and other devices, even though the requests fall well outside their purview.
Answering Google's most asked questions about Apple
One of the first places people go with their questions is Google, and as always, Apple is a hot topic. Brace yourselves: It's time to answer Google's most popular questions about Apple and its various products. Why is Apple called Apple? According to an interview with Steve Wozniak from 2010, Steve Jobs brought the name home with him after spending some time working orchards in Oregon. It is claimed that the name may have been suggested to Jobs from a fellow orchard worker, though this would be impossible to confirm today. Why is Apple stock down? Well, today Apple's stock is actually up as of this writing, but I'm going to make a pretty safe guess and assume that this search term is popular right after a new Apple product announcement. The peculiar habits of Apple's stock have been well documented, but a common trend of analysts sounding the doom alarm after a new iPhone or iPad is announced seems to feed investor fright. The "Apple is doomed" narrative is something the company can't seem to shake, but that's likely just a price of success. Why is Apple successful? If you ask 100 tech experts this question you'll probably get 99 different answers. Some attribute Apple's success to genius marketing, while others insist that the cult-like mentality of Apple fans feeds the recruitment of new customers, and some stand firmly by the idea that Apple's high-quality products sell themselves. In the end, it's likely a combination of all of these factors and many more. In the end, Apple's products are desirable and that's all that really matters for business to boom. Why is Apple ID disabled? The main reason why you'd get an error saying your Apple ID is disabled is that you've entered the incorrect password too many times. Depending on which Apple service you're using, the message may be worded slightly differently, but the solution remains the same: Head to Apple's iForgot page and reset it to something brand new. Why is the iPhone 5c cheaper? The iPhone 5c is cheaper because it uses less expensive components, compared to the iPhone 5s. The 5c's A6 processor is more modest than the A7 chip in the 5s, and the 5s features the TouchID fingerprint sensor which is not found in the 5c. The 5s also features the M7 motion coprocessor, which is not present in the 5c. The body of the 5c is constructed largely out of plastic, while the 5s is aluminum with glass on both the front and the back. Why is the iPhone 5s better? Thanks to the more powerful processor (see the hardware differences in the answer above), the iPhone 5s has the ability to take slow-motion video, automatic image stabilization, and offers better performance for apps and games. The fingerprint sensor gives you the ability to unlock your phone without swiping and to make App Store purchases without a password. Why is the iPhone 4 so slow? Well it hasn't always been slow, but compared to the newer iPhone models it is definitely a bit more sluggish. Being now a full three generations old, the iPhone 4 isn't going to stand up to today's apps and games in the same way as its younger brothers. There have been countless reports of iPhone 4 users suffering from the iOS 7 update, which many claim has slowed their smartphones down even further as well as hindered battery life. In short, the iPhone 4 is slow because, in smartphone years, it's pretty old. Why is the iPhone better than the Galaxy? I'll assume this question is pointed at Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and not the Milky Way. There are of course supporters on both sides of the isle here, and both the iPhone and Galaxy smartphones have countless satisfied customers. If you're looking for reasons to support the "iPhone is better" argument, many iPhone users cite build quality, processing power, a clutter-free interface, and the absence of pre-installed bloatware as reasons why they prefer Apple's device. Why is the iPad 4 discontinued? The iPad 4 isn't discontinued, actually, though it was. Apple killed it off when the iPad Air debuted in late 2013 in order to continue support for the long-in-the-tooth iPad 2, but then brought it back earlier this year as the iPad 2's replacement, calling it simply "iPad with Retina display." Why is the iPad Air better? The iPad Air includes a faster processor than its predecessors, and a new design that is both thinner and lighter. On the software side, the Air's capabilities closely resemble that of the iPad 4, with the addition of a video zoom feature. Why is the iPad not charging? If you're met with a "Not Charging" alert when plugging your iPad in for a bit of juice, it's likely because you're not using the charger that was included with your device. Using your iPad (especially the iPad 4 and iPad Air) with an older charging device from a previous iPad or iPhone will cause the device to charge more slowly, and may produce the "Not Charging" warning when in use. The same is true when charging from a USB 2.0 port on your computer. Use Apple's guide to determining which adapter you have and which models of iPad it works with. Why is the iPad so expensive? This is something that Apple supports and Apple bashers love to argue over, but ignoring the conjecture, there are a few truths that we can point to: Apple's tablets regularly beat out all competitors in performance tests, and the performance gained from one iPad generation to the next is always dramatic. The build quality and design of Apple's tablets has also long been a selling point, along with the Apple ecosystem which includes a highly-policed app marketplace. The fact that many people are willing to pay a premium for this treatment is the reason they are priced in such a way. Why is the iPod touch so expensive? The iPod touch is so expensive because it's essentially an iPhone without the phone capabilities. It's a large touchscreen device with many of the bells and whistles you'd associate with a smartphone, and that demands a premium price. Why is the iPod 5 better? We're going to assume this question refers to the 5th generation iPod touch. The newest iPod touch includes a larger Retina display, similar to the iPhone 5, as well as faster processor and more capable cameras (on the 32GB and 64GB versions) than its predecessor. Storage options remain largely the same, with the largest option coming in at 64GB. Why is the iPod touch camera so bad? The latest iPod touch features a 5-megapixel camera which, while OK for casual shooting, doesn't hold up to the photo capabilities of the newer iPhones. I wouldn't honestly call it "bad," but it's certainly no DSLR. Why is the iPod important? This is a loaded question, but I'll tackle it as it pertains to Apple itself. The iPod was important to Apple as it served as the company's first massively successful portable device. For many, it was their first Apple product, and the iPod's quality helped build brand loyalty that the company still benefits from today. Along with iTunes, it helped spark a new way to consume music, and both served as a great way to get consumers interested in the original iPhone. Oh, and it made a lot of money. Like, so much money. Why are Macs better than PCs? Strictly speaking, Macs are still "personal computers," but in terms of Macs vs. Windows, this is another preference argument. As with the iPhone vs. Galaxy question, both sides love their machines, and much of it is based on personal opinion. Mac owners love the "it just works" nature of their computers while Windows devotees demand more freedom over both their software and hardware modifications. If you're looking for a solid reason to support your decision to purchase a Mac, the best bullet point may be that you can often resell Apple's hardware for much more when you eventually upgrade. Why are Macs so expensive? Again, you're paying for build quality, the design, and the Apple ecosystem. With the Mac mini and smaller MacBooks, Apple does offer products that won't break your bank, but if you're in the market for a high-end computer like the new Mac Pro, you're likely doing CPU and GPU intensive tasks and prefer the way your software works on OS X. For those who just don't like Windows, OS X on a Mac is often the first alternative, and Apple fans new and old find the prices to be worth it. Why are Macs better for design? This is another preference argument, though it seems to be rooted in an antiquated notion. Some very popular early design software like Adobe's Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator were Mac exclusive, leading professional designers to flock to Apple's machines. These days there are still some popular Mac-only design tools, though companies like Adobe now support both Mac and Windows computers universally. Some designers still insist that Apple's machines provide better reliability and support for their work, but the line between Windows and OS X is too blurry to declare one a clear winner of the other. Why are Macs so popular? If I knew the answer to this, I'd sell it to Toshiba for US$100 billion. Oh wait, I think they're already catching on.
US judge rules warrantless gadget searches at the border aren't unconstitutional
A United States district judge has ruled that gadget searches upon crossing into the US aren't a breach of the First and Fourth Amendments. In 2010, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Press Photographers and grad student Pascal Abidor challenged the 2008 ruling that authorizes unwarranted device search-and-seizures, saying that they exist to counteract protected speech and certain confidentiality privileges. However, district judge Edward Korman remarks that because the chance of the searches is so low (he estimates odds of less than five in a million, although the government's count has been disputed) there aren't any grounds for dismissing the rulings. He further states that this is no different than having your baggage or person examined before crossing into the US, and that the government simply doesn't have enough resources to inspect the devices of everyone who enters the country. Most worrying however is when Korman says that it's "foolish, if not irresponsible" that the plaintiffs would store sensitive data on their gadgets in the first place. The ACLU is considering appealing the decision but attorney Catherine Crump tells the New York Times that for now the status quo remains, and in many areas of the country, "the government is free...to conduct all types of electronic device searches without reasonable suspicion." [Image credit: Flickr/Crashworks]
Google now offers Top Charts and visualization tool for trending topics
Instead of waiting until the end of the year for Google's annual Zeitgeist, you can now find out what's trending in any given month with a new Top Charts feature from Google Trends. Updated monthly and going back to 2004, Top Charts is built on the Knowledge Graph, so it's smart enough to house related keywords under one term for more accurate rankings. For example, searches for "giants baseball" and "sf giants" would go toward pushing "San Francisco Giants" up the ranks in a sports-related chart. Right now there are more than 40 top ten lists with more than 140 time periods available for your perusal. In addition to the charts, the Trends team has also rolled out a new visualization tool for "hot searches" that displays trending topics in a large colorful layout -- as seen below, you can customize it to display up to 25 searches at a time that endlessly shift and refresh, thus consuming our attention for the entire day.
Facebook brings search history to Activity Log, keeps queries private
Last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mark Zuckerberg let loose that Facebook would create a search engine "at some point," and today the firm snuck in a smidgen of emphasis on queries into the Activity Log. Over the coming weeks, your searches on the social network will appear alongside the links, comments and other actions that are normally aggregated in the feature. Worried that friends will learn of your quest to find My Little Pony pages? There's nothing to fear as the log is for your eyes only. However, if a particular search blemish needs to be scrubbed from the list, each entry can be individually nixed like posts on a Timeline.
Court reaffirms: fourth amendment rights not violated if the police install a GPS device on your car when it's not in your garage
Back in January, a court in Portland, Oregon ruled that the Fourth Amendment rights of one Juan Pineda-Moreno had not been violated by the police when they tracked him using various GPS devices they installed on the underside of his Jeep with magnets. You see, the police suspected that Pineda-Moreno was growing Marijuana somewhere, and they really didn't like that. Eventually, Pineda-Moreno was arrested and convicted of crimes involving the growth of said Marijuana -- but he appealed the decision because he thought that his Fourth Amendment rights (the one which guards against unreasonable search and seizure) had been violated. The appeals court has recently upheld the original decision, but there were five dissenting votes, meaning that the case is anything but cut and dried. Now, what's obvious is that the police didn't have to traverse into "private" space to attach the tracking device to the suspect's car, but clearly it's debatable -- even as far as the judges are concerned -- what constitutes private and public space. The case is surely not going to end here, so we'll keep you updated. In the meantime, watch your back.
Scammers exploit Apple iPad fever
And now we're at the point in the iPad cycle where there's just enough information out there about it that people are interested, but not enough that they can discern credible information from scammers. That's the report of the BBC, which says that "hi-tech" scammers are using iPad-based searches to prey on users and install various types of "rogue security software." The news here isn't necessarily that scammers are out there scamming people (that happens all of the time), but it's that scammers are cashing in on the iPad frenzy to do so. Then again, that's probably not a huge surprise, either: they probably always latch onto whatever the hottest search topics are, and this past week, of course, it was the iPad. In my own personal opinion, these fearmongering reports are the biggest scam of all. Even the BBC is only reporting this based on information from Symantec, and that's S.O.P. for the antivirus company: a) release a report that claims everyone is in danger and that viruses are everywhere, b) get some less-than-tech savvy journalist to believe it, and c) sell copies of your antivirus software and profit. In reality, if you click links only on trusted sites and keep an eye on everything coming in to your Mac, you don't need Symantec to tell you how to be safe. If you install "security software" that you happened to pick up while searching for iPad news, of all things, then you can't be surprised when your system gets compromised.
iPhone, iPod touch leading product search for Christmas
This is an interesting little statistic, but it could be very telling about what's going on in terms of sales this holiday season. 9to5Mac says that over in the UK, the iPhone and the iPod touch are the current most searched-for products this holiday. iPhone made up 1.75 percent of all product searches last week, and 14% of mobile phone product searches. Meanwhile, the iPod touch was in second place at 1.29 percent, and the iPod nano was actually third, at .5 percent. Over three percent, then, of all product searches in the UK were for Apple's handhelds. Of course, just because one in 34 people are searching for an iPhone or iPod doesn't mean that they'll be huge gifts necessarily -- maybe the searching just means that they want one, not that they'll be getting one. But there's no question that as big as Apple's 4th quarter has been so far, it's going to get even bigger, in the UK and probably everywhere else as well.
Laptops can be confiscated and searched at US border without cause says report
In further evidence of our rapidly eroding civil liberties, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed today that US Customs and Border Protection and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement have the right to confiscate and search a traveler's laptop or other electronic device without any suspicion of wrongdoing. The rules -- which we reported on in February -- allow for searches of hard drives, flash drives, cellphones, iPods, pagers, and video or audio tapes, and specify that the agencies can "detain" belongings for a "reasonable period of time," (i.e., as long as they please). Additionally, the DHS can share the data found with other government agencies or private entities for translation, decryption, or (astoundingly vague) "other reasons." The DHS says the policies apply to anyone entering the country -- including US citizens -- and claim the measures are necessary to prevent terrorism. In other news, Big Brother issued a statement today guaranteeing a bonus for turning over family members suspected of crimethink to the Thought Police.[Via Switched]
EFF, ALC sue Homeland Security over laptop, gadget searches
The EFF sure has set it sights high with its latest lawsuit, with it now teaming up with the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) to sue the Department of Homeland Security over laptop and gadget searches and other alleged infringements of civil liberties at U.S. borders. Specifically, the two groups are asking for the DHS to disclose its policies on questioning travelers on First Amendment-protected activities, including the photocopying of individuals' papers, and the searching of laptops and other electronic devices. According to the EFF, that rather drastic move was prompted by the DHS's failure to meet a 20-day time limit Congress had set for responding to public information requests. Needless to say, the DHS itself doesn't seem to have a whole lot to say on the matter at the moment, and we're guessing that situation won't be changing anytime soon.[Via The Register, image courtesy of WhiteHouse.gov]
