Michelle Obama declared that access to the Internet should be a universal right, in a rare and controversial foray into the world of international politics during a cultural visit to China.
Phone firms balk at proposed NSA surveillance changes
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Telephone companies are quietly balking at the idea of changing how they collect and store Americans' phone records to help the National Security Agency's surveillance programs. They're worried about their exposure to lawsuits and the price tag if the US government asks them to hold information about customers for longer than they already do.
The first phone company to publish a transparency report isn’t AT&T or Verizon
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Ever since we learned that the country's phone companies were handing vast amounts of data to the government under court order, pressure has been mounting for them to publish a Silicon Valley-type transparency report detailing how exactly they're complying. Now the first such report is out. But instead of coming from industry mainstays such as Verizon or AT&T, the disclosure comes from a little-known, left-leaning service known as CREDO Mobile.
Faulty Websites Confront Needy in Search of Aid
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Three months after the disastrous rollout of a new $63 million website for unemployment claims, Florida is hiring hundreds of employees to deal with technical problems that left tens of thousands of people without their checks while penalties mount against the vendor who set up the site. Efforts at modernizing the systems for unemployment compensation in California, Massachusetts and Nevada have also largely backfired in recent months, causing enormous cost overruns and delays.
US phone companies never once challenged NSA data requests
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
None of the phone companies that handed over communications metadata in bulk to the National Security Agency ever challenged the agency on its data requests.
Senate panel advances media shield bill
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed legislation to protect journalists from having to cooperate with government investigations but made sure to limit the safeguard to professional news gatherers.
Consumers worried about NSA intrusions have little recourse
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Consumers worried about the National Security Agency's ability to read even encrypted electronic data have few options, according to cybersecurity and privacy experts. And some experts said the NSA's reported actions to crack the sophisticated technology that masks data traveling over the Internet may have made that information more vulnerable, possibly exposing Web users to criminal hackers.
Here’s how phone metadata can reveal your secrets
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The National Security Agency’s surveillance program, now being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union, only collects metadata about Americans’ phone calls—who they call, when, and how long the calls last. In defending the program, the government has cited a controversial 1979 Supreme Court decision that held that phone records are not protected by the Fourth Amendment because consumers do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their calling records.
Smart phone searches by police should raise alarm
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The more we hear about President Obama's attitude toward privacy, the less we like. The latest eyebrow-raiser is the Administration's argument that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cell phone searches.