Politics and Law

A consortium representing mobile network operators didn't like what it heard last week when a top European Commission official called for an end to the roaming fees consumers must pay to use their mobile phones outside their home countries.

Neelie Kroes, the vice president of the EC leading the digital agenda, said she wanted an end to roaming fees by Easter 2014. "I want you to be able to go back to your constituents and say that you were able to end mobile roaming costs," Kroes told members of a European Parliament committee in a speech on … Read more

China and the U.S. have agreed to hold regular, high-level talks on cyberespionage, according to a report.

The talks will focus on the theft of U.S. intellectual property and will kick off in July as part of the yearly "Strategic and Economic Dialogue" between China and the U.S., which covers a varied slate of issues, The New York Times reported late Saturday. A new working group will also meet more often, the Times reported -- referring, perhaps, to the working group mentioned by Secretary of State John Kerry in April.

The Times quotes "a … Read more

A new lawsuit in Manhattan pitting the U.S. Department of Justice against Google offers a rare glimpse of how determined prosecutors are to defend a process that allows federal agents to gain warrantless access to user records, and how committed the Mountain View, Calif., company is to defending its customers' privacy rights against what it views as illegal requests.

The Justice Department's lawsuit, filed April 22 and not disclosed until this article, was sparked by Google's decision to rebuff the FBI's legal demands for confidential user data. It centers on the bureau's controversial use of … Read more

A federal judge has ruled that Google must comply with the FBI's warrantless requests for confidential user data, despite the search company's arguments that the secret demands are illegal.

CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco rejected Google's request to modify or throw out 19 so-called National Security Letters, a warrantless electronic data-gathering technique used by the FBI that does not need a judge's approval. Her ruling came after a pair of top FBI officials, including an assistant director, submitted classified affidavits.

The litigation taking place behind closed doors in … Read more

Your future iPhone or iPad could offer an interactive touch screen that reacts to the pressure exerted by your touch.

Published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, an Apple patent application called "Embedded force measurement" takes the concept of tapping on your touch screen at least one step further. Instead of just lightly tapping on your screen, you would actually press down on it to activate a command. The phone would measure the force of your tap and respond accordingly.

As one example, an on-screen icon could let you control the volume of your device. … Read more

Apple may be aiming to challenge Samsung over eye-tracking technology.,

An Apple patent application, dubbed "Electronic Devices With Gaze Detection Capabilities," was published Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The application describes a feature in which your mobile device reacts to the movement of your head or eyes.

Turn your head or eyes away from the device, and the screen dims. Look back at the device, and the screen returns to life. Looking away could also put the entire device in standby mode, meaning certain functions are powered down to preserve battery power. In yet … Read more

International barriers in the telecommunications industry such as roaming fees are hurting consumers and should be eliminated within a year, a top European Commission official said today.

"I want you to be able to go back to your constituents and say that you were able to end mobile roaming costs," said Neelie Kroes, the EC vice president in charge of its digital agenda, in a speech to members of a European Parliament committee on Thursday. "Whether they need it for travel, for trade, or for transactions -- our people need this reform."

With roaming fees, the … Read more

Online currency company Liberty Reserve has been shut down following charges that it laundered more than $6 billion over the past several years and became a "bank of choice for the criminal underworld," The New York Times reported today.

An indictment, filed today by U.S. prosecutors in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, accused Liberty Reserve of establishing its digital currency exchange to launder money, resulting in 55 million laundering transactions for at least a million people.

Furthermore, prosecutors painted Liberty Reserve as a currency marketplace that enabled criminals to commit … Read more

If attorney general Eric Holder wanted to perform even a momentary Internet wiretap on Fox News' e-mail accounts, he would have had to persuade a judge to approve what lawyers call a "super search warrant."

A super search warrant's requirements are exacting: Intercepted communications must be secured and placed under seal. Real-time interception must be done only as a last resort. Only certain crimes qualify for this technique, the target must be notified, and additional restrictions apply to state and local police conducting real-time intercepts.

But because of the way federal law was written nearly half a … Read more