-
Topics
-
Blogs
-
News
-
Community
-
Industry
Declan McCullagh reporting in CNET: "The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require the firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance. In meetings with industry representatives, the White House, and U.S. senators, senior FBI officials argue the dramatic shift in communication from the telephone system to the Internet has made it far more difficult for agents to wiretap Americans suspected of illegal activities..." more»
EFF and several other civil society organizations have declared a 'Stop Cyber Spying Week' in protest of several controversial U.S. cybersecurity legislative proposals, including the bill currently before Congress and the Senate called CISPA... more»
A Canadian law expected to be introduced next week could greatly assist law enforcement authorities in the country to access date revealing internet-user habits and personal information. Privacy watchdogs caution if the so-called Lawful Access law is passed, it would give police access to webbrowsing history and sensitive personal information, and would grant greater permission to track the cellular phones of suspects -- much of it without the requirement of a warrant. more»
A new law promising internet users the "right to be forgotten" will be proposed by the European Commission on Wednesday. It says people will be able to ask for data about them to be deleted and firms will have to comply unless there are "legitimate" grounds to retain it. The move is part of a wide-ranging overhaul of the commission's 1995 Data Protection Directive. more»
Shawn Henry, FBI's executive assistant director says computer networks that control power plants and financial systems will never be secure enough, so government and corporate leaders should consider developing a new, highly secure alternative Internet, according to an AP report. "We can't tech our way out of the cyberthreat. The challenge with the Internet is you don't know who's launching the attack." A key step, he said, would be to develop networks where anonymity is not an option and only known and trusted employees have access. more»
On September 25th, 2011, Nik Cubrilovic, a hacker and writer, published a blog post that showed that a particular Facebook session cookie wasn't being deleted after a user logged out. He noted that the session cookie included your Facebook user id number, which would presumably facilitate Facebook associating any data they collected about your browsing the web with your Facebook account. Cubrilovic's review showed that, based on what the cookies were transmitting, Facebook could easily connect some of your browsing habits to your unique Facebook account. more»
Neil Schwartzman writes to report: "CAUCE reports that the CRTC published long-awaited regulations (a big step towards Canada's Anti-spam Law (AKA C28) coming into force), late June 30, the day before Canada Day. The regulations are, as anticipated, very terse and do little to water down the strong nature of the law; they move to clarify certain aspects of express vs. implied consent, among other things." more»
Digital Civil Rights in Europe reports: "During an investors day on 10 May 2011 in London, Dutch Internet service provider KPN admitted to using deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, to determine the use of certain applications by its mobile internet customers. Vodafone soon followed with an announcement that it used this technology for traffic shaping. The Dutch minister of Economic Affairs within days announced an investigation into KPN's practices and promised to publish the results within two weeks." more»
Neil Schwartzman writes: "There is a lot of press on the profound effect the take-down of the Rustock botnet, affected by Microsoft, some U.S. federal agencies, and countless others working in the background to assist in the effort. CAUCE has aggregated a few of the best stories and data-points. A community congratulations, and thank-you to all those involved!" more»
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed on Wednesday a do-not-track list for the Web. "The proposal, which would allow consumers to opt out of having their online activities tracked, was included as part of the agency's preliminary report on consumer privacy," reports Gautham Nagesh in The Hill. "The report is intended as a framework for any potential privacy legislation from Congress but stops short of explicitly calling for a legislative solution." more»
Michael Geist writes: "The bills contain a three-pronged approach focused on information disclosure, mandated surveillance technologies, and new police powers. The first prong mandates the disclosure of Internet provider customer information without court oversight. Under current privacy laws, providers may voluntarily disclose customer information but are not required to do so. The new system would require the disclosure of customer name, address, phone number, email address, Internet protocol address, and a series of device identification numbers." more»
Canada's privacy watchdog has accused Google Inc. of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians by inappropriately collecting their personal information in building its Street View service. Data collected include telephone numbers, emails, real names of individuals, residential addresses, instant messenger headers, and medical records according to findings by Canadian technical experts from Canadian Privacy Commissioner who visited Google's offices in Mountain View, California on July 19 and 20, 2010. Canada initiated the investigation following similar complaints from German data protection authority. more»
Tom Whitehead reporting in the Telegraph: "It will allow security services and the police to spy on the activities of every Briton who uses a phone or the internet. Moves to make every communications provider store details for at least a year will be unveiled later this year sparking fresh fears over a return of the surveillance state." more»
A directive known as "Written Declaration 29," adopted last week by the European Parliament, calls for legislation that would require search engines to make a record of all search queries, as reported today by Startpage and Ixquick, anonymous search engine providers. "Framed as a measure to crack down on paedophiles, the controversial Declaration calls on the EU to require that search engines store all search traffic for up to two years for possible analysis by authorities." more»
Duncan Geere reporting in Wired: "Since the slow introduction of internet monitoring systems around the world began, more and more people have attempted to preserve their privacy by signing up for VPN services like the Pirate Bay's Ipredator and Pirate Party offering Relakks. But it turns out that there's a gaping security flaw in these services that allows individual users to be identified..." more»
