Politics and Law

FBI's Net surveillance proposal raises privacy, legal concerns

The FBI director and a Republican congressman sketched out a far-reaching plan this week for warrantless surveillance of the Internet.

During a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI's Robert Mueller and Rep. Darrell Issa of California talked about what amounts to a two-step approach. Step 1 involves asking Internet service providers to open their networks to the FBI voluntarily; step 2 would be a federal law forcing companies to do just that.

Both have their problems, legal and practical, but let's look at step 1 first. Issa suggested that Internet providers could get "consent from … Read more

Transcript: FBI director on surveillance of 'illegal' Internet activity

When the FBI suggested that it should be able to perform wide-scale Internet monitoring to detect "illegal activity" on Wednesday, the bureau raised more questions than it answered.

To help clear things up, we're providing the transcript of FBI Director Robert Mueller's exchange at a House of Representatives hearing with Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican. Issa made his fortune by founding Directed Electronics, a publicly traded company that sells car alarms and home theater loudspeakers.

Issa also is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is holding a closed hearing on Thursday devoted to … Read more

FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws

WASHINGTON--The FBI and multiple members of Congress said on Wednesday that Internet service providers must be legally required to keep records of their users' activities for later review by police.

Their suggestions for mandatory data retention revive a push for potentially sweeping federal laws--which civil libertarians oppose--that flagged last year after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the idea's most prominent proponent.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House of Representatives committee that Internet service providers should be required to keep records of users' activities for two years.

"From the perspective of an investigator, having that backlog … Read more

Shamos: Why e-voting paper trails are a bad idea

PITTSBURGH--Many computer scientists have been arguing for years that electronic voting machines absolutely must sport paper trails that can be verified by the voter and subsequently used in manual recounts.

It's a formal policy position of the U.S. arm of the Association for Computing Machinery, the professional organization of computer scientists. Stanford University's David Dill even created the pro-paper-trail Verified Voting Foundation and has co-authored an article for us that argues against Internet voting, too.

But support of paper trails is not unanimous. Michael Shamos, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University who teaches an … Read more

FBI nudges state 'fusion centers' into the shadows

WASHINGTON -- The FBI is pressuring states to become more secretive and limit even routine oversight of the bureau's data-sharing arrangements with local police, a new document shows.

A memorandum of understanding written by the FBI and signed by the state of Virginia in February 2008 aims to curb congressional and press oversight of a joint venture called a Fusion Center. Here's more on Fusion Centers.

The memorandum, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center and released on Friday, says that any "disclosure" to Congress of information shared with the Fusion Center can happen only "… Read more

Home automation system, YouTube nab burglars

Fans of home automation systems controlled by a personal computer like to speculate about how their software might be able to snare intruders. An Indiana man named Fred Thompson actually did it.

Court documents show the story started after Thompson's home in Fort Wayne, Ind., was burglarized. Thompson responded by setting up a video camera hooked up to his computer and configured it to remotely notify him when motion was detected when the house was supposed to be empty.

On October 10, 2006, the system notified Thompson that movement was detected. He jumped in his car, called the police, … Read more

Lovestruck MySpace teen not guilty of harassment, court says

The annals of history are replete with examples of teenage angst and unrequited love. It took the state of New York to make those a crime.

State prosecutors decided to charge Isaiah Rodriguez, 18, of aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child over a series of MySpace.com messages professing his ardent devotion to a 14-year-old girl.

The messages said, in part: "I love you;" "we need to be together;" I will see you every day;" and "I will never stop trying to talk to you."

That, according to the solons … Read more

Pittsburgh couple sues Google over Street View

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A Pittsburgh couple is suing Google because photographs of their home are appearing on the company's street view service.

The lawsuit, filed in Allegheny County court on April 2, claims there was a private road sign on their street that Google should have honored. It claims that Google's "reckless conduct" has "exposed plaintiff's private information to the public."

Looking at the turnoff to Pittsburgh's Oakridge Lane on Google Street View, though, shows a street sign but no obvious private road warning--meaning that, perhaps, any sign didn't exist when … Read more

RIAA: N.Y. judge's 'making available' ruling was no setback

The Recording Industry Association of America says a New York judge's ruling earlier this week really wasn't much of a setback for them. In fact, they say they don't mind it much at all.

This is my article from Tuesday to which the RIAA is responding. And here's e-mail from Wednesday that I was asked to attribute to the RIAA's lawyers, which I've reproduced in full:

The statement in the very first sentence of the posting that the court requires the record companies 'to demonstrate that unlawful copying took place' is entirely inaccurate and … Read more