It's Okay to read the address on the postcard, just don't turn it over?
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070706150634542
SF Appeals Court: E-Mail Surveillance Is Legal
Friday, July 06 2007 @ 03:06 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Surveillance
A federal appeals court in San Francisco Friday upheld the right of government agents to gather information without a search warrant on the e-mail and Internet addresses used by a criminal suspect.
The 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals said that "e-mail and Internet users have no expectation of privacy" [NOW will you consider encryption? Bob] in e-mail and Web site addresses.
The court said users should know that these messages are sent and Web sites are visited through third parties such as their Internet service provider and that the information is therefore not private.
The ruling was made in the case of two Southern California men who appealed their conviction and 30-year sentences for operating a large Ecstasy-manufacturing drug laboratory in Escondido.
Source - CBS
[From the article: The court said that surveillance of computer addresses alone - as opposed to eavesdropping on the content of messages - was similar to collecting information on telephone numbers called or on addresses written on the outside of postal envelopes.
As expected...
http://www.pogowasright.org/article.php?story=20070706120518713
ACLU Slams Appeals Court Decision in NSA Surveillance Case (Press Release)
Friday, July 06 2007 @ 12:05 PM CDT Contributed by: PrivacyNews News Section: Surveillance
CINCINNATI - In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today dismissed a legal challenge to the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program. The challenge was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys and national nonprofit organizations who say that the unchecked surveillance program is disrupting their ability to communicate effectively with sources and clients.
Even though the plaintiffs alleged a well-founded fear that their communications were subject to illegal surveillance, the court dismissed the case because plaintiffs could not state with certainty that they had been wiretapped by the National Security Agency.
The following quote can be attributed to ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro:
... "It is important to emphasize that the court today did not uphold the legality of the government's warrantless surveillance activity. Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful.
... Today's decision is online at: www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/07a0253p-06.pdf
More information on the case is online at: www.aclu.org/nsaspying
Source - ACLU
What's the old saying? When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail?
http://blog.brokep.com/2007/07/06/swedish-police-will-censor-the-pirate-bay/
Swedish Police will CENSOR The Pirate Bay
July 6 Filed under Piracy, Censorship by brokep
Working online gives you a lot of friends. Some of those gives you heads up when something big is going on, and sometimes really big things happen.
A couple of hours ago I got one of those - The Swedish Police is going to put The Pirate Bay in it’s child porn filter!
The filter is a voluntary system that the Swedish ISPs agree to use. They redirect DNS entries they find within this list to a page where it gives you information about why it’s blocked. The meaning of this filter is what? Real child porn is probably hidden somewhere, and we’ve been the victims of this filter wrongfully before!
How not to inspire confidence...
RIM unconcerned by BlackBerry bugging software
Brett Winterford, ZDNet Australia 04 July 2007 05:59 PM
Mobile device manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) is unconcerned about a new release of software that aims to compromise the security of a BlackBerry device.
As reported yesterday, the latest version of legal spying software FlexiSPY enables remote third parties to bug the voice calls, log SMS and mobile e-mail messages and track the location of a BlackBerry user.
Ian Robertson, senior manager of security and research at RIM, said users need not be particularly worried about the capability of FlexiSPY.
"While it's the subject of some debate, I don't consider it a virus nor a Trojan, as it does require conscientious effort from the user to load the program," he said.
... Robertson said that it is not entirely true that the FlexiSPY application works without the user knowing they are being spied upon.
... Concerned users can read white papers on protecting their BlackBerry from malware here.
Perhaps they need a guide to “giving away free stuff?”
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/07/0330209&from=rss
RIAA Forces YouTube to Remove Free Guitar Lessons
Journal written by Bushido Hacks (788211) and posted by Zonk on Saturday July 07, @01:21AM
from the quit-trying-to-learn-things-you-ungrateful-grubs dept.
Music The Internet Bushido Hacks write
"Is it so wrong to learn how to play the guitar? According to NPR, a record company ordered YouTube to remove videos of a man who offered to show people how to play the guitar for free. One of the songs that he taught was copyrighted, and as a result over 100 of his videos were removed from the internet. 'Since he put his Web site up last year, he has developed a long waiting list for the lessons he teaches in person. And both he and Taub say that's still the best way to learn. If someone tells Sandercoe to take down his song lessons, he says he will. But his most valuable videos are the ones that teach guitar basics -- things like strumming, scales and finger-picking. And even in the digital age, no one holds a copyright on those things.' How could this constitute as infringement if most musicians usually experiement to find something that sounds familiar?"
Another “Customer Service?”
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/07/063226&from=rss
Sprint Drops Customers Over Excessive Inquiries
Posted by Zonk on Saturday July 07, @03:14AM from the just-a-bit-harsh dept. The Almighty Buck Businesses Communications
theodp writes
"The WSJ confirms earlier reports that Sprint Nextel is terminating the contracts of subscribers who call customer service too much (registration required). The 1,000 or so terminated subscribers called an average of 25 times a month — 40x times higher than average — according to a company spokeswoman, who also noted that a large number of calls from these customers were related to billing issues."
Geeky, but interesting. Some ideas for researchers.
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/015375.html
July 05, 2007
Companion Website to New Book: Introduction to Information Retrieval
Introduction to Information Retrieval - "This is the companion website for the following book: Christopher D. Manning, Prabhakar Raghavan and Hinrich Schütze, Introduction to Information Retrieval, Cambridge University Press, 2008."
Perhaps we could use this to broadcast our Privacy seminars?
http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2007/07/livestation-and.html
LiveStation and Silverlight deliver Live TV to your PC
LiveStation built on Silverlight brings Live TV to your PC. LiveStation is a project, currently in controlled beta, that uses technology from Microsoft and Skinkers, a UK based company. LiveStation currently rebroadcasts the BBC live, but could be expanded to other TV stations. LiveStation is delivered on Microsoft's Silverlight with extraordinary quality and crispness. The video is like watching a DVD on your PC...no jerky motion, no buffering...it is just like watching live TV.
... LiveStation uses Peer-to-Peer technology [Golly gee willikers! Perhaps not all uses of P2P are copyright infringement! Bob] to distribute the TV signal...
... Live TV, this isn't recorded TV being re-broadcast...it is live, without delay. Of course the technology could be modified to stream recorded shows or other types of content.
Practice by tasering the neighborhood pets?
http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9740224-1.html?tag=rsspr.6195219&part=rss&subj=news
Taser goes wireless
Jonathan Skillings Jul 6 2007
... Up to now, Taser stun guns have been short-range gadgets that deliver their jolt of electricity through wires linking the gun and the projectile. (Think Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman getting zapped in Meet the Fockers.) On Monday, the company plans to introduce its first-ever wireless device in Chicago at the Taser Tactical Conference for members of law enforcement and military organizations,
Taser's new XREP packs its neuromuscular punch in a self-contained half-ounce projectile, the company says. Another convenient feature is that the XREP can be fired from a standard 12-gauge shotgun.
Taser plans to start a field test of the XREP in the fall. After six to 12 months of testing, it's expected to get a full production release sometime in 2008. The company is being stingy about sharing details of the wireless zapper in the days before Monday's unveiling, but more than a year ago, the word was that a forthcoming Taser shotgun projectile might work at ranges approaching 100 feet.
By comparison, the consumer-oriented Taser C2 has a range of just 15 feet. Plus, those annoying wires.
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