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via John Constine, TechCrunch The White House wants you to hack for a better America. Last month it announced the National Day Of Civic Hacking on June 1-2 where many government agencies will liberate data for citizens across the U.S. to use to build tech that helps their communities. Twenty-seven cities have planned events where … Continue reading
via David Strreitfeld and Nicole Perlroth, The New York Times Facebook may have quelled a full-scale rebellion by quickly dumping the contentious new terms of use for Instagram, its photo-sharing service. But even as the social network furiously backpedaled, some users said Friday they were carrying through on plans to leave. Ryan Cox, a 29-year-old … Continue reading
via Declan McCullagh, CNET News Instagram said today that it has the perpetual right to sell users’ photographs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. The new intellectual property policy, which takes effect on January 16, comes three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing … Continue reading
via Chicago Sun-Times The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an Illinois prosecutor’s plea to allow enforcement of a law aimed at stopping people from recording police officers on the job. The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state’s anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against … Continue reading
via Todd Wasserman, Mashable The next time you shop, take a close look at the mannequins in the store. They may be taking a close look at you, too. So far, Benetton is one of the few places you’ll see $5,000 bionic mannequins from Italy’s Almax. The dummies, called EyeSee, has a camera installed with … Continue reading
via Steve Friess, Politico Microsoft has enjoyed months of great press for its promise to make Do Not Track the default setting on its forthcoming iteration of Internet Explorer, but it has left out one important detail: Users will still be tracked. That also goes for users of Chrome, whose parent Google announced last week … Continue reading
via Somini Sengupta and Kevin J. O’Brien, The New York Times Facebook on Friday confronted a new obstacle over what to do with one of its most vital assets — pictures. The company promised European regulators that it would forgo using facial recognition software and delete the data used to identify Facebook users by their … Continue reading
via Ken Dilanian and Salvador Rodriguez, L.A. Times A hacker group’s claim that it obtained from an FBI laptop a file with more than 12 million identification numbers for Apple iPhones, iPads and other devices has set off widespread speculation about why a federal agency would possess such information. But the FBI disputed the allegation … Continue reading
via Editorial Board, The New York Times Cellphones, e-mail, and online social networking have come to rule daily life, but Congress has done nothing to update federal privacy laws to better protect digital communication. That inattention carries a heavy price. Striking new data from wireless carriers collected by Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and … Continue reading
via Mary Long, Media Bistro The City of New York sent a subpoena to Twitter in February demanding it release all of Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris’ tweets between September 15 and December 31 2011, as well as his email address and any other user information associated with his account. Well, after a lot … Continue reading
via David Talbot, MIT’s Technology Review Your voice can be a biometric identifier, like your fingerprint. Does Apple really have to store it on its own servers? Even in an age of vanishing privacy, people using Apple’s digital assistant Siri share a distinct concern. Recordings of their actual voices, asking questions that might be personal, … Continue reading
via Laura Bassett, The Huffington Post For years, Democrats and progressive women’s groups have characterized Republican attempts to limit access to abortion — such as mandatory ultrasounds and mandatory waiting periods before abortions — as the ultimate government intrusion into a woman’s personal medical decisions. On Thursday, conservatives usurped the very same pro-choice rhetoric to … Continue reading
via Jason McLure, The Huffington Post Rhode Island’s governor is expected to sign into law the first “Homeless Bill of Rights” in the United States as early as next week, formally banning discrimination against homeless people and affirming their equal access to jobs, housing and services. The legislation, which won final approval by the state … Continue reading
via Jessica Hopper, NBC Rock Center When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide 19 months ago, he did not leave a note. If it had been 20 years ago, the Stassens might have looked through diaries, letters or other personal items in an attempt to find clues as to why he decided … Continue reading
via Marcus Wohlsen, The Huffington Post A watchful eye has arrived on San Francisco’s bar scene, but not to keep you in check. It just wants to check you out. A new app launched this weekend that will scan the faces of patrons in 25 bars across the city to determine their ages and genders. … Continue reading
via Peter Ha, TechCrunch Earlier today Google released the full report of the FCC’s investigation into the collection of “payload data” from open Wi-Fi networks — aka passwords, email and search history from open networks — that its fleet of Street View cars obtained between 2008 and April 2010. An earlier and heavily redacted version … Continue reading
via Alex Fitzpatrick, Mashable The House of Representatives changed, then passed, the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, better known as CISPA, late Thursday afternoon. As the dust settles, many are wondering where CISPA stands now and where it’s headed next. Hey Mashable, what’s CISPA? CISPA’s designed to let private business share information about … Continue reading
[Editress’ Note: It’s important to be well-informed. Read the full CISPA bill here.] via Donna Cassata, AP, MSNBC The Obama administration on Wednesday threatened to veto a House bill designed to defend critical U.S. industries and corporate networks from electronic attacks by foreign governments, cybercriminals and terrorist groups, arguing the measure falls short in protecting … Continue reading
via Allison Joyce, Reuters The federal government is about to become the country’s worst backseat driver. Congress wants to put tracking devices in the car of every American, and that’s not even the scariest provision in a new bill being passed around Washington. The US Senate has already signed off on a new legislation that, … Continue reading
via Dave Jamieson, The Huffington Post In a victory for privacy hawks and worker advocates, Maryland legislators passed a bill Wednesday that would ban employers from asking job candidates or current employees for their passwords to social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter. If the bill is signed by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and becomes law, … Continue reading
via Morgan Little, Chicago Tribune In spite of their hopes, Internet activists are finding that their efforts to keep the digital world free of further regulation did not end with SOPA’s defeat. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 is working its way through Congress, and is the latest proposed legislation to raise … Continue reading
via Alexis Madrigal, The Atlantic You might not think about the Fourth Amendment while you’re using Facebook and other online tools, but you probably should. You are no doubt familiar, now, with Facebook’s concept of “frictionless sharing.” You enable a social reader like the one from the Washington Post and the next time you read … Continue reading
via Bianca Bosker, The Huffington Post Google’s plan to collapse 60 privacy policies into a single one and combine informationit collects about its users has sparked outcry among privacy advocates and scrutiny from lawmakers around the world. Privacy experts have slammed the approach as “frustrating,” “a little frightening,” and even “illegal.” But users will not notice much of a … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post A judge in northwestern Illinois made an announcement Friday that could forever change the way the media covers criminal trials in the state. In January, the Illinois Supreme Court approved heightened media access to criminal proceedings, including video recording, on an experimental basis. The justices believed that allowing the public to … Continue reading
via Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet A Homeland Security training manual belies claims made by DHS representatives during a Congressional hearing last week that the federal agency is only monitoring social media outlets for “situational awareness,” and proves the fact that Bis Sis is also tracking online criticism of government, including discussion of airport body … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 